73), a rapture about birds and their
feathered plumage, delivered at Eton and at Oxford. This trilogy,
dealing with botany, geology, and ornithology, was presented to his
audiences with illustrative drawings, representing the flora met with in
his travels or found in the neighborhood of his new home in the
Lancashire lakes, with sketches of regions, including the
characteristics of the soil, in which he had been reared, and talks of
the note and habit of all birds that were wont to warble over him their
morning song. "The Pleasures of England," the "Harbours of England," and
the "Art of England" further treat of his loved native land, the first
of these being talks on the pleasures of learning, of faith, and of
deed, illustrated by examples drawn from early English history, and the
last treating of representative modern English artists, chiefly of the
Pre-Raphaelite school. "The Laws of Fesole" (1878) deals with the
principles of Florentine draughtsmanship; "St. Mark's Rest," with the
art and architecture of Venice; and "Val d'Arno," with early Tuscan art,
interspersed with the author's accustomed ethical reflections. "Mornings
in Florence," intended for the use of visitors to the art galleries of
the beautiful city on the Arno, deals in the true artist-spirit with its
famous examples of Christian art, giving prominence here also to the
ethical side of the city's history. "In Montibus Sanctis," and "Coeli
Enarrant," the one comprising studies of mountain form, and the other of
cloud form and their visible causes, though separately published, are
only reprints of the author's larger and nobler embodiment of his views
on art, in "Modern Painters." "The King of the Golden River," of which
we have previously spoken, is a fairy tale of much beauty, which he
wrote for the "Fair Maid of Perth" whom he married, and who separated
herself from him on the plea of "incompatibility." Playful as is the
style of the story, it is not without a moral, on what constitutes true
wealth and happiness. "The Crown of Wild Olive" (1866) consists of
lectures on work, traffic, and war; the latter lecture, delivered at the
Royal Artillery Institution at Woolwich, was also separately published
under the title of "The Future of England." The two former, being
addressed to working-men, laborers, and traders, discuss economic
problems, and set forth tentatively their author's antagonized political
ethics, with which, in drawing this essay to a close, w