CHAPTER LI.

Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned folks, with their large

theories of education, may find fault with thee. But a true Spartan

mother thou art--hard and stern as the old matron who bricked up

her son Pausanias, bringing the first stone to immure him; hard and

stern, I say, to the worthless, but full of majestic tenderness to

the worthy.

For a young man to go up to Cambridge (I say nothing of Oxford,

knowing nothing thereof) merely as routine work, to lounge through

three years to a degree among the ὁι πολλοι--for such an one,

Oxford Street herself, whom the immortal Opium-eater hath so direly

apostrophised, is not a more careless and stony-hearted mother.

But for him who will read, who will work, who will seize the rare

advantages proffered, who will select his friends judiciously--yea,

out of that vast ferment of young idea in its lusty vigour, choose

the good and reject the bad--there is plenty to make those three

years rich with fruit imperishable--three years nobly spent, even

though one must pass over the Ass's Bridge to get into the Temple of

Honour.

Important changes in the Academical system have been recently

announced, and honours are henceforth to be accorded to the

successful disciples in moral and natural sciences. By the side

of the old throne of Mathesis, they have placed two very useful

_fauteuils à la Voltaire_. I have no objection; but, in those three

years of life, it is not so much the thing learned, as the steady

perseverance in learning something that is excellent.

It was fortunate, in one respect, for me that I had seen a little

of the real world--the metropolitan, before I came to that mimic

one--the cloistral. For what were called pleasures in the last, and

which might have allured me, had I come fresh from school, had no

charm for me now. Hard drinking and high play, a certain mixture of

coarseness and extravagance, made the fashion among the idle when

I was at the university _sub consule Planco_--when Wordsworth was

master of Trinity: it may be altered now.

But I had already outlived such temptations, and so, naturally, I

was thrown out of the society of the idle, and somewhat into that of

the laborious.

Still, to speak frankly, I had no longer the old pleasure in

books. If my acquaintance with the great world had destroyed

the temptation to puerile excesses, it had also increased my

constitutional tendency to practical action. And, alas! in spite

of all the benefit I had derived from Robert Hall, there were

times when memory was so poignant that I had no choice but to rush

from the lonely room, haunted by tempting phantoms too dangerously

fair, and sober down the fever of the heart by some violent bodily

fatigue. The ardour which belongs to early youth, and which it best

dedicates to knowledge, had been charmed prematurely to shrines less

severely sacred. Therefore, though I laboured, it was with that

full _sense of labour_ which (as I found at a much later period

of life) the truly triumphant student never knows. Learning--that

marble image--warms into life, not at the toil of the chisel, but

the worship of the sculptor. The mechanical workman finds but the

voiceless stone.

At my uncle's, such a thing as a newspaper rarely made its

appearance. At Cambridge, even among reading men, the newspapers

had their due importance. Politics ran high; and I had not been

three days at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's name. Newspapers,

therefore, had their charms for me. Trevanion's prophecy about

himself seemed about to be fulfilled. There were rumours of changes

in the cabinet. Trevanion's name was bandied to and fro, struck

from praise to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock. Still the

changes were not made, and the cabinet held firm. Not a word in the

_Morning Post_, under the head of _fashionable intelligence_, as to

rumours that would have agitated me more than the rise and fall of

governments--no hint of "the speedy nuptials of the daughter and

sole heiress of a distinguished and wealthy commoner:" only now and

then, in enumerating the circle of brilliant guests at the house of

some party chief, I gulped back the heart that rushed to my lips,

when I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion.

But amongst all that prolific progeny of the periodical

press--remote offspring of my great namesake and ancestor, (for I

hold the faith of my father,)--where was the _Literary Times_?--what

had so long retarded its promised blossoms? Not a leaf in the shape

of advertisements had yet emerged from its mother earth. I hoped

from my heart that the whole thing was abandoned, and would not

mention it in my letters home, lest I should revive the mere idea of

it. But, in default of the _Literary Times_, there did appear a new

journal, a daily journal too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,

with a vast head, by way of prospectus, which protruded itself for

three weeks successively at the top of the leading article;--with

a fine and subtle body of paragraphs;--and the smallest legs, in

the way of advertisements, that any poor newspaper ever stood upon!

And yet this attenuated journal had a plump and plethoric title, a

title that smacked of turtle and venison; an aldermanic, portly,

grandiose, Falstaffian title--it was called THE CAPITALIST. And all

those fine subtle paragraphs were larded out with receipts how to

make money. There was an El Dorado in every sentence. To believe

that paper, you would think no man had ever yet found a proper

return for his pounds, shillings, and pence. You would have turned

up your nose at twenty per cent. There was a great deal about

Ireland--not her wrongs, thank Heaven! but her fisheries: a long

inquiry what had become of the pearls for which Britain was once

so famous: a learned disquisition upon certain lost gold mines now

happily rediscovered: a very ingenious proposition to turn London

smoke into manure, by a new chemical process: recommendations to

the poor to hatch chickens in ovens like the ancient Egyptians:

agricultural schemes for sowing the waste lands in England with

onions, upon the system adopted near Bedford, net produce one

hundred pounds an acre. In short, according to that paper, every

rood of ground might well maintain its man, and every shilling be

like Hobson's money-bag, "the fruitful parent of a hundred more."

For three days, at the newspaper room of the Union Club, men talked

of this journal: some pished, some sneered, some wondered; till

an ill-natured mathematician, who had just taken his degree, and

had spare time on his hands, sent a long letter to the _Morning

Chronicle_, showing up more blunders, in some article to which the

editor of _The Capitalist_ had specially invited attention, (unlucky

dog!) than would have paved the whole island of Laputa. After that

time, not a soul read _The Capitalist_. How long it dragged on its

existence I know not; but it certainly did not die of a _maladie de

langueur_.

Little thought I, when I joined in the laugh against _The

Capitalist_, that I ought rather to have followed it to its grave,

in black crape and weepers,--unfeeling wretch that I was! But, like

a poet, O _Capitalist_! thou wert not discovered, and appreciated,

and prized, and mourned, till thou wert dead and buried, and the

bill came in for thy monument!

The first term of my college life was just expiring, when I received

a letter from my mother, so agitated, so alarming, at first reading

so unintelligible, that I could only see that some great misfortune

had befallen us; and I stopped short and dropped on my knees, to

pray for the life and health of those whom that misfortune more

specially seemed to menace; and then--and then, towards the end of

the last blurred sentence--read twice, thrice, over--I could cry,

"Thank Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only, then, money after all!"

STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.

It is a term of very wide application, this of statistics--extending

to everything in the state of a country subject to variation either

from the energies and fancies of men, or from the operations of

nature, in so far as these, or the knowledge of them, has any

tendency to occasion change in the condition of the country. Its

elements must be either changeable in themselves, or the cause of

change; because the use of the whole matter is to direct men what

to do for their advantage, moral or physical--by legislation, when

the case is of sufficient magnitude--or otherwise by the wisdom and

enterprise of individuals.

Governments, it is plain, must have the greatest interest in

possessing knowledge of this sort; but they have not been the first

to engage very earnestly in obtaining it. It would seem that, in all

countries, the first very noticeable efforts in this way have been

made by individuals.

In this country we have now from government more and better

statistics than from any other source; for besides the decennial

census, there is the yearly produce in this way of Crown Commissions

and of Parliamentary Committees; and, moreover, there is the late

institution of a statistical department in connexion with the Board

of Trade, for arranging, digesting, and rendering more accessible

all matter of this kind collected, from time to time, by the

different branches of the administration. But before statistical

knowledge became the object of much care to the government of

this country, it had been well cultivated by individuals. So in

Germany statistics first took a scientific form in the works of an

individual about the middle of the last century: and in France,

the unfinished _Mémoires des Intendants_, prepared on the order

of the king, were scarcely an exception, since meant for the

private instruction of the young prince. But without attaching

undue importance to the fact of mere precedence, it may be said

that, considering the chief uses of this kind of knowledge, it has

received more contributions from individuals than could have been

expected.

This admits of being easily explained. It has been well said

that, while history is a sort of current statistics, statistics

are a sort of stationary history. The one has therefore much the

same invitations to mere literary taste as the other; and if the

subject be not so generally engaging, the fancy way be as strong,

and produce as pure a devotion to statistics as there ever is to

history. More than this, the statist may care far less for his

subject than its uses,--that is, he may choose to undergo the toil

of researches only recommended by the chance of their ministering

to the better guidance of some part of public policy, and therefore

to the public good. The impulse is then not literary; nor is it

legislative, for the power is wanting; it is simply patriotic, for

so it must be considered, even when, in the words of Mr M'Culloch,

the object is only "to bring under the public view the deficiencies

in statistical information, and so to contribute to the advancement

of the science."

This public nature of the aim of statistical works, and the

unlikelihood of their authors choosing that medium to set forth

anything supposed worthy of notice in the figure of their own

genius, seem to have been recognised, except in rare instances, as

giving to works of this kind a title to be well received, and to

have their faults very gently remarked.

Again, it might be expected that the statistics of individuals

should have a more limited range than those of governments; that

they should refer to districts of less extent; and to the state

of the country in fewer of its aspects. But the case is somewhat

different. The statistics of individuals are often more national

than local, and generally consist of many branches presented in some

connexion; while those of governments are commonly confined to the

single department on which some question of policy may chance for

the time to have fixed attention.

On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries instituted in France were

not so confined, but embraced all the points of chief interest in

the state of the country. In England, nothing similar has been

attempted; although, some years ago, it is known that a proposal to

institute a general survey of Ireland--on the plan, we believe, of

the Ordnance Survey of the parish of Templemore--was for some time

under consideration of the government.

On the other hand, the instances of individual enterprise in this

way to a national extent are numerous, both at home and abroad.

Among the latter, Aucherwall gives the first example, and Peuchet

probably the best; both treating of the country not in parts but

as a whole,--not in one respect but in many. Of the same sort are

the excellent statistical works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch, Porter,

and others, relating to the British empire, and directed to many

aspects of its condition. To these we add the _Statistical Account

of Scotland_,--occupied with as many or more matters of inquiry,

but not so properly national, since viewing not the country

collectively, but its parochial divisions in succession.

One advantage belongs to the collection of statistics upon many

points, which is not found in those that are limited to one. It is

remarked by Schlozer in his _Theorie der Statistik_, that "there

are many facts seemingly of no value, but which become important

as soon as you combine them with other facts, it may be of quite

another class. The affinities subsisting among these facts are

discovered by the talent and genius of the statist; and the more

various the knowledge he possesses, with so much the more success

he will perform this last and crowning part of his task." The

observation need not be confined to facts apparently unimportant:

for even those, whose importance is at once perceived, may acquire

a new value from a skilful collation. In either case, there seems

a necessity for remitting the detached statistics collected by

government to some such department as that in connexion with the

Board of Trade; otherwise, the works of individual statists must

continue to afford the only opportunity of tracing the latent

relations of one branch of statistics to another.

The individual, however, who attempts so much, is in hazard

of attempting more than any individual can well perform. For,

besides this, he has to make another effort quite distinct--in the

investigation of facts. All the needed scientific knowledge he

may possess; but the same sufficiency of local or topographical

knowledge is not supposable. The work so produced, therefore,

cannot easily avoid the defects, either of error in the details

of some branch, of unequal development of the parts, or of a

superficial treatment of the whole. Against these dangers some

writers have had recourse to assistance, inviting contributions from

others favoured with better means of information than themselves;

and to them attributing, in so far as they assisted, the entire

merit and responsibility of the work.

This transference of responsibility is warranted by the necessity

of the case--but it is unusual; and as it scarcely occurs except in

works of the kind in question, it may happen that even a professing

judge of such works, if the habit of attention be not good, may

entirely overlook the circumstance.

In the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, the obligation to

individual contributions has been carried to the greatest extent;

indeed, it is simply a collection of such contributions, and nothing

more. This part of the plan was necessitated by another, in which

the work is equally peculiar--namely, the distinct treatment of

smaller divisions of the country, than have been taken up in any

other work of the kind, having an entire country for its object.

To obtain a body of parochial statistics, it was necessary to

have recourse to persons well acquainted with the bounds, and

intelligent, at the same time, upon the various subjects of inquiry.

But to find such in nine hundred parishes would, of itself, have

required much of that local knowledge, the want of which was the

occasion of the search--had there not been a class or order of men

among whom the desired qualification, in many points, might be

supposed to be pretty generally diffused; and from whose favour to a

project of public usefulness much aid might be expected. It was in

this manner that the co-operation of the parochial clergy came to be

suggested.

The _Statistical Account of Scotland_ was originated, promoted,

and superintended by the late Sir John Sinclair. The authors of

such works, as one of the best of them remarks, should be careful

to explain their motives in undertaking it--we presume, because

undertakings of the kind are felt to be scarcely an affair of

individuals. In this instance, a desire to promote the public good

was at once professed and accredited by many other acts apparently

inspired by the same sentiment. The devotion of Sir John Sinclair's

life in that direction was complete, and the example uncommon.

In this a late reviewer perceives nothing more than a restless

pursuit of plans of no further interest to himself than as they

bore the inscription of his own name. But whenever public spirit is

professed, and by anything like useful acts attested, our faith, we

think, should be more generous. On such occasions, if on any, it is

right to waive all speculation upon private motives, and to presume

the best--for reasons so well understood in general that they do

not need to be explained. But if genius, with a bent to that sort

of penetration, must have its freedom, we do demand that some token

should appear of a belief in the possibility of the virtue which is

denied.

It does not improve the grace of any such judgments that they are

passed fifty years after the occasion; for, in the meantime, the

work may have acquired merits which could not belong to it at

first:--and so it has happened with the _Statistical Account_ of Sir

John Sinclair. Results may be fairly ascribed to that performance

which were not intended nor foreseen, and which seem to have come

from its very defects, as well as from the defects which it revealed

in the condition of the country, and in the means of ascertaining

what the condition of the country was. Its population-statistics

were extremely imperfect; the census followed in a very few years.

Its scanty and unequal notices of agriculture suggested the project

of the County Reports; and to these succeeded the _General Report of

Scotland_--a work still useful, and of the first authority in much

that relates to the agriculture and other industry of the country.

To take advantage of those capabilities which the statistical

accounts had shown his country to possess, Sir John Sinclair

originated the Agricultural Society. All of those things, and more,

appear to have resulted from the _Statistical Account_. They

are honours that have arisen to it in the course of time, and may

be fairly permitted to mitigate the notice and recollection of its

faults.

After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland had ceased to be the

country represented in the old _Statistical Account_; for the

greater part of what is proper to such a work is, as we have said,

changeable and changing. It contained not a little, however, which

remained as true and as interesting as at first: the topography,

the physical characters, the civil divisions of the country were

the same; all that had been said of its history, whether local or

general, might be said again as seasonably as before. It occurred,

then, to those to whom the author had presented the right of this

work, to attempt to restore it in those parts which time had

rendered useless, preserving those which were under no disadvantage

from that cause. This, as we learn, was the plain, unambitious

intention of the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_. It was

projected and carried on during ten years by a Society, whose object

it is to afford aid, where aid is needed, in the education of the

children of the clergy of the Church of Scotland. Nothing could be

more foreign to that object than to engage in a work of national

statistics; nothing more natural than that, in their relation to

the clergy, and with their interest in the first work, they should

propose to renew it in the manner mentioned. A society expressly

formed for statistical purposes, and not restrained like the Society

for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably have

proposed something different--something more new; it might have

been expected to produce something more excellent--though, even

in that case, the demand of excellence would have been limited by

the consideration, that the means of completely investigating the

statistics of a country are not at the command of any statistical

society that exists. A modernisation, so to speak, of the first work

appears to have been the idea of the second.

It has been executed, however, in the freest style, and scarcely

admitted, indeed, of being accomplished at all in any other manner.

In such cases, it is seldom that the adaptation is effected by

mere numerical changes; the whole statement, in form, manner, and

substance, behoves to be remodelled. Then, certain parts of the

original may have been deficient, and become more evidently so by

the changes that have since ensued in the state of the object: here

the task is less one of correction than of supplement. For example,

the very interesting and full accounts of mining and manufacturing

industry which abound in the new work are nearly peculiar to it,

and have scarcely an example in the old. One entire section of the

latter, that of natural history, has been developed to an extent

not attempted in the former, nor indeed in any other statistical

work. These are rather noticeable licenses, on the supposition of

the aim being as moderate as professed, and they go far to form a

new and independent work--having nothing in common with the first,

except the parochial divisions and the obligation to the clergy, as

respects the plan; and as respects the matter, only the small part

of it which is historical, and therefore not obsolete.

We observe, accordingly, that the society who promoted the new work

have put it forward as taking some things from the old, for which

they are not responsible, but as containing far more which must form

a new and separate character for itself. In both respects, we think

they have viewed the work with a proper reference to the conditions

under which it was produced.

In other points, the new Account has improved upon the old, and

might be expected to do so. It has more matter, by a third part,

neither less suited to the place, nor more diffuse in the statement;

and, as befits a work of reference, the arrangement is more orderly

and more uniform. It is, on the whole, more carefully and better

written, and shows, on the part of the reverend contributors, a

remarkable advance in the many sorts of knowledge requisite to the

task. If the comparison were pursued further, it might be said that

some contributions to the first are not surpassed in the value of

what they contain; while, from the greater novelty of the task at

that time, as well as from the greater freedom of the method, they

are somewhat fresher and more genial in manner. The later work, if

fuller, more exact, more statistical throughout, possesses that

advantage at the cost of appearing sometimes more like a collection

of returns in answer to submitted points of inquiry,--a character,

however, by no means unsuitable to a compilation of the kind. In all

other points a decided superiority must be attributed to the new

Account.

Our remarks at this time shall be confined to the plan of the new

Account, and to the general description of its contents.[6]

[6] _The New statistical Account of Scotland._ In 15 vols.

Edinburgh, 1845.

The chief feature of the plan is the distinct treatment of each

parish--producing a body neither of county nor of national, but

merely of parochial statistics. This was the design, and there

is much to recommend it. It is the last thing that can take the

aspect of a fault in statistics, to view the matter in very minute

portions; for thus, and thus only, it is possible to arrive at

an accurate knowledge of the whole. There can be no good county

statistics which do not suppose inquiries limited, at first, to

lesser divisions of the country, and which do not express the sum

of particulars taken from subdivisions that can hardly proceed too

far. If such minor surveys do not come before the public, they are

presumptively carried on in private. But, in the latter case, they

are the more apt to be superficial, as they can be so with the

less chance of being noticed; they are apt to take aid from mere

computation of averages; they are apt, also, to result in that vague

description which is the master-vice of statistics. "In this town,

there are manufactures which employ _many_ hands; in this district,

_vast_ quantities of silk are produced. These," says Schlozer, "are

pet phrases of tourists, who would say something, when they know

nothing; but they are not the language of statistics." The parochial

method stands, then, on two good grounds: it is inevitable either

in an open or a latent form; and it favours the collection of

sufficient data for those specific enumerations which are the true

worth and the characteristic grace of this branch of knowledge.

This plan, however, has some disadvantages; in referring to which we

shall find occasion to bring to view some of the proper merits of

the work.

In the first place, a work on this plan is inevitably voluminous.

The territorial divisions submitted to distinct treatment are about

nine hundred in number, and the matter is still further augmented by

the occasional assignment to different hands of different parts of

the survey of a single parish. In proportion to the descent of the

details, is the bulk of the production; which we suppose to be an

evil in the same measure in which it exceeds the necessity of the

case. Now the _New Statistical Account_ is at once seen to contain

not a little matter of merely local interest, and of the smallest

value considered as pertaining to a body of national statistics;

and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be regarded as at fault. It

is right, however, to recollect the privilege of every work to

be judged according to the conditions of the species to which it

belongs. The present is not set forth as a statistical account of

Scotland, but as a collection of the statistical accounts of all the

parishes in Scotland; for this, we perceive, is not merely implied

in the plan of the work, but is declared in the prospectus, where

the hope is expressed that, by exhibiting the actual state of the

parishes, with whatever is therein amiss, it may lead to parochial

improvements. It does not appear, therefore, to have been from any

miscalculation of their worth, that matters of merely local interest

have been so liberally admitted; and, all things considered, more of

that nature might have been expected. Let us quote again from the

best theory of statistics that has ever been produced. "An object

may be deserving of remark in the description of some particular

portion of a country, and at the same time have no claim to notice

in any general account of that country at large. In the former

case, the rivulet is not to be omitted; in the latter, any allusion

to it would be a defect, for it would be matter of unnecessary

and trifling detail."[7] It is recorded, in the _New Statistical

Account_, that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared in the parish of

South Uist previous to the year 1812." Nothing, in a national point

of view, can be conceived more insignificant than this fact; but,

taken in connexion with a notable superstition in that district, its

local importance appears.[8] To the credit of this method, it may be

noticed, that the accounts which are most parochial are, at the same

time, among those which have been drawn up with the most general

intelligence; and, this being the case, it is not a strange wish

that the accounts, in general, had been somewhat more parochial than

they are.

[7] Schlozer.

[8] "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the

Sandbanks, to dig for some roe used for dyeing a red colour,

against her husband's will; that, when she left her house, she

said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though she knew

there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting

people to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon

being excavated, would be blown away with the wind. The woman

never returned home, nor was her body ever found. It was shortly

thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said that it is

the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this

shape."--_New Statistical Account_, "Inverness," p. 184.

On this plan, it is certain there is a risk of much repetition, many

parishes having some common characterists which, in place of being

recounted for each, might be stated once for all. How far does the

_Statistical Account_ offend in this manner? It is true that, where

the same facts occur in many parishes, a single statement might

suffice; though this might be at the cost of violating the plan

which for the whole it might be fittest to adopt, upon consideration

that the like resemblance is not found among the greater number of

the parishes. But it is remarkable, how seldom different parishes

have all the similarity requisite for such a common description;

for, in statistics, a difference in mere number or quantity is

a vital difference, and expresses essentially different facts.

Many parishes have the same articles of produce; while no two

produce exactly the same quantities. A very short distance often

brings to view considerable varieties in climate, soil, and other

physical qualities of a country. Now, considering that the object

of this work is to present the parishes in their distinguishing,

as well as in their common features, we do not see much sameness

in the substance of the details which could have been avoided. A

sameness there is; but more in form than in substance--each account

delivering its matter under the same general heads, recurring in

all cases in exactly the same order. This is convenient when the

book is used for reference; it may be wearisome to one who reads

only for amusement: it is monotonous; but who looks for any "soul of

harmony" in such a quarter? We repeat, it is not attended, on the

whole, with much importunate reappearance of the same facts, and

cannot seem to be so, except to a very careless or distempered eye.

But if, perchance, there may be some facts much alike in several

parishes, this itself is an unusual fact, and we should not object

to its coming out in the usual way of each parish speaking for

itself; in which case, there is always a chance of some variety in

the description, from the same thing presenting itself to different

persons under different aspects. But, on the whole, we think there

is less repetition in these accounts, and indeed less occasion for

it, than might at first sight be supposed.

There is another obvious tendency to imperfection in the plan of

parochial accounts. Their first, but not their sole object, is

to describe the parishes; it is certainly meant that they should

furnish, at the same time, the grounds of statistical computation

for the whole country. This is the natural complement and the

proper conclusion to a work of parish statistics. It is, however,

a part of the plan which, not being quite necessary, and requiring

a fresh effort at the last, is apt to be omitted. It was not till

twenty-five years after the publication of the old Account that Sir

John Sinclair at length produced his _Analysis of the Statistical

Account of Scotland considered as one District_. It came too late. A

similar analysis or summary appears to have been at first intended

for the new Account: and we regret that this part of the design was,

by force of circumstances, not carried into effect. One use of it

would have been to evince that parochial statistics do not assume

the character of national; while yet, for even national statistics,

they furnish the most proper foundation. To pass at once, however,

from parochial to national statistics would have been too great a

step; there is an intermediate stage, at which the new Account would

certainly have paused, though it had designed to proceed farther;

and at which, without that design, it has here rested; presenting

the statistics of each county in a summary of the more important

particulars concerning the included parishes; but making no nearer

approach to any general computations for the country at large.

The method of proceeding from parishes to counties suggests that

other plan for the entire work, which would have followed the

opposite course--the plan that would have begun with counties, and

given County, not Parochial reports. Somewhat in this fashion has

been formed the _Géographie Départementale_ of France, now in course

of publication, in which the whole matter is rigorously subjected

to as skilful an arrangement as has ever been devised for matters

of the kind. It is plain, however, that greater difficulty and more

expense would have attended the construction of the Scotch work on

that scheme, than private parties could have undertaken; and even

the example of the French work does not show that, for the compacter

method thus obtained, there might not have been a sacrifice of much

that is valuable in detail.

It may be added, that when parishes are well described, and a county

or more general summary succeeds, we ask no more; a work like this

has then accomplished its object, and what remains must be sought

for elsewhere. What remains is this--to interpret the statistics

thus laid down, for they are often very far from interpreting

themselves; to ascertain, by analysis or combination of their

different parts, what they signify in regard to the condition of

the country. Thus, betwixt the rate of wages and the habits of a

people--the prevailing occupations and the rate of mortality--the

description of industry and the amount of pauperism--there are

relations which it is exceedingly important to remark. But if a

statistical account simply notes the kind, number, or quantity of

each of these particulars, it performs its part,--no matter how

blindly, how unconsciously of the relation that subsists betwixt

them, this may be done. The rest is so different a work, that it

must be left to other hands. It is not to be forgotten, that, for

bringing out the more latent truths of statistics in the manner

mentioned, a work like this is merely _pour servir_; and, keeping

that in view, our prepossessions are all in favour of abundance and

minuteness of detail.

Lastly, a work made up of contributions from nine hundred

individuals must be of unequal merit, according to the different

measures of intelligence or care, and according to the feeling with

which a task of that nature may happen to have been undertaken. A

slight inspection, accordingly, discovers that it is the character

of the writer, more than of the parish, that determines the length

and interest of any one of these reports. This is an imperfection,

and something more--for it makes one part of the book, by

implication, reveal the defects of another. A few years ago, when

a Crown commission considered a project for a general survey and

statistical report of Ireland, their attention was much attracted

to the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_; and, in their report,

they notice, in the course of a very fair estimate, this inequality

as the main disadvantage of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,

except upon a scheme which, from the expense attending it, would

have hindered the existence of the Scottish work, and which appears

to have prevented or postponed the Irish. From a single author,

something like proportion might be expected in the parts of such a

compilation; but to that perfection a work like the _Statistical

Account of Scotland_, with its hundreds of avowed responsible, and

therefore uncontrolled authors, could not pretend. For this reason,

it is the more proper to follow a rule of judgment which, in any

case, is a good one:--to estimate the general character of the work

with a lively recollection of its merits; and to be much upon our

guard against the mean instinct of looking only to the weaker and

more peccant parts of it.

Passing from the plan to the matter of the work, we now ask, whether

all that it contains is properly statistical, and whether it

contains all of any consequence that falls under that description.

Nothing, we suppose, is alien to this branch of knowledge that

tends, in however little, to show the state of a country--social,

political, moral--or even physical.

But this last, comprising somewhat of geography and natural history,

some writers would remove entirely from the sphere of statistics.

Among these is Peuchet, in his work before mentioned--who gives as

the reason of the exclusion, that, in any analysis of the wealth or

power of a state, neither its geography nor natural history ever

come into view: a fact rather hastily assumed. The parallel work for

this country, by Mr. M'Culloch, while it follows Peuchet's method

in much, leaves it in this instance, admitting various branches of

natural history to ample consideration. It is true that trespass

on the proper ground of statistics has been so common an offence,

that writers have been careful to mark those cases in which no title

exists. Thus Schlozer, looking to the intrusions that come from

the quarter we refer to, is averse to all imaginative descriptions

of the physical aspect of a country, but does not prohibit

natural history. Hogel, who also writes well upon the theory of

statistics,[9] is more explicit--admitting that natural history may

encroach too far, but asserting that its several branches may be

received to a certain extent. "Whatever, in the physical nature of a

country, has any influence upon the life, occupations, or manners of

the people, pertains to statistics; by all means, therefore, in any

body of statistics, let us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,

botany, geology, meteorology, as has any bearing upon the condition

of the people." All of these subjects have been allowed to enter

largely into the _New Statistical Account_.

[9] HOGEL, _Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik_.

They form a feature of that work which scarcely belonged to the

old Account, and which is new, indeed, to parochial statistics.

Investigations of natural history have usually been carried on with

reference to other bounds than those of parishes; but, when confined

to parishes, it is remarkable how much this has been at once for the

advantage of the science, and for the enhancement of any interest in

these territorial divisions by the picturesque mixture of natural

objects with the works and pursuits of men. More of this parochial

treatment of natural history we may possibly have hereafter, upon

the suggestion of the _Statistical Account_.

For the abundant favour which the work has shown to the whole

subject of natural history, reasons are not wanting. One portion

of that matter has obviously the quality that designates for

statistical treatment,--comprising, for example, mines, whether

wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable or destructive; plants, in

all their variety of uses: the connexion of which with the wealth

and industry of the country is at once apparent. The same connexion

exists for another class of objects; but not so obviously. For

example, there is a detailed account of the flowering periods of

a variety of plants in one parish; the pertinence of which is not

perceived, until it is mentioned that, in the same neighbourhood,

there are two populous and well-frequented watering-places, which

owe their prosperity to the qualities of the climate: there the

trade of the locality connects itself with the early honours of the

hepaticas. A third class of facts, and not the least in amount,

is not qualified by any relation they are known to possess to the

social condition of the country; but then they belong to a body

of facts, some of which have that relation; and the same may be

established for them hereafter. Still, it may be said that the

matter, if appropriate, behoves to be presented in a statistical,

not in a scientific form. But this, perhaps, is to interpret too

strictly the laws of statistical writing, which do not seem to

forbid the predominance of a scientific interest in the description,

when the matter fairly belongs to the province of statistics. And if

any license at all may be allowed in works of so severe a character,

it is precisely here where that is least unbefitting. It is not

among the faults of the _New Statistical Account_, but rather among

its most interesting features, that the mineral resources of the

country are so often described with all the skill and passion of the

mineralogist, forgetting for the moment everything but the phenomena

of nature.

Under the head of Natural History, we have many instances of the

landscape painting proscribed by Schlozer. But it is remarked,

that the same authority, when adverting to another matter, lays

down a principle of admission which is equally applicable here.

"Antiquities," he observes, "become a proper subject of statistics

in such a case as that of Rome, where a large amount of money was at

one time annually expended by the strangers who came to form their

taste, or to indulge their curiosity, upon the remains of ancient

art." In like manner, if there are places in Scotland that profit

economically by the attractions of their natural beauty, we do

not see that there is any obligation to be silent upon the cause,

by reason merely of the seeming dissonance betwixt an imaginative

description and the austere account of statistics. Other and better

apologies might be offered; and, on the whole, we are not satisfied

that, in this respect, any less indulgence of the gentler vein would

have been attended with advantage to the work.

On these grounds it appears to have been, that so much scope is

allowed to the whole subject of natural history. But if too much,

the fault has been redeemed by the frequent excellence of what is

put forth on that head. Here the _New Statistical Account_ passes

expectation; and to it we may attribute much of the increased

interest that has lately attached to that branch of knowledge in

Scotland.

Another thing of questionable connexion with statistics is

history, which imports a reference to the past; whereas, as the

name declares, statistics contemplates but the present, and can

look neither backward nor forward, without trenching upon other

provinces. Many excellent statistical works, accordingly, have

allowed no place to history at all; and the writers before cited,

on the theory of the subject, concur in excluding it. Hogel is most

explicit. "Statistics never go beyond the circle of the present

in their representations of the condition of a country: they are

like painting--they fix upon a single point of time; and the facts

which they select are those which come last in the series, though

the series they belong to may extend backwards for ages. All that

went before rests on testimony, and is therefore beyond the sphere

of statistics, whose grounds are in actual observation. There is

no limit to the number of facts with which statistics have to do,

provided they are co-existing facts, and do not present themselves

in succession: facts, and not their causes, are the proper matter

of statistics; and they must be facts of the present time." This

doctrine, in which there seems nothing in the main amiss, if

strictly applied to the work under consideration, cancels a large

part of it. But against that consequence we can suppose it to

be pleaded--First, that for relief from a continuity of details

somewhat arid to many readers, the work borrows something from a

neighbouring branch of knowledge, and so far, of purpose, drops its

statistical character--the more allowably, as in this way no harm

ensues to the statistical character of the rest. And next--that

all the history of a place has not equally little to do with its

present state; for past events are often, casually or otherwise,

related to the present, and so become a fair subject of retrospect,

unless restraints are to be imposed on this branch of knowledge

which are unknown to any other. The fault, in this instance, is at

least not so great, as where no discoverable relation exists. It

may be worth while, then, to observe how far the historical matter

of the _Statistical Account_ does show any connexion of the sort in

question.

It includes, under the head of history, various classes of

particulars. 1. The parish has been the scene of some event

remarkable in the history of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct

traces remain, not in memory alone, but in some local custom or

institution. But the most common case is, that, as the range extends

to the remotest periods, all influence or effect of the event has

ceased, and the interest of its recital is purely historical. Here

the _Statistical Account_ transgresses one rule of such a work by

the admission of such matter, and asks, as we perceive it does ask

in the prospectus, liberty to do so on one of the grounds above

suggested.

2. The same apology is required for the antiquities, that form a

large section under this head. These have sometimes perceptibly the

connexion that gives the title we desire; a connexion, perhaps, no

more than perceptible. Thus, in reference to the round hill in the

parish of Tarbolton, on which the god Thor was anciently worshipped,

we are told that, "on the evening before the June fair, a piece of

fuel is still demanded at each house, and invariably given, even by

the poorest inhabitant," in order to celebrate the form of the same

superstitious rite which has been annually performed on that hill

for many centuries. The famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is said

to be used "for civil purposes connected with the burgh." In these

cases it is seen how very slight is the qualifying circumstance; but

it is still more so for much the greater number of particulars of

this kind which the book contains--such as ancient coins, ancient

armour, barrows, standing-stones, camps, or moat hills: all of which

particularly belong to archæology, and obtain a place here simply

by favour. Indeed, no part of the work adheres to it so loosely as

this of antiquities. Their objects live as curiosities; but, to all

intents that can recommend them to the notice of statistics, they

are dead, "and to be so extant is but a fallacy in duration."

If this portion of the matter be the least appropriate, it is, at

the same time, not the least difficult to handle; for uncertainty

besets a very great part of it, and nothing more tries the reach of

knowledge than conjecture. Besides, the knowledge here requisite

implies both taste and opportunities for its cultivation,--which may

belong to individuals, but which cannot be attributed to an entire

profession, spread over all parts of the country, and designated

to very different studies. If antiquities could be considered as

a main part of statistics, it is, assuredly, not to the clergy we

should look for a statistical account; nor indeed to any other

body, however learned, if it be not the Society of Antiquaries. The

clergyman who honours his profession with the greatest amount of

appropriate learning, may in this particular know but little; and if

we do not, on that account, the less value him, it is assuredly not

from undervaluing in the slightest degree a very interesting branch

of knowledge.

In these circumstances, the reasons for allowing to antiquities

so much of this compilation appear to have been,--the compelling

example of the old Account, the occasional aptness of the matter,

and the effect of such a _mélange_ upon the mass of details that

form the body of the work. But a better apology remains; and

it may be extended to what is said of the remarkable events of

history. We are warranted in saying, that the _New Statistical

Account_ has contributed much to the history and antiquities of

Scotland,--evincing on these subjects a frequent novelty and fulness

of knowledge far surpassing what either the design or the apparatus

of the undertaking gave any title to expect.

Of one fault, in particular, there is no appearance in the

archæology of this work. Nowhere is there any sign of an

idiosyncracy which is not without example--that of professing to

speak of statistics, and yet speaking of nothing but antiquities;

as if these, which are saved with so much difficulty from the

charge of being wholly out of place, were the pith and marrow, the

most vital part of any body of statistics. This is a small merit,

but it is allied to a greater. Throughout these volumes, there is

no tendency to discuss such futile questions as have sometimes

lowered the credit of antiquarian pursuits. We have seen it solemnly

inquired, whether Æneas, upon landing in Italy, touched the soil

with the right or with the left foot foremost; whether Karl Haco

was in person present at the sacrifice of his son; whether a faded

inscription upon the walls of an old church be of this import or

that--in either case the interest having so little to support it

in the significance of the record that it can scarce be imagined

to exist at all, except as it may centre in the mere truth of

the deciphering. Nothing of this doting, degenerate character,

repudiated by all antiquaries, occurs in the _Statistical Account_:

if it did, the sum of all the errors in names, dates, and other

things, inevitably incident to so vast a variety of details, would

not have been an equal blemish.

It is probable that neither history nor antiquities will find a

place in any future statistics of Scotland. Not that they have

been enough examined either in that connexion, or elsewhere; but

it is now common to make them the subject of separate, independent

essays--the most proper form for the delivery of anything that

pertains to such matters. The good service done in this department,

by both of these Accounts, now falls to be performed by such works

as the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland,"[10]

which have this for their single object; and the presumption is only

fair, that some further light on such matters may be contributed by

the "Parochiale Scoticanum," lately announced as in the course of

preparation[11]--though our expectations would not have been at all

lessened by a somewhat less magnificent promise than that "every

man in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain, with some precision,

the first footing and _gradual progress of Christianity_ in his own

district and neighbourhood."

[10] _The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland._

Illustrated by R. W. BILLINGS, and WILLIAM BURN.

[11] Prospectus _Parochiale Scoticanum_, now editing by COSMO INNES,

Esq., Advocate.

It is not to be supposed, however, that some other topics which

regularly appear in this New Account, under the head of history,

will ever drop from any work of parochial statistics. We refer to

what may be termed Parish History, as distinct from what belongs to

the history of the country,--notices of distinguished individuals

and of ancient families, changes of property, territorial

improvements, variations in the social state of the people. No

part of a book is more novel, or, to a proper curiosity, more

interesting; and no indication is needed of the fair incidence of

such matters to a work of this description.

If the _New Statistical Account_ contains, then, some particulars

not quite proper to the professed object, the excess appears to

be on the whole venial. But it may still be asked, whether any

important and proper matters appear to have been omitted.

Now, considering how many things of nature, art, institutions, and

industry pertain to statistics, we do not expect any compilation to

embrace all, or to treat completely of all such things as it does

embrace,--we expect imperfection in the details.

Accordingly, it is seen that some subjects well described in some

accounts, are either not at all, or not so fully, taken up in

others; while yet the occasion may be much the same. The climate

of some districts, for instance, is well illustrated by careful

observations from the rain-gage and thermometer; in some parishes we

are informed of the size of the agricultural possessions, the number

of ploughs, the rent of land; in some, manufactories, mines, and

other kinds of industry, are viewed in all their aspects. But, for

other districts or parishes, reports on these subjects are wanting;

and the disadvantage is, not merely that such desirable information

is not given for such places, but that the means are not furnished

of making any general computations for the whole country. It is

plain there have been special reasons for the less satisfactory

representation of particular parishes in these respects: but for all

such faults, both of omission and imperfection, we understand the

_New Statistical Account_ to have one general apology; which is this.

Two distinct efforts are requisite to the preparation of a

comprehensive work of statistics. There is first, the investigation

of facts; and next, the task of arranging and presenting them in

the report. One of the theorists before-mentioned, views it as

a necessary division of labour, that both things should not be

attempted by one and the same party,--especially as the first, when

the subjects are numerous, is not to be accomplished but by the

assistance of many hands--all of which, as he observes, must be at

once skilful and suitably rewarded. Now, here, the task of inquiring

and reporting was not divided; the whole of it was placed, by the

necessities of the case, in the hands of the reverend contributors.

But, as no private society had the means or authority to investigate

the facts completely, it is urged that the defects to which we have

alluded, were for the most part inevitable.

We believe it; and, recognising how much the clergy had thus to

do, which could only be done completely by the government, we only

advert to the sources of information to which they could have

recourse.

_Public documents_ seem to have been consulted, when information

of a later date could not be had,--and chiefly the parliamentary

reports on population, crime, education, and municipal affairs, from

which the parish accounts appear to have been supplemented with

whatever was necessary to the completion of the county summaries.

Much has also been derived from the reports of Societies, Boards,

and mercantile companies; of this there is evidence in the account

of every considerable town.

_Public records_ appear also to have been examined, and chiefly the

parish registers. Every parish has a record of the transactions of

its kirk-session,--sometimes extending to distant periods. Extracts

from these occasionally show, in a clear light, the state and

manners of the country in former times; more of which authentic

illustration we could have wished, and more the same sources

might possibly have supplied. Most parishes have also records of

births or baptisms, marriages and deaths. From these, and these

only, this work could derive the elements of its important section

of vital statistics; but how far were they fitted to serve that

purpose? It is certain that they nowhere form a complete register

of these occurrences, and that for the most part they are very

defective. Baptisms appear to have been entered, in the parish

register, regularly till the year 1783, when the imposition of

a small tax first broke the custom of registration; and, when

that tax was removed, dissenting bodies were unwilling to resume

the practice. The proportion of registered baptisms to births,

for instance, is at the present time not more than one fourth in

Edinburgh, and one third in Glasgow. The marriage register is also

unavailable to statistical purposes, by reason of the practice of

double enrolment--in the parish of each party. In many parishes no

record of burials exists: in others, those of paupers are omitted.

In short, there is scarcely a country in Europe that does not, by

proper arrangements, furnish better information on these important

points; and no industry of individuals can remedy that defect. It is

therefore among the postulates of a work like this, for Scotland,

that its vital statistics should be imperfect.

_Books_ relating to the history, civil or natural, the institutions

or manners of the country, have in many instances been well

consulted; in some, not at all; but probably as much from want of

opportunity as from any other cause.

Still much occasion for inquiry remained after all the use that

could be made of reports, registers, and books. Much of what related

to the institutions of Religion, education, and the poor, might

be supposed to come readily to hand, the clergy themselves being

most conversant with such matters. But they appear to have charged

themselves with the toil of very different investigations. Some

have been at the pains to ascertain the amount and occupations of

the population, betwixt the decennial terms of the parliamentary

census. Few have omitted to state, in connexion with the agriculture

of the parish, the quantities of land under tillage or under wood,

in pasture or in moor, and the amount respectively of the different

kinds of produce--facts that imply not a little correspondence with

land-owners and land-occupiers, and much industry in the collation

of returns. They have had recourse, frequently, to mineralogists,

botanists, overseers of mining and manufacturing works, whose

contributions are of as much value as the fullest and ripest

knowledge can give. Picture-galleries are sometimes described by

their owners; family papers occasionally disclose facts of some

interest in the history of the country. Throughout the work there

are signs not to be mistaken, of much private and unwonted inquiry

on the part of the reverend authors, to do, in a creditable way, a

work that, from the nature of it, ought to have been apportioned to

at least two different parties.

The defects which remain only suggest to us the hope which was thus

expressed in similar circumstances, that "the circulation of this

work, by bringing the deficiencies in the means of statistical

information under the public view, and drawing attention to them,

may, in this respect, also contribute to the advancement of the

science." It is implied, of course, that the work, to be useful

in this indirect way, must have merits of another kind. On these

the _New Statistical Account_ may stand. No other book affords the

same insight into the various natural resources of the country;

none describes so well, and so skilfully, the most considerable

branches of industry, and the methods of conducting them; none has

brought together the same variety of statistics, with the same

ample means of speculating upon their mutual relations. It is still

more remarkable, that such a work, embracing, as it does, so much

beyond the usual sphere of their observation, should proceed from

the clergy; but the explanation is, that the position and character

of that body open to them the best means of information on many

subjects with which they are themselves not at all conversant. They

have produced here a work, which, as a collection of parochial

statistics, stands alone, without either rival or resemblance in any

other country, representing the state of Scotland, at the period to

which it refers, in all its aspects, and so affording the means of

a definite comparison between the past and the present, such as, in

all cases, it is at once natural and profitable to make. A peculiar

interest arises from the unusual diversity of the matter, and the

familiarity of the writers with the bounds which they describe.

It is a useful work, and will continue long to be so, in as many

ways as it throws light upon the condition of the country--and,

not least, in the local improvements to which its suggestions may

give rise. But, if its uses were less than they are, it would still

leave an impression of respect for the general intelligence and the

readiness to employ their opportunities for the public good, which

its authors have known to unite with exemplary devotion to the

duties of their calling.

THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.

_The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art._ By Mrs JAMESON.

We are of the belief that art without poetry is worthless--dead,

and deadening; or, if it have vitality, there is no music in its

speech--no command in its beauty. We treat it with a kind of

contempt, and make apology for the pleasure it has afforded. _Sacred

and Legendary Art!_ How different--how precious--how life-bestowing!

The material and immaterial world linked, as it were, together by

a new sympathy, working out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the

golden threads of a Divine revelation! By _Sacred and Legendary Art_

is meant the treatment of religions subjects, commencing with the

Old Testament, and terminating in traditionary tales and legends. It

is from the latter that the old painters have, for the most part,

taken that rich poetry, which, glowing on the canvass, shows, even

amidst the wild errors of fable, a truth of sentiment belonging to a

purer faith.

By the Protestant mind, nursed, perhaps, in an undue contempt of

histories of saints and martyrs of the Romish Church, the treasures

of art of the best period are rarely understood, and still more

rarely felt, in the spirit in which they were conceived. Those for

whom they were painted needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.

They accepted them as things universally known and religiously to

be received, with a veneration which we but little comprehend. With

them pictures and statues were among their sacred things, and,

together with architecture, spoke and taught with an authority

that books, which then were rare in the people's hands, have since

scarcely ever obtained. Men of genius felt this respect paid to

their works, if denied too often to themselves; and thus to their

own devotion was added a kind of ministerial importance. Their work

became a duty, and was very frequently prosecuted as such by the

inmates of monasteries. Besides their works on a large scale, upon

the walls and in their cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating

missals embodied a religious feeling, if in some degree peculiar to

the condition of the workers, of a vital form and beauty. Treasures

of this kind there are beyond number; but they have been hidden

treasures for ages. A Protestant contempt for their legends has

persecuted, with long hatred, and subsequent long indifference,

the art which glorified them. And now that we awake from this dull

state, and begin to estimate the poetry of religious art, we stand

before the noblest productions amazed and ignorant, and looking

for interpreters, and lose the opportunity of enjoyment in the

inquiry. Art is too valuable for all it gives, to allow this entire

ignorance of the subjects of its favourite treatment. If, for the

better understanding of heathen art, an acquaintance with classical

literature is thought to be a worthy attainment, the excellence of

what we may term Christian art surely renders it of importance that

we should know something about the subjects of which it treats. The

inquiry will repay us also in other respects, as well as with regard

to taste. If we would know ourselves, it is well to see the workings

of the human mind, under its every phase, its every condition. And

in such a study we shall be gratified, perhaps unexpectedly, to find

the good and the beautiful still shining through the obscurity of

many errors, predominant and influential upon our own hearts, and

scarcely wish the fabulous altogether removed from the minds of

those who receive it in devotion, lest great truth in feeling be

removed also. Indeed, the legends themselves are mostly harmless,

and, even as they become discredited, may be interpreted as not

unprofitable allegories. Had we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded

art with an iconoclast persecution, _The Pilgrim's Progress_ had

long ere this been a "golden legend" for the people, and spoken to

them in worthy illustration; nor would they have been religiously

or morally the worse had they been imbued with a thorough taste for

the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime, which it is in the

power of well cultivated art to convey to every willing recipient.

It is a great mistake of a portion of the religious world to look

upon ornament as a sin or a superstition. Religion is not a bare and

unadorned thing, nor can it be so received without debasing, without

making too low and mean the worshipper for the worship. The "wedding

garment" was not the every-day wear. The poorest must not, of a

choice, appear in rags before the throne of Him who is clothed in

glory, nor with less respect of their own person than they would use

in the presence of their betters. It was originally of God's doing,

command, and dictation, to sanctify the beautiful in art, by making

his worship a subject for all embellishment. For such a purport

were the minute directions for the building of His temple. And yet

how many "religious" of our day contradict this feeling, which

seems to come to us, not only by a natural instinct, but with the

authority of a command! It is a deteriorated worship that prefers

four bare, unadorned, whitened walls of a mean conventicle to the

lofty and arched majesty and profuse enrichment of a Gothic minster.

We want every aid to lift every sense above our daily grovelling

cares, and ought to feel that we are acceptable and invited guests

in a house far too great, spacious, and magnificent for ourselves

alone. Even our humility should be sublime, as all true worship

is, for we would fain lift it up as an offering to the Heaven of

heavens. It has its aspect towards Him who deigns to receive,

together with consciousness of the lowliness of him that offers. It

is good that the eye and the ear should see and hear other sounds

and sights than concern things, not only of time, but of that poor

portion of it which hems in our daily wants and businesses. Beauty

and music are of and for eternity, and will never die; and in our

perception of them we make ourselves a part of all that is undying.

These are senses that the spiritualised body will not lose. Their

cultivation is a thing for ever; we are now even here the greater

for their possession in their human perfection. The wondrous pile

so elaborately finished; the choral service, the pealing organ, and

the low voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel forms and beatified

saints in richly-painted windows:--we do not believe all this to be

solely of man's invention, but of inspiration; how given we ask not,

seeing what is, and acknowledging a greatness around us far greater

than ourselves, and lifting up the full mind to a magnitude emulous

of angelic stature. Yes--poetic genius is a high gift, by which the

gifted make discoveries, and show high and great truths, and present

them, palpable and visible, before the world--by architecture,

by painting, by sculpture, by music--rendering religion itself

more holy by the inspiration of its service. Take a man out of

his common, so to speak, irreverent habit, and place him here to

live for a few moments in this religious atmosphere--how unlike is

he to himself, and how conscious of this self-unlikeness! Would

that our cathedrals were open at all times! Even when there is no

service, though that might be more frequent, there would be much

good communing with a man's own heart, when, turning away for a

while from worldly troubles and speculations, in midst of that great

solemn monument, erected to his Maker's praise, and with the dead

under his feet--the dead who as busily walked the streets and ways

he has just left--he would weigh the character of his doings, and in

a sanctified place breathe a prayer for direction. Nor would it be

amiss that he should be led to contemplate the "storied pane" and

religious emblems which abound; he will not fail, in the end, to

sympathise with the sentiment even where he bows not to the legend.

He may know the fact that there have been saints and martyrs--that

faith, hope, and charity are realities--that patience and love may

be here best learnt to be practised in the world without.

It is curious that the saints, those _Dii minores_, to whom so many

of our churches are dedicated, still retain their holding. Beyond

the evangelists and the apostles, little do the people know of the

other many saints while they enter the churches that bear their

names. Few of a congregation, we suspect, could give much account of

St Pancras, St Margaret, St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement, nor

even of St George, but that he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is

the patron saint of England. Yet were they once "household gods" in

the land. It is a curious speculation this of patron saints, and

how every family and person had his own. There is a great fondness

in this old personal attachment of his own angel to every man. That

notion preceded Christianity, and was easily engrafted upon it: and

the angel that attended from the birth was but supplanted by some

holy dead whom the Church canonised. And a corrupt church humoured

the superstition, and attached miracles to relics; and thus, as

of old, these came, in latter times, to be "gods many." And what

were these but over again the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod

said, inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men? Yet, it must

be confessed, there has been a popular purification of them. They

are not the panders to vice that infested the morals of the heathen

world.

But how came the heathen world by them? Did they invent, or where

find them? And how came their characteristics to be so universal, in

all countries differing rather in name than personality? The most

intellectually-gifted people under the sun, the ancient Greeks,

give nowhere any rational account how they came by the gods they

worshipped. They take them as personifications from their poets.

There is the theogony of Hesiod, and the gods as Homer paints

them. They have called forth the glory of art; and wonderful were

the periods that stamped on earth their statues, as if all men's

intellect had been tasked to the work, that they should leave a

mark and memorial of beauty than which no age hereafter should show

a greater. We acknowledge the perfection in the remains that are

left to us. Greek art stills sways the mind of every country--all

the world mistrusts every attempt in a contrary direction. The

excellence of Greek sculpture is reflected back again upon Greek

fable, the heathen mythology from which it was taken; and perhaps

a greater partiality is bestowed upon that than it deserves,--at

least, we may say so in comparison with any other. We must be

cautious how we take the excellence of art for the excellence of its

subject. The Greeks were formed for art beyond every other people;

had their creed been hideous--and indeed it was obscene--they would

have adorned it with every beauty of ideal form. And this is worthy

of note here, that their poetry in art was infinitely more beautiful

than their written poetry. Their sculptors, and perhaps their

painters, of whom we are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,

and from the opinions formed by no bad judges of their day, did aim

at the portraying a kind of divine humanity. If their sculptured

deities have not a holy repose, they are singularly freed from

display of human passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is rarely

that even decent repose is allowed them; they are generally too

active, without dignity, and without respect to the moral code of a

not very scrupulous age. Yet have these very heathen gods, even as

their historians the poets paint them--for it would disgrace them

to speak of their biographers--a trace of a better origin than we

can gather out of the whimsical theogony. There are some particulars

in the heathen mythology that point to a visible track in the

strange road of history. Much we know was had from Egypt; more,

probably, came with the Cadmean letters from Phœnicia--a name

including Palestine itself. Inventions went only to corruptions--the

original of all creeds of divinity is from revelation. We may not

be required to point out the direct road nor the resting-places of

this "_santa casa_," holding all the gods of Greece, so beautiful in

their personal portraiture, that we love to gaze with the feeling

of Schiller, though their histories will not bear the scrutiny: but

it will suffice to note some similitudes that cannot be accidental.

Somehow or other, both the historic and prophetic writings of the

Bible, or narratives from them, had reached Greece as well as other

distant lands. The Greeks had, at a very early period, embodied

in their myths even the personal characters as shown in those

writings. Let us, for example, without referring to their Zeus in

a particular manner, find in the Hermes or Mercury of the Greeks

the identity with Moses. What are the characteristics of both? If

Moses descended from the Mount with the commands of God, and was

emphatically God's messenger, so was Hermes the messenger from

Olympus: his chief office was that of messenger. If Moses is known

as the slayer of the Egyptian, so is Hermes, (and so is he more

frequently called in Homer,) Αργειφοντης, the slayer of Argus, the

overseer of a hundred eyes. Moses conducted through the wilderness

to the Jordan those who died and reached not the promised land; nor

did he pass the Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of the dead,

delivering them over to Charon, (and here note the resemblance of

name with Aaron, the associate of Moses); nor was he to pass to the

Elysian fields.

Then the rod, the serpents,--the Caduceus of Hermes, with the

serpents twining round the rod. The appearance of Moses, and

the shining from his head, as it is commonly figured, is again

represented in the winged cap of Hermes. There are other minute

circumstances, especially some noted in the hymn of Hermes, ascribed

to Homer, which we forbear to enumerate, thinking the coincidences

already mentioned are sufficiently striking.

Then, again, the idea of the serpent of the Greek mythology, whence

did it come, and the slaying of it by the son of Zeus--and its very

name, the Python, the serpent of corruption? And in that sense it

has been carried down to this day as an emblem in Christian art.

But, to go back a moment, this departure of the Israelites from

Egypt, is there no notice of it in Homer? We think there is a hint

which indicates a knowledge of at least a part of that history--the

previous slavery, the being put to work, and the after-readiness of

the Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses, giving a false account of

himself, if we remember rightly, to Eumæus, says he came from Egypt,

where he had been a merchant, that the king of that country seized

him and all his men, whom _he put to work_, but that at length he

found favour, and was allowed to depart with his people; adding that

he collected much property from the people of Egypt, "for all of

them gave."

"Πολλὰ αγειρα,

Χρηματ' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδρας, διδοσαν γαρ ἄπαντες."

We do not mean to lay any great stress upon this quotation, and but

think at least that it shows a characteristic of the Egyptians as

narrated by Moses; and never having met with any allusion to it, nor

indeed to our parallel between Moses and Hermes, which it may seem

to support, we have thought it worthy this brief notice.

We fancy we trace the history of the cause of the fall of man, in

the eating of the pomegranate seed which doomed Proserpine to half

an existence in the infernal regions. Can there be anything more

striking than the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus? Whence could such

a notion come, that a man-god would, for his love to mankind, (for

bringing down fire from heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not upon a

cross indeed, but on a rock, and, in the description, crucified?

"It is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne, who has with great power

translated this strange play of Æschylus, "a Christian poem by a

pagan author, foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation of

Divine justice and Divine love. Whence the sublime conception of

the subject of this drama could have been obtained, it is useless

to speculate. Some even suppose that its author must have been

acquainted with the old Hebrew prophets."

Even the introduction of Io in the tale is suggestive--the

virgin-mother who was so strangely to conceive (and this too given

in a prophecy) miraculously.

"Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,

With one light touch of his unquailing hand,

And, from that fertilising touch, a son

Shall call thee mother."

Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,--

"In that the son shall overmatch the sire."

--"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."

Then again Sampson passes into the Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to

lose his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira. Whence the prophetic

Sybils, whence and what the Eleusinian mysteries? and that strange

glimpse of them in the significant passage of the Alcestis, where

the restored from the dead must abstain from speech till the third

day--the duration of her consecration to Hades!

Ὁύπω δέμις σοι τησδε προσφωνηματων,

Κλύειν, πρίν ἄν θεωισι τοῖσι νερτέροις

Αφαγνῖσηται, καὶτρίτον μολῃ φαος.

We might enter largely into the mysteries of heathen mythology, and

discover strange coincidences and resemblances, but it would take us

too wide from our present subject. Our present purpose is to show

that we are apt to attribute too much to the Grecian fable, when

we ascribe to it all the beauty which Grecian art has elaborated

from it. For, in fact, the origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond

them in far-off time; and by them how corrupted, shorn of its real

grandeur, and at once magnificent and lovely beauty! How much more,

then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible from that high

revelation which is part of the Christian religion. We overlook,

in the excellence of Grecian art, the far better materials for all

art, which we in our religion possess, and have ever possessed.

With the Greeks it was an instinct to love the beautiful, sensual

and intellectual: it was a part of their nature to discover it or

to create it. They would have fabricated it out of any materials;

and deteriorated, indeed, were those which came to their hands.

And even this excess of their love, at least in their poets, made

the sensuous to overcome the intellectual; but the far higher than

intellectual--the celestial, the spiritual--they had not: their

highest reach in the moral sense was a sublime pride: they had no

conception of a sublime humility. Their highest divinity was how

much lower than the lowest order of angels that wait around the

heavenly throne and adore,--low as is their Olympus, where they

placed their Zeus and all his band, to the Christian "heaven of

heavens," which yet cannot contain the universal Maker. It is bad

taste, indeed, in us, as some do, to give them the palm of the

possession of a better field--poetic field for the exercise of art.

"Christian and Legendary art" has a principle which no other art

could have, and which theirs certainly had not; they were sensuous

from a necessity of their nature, lacking this principle. We ought

to ascribe all which they have left us to their skill, their genius:

wonderful it was, and wonderful things did it perform; but, after

all, we admire more than we love. Their divine was but a grand

and stern repose; their loveliness, but the perfection of the

human form. And so great were they in this their genius, that the

monuments of heathen art are beyond the heathen creed; for in those

the unsensuous prevailed.

Let us suppose the gift of their genius to have been delayed to

the Christian era--as poetical subjects, their whole mythology

would have been set aside for a far better adoption; and we should

be now universally acknowledging how lovely and how great, how

full and bountiful, for poetry and for art, are the ever-flowing

fountains, gushing in life, giving exuberance from that high mount,

to the sight of which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor show its

poor Castalian rills. The "gods of Greece," the far-famed "gods

of Greece," what are they to the hierarchy of heaven--angels and

archangels, and all the host--powers, dominions, hailing the

admission to the blissful regions of saints spiritualised, and after

death to die no more--glorified? What loveliness is like that of

throned chastity? Graces and Muses in their perfectness of marbled

beauty--what are they to faith, hope, and charity, and the veiled

virtues that like our angels shroud themselves? When these became

subjects for our Christian art, then was true expression first

invented in drapery. "Christian and legendary art" is not denied

the nude; but no other has so made drapery a living, speaking

poetry. There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness, in the drapery of

mediæval sculpture, that equally commands our admiration, and more

our reverence and our love, than ancient statues, draped or nude.

And this is the expression of Scripture poetry--the represented

language, the "clothing with power," the "garment of righteousness."

We often loiter about our old cathedrals, and look up with wonder

at the mutilated remains as a new type of beauty, beaming through

the obscurity of the so-called dark ages. Lovers of art, as we

profess to be, in all its forms, we profess without hesitation

that we would not exchange these--that is, lose them as never to

have existed--for all that Grecian art has left us. Even now, what

power have we to restore these specimens of expressive workmanship,

broken and mutilated as they have been by a low and misbegotten

zeal? We maintain further, generally, that the works of "Christian

and legendary art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are

as infinitely superior to the works of all Grecian antiquity, as

is the source of their inspiration higher and purer: we are, too,

astonished at the perfect agreement of the one with the other,

showing one mind, one spirit--devotion. We strongly insist upon

this, that there has been a far higher character and equal power in

Christian art compared with heathen. It ought to be so, and it is

so. It has been too long set aside in the world's opinion (often

temporary and ill-formed) to establish the inferior. This country,

in particular, has yielded a cold neglect of these beautiful things,

in shameful and indolent compliance with the mean, tasteless,

degrading Puritanism, that mutilated and would have destroyed them

utterly if it could, as it would have treated every and all the

beautiful.

Even at the first rise of this Christian art, the superiority of

the principle which moved the artists was visible through their

defect of knowledge of art, as art. The devotional spirit is

evident; a sense of purity, that spiritualised humanity with its

heavenly brightness, dims the imperfections of style, casting out

of observation minor and uncouth parts. Often, in the incongruous

presence of things vulgar in detail of habit and manners, an angelic

sentiment stands embodied, pure and untouched, as if the artist,

when he came to that, felt holy ground, and took his shoes from off

his feet. It was not long before the art was equal to the whole

work. There are productions of even an early time that are yet

unequalled, and, for power over the heart and the judgment, are much

above comparison with any preceding works of boasted antiquity.

Take only the full embodying of all angelic nature: what is

there like to it out of Christian art? How unlike the cold

personifications of "Victories" winged,--though even these were

borrowed,--are the ministering and adoring angels of our art--now

bringing celestial paradise down to saints on earth, and now

accompanying them, and worshipping with them, in their upward

way, amid the receding and glorious clouds of heaven! Look at the

sepulchral monuments of Grecian art--the frigid mysteries, the

abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal, shrinking from Lethé; and

the dismal boat--the unpromising, unpitying aspect of Charon:

then turn to some of the sublime Christian monuments of art, that

speak so differently of that death--the Coronation of the Virgin,

the Ascension of Saints. The dismal and the doleful earth has

vanished--choirs of angels rush to welcome and to support the

beatified, the released: death is no more, but life breathing no

atmosphere of earth, but all freshness, and all joy, and all music;

the now changed body glowing, like an increasing light, into its

spirituality of form and beauty, and thrilling with

"That undisturbed song of pure consent,

Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne

To Him that sits thereon;

With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,

Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,

Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;

And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,

Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,

With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,

Hymns devout and holy psalms

Singing everlastingly."

Then shall we doubt, and not dare to pronounce the superior

capabilities of Christian art, arising out of its subject--poetry?

We prefer, as a great poetic conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,

Michael, with his victorious foot upon his prostrate adversary,

to the far-famed Apollo Belvidere, who has slain his Python; and

his St Margaret, in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed grace,

to that perfect model of woman's form, the Venus de Medici. Not

that we venture a careless or misgiving thought of the perfectness

of those great antique works: their perfectness was according to

their purpose. Higher purposes make a higher perfectness. Nor

would we have them viewed irreverently; for even in them, and the

genius that produced them, the Creator, as in "times past, left

not Himself without witness." In showing forth the glory of the

human form, they show forth the glory of Him who made it--who is

thus glorified in the witnesses; and so we accept and love them.

But to a certain degree they must stand dethroned--their influence

faded. Lowly unassuming virtues--virtues of the soul, far greater

in their humility, in the sacred poetry of our Christian faith,

shine like stars, even in their smallness, on the dark night of our

humanity; and they are to take their places in the celestial of art;

and we feel that it is His will, who, as the hymn of the blessed

Virgin--that type of all these united virtues--declares, "hath put

down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and

meek."

We trust yet to see sacred art resumed; for the more we consider its

poetry, the more inexhaustible appears the mine. Nor do we require

to search and gather in the field of fabulous legends; though in

a poetic view, and for their intention, and resumed merely as a

fabulous allegory, they are not to be set aside. But sure we are

that, whatever can move the heart, can excite to the greatest degree

our pity, our love, or convey the greatest delight through scenes

for which the term beautiful is but a poor describer, and personages

for whose magnificence languages have no name--all is within the

volume and the history of our suffering and triumphant religion.

Would that we could stir but one of our painters to this, which

should be his great business! Genius is bestowed for no selfish

gratification, but for service, and for a "witness," to bear which

let the gifted offer only a willing heart, and his lamp will not

be suffered to go out for lack of oil. Why is the tenderness of Mr

Eastlake's pencil in abeyance? That portion of the sacred history

which commences with his "Christ weeping over Jerusalem," might well

be continued in a series. Even still more power has he shown in the

creative and symbolic, as exemplified in his poetic conception of

Virtue from Milton--

"She can teach you how to climb

Higher than the sphery chime;

Or if Virtue feeble were,

Heaven itself would stoop to her."

If we believe genius to be an inspiring spirit, we may contemplate

it hereafter as an accusing angel. With such a paradise of subjects

before them, why do so many of our painters run to the kennel

and the stable, or plunge their pencils into the gaudy hues of

meretricious enticement? We do verily believe that the world is

waiting for better things. It is taking a greater interest in higher

subjects, and those of a pure sentiment. It is that our artists are

behind the feeling, and not, as they should be, in the advance. It

is a great fact that there is such a growing feeling. The resumption

of sacred art in Germany is not without its effect, and is making

its way here in prints. Most of these are from the Aller Heiligen

Kapelle at Munich, the result of the taste of at least one crowned

head in Europe, who, with more limited means and power, has set an

example of a better patronage, which would have well become Courts

of greater splendour, and more imperial influence. Must it be asked

what our own artists--the Academy, with all its staff--are doing?

We must stay our hand; for we took up the pen to notice the two

volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_.

They have excited, in the reading, an enthusiastic pleasure, and led

the fancy wandering in the delightful fields sanctified by heavenly

sunshine, and trod by sainted feet; and, like a traveller in a

desert, having found an oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and would

fain linger and drink again of its refreshing springs. These volumes

have reached us most seasonably, at a period of the year when the

mind is more especially directed to contemplate the main subjects

of which they treat, and to anticipate only by days the vision of

joy and glory which will be scripturally put before us--to see the

Virgin Mother and the Holy Babe--

"And all about the courtly stable,

Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."

Mrs Jameson disclaims in this work any other object than the poetry

of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to enable those who are, or wish to

be, conversant with the innumerable productions of Italian and other

schools, in an artistic view, likewise at once to know the subjects

upon which they treat. Even as a handbook, therefore, these volumes

are valuable. Much of the early painting was symbolical. Ignorance

of the symbols rejects the sentiment, or at least the intention, and

at the same time makes what is only quaint appear absurd.

"The first volume contains the legends of the Scripture personages,

and the primitive fathers. The second volume contains those sainted

personages who lived, or are supposed to have lived, in the first

ages of Christianity, and whose real history, founded on fact or

tradition, has been so disguised by poetical embroidery, that they

have in some sort the air of ideal beings." Possibly this poetical

disguise is favourable upon the whole to art, but it renders a

key necessary, and that Mrs Jameson has supplied--not pretending,

however, to more than a selection of the most interesting; and, what

is extremely valuable, there are marginal references to pictures,

and in what places they are to be met with, and by whom painted, of

the subjects given in the text, and of the view the artists had in

so painting them. The emblems are amply noted with their meanings;

and even the significance of colours, which has been so commonly

overlooked, and is yet so important for the comprehension of the

full subject of a picture, is clearly laid down. It is well said:

"All the productions of art, from the time it has been directed

and developed by the Christian influences, may be regarded

under three different aspects:--1st, The purely religious

aspect, which belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The poetical

aspect, which belongs to all; 3d, The artistic, which is the

individual point of view, and has reference only to the action

of the intellect on the means and material employed. There is

a pleasure, an intense pleasure, merely in the consideration

of art, as art; in the faculties of comparison and nice

discrimination brought to bear on objects of beauty; in the

exercise of a cultivated and refined taste on the productions

of mind in any form whatever. But a threefold, or rather a

thousandfold, pleasure is theirs, who to a sense of the poetical

unite a sympathy with the spiritual in art, and who combine with

a delicacy of perception and technical knowledge, more elevated

sources of pleasure, more variety of association, habits of more

excursive thought. Let none imagine, however, that in placing

before the uninitiated these unpretending volumes, I assume

any such superiority as is here implied. Like a child that

has sprang on a little way before its playmates, and caught a

glimpse through an opening portal of some varied Eden within,

all gay with flowers, and musical with birds, and haunted by

divine shapes which beckon forward, and, after one rapturous

survey, runs back and catches its companions by the hand, and

hurries them forwards to share the new-found pleasure, the yet

unexplored region of delight: even so it is with me: I am on the

outside, not the inside, of the door I open."

This is a happy introduction to that which immediately follows of

angels and archangels.

Mrs Jameson has so managed to open the door as to frame in her

subject to the best advantage; and the reader is willing to stand

for a moment with her to gaze upon the inward brightness of the

garden, ere he ventures in to see what is around and what is

above. It is on the first downward step that we stand breathless

with Aladdin, and feel the influence of the first--the partial and

framed-in picture--glowing in the unearthly illumination of its

magical creation.

There is nothing more interesting than these few pages upon angels.

The information we receive is very curious. It is beautiful poetry

to see orders, and degrees, and ministrations various, types of

an embodied, a ministering church here, and ordained, together

with the saints of earth, to make one glorified triumphant church

hereafter. Without entering upon the theological question, as to

the extension and mystification of the ideas of angels after the

Captivity, (yet we think it might be shown that there was originally

no Chaldaic belief on the subject not taken, first or last, from the

Jews themselves,) it may not be unworthy of remark, that the word

"angel," signifying messenger, could scarcely with propriety have

been at the first applied to Satan, the deceiving serpent, until,

in the after-development of the history of the human race, the

ministering offices gave the general title, which, when established,

included all who had not "kept their first estate." Nor do we

think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea had anything to do with the

introduction of the worship of angels into the Christian church.

The "gods many" of the heathen countries in which Christianity

established itself, will sufficiently account for the readiness of

the people to transfer the multifarious worship to which they had

been accustomed to names more suitable to the new religion. It is

with the poetical development we have here to do; and what ground

is there for that full development in the New Testament, wherein

they are represented as "countless--as superior to all human wants

and weaknesses--as deputed messengers of God? They rejoice over

the repentant sinner; they take deep interest in the mission of

Christ; they are present with those who pray; they bear the souls

of the just to heaven; they minister to Christ on earth, and will

be present at his second coming." From such authority, from such

a sacred theatre of scenes and celestial personages, arose the

beautiful, the magnificent visions of the workers of sacred art.

Heresy, however, reached it, as might have been expected; and the

agency of angels, in the creation of the world and of man, has been

represented, to the deterioration of its great poetry. From the

beginning of the fourteenth century, a great change seems to have

taken place in the representation of the angel with reference to the

Virgin: the feeling is changed; "the veneration paid to the Virgin

demanded another treatment. She becomes not merely the principal

person, but the superior being; she is the 'regina angelorum,' and

the angel bows to her, or kneels before her, as to a queen. Thus,

in the famous altar-piece at Cologne, the angel kneels; he bears

the sceptre, and also a sealed roll, as if he were a celestial

ambassador delivering his credentials. About the same period we

sometimes see the angel merely with his hands folded over his

breast, and his head inclined, delivering his message as if to a

superior being."