According to the House of Commons' returns in 1815, there were no fewer
than 925,439 individuals in England and Wales, being about
_one-eleventh_ of the then existing population, members of _Friendly
Societies_, formed for the express purpose of affording protection to
the members during sickness and old age, and enabling them to subsist
without resorting to the parish funds. "No such unquestionable proof of
the prevalence of a spirit of providence and independence can be
exhibited in any other European country." We have to add, that these
must be the happiest people in the social scale.
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In the year 1300, Giovanni Cimabue
and Giotto, both of Florence, were the
first to assert the natural dignity and originality
of art, and the story of those
illustrious friends is instructive and romantic.
The former was a gentleman
by birth and scholarship, and brought to
his art a knowledge of the poetry and
sculpture of Greece and Rome. The latter
was _a shepherd_; when the inspiration
of art fell upon him, he was watching his
flocks among the hills, and his first attempts
in art were to draw his sheep and
goats upon rocks and stones. It happened
that Cimabue, who was then high
in fame, observed the sketches of the
gifted shepherd; entered into conversation
with him; heard from his own lips his
natural notions of the dignity of art; and
was so much charmed by his compositions
and conversation, that he carried
him to Florence, and became his close
and intimate friend and associate. They
found Italian painting rude in form, and
without spirit and without sentiment;
they let out their own hearts fully in their
compositions, and to this day their works
are highly esteemed for grave dignity of
character, and for originality of conception.
Of these great Florentines, Giotto, the
shepherd, is confessedly the more eminent;
in him we see the dawn, or rather
the sunrise, of the fuller light of Raphael.
--_For. Rev._
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