sess poetical interest, not for every age and class, but only for a certain age or a certain class of men. We may take as examples the numberless pictures of monks, saints, and nuns in devotional attitudes, which medieval art delighted to multiply. These appealed to the religious emotions of those times, but awake little direct sympathy now. So again, actions not interesting to every one-such as battles and meetings of Parliamentmay possess interest for a certain age or class from the influence of personal or national bias. But it would be untrue to say that such pictures have no value except to those whose emotions they directly stimulate. They may have no poetical value except to the few, but to all others they have a psychological value, and to after ages they have a historical value. They may help to show how people living in a different moral and intellectual sphere think and act, or thought and acted in past times. And thus to the man of large mind and deep sympathy they may come to have an indirect poetical value, for such a man is ready to sympathize with every human feeling that he understands. care to seek their amusement in the laborious study of ancient art. There are those who see in the idolatry professed by some persons for the works of past ages little more than a finely-disguised distaste for the present and distrust in the future. But what has ceased to amuse will not therefore cease to instruct. Artistic tastes come and go, but knowledge and the appetite for knowledge remain the same. All facts and works which throw light on the process of human evolution will continue to be interesting. Hence the historical value of a work of art is in some sort a value for all time and almost all minds, while its poetical value varies directly with its absolute or relative distance from the age which contemplates it.* The poetical value of all works of art tends to become more and more indirect till at last it ceases to exist altogether. There are several reasons for this. First, the figures in a picture look, just as the characters in a poem speak and act, in a way wholly intelligible only to the age in which the picture or poem was composed. No doubt the greater the artist is, the less does he appeal to the mere prejudices and fashions of his own day and the more to the larger sympathies and wider intelligence of posterity. Still, except in very few instances, there is something in his work which only his own age can understand, and each succeeding age the gulf grows wider and wider which separates him from his admirers, till at last no one who is not an antiquarian himself, or has received special help from an antiquarian, can place himself in the proper point of view for appreciating the artist's work. Three centuries have sufficed to make the intelligent appreciation of a play of Shakespeare impossible without special study. But that which fails to appeal to the poetical sense may yet appeal strongly to the historical sense. It is one thing to have a critic's eye for differences, another thing to have a poet's eye for the sameness underlying differences. The one is the gift of the many, the other of the few. Secondly, the time may come when men who are able will no longer That which pictures illustrating social life and manners are to the philosophical side of history, that portraits are to its biographical or personal side. A string of words and actions is all that a book can reproduce for us of a man. A portrait gives a visible framework to which we can attach these words and actions, and thus brings the book nearer to us, helping us to talk with the characters as if they were present in the flesh. Of course a portrait may be more than this. The face or figure it represents may be beautiful or otherwise interesting in itself, and so the picture may have a direct æsthetic or poetical interest apart from fidelity to its original. But quâ portrait it is primarily imitative, only secondarily beautiful. Here we may remark that wherever the primary object of a picture is faithfulness rather than beauty or poetry, the photographic lens is probably destined to supersede the pencil. The intrusion of the imagination is an impertinence when it is made at the expense of truth. The advantage which the pencil once possessed of being able to catch momentary expression, has been neutralized by the invention of the heliotype; the advantage which it still possesses of being able to reproduce colour, is perhaps counterbalanced by its comparative unfaithfulness. may be questioned, therefore, whether the art of painting any longer has a raison d'être except when it is directed and ought to be directed by the imagination. It On the border-line which marks the poetical from the unpoetical come comic pictures, pictures which appeal to almost This branch of the subject has been admirably illustrated by M. Henri Taine, the first critic who brought the matter into due prominence. all men, but only by a side-wind as it sis with it, as the artist mostly fails to were, and for a certain season. Where produce in others an illusion to which he such pictures exhibit humour of a very is a stranger himself. high order, they are classed as works of genius and imagination, and may be said to have a quasi-poetical value. Where the humour is coarse or commonplace, or approximates to the coarse or commonplace, this title is denied them. Between extremes such as M. Doré and an illustrator of Fun, there is an ideal line somewhere, but only the humourist can draw it. Lower down in the scale come pictures which neither move nor amuse, but teach. Not being beautiful or picturesque, they have no æsthetic value; not exciting any human sympathy, they have no poetical value; not appealing to the anarchic love of incongruity common at times to most men, they have no comic value. But they may have a didactic and utilitarian value, and may range according to the admixture of secondary æsthetic, or poetical, or comic elements, from the satire on canvas to the illustration of a scientific text-book. Next come pictures which do not even teach because they are not true, which illustrate emotions by unsuitable expressions. The large class of so-called historical paintings often fall under this category; that which is imperfectly understood being generally incorrectly represented. 66 Lastly come pictures which are purely purposeless - mere exhibitions of technical skill innocent of any further object or meaning. These may be called the compositions," the works which are in the history of painting what many poems of the eighteenth century, and almost all prize poems, are in the history of literature. În painting these compositions the artist is dominated by no desire to move or to instruct mankind, but simply groups together a number of striking or pleasing figures in striking or pleasing attitudes, and then calls his picture the "Triumph of Love," or "Hell," or "Heaven," or anything else, so long as the title be striking or pleasing. The display of great technical skill makes such compositions to the eye of the true artist or poet only more offensive. The meanness of a really mean thing is only heightened by elaboration. Perhaps it may here be objected that no human action is really purposeless, and that the artist must have some object in painting as the scribbler in scribbling or the bad musician in playing. This is in a sense true, and it would be more correct to define "compositions as works in which it is the object of the artist to show off his skill, as it is the apparent object of the figures in his pictures to show off Next must be classed pictures which their round limbs and graceful attitudes, are not only not true, but not honest, pic- and as it is the object of the amateur tures in which the painter not only mis- public to which he appeals to show off understands, but misunderstands inten- their power of discriminating his skill tionally. It is almost impossible to and his figures' grace. The futility of avoid the conclusion that painters of the these objects is obvious. An attitude is later Italian school where they attempted not graceful which is purposeless. An to represent miraculous events, were not attitude is an arrangement of limbs givhonest. Between their pictures and ing expression to a particular feeling those of the earlier Flemish and Italian e.g., the desire of movement or the desire schools there is much difference. In the of rest. An attitude of rest assumed by latter the supernatural event is neither a person who does not desire rest is the disguised nor explained. The figures reverse of graceful. Hence the artist stand or kneel on a rest of clouds with who represents an affected attitude or hands clasped and eyes uplifted. In the expression, violates not only the laws of later pictures there is an attempt to get good sense but the law of beauty as over the difficulty, and the figures are rep-properly understood. His work is, resented in the attitude of swimming or therefore, æsthetically valueless. Still flying, attitudes which the absence of more valueless is it from a psychological wings or water reduces to a transparent absurdity. Thus the genuine grotesque of the early painters is exchanged for the elaborate mendacity of the later. Such artistic dishonesty carries its own neme * This arises from a defect on the part of the artist lack of psychological insight. -carelessness in observing, want of technical skill, or or historical point of view, except in so far as it illustrates the love of affectation peculiar at certain times to certain strata of society. A few words may be said to show the bearing of the aforesaid remarks upon tract of landscape painting. First, a country may be so dull, as a man may be From Chambers' Journal. PROPHETIC DAYS. so ugly, as to defy successful reproduction in serious art. Again, there are phenomena in nature so sudden and mo- WOULD-BE weatherwise folks would mentary that they look absurd when be saved a world of trouble if experience transferred to canvas. The propriety of justified the popular faith in certain days introducing a flash of lightning into a pic of the year—saints' days, of course, most ture may be questioned. Again, a land- of them-having such a prophetic power scape, though it be not strictly beautiful, attached to them, that by merely using may appeal to our feelings of wonder and our eyes and our almanacs, we may learn awe, and so have a poetical as distin- what the future will bring "of good or guished from a purely aesthetic interest. evil luck, of plagues, of dearths, or The picture of a storm-beaten cliff may season's quality." These ominous days move us fully as much as that of a sunny are but few in number, something under Italian bay. Of course no psychological a score; and it is impossible to guess or historical interest can attach to a land- why they, any more than their fellows, scape as such. Where an attempt is should be invested with such a valuable made to excite interest of this sort, we attribute. resent it as an impertinence, or condone If the New-year's first morning sky is it as a venial affectation, according as covered by clouds of a dusky red hue, the picture is in other respects worthy or there will be much debate and strife unworthy of praise. We resent the con- among the great ones of the earth, and tinual introduction of nymphs and Greek this we may readily believe-many temples in the pictures of Poussin and robberies will be perpetrated before the Claude, we condone the unmeaning fig-year has run its course. ures and fanciful titles attached to some of Turner's landscapes. The "pathetic fallacy" suggested in the famous picture of the "Téméraire" trembles on the line which divides the poetical from the sentimental. The sum of this essay may be expressed in a few words. When we see a picture we may ask ourselves questions such as these: Is it beautiful? then let us sit down and enjoy its beauty. Is it interesting as revealing elements of beauty, such as good or intelligent expressions, in faces not beautiful? then let us sit down and learn to sympathize with that which at first sight does not please. Is it instructive, as illustrating one of the stages of man's development? Then let us contrast it with analogous scenes in our own everyday life, and note the progress which has taken place between the two periods. Is it comic or satiric? Then let us enjoy the joke or take to heart the lesson that the artist meant to Should the sun deign to shine upon St. Vincent's Day, If St. Paul's Day be fair and clear, Candlemas prognostications go, as those of dreams are said to do, by contraries; fine weather on Candlemas Day of unseasonably cold days, and necessa being prophetical of a long succession convey. Every picture ought to offer us one of these things, and every man with a clear eye and a mind untrammelled by rily a failure of the crops: while foul pedantry can see whether it has one of weather on that day is a sure promise of them to offer. But to be any one of these a bright spring, with a summer to match: things the picture must first of all be truthful in fact and intention. Let us first ask, then, whether it be free of lies and affectation, and for the rest judge no work of art, so it be not marked by these plague-spots, to be common or unclean. If Candlemas Day be dry and fair, This idea is common throughout Europe. If the sun shines clearly on Easter Day, In Germany, they aver that the badger good weather and good times are in store, peeps out of his hole upon Candlemas and one may make sure of seeing the morning, and if the ground be white with sun upon Whitsunday. The lightest of snow, takes his walks abroad; but showers falling upon Ascension Day is should the sunshine greet his eyes, he an omen dire, foretelling sickness among will not venture from his snug abiding- cattle, and great scarcity of food for man. place; being of one mind with the shep- A reverse result follows a dry Holy-Thursherd, who would rather see a wolf enter day, and pleasant weather may be expecthis fold, than the sun, upon Candlemas ed almost up to Christmastide. A fine Day. So in Norfolk the proverb goes Whitsunday means a plentiful harvest, that a shepherd would prefer seeing his but if any rain falls then, thunder and wife on the bier, than the sun shining lightning, bringing blight and mildew clear upon Candlemas Day; and they with it, may be expected. Almost as illfirmly believe in the wisdom of the omened is a wet Midsummer Day, for rhymes: although apples, pears, and plums will not be affected thereby, nut-bushes will On Candlemus Day, if the thorns hang a drop, prove barren, and the corn-fields be smitThen you are sure of a good pea-crop. As far as the sun shines in on Candlemas Day, So far will the snow blow in afore Old May. ten with disease. deer rose dry and lay down dry on BulIt was a proverb in Scotland that if the lion's Day, there would be an early harvest. Considering the soldier-saint was the chosen patron of publicans and dispensers of good liquor, it seems odd that a shower falling upon St. Martin's Day should be supposed to indicate a twenty days' opening of heaven's sluices. Martin, however, when he went in for wet, was more moderate than his uncanonized brother Swithun, commonly called St. Swithin; he, as every one knows, is content with nothing under forty days: In 1855, a correspondent of Notes and Queries announced that the Candlemas prognostication had been verified in Norfolk, if nowhere else, when a spell of rough winter weather was brought to an end by a fair and sunny Candlemas Day. "On the following evening, about ten o'clock, a thaw suddenly commenced; but on the evening of the fifth, frost again set in with increased intensity, which continued uninterruptedly to February the twentyfourth, the ice in the broads' ranging Saint Swithin's Day, gin ye do rain, from eight inches to a foot in thickness." For forty days it will remain; But he had forgotten to take the change Saint Swithin's Day, an' ye be fair, of style into account; so the striking For forty days 'twill rain nae mair. verification of the ancient superstition Why this should be, has been explained was no verification at all. The Hebri- in this wise: When the good Saxon deans observe, or did observe, an odd custom. On Candlemas Day, in every house, a sheaf of oats was dressed in feminine attire, and laid, with a big club by its side, in a basket, called "Brüd's bed." Before turning in for the night, the mistress and her maids cried in chorus: "Brüd is come! Brüd is wel come!' If, next morning, an impression of the club was visible in the ashes on the hearth, it was held a sure presage of an abundant harvest, and a prosperous year; if the club had not left its mark, it was an Omen of coming bad times. Down Winchester way it is commonly believed that from whichever quarter the wind blows chiefly upon Palm-Sunday, it will blow during the best part of the In Hertfordshire they hold summer. that A good deal of rain upon Easter Day Bishop of Winchester departed this life Whether this were so or no, Better it is to rise betime, And to make hay while sun doth shine Mr. Earle, however, has shewn that while it is true that St. Swithin did leave di shiny winter, the pleasantness of which will be neutralized by nipping, long-staying north-easters. Merry Christmas sadly belies its name in its prognostications, which are of such a very lugubrious order, that, did we trust in them, we should be inclined to parody Carey's famous song, and pray : rections that he should be buried in a vile place, under the eaves-droppings, on the north side of Winchester church, there Of all the days that are in the week, was no supernatural protest on his part Come Christmas but on one day, And that is the day that comes between against his relics being removed to the The Saturday and the Monday! magnificent shrine prepared for them in Ethelwold's cathedral. On the contrary, A Sunday Christmas Day is the only one the weather was most propitious for the prophetic of unalloyed good, being the ceremony. Whoever was at the pains of harbinger of a new year in which beasts inventing the story of the forty days' will thrive, fields flourish, and all lands tempest, misapplied his imaginative fac- rest in peace. When Christmas Day falls ulties altogether, since the phenomenon upon a Wednesday, we may hope for a popularly associated with St. Swithin is genial summer, as recompense for a as apocryphal as the story concocted to stormy winter; but when it falls upon account for it. From observations made any of the remaining five, a severe winter at Greenwich in the twenty years ending without any compensation is in store for with 1861, it appears that during that us; supplemented by war and cattleterm forty days' rain was never known to plague, when the festival comes upon a follow St. Swithin's Day; while, oddly Monday; with mortality among kings enough, the wettest weather came when and great people, when it comes upon a the saint failed to "christen the apples." Tuesday; and by a great clearing-off of In only six instances in 1841. 1845, old folks, when it falls upon a Saturday. 1851, 1853, 1854, and 1856-did it rain If Childermas Day be wet, it threatens at all upon the fateful day; and the forty us with dearth; if it be fine, it promises days following shewed respectively us abundance; and as the wind blows on twenty-three, twenty-six, thirteen, eigh-the last night of December, it tells what teen, sixteen, and fourteen rainy ones. the unborn year will bring — for On the other hand, there were twelve wet days out of the forty after the dry St. Swithin of 1842, twenty-two after that of 1843, twenty-nine after that of 1860, and no less than thirty-one after that of 1848. Not that any evidence is likely to shake the faith of believers in the ancient no tion. Convinced against their will, they will hold their old opinion still, like Hone's lady-friend, who, finding her favourite saint's day fine, prophesied a long term of beautiful weather; but when a few drops of rain fell towards evening, veered round, and was positive six weeks of wet impended. Her first prophecy turned out to be the correct one; but the obstinate dame would not have it so, declaring stoutly that if no rain had fallen in the day-time, there certainly must have been some at night. There are rainy saints beside Swithin; in Belgium they pin their faith to St. Godeliève; in France, to Saints Gervais and Protais, and St. Médard. If Bartholomew's Day be ushered in by a hoar-frost, followed by mist, a sharp, biting winter will come in due time. A fine Michaelmas Day betokens a sun If New-year's eve night-wind blow south, these sage predictions, as regards weath- awkward trifle. From The Spectator. THE USELESSNESS OF ABSTRACT PREACHING. THERE are few questions better worth discussing than that which the Bishop of Oxford started at the Church Congress, and on which Sir Stafford Northcote touched in his address to the Torring |