170 REVIEWS AND PAMPHLETS ON ART

history, exhibit the descents of excellence from school to school, and clear from doubt the pedigrees of powers which they cannot re-establish, and of virtues no more to be revived; the scholar is early acquainted with every department of the Impossible, and expresses in proper terms his sense of the deficiencies of Titian and the errors of Michael Angelo: the metaphysician weaves from field to field his analogies of gossamer, which shake and glitter fairly in the sun, but must be torn asunder by the first plough that passes: geometry measures out, by line and rule, the light which is to illustrate heroism, and the shadow which should veil distress; and anatomy counts muscles, and systematizes motion, in the wrestling of Genius with its angel. Nor is ingenuity wanting-nor patience; apprehension was never more ready, nor execution more exact-yet nothing is of us, or in us, accomplished;-the treasures of our wealth and will are spent in vain-our cares are as clouds without water¹-our creations fruitless and perishable; the succeeding Age will trample “sopra lor vanita che par persona,”² and point wonderingly back to the strange colourless tessera in the mosaic of human mind.

3. No previous example can be shown, in the career of nations not altogether nomad or barbarous, of so total an absence of invention,-of any material representation of the mind’s inward yearning and desire, seen, as soon as shaped, to be, though imperfect, in its essence good, and worthy to be rested in with contentment, and consisting self-approval-the Sabbath of contemplation which confesses and confirms the majesty of a style. All but ourselves have had this in measure; the Imagination has stirred herself in proportion to the requirements, capacity, and energy of each race: reckless or pensive, soaring or frivolous, still she has

¹ [Jude 12.]

² [Dante: Inferno, vi. 33-36:-

“We,o’er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt

Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet

Upon their emptiness, that substance seem’d.” (Cary.)

Ruskin quotes the words again in Modern Painters, vol. iii. ch. v. § 13.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]