aided the copying of paintings and statues, as also the obtaining of correct and literal portraits of living characters. On the other hand, it must be confessed that, in this latter respect, photography presents to us not the soul-gifted man, but the form only, void of vitality and of soul. It is not nature, but the ghost of nature that it brings before you. Phantom-like it is pale and stiff, and cold and colourless, destitute of either blood in the veins, fire in the eyes, or glow in the cheeks; a dreary contrast, not only to the living man himself, but to the almost animate representations which sprang from the genius of a Vandyke, a Reynolds, and a Lawrence.

III. Although the material resorted to for sculptural efforts, is considerably more durable than that which is used for pictorial representations, we have very few remains of works in this art prior to the period of the Anglo-Saxons. The only exceptions are some rude devices on certain Druidical temples, more particularly in Brittany, but the representations on which are so obscure that it is difficult to say whether cyphers or figures of real beings were intended to be described. Some of the weapons and drinking-vessels of the ancient Britons were rudely carved, of which we have also a few remains. The huge wicker idols in which they sacrificed victims, may perhaps be ranked among their sculptural efforts. wicker-work generally they were extremely skilful.

In

Our churches in the time of the Saxons were adorned with carving and statues, many of which were in the rudest style, and the heads and figures in general very uncouth. Nevertheless, our great painter and artistical writer Haydon informs us that in Edward the Confessor's reign there were executed bas-reliefs as good as anything done at that time in Europe, and by no means deficient in grace, though disproportional, and unskilful in composition. In one of these there is a king in bed, leaning upon his hand; which in an improved style, says Haydon, might be made a fine thing. On several ancient churches may be seen representations in sculpture, effected during this period, of the Last Judgment. The figures are rudely carved in rough stone and of misshapen limbs, and the dead are rising out of their graves, and near them

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are allegorical designs of death and hell and the grave. These forms are stiff and ill-proportioned, and no harmony or beauty in the composition can be discerned. Certain of the monumental figures in some of our churches executed during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, are in this rude style; and by observation of these works produced at different periods, we are enabled to trace the gradual rise and progress of this art. By degrees we find the effigies on the monuments more correctly and more gracefully designed and sculptured. Some of the productions of this class which were effected in this country so early as the thirteenth century, possess sufficient merit to have excited the admiration of Flaxman. He remarks with regard to these sculptures in general, that, although owing to the disadvantages under which such works were produced in that age, they are necessarily ill-drawn and deficient in principle, yet in parts there is a beautiful simplicity, an irresistible sentiment, and sometimes a grace excelling more modern productions. He also argues from the contemporary state of the arts in Italy, that these statues are entirely due to native artists; but whether many of the best works of this period were not executed by foreign artists appears to admit of great doubt.*

Some of the sculptural figures produced at the commencement of the last century, as seen in the monumental effigies of that period, were very fairly designed; the limbs are in general well shaped, and the folds of the drapery display some grace in the disposition of it. The compositions of Roubillac, who carried the art a step further, and whose works possessed all the spirit and effect of the rude efforts before alluded to, with much of the polish and grace of more modern productions, evince considerable imaginative power, and the figures themselves are both correct and natural. Bacon's performances possess much real grace, and some of his female figures are exquisitely beautiful. More refined elegant and dignified, his works are nevertheless less striking than those of certain of his predecessors.

* Walpole's Anecdotes. Flaxman's Lectures.

But the greatest of our sculptors was Flaxman, who possessed a mind deeply imbued with the highest principles of his pursuit, and extensively refined and cultivated by classic study. With the masterpieces of ancient art he was also well acquainted. In his productions grandeur and beauty are combined together, although they are especially distinguished for the latter quality. He is perhaps, however, more famous for his designs than for his having executed any particular great works of sculpture. This was of course mainly owing to want of patronage. His illustrations of the Iliad, and of Dante, are among the most beautiful and grand and imaginative compositions that have been produced, either in painting or sculpture in this country. Later sculptors, more especially Chantrey and Gibson, have also executed performances which have done credit to the British school. Nevertheless, in sculpture as in painting, statues and busts, which correspond to portraits, instead of original designs, have mainly occupied the attention of our artists, and to this has the general patronage of the art been almost confined.

IV. It will be necessarily more difficult to trace the origin of poetry in a nation than that of the other arts to which I have referred, inasmuch as the vehicle in which poetry is existent not being durable, it is almost impossible to preserve specimens of it during successive ages.

Of ancient British poetry we possess no remains, and no distinct account. We have, however, still extant, several pieces of Anglo-Saxon poetry, compositions in which are more or less marked by alliteration, by a mixture of regular and irregular cadence, by abrupt transitions, by a frequent omission of the particles, and by an artificial inversion of words and phrases. It was not until a late period that compositions of this class were set into regular rhyme.*

The English language prior to the time of Edward I. appears to have been in a very crude state; but some improvement is discernible in the next reign. Specimens of early composition in poetry in this country have been cited in a previous chapter.†

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To Chaucer principally our language owes the foundation of its still enduring constitution, as well as the whole body of our poetry much of its peculiar and characteristic spirit. He is by general consent styled the father of English poetry. The numerous extracts from his productions and those of Spenser afforded in the previous chapters, and the comments upon them, preclude the necessity of now enlarging upon their many and characteristic merits. Following Chaucer, Spenser yet further advanced the art of poetry in this country as regards its refinement, and the exhibition of its capabilities, and displayed in his productions the highest genius and beauty and imaginative power. Shakspeare, by his immortal productions, has evinced to the full of what high efforts the art of poetry is capable, as also the adaptation of the English language for such undertakings.

The sublime production of Milton rivals the noblest achievements in epic composition effected by pictorial art. In the survey of the history of poetry in England, we may, however, observe, what I have already remarked with respect to painting that the middle age of its progress is the era of its highest eminence in epic grandeur. In the case alike of painting sculpture poetry and also eloquence, indeed, of the arts in general, the character of the art both changes with and reflects that of the particular time in which the art was practised. Hence the whole style and cast of the poetry of the period of Queen Elizabeth, was very different to what we find in the poetry of the period of Queen Victoria. We have not only no poet of the genius of Shakspeare in our day, but no poet who possesses his spirit, his fire, his originality, his passion, or his imagination. These are the characteristics of a ruder age, and are seldom to be found in one of high refinement and luxury. The grandeur and sublimity of Milton are still less in accordance with the effeminacy of modern taste. These loftier characteristics, indeed, appear to have been gradually giving way to refinement, and to a certain degree of grace and beauty as well, it must be admitted, ever since the comparatively rude days when Milton flourished. The poets who here came after him have been far

less bold and imaginative, but have possessed more polish, and the versification has been more smooth and elegant. Foremost amongst these Pope and Dryden deserve to be mentioned, whose performances have added so richly to our literary stores.

In our own time the poets who have chiefly commanded the attention of the public have been distinguished alike by the grace and refinement and general correctness of their compositions; while here and there, in certain of their productions, passages of vigour and originality worthy of the brightest days of the art are to be traced, evincing that, as already remarked in a previous chapter, genius and poetic feeling belong to no one age exclusively beyond another. But to the works of living artists in either department no allusion is of course here intended to be made.

V. Of the early exhibitions of eloquence in this country we possess scarcely any remains, although some faint shadows have been preserved of its efforts in the accounts transmitted of the bold and manly address of Caractacus when brought before the Roman Emperor, and of Queen Boadicea's spirited oration to her valiant generals. Among the Anglo-Saxon chronicles we have a few specimens of the style of writing and expression in those times, which is also exhibited in the successive missals from that period until a comparatively modern era.

What was remarked with regard to the progress and formation of the English language in respect to poetry, applies equally well to the case of prose composition.

The rise and progress of the art of eloquence, in this, as in most other countries, has, indeed, been necessarily, to a large extent mainly dependent on the progress of civilization, by which the advancement of a language is extensively influenced, as I have already remarked with respect to poetry. Like the art of poetry, eloquence also, in many respects, flourished chiefly as regards vigour and grandeur of description in the middle ages of society, when men's feelings were expressed with more freedom and vehemence, and their passions were more frequently and openly excited, and also less kept in subjection. The style of early English writers,-of Sir Thomas

* Vide ante, Vol. I. Chapter IV. Sect. 4.