Pagina-afbeeldingen
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By Passion wrench'd and darken'd, torn by Hate,
By Sin dethroned from all our heavenly state,
Thy spirit stain'd, defaced, and scarr'd with shame,
Still shows on each thy noblest creature's name.

3.

Though changed, how far! from all thy will commands,
And bruised and maim'd by Evil's rending hands;
While Life, and Thought, and Soul, and Sense are ours,
Still lasts the wreck of more than earthly powers.

4.

Renew-thou only canst, O God! the plan
Of truth and love, so blurr'd and crush'd in man-

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Thou aid us, Heavenly Sire! that each for each
May live, as He for all, in deed and speech;

And so do Thou for us, paternal Lord,

Make bright, like His, the face, and pure the word.

10.

Like us, a man, He trode on earthly soil,

He bore each pang, and strove in weary toil;

He spake with human words, with pity sigh'd;

Like us He mourn'd, and fear'd, and wept, and died.

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ness,

possesses.

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The mountain ridge against the purple sky
Stands clear and strong with darken'd rocks and dells,
And cloudless brightness opens wide on high
A home aërial, where thy presence dwells.

3.

The chime of bells remote, the murmuring sea,
The song of birds in whispering copse and wood,
The distant voice of children's thoughtless glee,
And maiden's song, are all one voice of good.

4.

Amid the leaves' green mass, a sunny play
Of flash and shadow stirs like inward life;
The ship's white sail glides onward far away,
Unhaunted by a dream of storm or strife.

5.

Upon the narrow bridge of foot-worn plank,
The peasant stops where swift the waters gleam,
And broods as if his heart in silence drank

More freshening draughts than that untainted stream.

6.

The cottage roof, the burn, the spire, the graves,
All quaff the rest of seasons hush'd as this,

And earth enjoys, while scarce its foliage waves,
The deep repose and harmony of bliss.

7.

O Thou! the primal fount of life and peace,
Who shedd'st thy breathing quiet all around,
In me command that pain and conflict cease,
And turn to music every jarring sound.

8.

How longs each gulf within the weary soul
To taste the life of this benignant hour,
To be at one with thine untroubled Whole,
And in itself to know thy hushing power.

9.

Amid the joys of all my grief revives,

And shadows thrown from me thy sunshine mar;

With this serene to-day dark memory strives,

And draws its legions of dismay from far.

10.

Prepare, O Truth Supreme! through shame and pain

A heart attuned to thy celestial calm;

Let not reflection's pangs be roused in vain,

But heal the wounded breast with searching balm.

11.

So, firm in steadfast hope, in thought secure,
In full accord to all thy world of joy,
May I be nerved to labours high and pure,
And Thou thy child to do thy work employ.

12.

So might in many hearts be kindled then
The lambent fire of faith not rashly strong-
So might be taught to souls of doubtful men
Thy tranquil bliss, thy love's divinest song.

13.

In One, who walk'd on earth a man of woe,
Was holier peace than e'en this hour inspires;
From Him to me let inward quiet flow,
And give the might my failing will requires.

14.

So this great All around, so He, and Thou,
The central source and awful bound of things,
May fill my heart with rest as deep as now
To land, and sea, and air, thy presence brings.

ON TITIAN AND VENETIAN PAINTING.

WHILE the works of Michael Angelo and Raphael, in their peculiar or essential characteristics, announce the influence and operation of different constituents of the mind, a third, and very distinct portion of its perceptions, furnishes the foundation and reference of those of Titian, which occupy a station at once elevated and degraded -elevated by the extent of their relation or reference, and the exemplification of power or genius which they present degraded (to use the general language in respect to the sphere of mind or being to which they will be found to belong) in their basis and final tendency.

But it is only by a discrimination of those ultimate qualities with which the greater names in art should be seen to be synonymous, that those distinctions which we have already made in regard to Michael Angelo and Raphael, and in this instance shall endeavour to establish in respect to Titian, may be arrived at and apprehended. Surrounded, as all the masters of the great era of Italian painting were, by an almost common atmosphere, mental and physical; and each confessing the influence of those prevailing peculiarities, both of thought and style, which run through out every department of art; with the same data or materials, and in a great measure with a like overt or professed purpose in their exercise, (setting aside all consideration of their general bond of unity-the nature of the art itself,) there is necessarily much which is common among them. But beyond this common surface, (dependent upon their being of one time, and the similarity of the subjects of their works,) lying beneath the immediate effect of those influences from the combination of which the peculiar animus of revived civilisation sprung, there are radical distinctions, which are not to be apprehended or characterised without a reference to the constitution of the mind; of which painting, in carrying forward its purpose-the explication or reproduction of the amassed tendencies of life

through the operation of emotion and passion, the legitimate and distinguishing end of all the arts-presents one diversified evolution. This is the view under which it should be regarded, in attempting to discriminate the character of different periods, schools, and masters. The primary distinctions in every art must be sought for, and found, in the relation which their separate productions hold with the different elements of the mind: not in reference to the necessary and obvious exercise of these the condition of every intelligential act, from the simplest to the most complex-but by their being immediately manifested or exponed in different combinations, which should be recognised to constitute the ultimate distinctions of signification and style.

Of this manifestation, the works of Titian are among the most prominent examples. They originate from, and are addressed to, one great range of perception. The sphere to which he belongs, by its engrossing influence, "contends for mastery" with that of Michael Angelo and that of Raphael, to neither of which it is inferior in extent; but the nature of the tendency of his works separates him by a wide gulf from both.

Venetian painting, of which Titian must be considered to be the great representative, has been designated the school of colour. Thus, as in the instance of the Roman and other schools, the method of using or adopting a particular portion of the material, or means of signification, has been held to be ultimately distinctive of its character. The spirit-the vivida vis animi_which distinguishes different periods and different schools of art, one from the other, has been placed in lines and in tints; and its law, w, which led to the adoption or rejection-the selection and combination ofthese-has remained unnoticed. Its vehicula, like the cover of an Egyptian two thousand years dead, have been looked to for all that was to characterise it-the chrysalis shell mistaken for the living psyche, which floated unobserved

* No. CCLXXX, and No. CCLXXXIV.

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