back, and tricked out in the loathsome finery of the profession of blood. 'Such were the notes our once-loved poet sang. And for myself, I could not have been more delighted if I had heard the music of the spheres. Poetry and philosophy had met together, truth and genius had embraced under the eye and with the sanction of religion. This was even beyond my hopes. I returned home well satisfied.' As a philosopher and theologian, the influence of Coleridge has been very great, and probably is so still, notwithstanding the apparent predominance of a less spiritual philosophy than his. Although he did not live to complete the grand system of religious philosophy which he appears to have projected, the massive fragments he has left suffice to show more than the outlines of the vast whole. His writings are pervaded by a spirit not of this world; and for every earnest student they are rich in lessons of truth, wisdom, and faith. Not a few have found in them the special help, guidance, and defence which the critical doubts and discussions of the age make so needful. Let the conclusion of this chapter be a passage of much encouragement, drawn from the writings of the great American divine, Dr. Channing: When I consider,' he says, 'the capacity of growth in the human soul, I cannot restrain the hope which it awakens. The partition walls which imagination has reared between men and higher orders of beings vanish. I feel my utter inability to conceive what a mind is to attain which is to advance for ever. Add but that element, eternity, to man's progress, and the results of his existence surpass not only human but angelic thought. Give me this, and the future glory of the human mind becomes to me as incomprehensible as God Him self. 'To encourage these thoughts and hopes, our Creator has set before us delightful exemplifications, even now, of this principle of growth, both in outward nature and in the human mind. We meet them in nature. Suppose you were to carry a man, wholly unacquainted with vegetation, to the most majestic tree in our forests, and whilst he was admiring its extent and proportions, suppose you should take from the earth at its root a little downy substance which a breath might blow away, and say to him, "That tree was once such a seed as this; it was wrapped up here; it once lived only within these delicate fibres, this narrow compass:" with what incredulous wonder would he regard you! And if, by an effort of imagination somewhat Oriental, we should suppose this little seed to be suddenly endued with thought, and to be told that it was one day to become this mighty tree, and to cast out branches which would spread an equal shade, and wave with equal grace, and withstand the winter winds, with what amazement may we suppose it to anticipate its future lot! 'Such growth we witness in nature. A nobler hope we are to cherish and still more striking examples of the growth of mind are set before us in human history. We wonder, indeed, when we are told that one day we shall be as the angels of God. I apprehend that as great a wonder has been realized already on the earth. I apprehend that the distance between the mind of Newton and that of a Hottentot may have been as great as between the mind of Newton and an angel. "There is another view still more striking: This Newton, who lifted his calm, sublime eye to the heavens, and read among the planets and the stars the great law of the material universe, was, forty or fifty years before, an infant, without one clear perception, and unable to distinguish his nurse's arm from the pillow on which he slept. Howard, too, who, under the strength of an all-sacrificing benevolence, explored the depths of human suffering, was, forty or fifty years before, an infant, wholly absorbed in himself, grasping at all he saw, and almost breaking his little heart with fits of passion when the idlest toy was withheld. 'Has not man already traversed as wide a space as separates him from angels? And why must he stop? There is no extravagance in the boldest anticipation. I rest the hopes for human nature which I have now expressed on its principle of growth; and growth, as you well know, is a gradual process, not a convulsive start accomplishing the work of years in a moment. All great attainments are gradual. easily might a science be mastered by one struggle of thought, as a great triumph be obtained by a single spasm of effort.' As Q 'Art is a jealous God; it demands the whole and entire man.' MICHAEL ANGELO. GEORGE JAMESON-SIR PETER LELY-SIR GODFREY KNELLER-SIR JAMES THORNHILL-WILLIAM HOGARTH-SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS-THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH-BENJAMIN WEST-JAMES BARRY-WILLIAM BLAKE -JOHN OPIE-GEORGE MORLAND-SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE-JOSEPH TURNER. A SCOTTISH painter is the first to present himself to our notice. the GEORGE JAMESON. Of George Jameson artist less is known than could be wished. He was the son of an architect, and was born at Aberdeen in the year 1586. He went abroad, studied under Rubens in the company of Vandyke, returned to Scotland in 1628, and commenced his professional career at Edinburgh. His earliest works are chiefly painted on panel; he afterwards used fine linen cloth. Having made some successful attempts in landscape and history, he relinquished them for portraiture, a branch of the art which this island has never failed to pa tronize. He acquired much fame in his day, and was considered after Vandyke the ablest of the scholars of Rubens. When Charles 1. visited Scotland in 1633, he sat for his portrait to Jameson, and rewarded him with a diamond ring from his own finger. Many of his portraits are still to be found in the houses of the Scottish nobility and gentry. So well had he caught the manner and spirit of Vandyke, that several of his heads have been imputed to his more famous contemporary. The prices which he received for his pictures were small, even in the swelling numbers of the Scottish currency. In the genealogy of the house of Breadalbane occurs the following singular memorandum. It is dated 1635: Sir Colin Campbell, eighth laird of Glenorchy, gave unto George Jameson, painter in Edinburgh, for Robert and David Bruce, kings of Scotland, and Charles the First, king of Great Britain, and his Majesty's queen, and for nine more of the queens of Scotland, their portraits, which are in the hall of Balloch (now Taymouth), the sum of two hundred and threescore pounds. More: The said Sir Colin gave to the said George Jameson, for the knight of Lochore's lady, and the first Countess of Argyle, and six of the ladies of Glenorchy, their portraits, and the said Sir Colin, his own portrait, which are set up in the chamber of Deas, at Balloch, one hundred and fourscore pounds.' In spite of all this apparent penury of prices, Jameson died rich. His works still maintain their original reputation, and he goes down to posterity as the first native of this island who excelled in works of art as large as life. SIR PETER LELY. Our next remarkable artist is Sir Peter Lely. By birth he was a foreigner, being born in 1617 in Westphalia, but by professional practice and reputation he is every way entitled to rank as a British painter. The first field in which he exercised his genius was the court of Charles I. He had arrived in England in 1641, and had had the good fortune to succeed Vandyke, and to gain great credit with all lovers of art of his day. Sir Peter Lely did not wholly dedicate his pencil to the condescending beauties of Charles' court; he has preserved the features of statesmen who contrived to walk upright even in these slippery times. Nor did he neglect the men of genius who flourished in his day. He painted Clarendon, Cowley, Butler, Selden, and Otway. He maintained the state of a gentleman, and preserved the dignity due to his art in his intercourse with the court. Of the numerous works which he paintedfor he was a diligent and laborious man-upwards of seventy are still in the island, portraits of ladies of rank or note, and of men of birth or genius. Cromwell once sat to Lely, and when he did so, he said, 'I desire you will use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all, but remark all those roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything you see about me; otherwise I will never pay one farthing for it.' When the softer customers of Charles' palace sat to the same painter, they laid his talents under no such restrictions. After the Restoration, Lely was appointed state painter to Charles II., and the king conferred on him the honour of knighthood. His practice was so great, that he acquired a con sold by auction, and produced of his repu Hariot's Progress,' so much Sir Godfrey Kneller was nature Hogarth conveyed it secretly into another artist of foreign birth All the his dining-room. When he rose be inquired from whence it came generous to the young |