Part 14 (1/2)

In all cases, it is equally vain, if you think of their style first But know their purpose, and then, their way of speaking is worth thinking of These apparently unfinished and certainly unfilled outlines of the Florentine,--cluht thelish a?

Youtheir htly And the answer is, They are the finest gravers' work ever done yet by human hand You may teach, by process of discipline and of years, any youth of good artistic capacity to engrave a plate in the modern manner; but only the noblest passion, and the tenderest patience, will ever engrave one line like these of Sandro Botticelli

225 Passion, and patience! Nay, even these you land, and yet both be in vain Only a few years ago, in one of our northern iron-foundries, a workman of intense power and natural art-faculty set hiave all the spare hours of his laborious life to learn their use; learnt it; and engraved a plate which, in raver would be asha of a beaine This, to hireater earnestness was ever given byis absolutely worthless The blast furnace _is not_ the power of God; and the life of the strong spirit was as much consumed in the flames of it, as ever driven slave's by the burden and heat of the day

How cruel to say so, if he yet lives, you think! No, uilt, if, having been brought here to learn that God is your Light, you yet leave the blast furnace to be the only light of England

226 It has been, as I said in the note above (- 200), with extrereat engraver and lish art-teaching made him inferior to his trained Florentine rival But, that these disadvantages were powerless to arrest or ignobly depress hirace and scholarshi+p, he should never fail in truth or vitality; and that the precision of his unerring hand[BF]--his inevitable eye--and his rightly judging heart--should place hiland only, but of all the world and of all time:--that _this_ was possible to him, was simply because he lived a _country_ life Bewick himself, Botticelli himself, Apelles himself, and twenty times Apelles, condemned to slavery in the hell-fire of the iron furnace, could have done--NOTHING Absolute paralysis of all high huraver of the piston-rod had faculties--not like Bewick's, for if he had had those, he never would have endured the degradation; but assuredly, (I know this by his work,) faculties high enough to have ure painters of his age And they are scorched out of hirass in the oven: while on his Northurew into as stately life as their strongest pine

227 And therefore, in words of his, telling consu the life, honor, and happiness of England, and bearing directly on the points of difference between class and class which I have not dwelt on without need, I will bring these lectures to a close

”I have always, through life, been of opinion that there is no business of any kind that can be compared to that of a man who farms his own land It appears to me that every earthly pleasure, with health, is within his reach But nunorant, and in exact proportion to that ignorance they were sure to be offensively proud This led the above their station, which hastened them on to their ruin; but, indeed, this disposition and this kind of conduct invariably leads to such results

There were many of these lairds on Tyneside; as well as many who held their lands on the tenure of 'suit and service,' and were nearly on the same level as the lairds Some of the latter lost their lands (not fairly, I think) in a way they could not help; many of the former, by their misdirected pride and folly, were driven into towns, to slide away into nothingness, and to sink into oblivion, while their 'ha' houses'

(halls), that ought to have reeneration, have rieved to see the ancient entlemen, froentry should, in an especial ainst showing any symptom of foolish pride; at the same time that they soar above every rity, and patriotisood qualities, they must set them the example, without which no real respect can ever be paid to theet the respectable station they hold in society, and that they are the natural guardians of public morals and may with propriety be considered as the head and the heart of the country, while 'a bold peasantry' are, in truth, the arth of the saraded, they soon become dispirited and ular and worthy man[BG] was perhaps the most invaluable acquaintance and friend I ever met with His moral lectures and advice to me formed a most important succedaneum to those imparted by my parents His wise remarks, his detestation of vice, his industry, and his temperance, croith a ether made him appear to me as one of the best of characters In his workshop I often spent s This was also the case with a nuht be considered as his pupils; many of whom, I have no doubt, he directed into the paths of truth and integrity, and who revered his h life He rose early to work, lay dohen he felt weary, and rose again when refreshed His diet was of the siry, and drank when dry, without paying regard tothis mode of life he was enabled to accumulate suet books, of an entertaining and reat object was, by every possible s in the ood members of society I have often discovered that he did not overlook ingenious eate To these he directed his co (in his estimation), he paid their debt, and set theenious man tied up in prison, where they were of no use either to himself or to the community

This worthy man had been educated for a priest; but he would say to me, 'Of a ”trouth,” Thohts of being a priest, and bent his way froed himself to Allan Ramsay, the poet, then a bookseller at the latter place, in whose service he was both shoph he came to Newcastle Gilbert had had a liberal education bestowed upon hireat deal, and had reflected upon what he had read This, with his retentive memory, enabled him to be a pleasant and communicative companion I lived in habits of intimacy with him to the end of his life; and, when he died, I, with others of his friends, attended his reraving on the sacred cliffs of Egypt ever honored therass-dimmed furrow does the mounds of our Northern land?

FOOTNOTES:

[AS] The world was not then ready for Le Pere Hyacinthe;--but the real gist of the hest prelates in the Church did basely and in secret; also he loved, where they only lusted; and he has been proclaimed therefore by them--and too foolishly believed by us--to have been a shaiven to it, ill try to learn so tenable, before we end our work in Florence

[AT] I insert supplementary notes, when of importance, in the text of the lecture, for the convenience of the general reader

[AU] Mr Charles F Murray

[AV] So ofin Florence, 'Before the Soldan'

[AW] I am bitterly sorry for the pain which lish artists whose histories I have read, Imay be better understood after she has seen the close of this lecture

[AX] Read Ezekiel xviii

[AY] See also the account by Dr Woltmann of the picture of the Triumph of Riches 'Holbein and his Tiraved in the plate, as spoken by the Virgin

[BA] Cosiay coloring

[BB] I am not certain of their order at this distance of time

[BC] Callimachus, 'Delos,' 304, etc

[BD] In the Old King's Arms Hotel, Lancaster