liament should have been confided to a man of such remarkable powers and so eminently qualified for the task.

With the exception of the St. George and the Dragon Mr. Watts had given no public proof of his skill as a fresco painter, although he had adorned one or two private dwellings with his works, until the benchers of Lincoln's Inn were induced to intrust to him the decoration of one end of their beautiful hall. We are persuaded that they will have no cause to repent their decision, but that, ere long, they will boast of the greatest monument of mural painting as yet executed in this country. The artist has selected for his subject an ideal representation of the great lawgivers of the world, collected together in one grand and solemn company, as best befitting the place, and as an introduction to a series of frescoes illustrative of the principal events in the history of English law. In his composition he has followed, to a certain extent, the mode of treatment chosen by Raphael for his School of Athens, adapting its arrangement to the Gothic form of the building. Beneath three allegorical statues, of Religion, Justice, and Mercy, are assembled on spacious steps those who, from the earliest times and in all lands, have given laws to mankind-noble figures! each by individuality of expression and action and by appropriate costume typifying his race and country. The draperies are full and severe, the lines grand and simple; each figure standing forth boldly and distinctly. The artist has shown no fear of colour, but has used it in rich profusion and in broad and well-defined masses. The whole design is thus at once clear and intelligible, and there is no confusion or crowding. Whilst the painter has displayed, without stint, the resources of his genius, he has laboured to render complete the work of the architect; and his fresco, instead of diminishing the apparent size of the hall,—one of the most successful efforts of a man who has taken the first rank amongst our English architects, Mr. Philip Hardwicke,-adds, by harmony of colour and symmetry of composition, to the beauty of its proportions. It is thus that the sister arts should embellish and aid each other. We believe that Mr. Watts has undertaken his fresco upon terms not unlike those upon which Barry was forced to paint his pictures in the Adelphi. Yet let him be of good cheer. Few men of original genius have been appreciated or understood in their generation, though, if we are not much mistaken, his merits will be generally recognised before the men amongst whom he lives will have passed away. And even should it be otherwise, he will have the proud satisfaction of feeling that he has pointed the way to the highest realms of art,

and

and has laid the foundation upon which may be raised a school of painting worthy of the nation.

Although the want of solidity in our domestic architecture, and the caprice of fashion which demands constant change of residence, render the introduction of fresco painting of a high order into the private houses of England almost impracticable, especially in London, at no other period and in no other country have there been so many public buildings which could be embellished by this mode of decoration. The attempts which have of late years been unhappily made to foist upon our Church, ceremonies and observances opposed to its spirit and repugnant to the sentiments of the people, have tended to retard if not to prevent the introduction of mural paintings into ecclesiastical edifices. Yet this mode of decoration is not only innocent in itself, and consistent with Protestant simplicity, but, if judiciously carried out, both useful and becoming. We do not desire to see in our churches such archaic absurdities and colourless imitations of Roman Catholic symbols as will disfigure the walls of All Saints in Margaret Street; but Scripture subjects reverently and spiritually treated would not only be befitting ornaments to a sacred building, but might be rendered highly instructive and edifying to the people.

But if not in churches, at least in the innumerable public edifices which are arising throughout the length and breadth of the land— the town-halls, the vast exchanges of commercial cities, the stations of railways, the chambers of music-fresco-painting might resume its ancient vocation of teaching, whilst affording infinite pleasure to the taste and the imagination. Our history yields to that of no other nation in the grandeur of its episodes, and in wealth of noble deeds. Our literature is equally rich in the inventions and fancies of genius. The innumerable races and lands conquered by our arms or our enterprise afford inexhaustible subjects to the painter. What varied types of human existence from the wild denizen of the American wilds to the swarthy native of Hindostan what gorgeous magnificence and endless diversity of costume-what exquisite monuments of architecture-what sublime and awful features of nature, are encircled by our rule! Let us picture to ourselves that noble hall of, Westminster adorned with one vast consecutive series of frescoes, such as the painters of the 16th century would have painted, illustrating our triumphs and our sway over the many peoples and countries which acknowledge our dominion. work might be to the greatness and power of England! What a monument such a We trust that, ere it be too late to paint with truthfulness great deeds still fresh in our memories, and phases of human life still

existing

existing for conventional representations by living men of bygone events of a past age can never command equal sympathy and interest-the importance of painting, as combined with architecture, will be fully recognised, and its legitimate office properly understood. A more general acquaintance with the works with which the painters of the 14th and 15th centuries adorned the churches and public edifices of Italy is well calculated to further this end, and to improve public taste. We therefore heartily welcome any publications which may extend the knowledge of those great monuments of art, and may preserve a lasting and faithful record of such as are perishing. We urge those who think with us to give support and encouragement to the Arundel Society.

ART. II.-1. The Odes and Episodes of Horace, translated literally and rhythmically. By W. Sewell, B.D. 1850.

2. The Odes of Horace, literally translated into English Verse. By Henry George Robinson. 1844, 1855.

3. The Odes of Horace, translated into unrhymed Metres, with Introductions and Notes. By F. W. Newman, Professor of Latin, University College, London. 1853.

4. The Odes of Horace, in Four Books; translated into English Lyric Verse. By Lord Ravensworth. Dedicated to his

Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. 1858.

OUR

UR English lovers of the wise and pleasant Venusian continue to attempt translating him so pertinaciously that we are fairly provoked into inquiring what success has yet been attained in the object by our national literature, and whether there are any prospects of a perfectly satisfactory achievement of the nice and difficult task? We shall not apply the prosaic test of utility in the matter, for we do not estimate roses by their value for medicinal purposes, and a Horace in English, like Horace in Latin, would be something beyond price. But even on the ground of utility there is a good deal to say. Who knows whether a vernacular Horace may not yet be required for a Reformed House of Commons? Who knows what would be the effect of the diffusion of perfectly graceful and accurate versions of the ancients upon a generation which threatens to respect nothing older than 1832? From this point of view, the inquiry becomes important as well as interesting; and the fact that our latest translator is a Peer not unknown in public life acquires a new significance. The truth is, that we cannot help looking upon Horace as a kind of honorary member (along with other Vol. 104.-No. 208. ancients)

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ancients) of the British constitution. He and his friends have helped to form our statesmen, polish our oratory, and point our conversation for many ages, and that Lord Ravensworth should be his translator is a fact which we are still happy to be able to characterise as English. Sir Robert Peel loved the little Roman; Lord Plunket learned him by heart; Burke quoted him; Lord North punned upon him; Warren Hastings rendered one of his most famous odes. We shall see presently that there are noblemen, diplomatists, statesmen, and bishops, as well as poets and scholars, among those who have endeavoured to naturalise him in our tongue; so that the task can hardly be called one of mere literature only, and before we begin to examine it specially in that light we feel tempted to say a few words on the historical importance of Horace himself.

There is nothing more curious than the transition by which classical literature has passed from a revolutionising into a conservative influence. It was once dangerous to be suspected of Greek, and the elderly gentlemen of the fifteenth century did not half like a young fellow who showed a marked turn for Latin prose. When Horace appeared from the presses of Italy -as if the Esquiline had given up its dead-he, the Epicurean and the admirer of Augustus, began his modern career in the capacity of a reformer. He taught Erasmus to laugh at monks, to ridicule old feudal funerals, to treat the grotesque figures of saints with little more reverence than he himself had shown to the images of Priapus; and a corresponding influence was exercised by the other comic writers of antiquity all over Europe. Rabelais in France, Buchanan in Scotland, Skelton in England, were all men suckled on the Wolf of Roman satire; and cardinals and friars, tyrants and hypocrites were pelted with weapons such as had once assailed Domitian-Tigellinus-bloated libertini, and sham Stoics. Horace-less direct and violent than other satirists-proved also to have an element capable of wider employment in the world. That philosophy of moderation which we find in his later works-the Epistles-was found to harmonise with certain epochs of the modern world, so much as to become traceable in our moralists and divines. His happy sayings obtained the currency of proverbs and the authority of oracles. The world has long forgotten that he and his band of ancient brothers were once thought dangerous to churches and thrones. They are now the cherished darlings of spiritual and temporal potentates, loved (strange to say) least by those political parties whose existence in Europe they helped to make possible! But if we recognise the ingratitude of liberalism when it assails the study of Latin and Greek, let us be thankful

that

that we now know what Latin and Greek really teach. The old abbots, who hated the new studies, may sleep in peace. No man now who knows who Brutus was is likely to imitate him. We study our own demagogues in Aristotle, and laugh at them in Aristophanes. Republics which remained great or independent only as long as they remained historic and aristocratic present little for the imitation of rebellious cobblers. Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity stare when brought into contact with societies which based all politics on the eternal necessity of slavery, and made the hatred of foreigners a part of public virtue. What fluctuations of opinion and varieties of view has the popularity of Horace survived! And how hopeless seem the prospects of our modern reputations, when we contemplate the thousands of editions and versions which maintain and diffuse his fame!

But let us now (for he is not before us every day) take a bird's-eye view of the more recent varieties of Horatian opinion. Every ancient has a modern literature of his own, and has also his rises and falls in popular favour like a living writer. Horace, for instance, was not so early translated in England as Virgil and others, nor-if we may venture on so decided a generalization-was he so much valued in the Elizabethan period. He rose in favour in the seventeenth century, and acquired a decided accession of popularity when Pope published the 'Imitations.' The great intellectual movement which followed the French revolution was not favourable to him; he was assailed heavily in Germany, and Catullus came more into fashion. Niebuhr was a great admirer of Catullus, but he took care that depreciation of the later author should not go too far, and we find him writing thus on the subject in his celebrated 'Letter to a Young Philologer :'

'Horace's Odes may also benefit the young as a standard style formed upon the Greek model, and it is a pity that a contempt for them has spread which is only allowable and not arrogant in the case of a very small number of Masters in philology.'

Since that time the tide has turned again. Abroad, there have been several excellent editions of him published; at home, besides the Horatius Restitutus' of Dr. Tate and the edition of Milman, there have been more translations, of some literary pretension, than it would be easy to match in any other given number of previous years. A reaction has set in. Just as the Queen Anne's men and their successors of the last century have recovered from the depression which they experienced during the first ascendency of Wordsworth and Coleridge, there is a

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disposition