Intimations," indeed, is a transcript from the same transcendent Original. Many of the finest things in Milton are drawn from Plato; the whole idea of the following, almost to the words, is taken from the Phædo: The soul grows clotted by contagion, Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp, As loth to leave the body that it loved, To a degenerate and degraded state. And that he, Prophet of Truth as he was, looked up to and reverenced "the divine Plato," and could openly avow it, those solemn and sublime lines in Il Penseroso testify well: But let my lamp at midnight hour What world, or what vast regions hold The immortal Mind, that hath forsook I must again quote from the same surely inspired source: "The assertion is an ancient one, that souls depart ing from hence exist in Hades ;* and that they again return "hither, and are generated from the dead. And if living "natures be regenerated from the dead, can there be any "other consequence than that our souls are there? for they "could not be again generated if they had no subsistence; "and this will be a sufficient argument that these things are "so."-THE PHÆDO. "We should undertake everything," says this divine writer," to gain Virtue, for the reward is beautiful, and the hope mighty and it is necessary to allure ourselves with "such things, as with enchantments." From the minds of others we build up our own-they are the ascending steps; the beautiful sentiment of Plato suggested an after image which, perhaps, may be worth embodying: #66 Allure yourself With Virtue, as with an Enchantress; picture Her awful presence like a Queen enthroned, By the appellation äidŋs, (Hades,) the multitude appear to conceive "the same as deídès, i.e. obscure and dark, and that, being terrified at this 66 name, they called him Pluto. We ought, then, not to denominate dions from àeldès, dark and invisible, but much rather from a knowledge "of all beautiful things."-CRATYLUS OF PLATO. "Those Dialogues," says an accomplished writer in the Quarterly, "which we have heard one of the most learned statesmen of our day, and "at the same time one of its sincerest Christians, call with reverence the "most beautiful book in the world, after the Bible."-QUARTERLY REVIEW, No. cxxii. 1838. Watching your efforts in Life's mortal race: XXXVI. The dancing Fawn—he cannot hide his joy. L'opinion commune l'attribue à Praxitèle, plutôt sur la perfection de l'ouvrage, que sur aucune preuve certaine. Il respire la gaieté, et la légèreté. If anything could add to the idea impressed on us of Michael Angelo's Protean powers it is the reflection that the head and arms of this statue are his restorations; their style, says the critic, “est "si semblable, qu'il semble impossible que toute la Statue "ne soit du même artiste." XXXVII. The severed head of the Medusa lies. The only notice I have ever seen of this impressive Picture is given in a Tour through Italy, lightly and gracefully written by the author of "Vathek." Da Vinci was more than a painter. "The discoveries which have made "Galileo, and Kepler, and other names illustrious, the system "of Copernicus, the very theories of recent geologers, are 66 anticipated by Da Vinci within the compass of a few pages, "not in the most precise language, or in the most conclusive "reasoning, but so as to strike us with something of the awe "of preternatural knowledge. Leonardo himself speaks of "the earth's annual motion in a treatise that appears to have "been written about 1510, as the opinion of many philoso"phers in his age." "We must add," concludes the Quarterly Reviewer, that "the authorities adduced by Mr. Hallam fully bear out this "splendid eulogy." XLIII. The embodied Voice within the wilderness. The lovers of art who frequent the Tribune are not, perhaps, aware, that a set of hirelings are employed, under "the leaden Austrian," to preserve and to give reports of the state of the pictures. One may imagine the devastation which these harpies create wherever they alight; they, being paid so much for every new scouring. In the Tribune, for example, there are two pictures of Venus by Titian: the one is still worthy of that great master; the other has been scoured, and, as a matter of course, all the finest and most delicate touches wasted away, she appears like a coarse courtesan. I saw another fine picture of Allori's totally ruined. The works of Raffaelle have been respected as yet. The St. John in question, surely one of the finest works the world ever beheld, remains untouched, looking as if he had left it yesterday: but how long will this remain? It is not spared from tradition or from feeling-its turn has not yet arrived. 66 "Some of his pictures," says Lanzi, as this St. John, "have been repeated three, five, and even ten times; thus, "Raffaelle prepared the design, Julio painted the picture, 66 leaving, however, to his master the last finishing touches, "which he did with such exquisite nicety, that sometimes 66 66 one might almost count the hairs of the head;-then "they were copied by his scholars, and these copies were again retouched either by the master or by Julio Romano. "No one, however, at all conversant with the freedom and "softness of Raffaelle's manner need fear confounding him "with any of his school." XLIV. The Day and Night, sublimest Angelo! The rough unadornment, and the look of antique majesty in the Statue of the Day, fills the beholder with the impression of the sublime; his attitude and general expression, given in the text, will convey, I fear, even to those who have beheld the group, but a faint impression of the original. XLVII. Behold the tomb where Galileo's Spirit: "For my name and memory," says Galileo, "I leave it "to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to "the next ages." Castelli, recording his blindness, exclaims, "The noblest eye is darkened which nature ever made,—an "eye so privileged, and gifted with such rare qualities, that "it may with truth be said to have seen more than all those |