Every good that Nature herself bestows, or accomplishes, is given with a counterpoise, or gained at a sacrifice; nor is it to be expected of Man that he should win the hardest battles and tread the narrowest paths, without the betrayal of a weakness, or the acknowledgment of an error. * With this final warning against our author's hesitating approbation of what is greatest and best, we must close our specific examination of the mode in which his design has been worked out. We have done enough to set the reader upon his guard against whatever appears slight or inconsiderate in his theory or statements, and with the more severity, because this was alone wanting to render the book one of the most valuable gifts which Art has ever received. Of the translations from the lives of the saints we have hardly spoken; they are gracefully rendered, and all of them highly interesting-but we could wish to see these, and the enumerations of fresco subjects with which the other volumes are in great part occupied, published separately for the convenience of travellers in Italy. They are something out of place in a work like that before us. For the rest, we might have more interested the reader, and gratified ourselves, by setting before him some of the many passages of tender feeling and earnest eloquence with which the volumes are replete-but we felt it necessary rather to anticipate the hesitation with which they were liable to be received, and set limits to the halo of fancy by which their light is obscured-though enlarged. One or two paragraphs, however, of the closing chapter must be given before we part. 'What a scene of beauty, what a flower-garden of art-how bright and how varied-must Italy have presented at the commencement of the sixteenth century, at the death of Raphael! The sacrileges we lament took place for the most part after that period; hundreds of frescoes, not merely of Giotto and those other elders of Christian Art, but of Gentile da Fabriano, Pietro della Francesca, Perugino and their compeers, were still existing, charming the eye, elevating the mind and warming the heart. Now alas! few comparatively and fading are the relics of those great and good men. While Dante's voice rings as clear as ever, communing with us as friend with friend, theirs is dying gradually away, fainter and fainter, like the farewell of a spirit. Flaking off the walls, * We have been much surprised by the author's frequent reference to Lasinio's engravings of various frescoes, unaccompanied by any warning of their inaccuracy. No work of Lasinio's can be trusted for anything except the number and relative position of the figures. All masters are by him translated into one monotony of commonplace: -he dilutes eloquence, educates naïveté, prompts ignorance, stultifies intelligence, and paralyses power; takes the chill off horror, the edge off wit, and the bloom off beauty. In all artistical points he is utterly valueless, neither drawing nor expression being ever preserved by him. Giotto, Benozzo, or Ghirlandajo are all alike to him; and we hardly know whether he injures most when he robs or when he redresses. uncared uncared for and neglected save in a few rare instances, scarce one of their frescoes will survive the century, and the labours of the next may not improbably be directed to the recovery and restoration of such as may still slumber beneath the whitewash and the daubs, with which the Bronzinos and Zuccheros "et id genus omne" have unconsciously sealed them up for posterity-their best title to our gratitude.-But why not begin at once? at all events in the instances numberless, where merely whitewash interposes between us and them. It is easy to reply-what need of this? They-the artists-have Moses and the prophets, the frescoes of Raphael and Michael Angelolet them study them. Doubtless, but we still reply, and with no impiety-they will not repent, they will not forsake their idols and their evil ways-they will not abandon Sense for Spirit, oils for fresco-unless these great ones of the past, these Sleepers of Ephesus, arise from the dead. ... It is not by studying art in its perfection-by worshipping Raphael and Michael Angelo exclusively of all other excellence-that we can expect to rival them, but by re-ascending to the fountain-head-by planting ourselves as acorns in the ground those oaks are rooted in, and growing up to their level-in a word, by studying Duccio and Giotto that we may paint like Taddeo di Bartolo and Masaccio, Taddio di Bartolo and Masaccio that we may paint like Perugino and Luca Signorelli, Perugino and Luca Signorelli that we may paint like Raphael and Michael Angelo. And why despair of this, or even of shaming the Vatican? For with genius and God's blessing nothing is impossible. 'I would not be a blind partizan, but, with all their faults, the old masters I plead for knew how to touch the heart. It may be difficult at first to believe this; like children, they are shy with us-like strangers, they bear an uncouth mien and aspect-like ghosts from the other world, they have an awkward habit of shocking our conventionalities with home truths. But with the dead as with the living all depends on the frankness with which we greet them, the sincerity with which we credit their kindly qualities; sympathy is the key to truth-we must love, in order to appreciate.'-vol. iii. p. 418. These are beautiful sentences; yet this let the young painter of these days remember always, that whomsoever he may love, or from whomsoever learn, he can now no more go back to those hours of infancy and be born again.* About the faith, the questioning and the teaching of childhood there is a joy and grace, which we may often envy, but can no more assume :-the voice and the gesture must not be imitated when the innocence is lost. Incapability and ignorance in the act of being struggled against *We do not perhaps enough estimate the assistance which was once given both to purpose and perception, by the feeling of wonder which with us is destroyed partly by the ceaseless calls upon it, partly by our habit of either discovering or anticipating a reason for every thing. Of the simplicity and ready surprise of heart which supported the spirit of the older painters, an interesting example is seen in the diary of Albert Dürer, lately published in a work every way valuable, but especially so in the carefulness and richness of its illustrations, Divers Works of Early Masters in Christian Decoration,' edited by John Weale, London, 2 vols. folio, 1846. and and cast away are often endowed with a peculiar charm-but both are only contemptible when they are pretended. Whatever we have now to do, we may be sure, first, that its strength and life must be drawn from the real nature with us and about us always, and secondly, that, if worth doing, it will be something altogether different from what has ever been done before. The visions of the cloister must depart with its superstitious peace-the quick, appre hensive symbolism of early Faith must yield to the abstract teaching of disciplined Reason. Whatever else we may deem of the Progress of Nations, one character of that progress is determined and discernible. As in the encroaching of the land upon the sea, the strength of the sandy bastions is raised out of the sifted ruin of ancient inland hills-for every tongue of level land that stretches into the deep, the fall of Alps has been heard among the clouds, and as the fields of industry enlarge, the intercourse with Heaven is shortened. Let it not be doubted that as this change is inevitable, so it is expedient, though the form of teaching adopted and of duty prescribed be less mythic and contemplative, more active and unassisted for the light of Transfiguration on the Mountain is substituted the Fire of Coals upon the Shore, and on the charge to hear the Shepherd, follows that to feed the Sheep. Doubtful we may be for a time, and apparently deserted; but if, as we wait, we still look forward with stedfast will and humble heart, so that our Hope for the Future may be fed, not dulled or diverted by our Love for the Past, we shall not long be left without a Guide:--the way will be opened, the Precursor appointed-the Hour will come, and the Man. ART. II.-1. Vestiarium Scoticum: from the Manuscript for merly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay; with an Introduction and Notes. By John Sobieski Stuart. Folio. Edinburgh, 1842. 2. Tales of the Century; or Sketches of the Romance of History between the Years 1746 and 1846. By John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart. Post 8vo. Edinburgh, 1847. 3. The Decline of the Last Stuarts. Extracts from the Despatches of British Envoys to the Secretary of State. [Edited for the Roxburghe Club by Lord Mahon.] 4to. London, 1843. HOW many centuries elapsed before the eyes of the Welsh could be opened to the fact that Arthur was actually dead, and not awaiting, in the enchanted bower of Morgana, the time when he should come forth again to lead the Cymry to victory and drive the English out of Britain! How long did the Scots con the Douay MS., as set forth in the printed folio of 1842, that our attention must, on the present occasion, be confined. Now, when a work like this is produced, bearing to be printed from a MS. 300 years old, but of which neither we nor any one else, so far as we know, had ever heard until it was brought forward by the contemporary editor, we open it with profound interest, certainly, but with the question constantly before our eyes-Is it genuine? Is this treatise of the antiquity to which it pretends? On examining the Vestiarium Scoticum, vtherwise clippit The Garderope of Scotlonde,' with this view, we find it to be written in the Lowland dialect, and to contain, first, a short disquisition on the nature of tartans generally, and the manner of preserving the setts or patterns. Then follow descriptions of the tartans of twenty-three clans, which are classed as 'Ye chieff Hielande clannes.' Then those of eleven, which are called 'Ye lesser famylies or housis the quhilk be cum fræ ye chieff houses and oryginale clannes.' Then follow the tartans of 'Ye low countrie pairtes and bordour clanns,' thirty-nine in number. Then a paragraph Of wemenis quhite pladis;' and another ' of hosen and treusen;' then a list of the badges of families; and lastly, a metrical address to the readers, by the author, Schyr Richard Urquharde, knycht.' Such is the Vestiarium Scoticum,' so far as regards its plan and contents; but to any one at all familiar with the state of feeling between the Highlanders and their Lowland neighbours, during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries—and who remembers how constantly the former are stigmatized by the writers of those times as barbarians, if not as absolute savages-a treatise on clan-tartans and the Highland dress, alleged to have been written by a Lowland knight, in the middle of the sixteenth century, and preserved by a courtly and diplomatic Bishop, wears a somewhat dubious aspect. Nor, as respects * A very curious letter in defence of the Highlanders, addressed by one John Elder to King Henry the Eighth of England, in the year 1542 or 1543, and printed for the Banatyne club by Mr. David Laing, refers to the very time when the "Vestiarium' is said to have been written. Elder informs the king that Howbeit the babilonical busscheps and the great courtyours of Scotland repute the forsaide Yrishe [that is, as the rest of the letter shows, Highland] Lordes as wilde, rude, and barbarous people, brought up, as they say, without lerninge and nourtour, yeit they passe theame a greate deale in faithe, honestie, in policy and witt, in good ordour and civilitie; for wher the saide Yrishe Lordes promises faithe they keepe it truely, be holdinge up of ther formest fyngar, and so will they not, with ther seals and subscripcions, the holy Evangel twichide. Therfor and pleas your highnes, like as the saide busscheps and ther adherentis repute us rude and barbarous people, even so do we esteme theame all, as they be, that is to say, ffals, flatteringe, fraudelent, subtile, and covetous.'-Such being the state of matters in 1543, almost at the very time when the Vestiarium is said to have been written, we shall be excused if we demand decisive evidence before we receive as genuine a MS. on the clan tartans, written by one of the great courtyours,' whose unfavourable estimate of his countrymen was so richly repaid by honest John Elder, and preserved by one of the 'Babilonical busscheps,' whom he considered as not less hostile. Lesly, Lesly, Bishop of Ross, in particular, do the admittedly authentic writings of that prelate afford any passage calculated to remove his lordship out of the category of suspicion. We are told, indeed, in Mr. John Sobieski Stuart's preface, that there is an entry, commemorating the receipt of the Vestiarium, in a Diary of the Bishop, remaining among a portion of the Douay papers, in the possession of the late Mr. Robert Watson, well known in the history of the Stuart papers.' It is known that the aged adventurer, Robert Watson, hanged himself in a London tavern in 1838; but Mr. John Sobieski Stuart does not say distinctly that he has himself seen the diary here mentioned as in Watson's possession— nor does he tell us where we may see it-and we have therefore no means of ascertaining whether it really exists and contains any entry of the sort thus indicated, or indeed whether any such diary ever existed at all. The Bishop's great work, De origine, moribus, et gestis Scotorum, is dated in 1578, seven years only after the date of his alleged possession of the Vestiarium.' It contains a description of the Highland dress, which has been often quoted; yet not only is there in that description no allusion to the elaborate treatise of Sir Richard Urquhart possessed by him, nor to the existence of clan patterns at all; but he even uses an expression which we find it puzzling to reconcile with his alleged possession of the Vestiarium. His words are, Chlamydes enim gestabant unius formæ et nobiles et plebeii, nisi quod nobiles variegatis sibi magis placebant;' and as there can be little doubt that these variegated mantles were tartan, it would seem that he considered its use as a peculiar fancy of the chiefs, which he could hardly have done had he possessed so distinct an exposition of an universal system as that now before us in the splendid pages edited by Mr. John Sobieski Stuart. In the absence of direct evidence we have no resource but to search the printed text itself for internal indications of genuineness or the reverse; and in the course of this examination the doubts which the circumstances of the times and the existing writings of the bishop have suggested, are far indeed from being removed. At the very first glance the singularly quaint but pyebald language and orthography of the text cannot fail to catch the eye. The style of the 16th century, however, is well known to every one at all conversant with Scottish documents, and upon that of the Vestiarium we fortunately possess the verdict of, perhaps, as competent a judge as the literary world has seen since the days of Bishop Lesly himself. We cannot find that the actual MS. which belonged to the Douay college,' and 'contains the signature of the Bishop of Ross,' has ever been exhibited to any learned society |