dashing generalizations in which we have too often seen every trace of fidelity and discrimination swept away. Without, however, engaging in discussions that might lead us inconveniently astray from our immediate business, and independently of all systematic views or individual practice in the treatment of landscape, we recur to our first position, (in truth a self-evident one, though not always adopted in actual tuition,) that an accurate study of foliage in all its varieties and all its manipulations, is the basis of sound instruction in this branch of drawing. In our younger days, this principle was but partially recognised, and still more rarely did it find its way into practice. During the usual course of teaching, under a master by no means inexpert, not once was our attention called to this point. Handling, effect, colour, were fairly enough illustrated; but the materials on which these elements were to be employed, found no place in the exercise. Few learners were better off in this respect than ourselves, and most assuredly the larger proportion was in a yet worse plight. Yet there had been able efforts made to provide a remedy for this injurious state of things; and we have now before us a series of engravings by John Cozens, dated in 1789, which are, on the whole, excellently adapted to their obviously intended purpose. They are, apparently, a mixture of acquatint and soft-ground etching, and they exhibit the characters of the more important trees with much spirit and cleverness. We remember to have seen, many years back, a publication of some half dozen folio pages, by a much inferior artist, but whose name was also Cozens, on a singular plan, of which the execution was not worthy of the conception. The skeletons of different trees were represented, each in its own compartment, with stem and branch, as in the wintry state; while the general form of the summer clothing was indicated by a lighter shadow. It must have been somewhat later, we suppose, when Gilpin published, from his brother's drawings, the few but instructive specimens of branch and spray which occur in his work on Forest Scenery.

The first work, however, that obtained extensive popularity, and effected a beneficial change in the modes of instruction, was Laporte's well known series on the "Characters of Trees"; a publication which, with many defects, and very few of the higher excellencies of art, was yet distinguished by spirited and, on the whole, expressive execution. His handling was free and fluent; his manner unsubstantial but unaffected; and his processes altogether intelligible and readily imitable. Some thirty years since, Ackerman published a collection of trees by Huet Villiers, an artist of some skill, but not, we should imagine, previously exercised in this direction: some of his subjects are fairly treated, but the major part are very common-place, and his trunks, with few exceptions, are mere school-boy's work. The intervening

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period has provided an ample supply of rich and scientific production. Delamotte, both on a large and small scale, is admirable: his etchings are of the old school, and his large studies of forest trees are of distinguished merit. Harding has, in his various publications, given some excellent illustrations of sylvan scenery; and we have seen a specimen or two by Barnard, of good execution. A year or two back, a very elaborate series, but on a principle that appears to us altogether mistaken, was lithographed by an artist named Childs. He has represented every tree with its aspect, not as modified by the atmospheric media and the generalizing effect produced by the range and rapid motion of the eye endeavouring to take in the whole at once, but as if the sight rested upon every leaf, both individually and collectively. This is not a true exhibition of natural appearances, nor would it be found, in average instruction, to operate otherwise than injuriously.

The works actually before us are of various though considerable merit. The "Rudiments of Trees" is the title of an unpretending but clever series, treated with much spirit and considerable originality: no name is given on the cover, but the last plate is inscribed, J. Wrightson. Mr. Delamotte's "Characters are marked with much of his peculiar talent, though we do not admire them quite so highly as some of his former productions. They are drawn on zinc, a medium said to possess some advantages over stone: we could fancy that the effect, though clearer, is not quite so rich.

Mr. Loudon's "Arboretum Britannicum" will, when completed, be a work of considerable extent, reasonable price, and great utility. The execution of the plates is respectable, but the foliage, especially about the central and foreshortened parts, is deficient in character; and the handling is not so much that of an artist working on a favourite subject, as of an amateur ready with the crayon, but not master of its higher and more expressive management. Perhaps this may be a little hypercritical, and we are not unwilling that it should be so taken: our standard of excellence, however, is partly supplied by Mr. Loudon himself, who has, in some of the Numbers of his " Natural History Magazine, given some nearly perfect specimens of tree-portrait, in wood-cuts by Williams from drawings by Strutt. For the rest, Mr. Loudon's " Arboretum" merits strong recommendation as supplying a deficiency that has long been felt: the letter-press is full of valuable information.

Having had occasion to introduce Mr. Strutt's name, it would be hardly fair to pass it by without giving him his just praise as the facile princeps of artists in this department. The three numbers, all we believe that have appeared, of his “Deliciæ Sylvarum," contain some fine examples of forest scenery in a scries of bold and masterly etchings. His "Sylva Britannica,"

containing fifty portraits of various trees, executed, as we have somewhere seen it stated, in lithography: they have, however, the appearance, to complete deception, of finished etchings. They are, as subjects, admirably selected: as drawings, they are of exquisite workmanship: and as a collection, they are full of instruction to the artist, and of interest to the lover either of art or of nature.

Art. IV. Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Clement of Alexandria. By John, Bishop of Lincoln. 8vo., pp. 480. Price 12s. London, 1835.

DR. R. KAYE has honourably distinguished himself by a series of well-conducted inquiries into the early annals of the Christian Church. Master of that sound and valid learning which enables the possessor to move with confidence and decision amid the embarrassments of a subject requiring the shrewdest exercise of scholarship and discretion in unravelling complication, removing incumbrance, and supplying deficiency, he has addressed himself to his task with a just estimate of his own powers and of the circumstances under which they were to be put forth. Languages dead, and worse than dead, barbarized by vile mixture and evil custom; opinions wild, vague, and discordant; systems extravagant and self-contradictory; facts distorted or misapplied; characters branded or canonized as malignity or caprice might dictate;-such are some of the difficulties, assuredly neither few nor light, which beset the man who fairly undertakes the study of ecclesiastical history in its original documents, and in the materials, infinitely various and multiplied, which are to be examined for their illustration. The labour, however, is of the utmost importance, not so much in its application to the primary questions of doctrine and discipline,—they derive from deeper and purer sources, as in its tendency to elucidate the social, mental, and moral peculiarities of man. A different view of the matter has, indeed, been usually taken. The advocates of conflicting systems, instead of making the Law and the Testimony their ultimate reference, have called in Prescription, under diverse disguises, as, if not a surer, a more convenient and manageable criterion. The Primitive Church,' the Fathers,' the early Councils, have been, all and each, placed in that judgement-seat from which there is but one voice that speaks authoritatively. Be it, at the same time, clearly understood, that we have no objection even to the testimony of prescription, if fairly adduced: it throws a powerful illumination, sometimes directly, at other times by contrast and opposition, on great and

weighty questions. We refuse to admit it only when it is partially or unduly urged, or when, for sectarian purposes, it is raised from its subordinate and ancillary character, to that of a safe and specific guide.

Nothing in these passing observations is meant to apply to the Bishop of Lincoln: he has, we think, taken a wrong view, both of Scripture and of ecclesiastical antiquity, on certain points; but there is no unfairness in his statements, nor subtlety in his manner. He gives distinctly the grounds of his conviction, and uses no official emphasis in the expression of his opinions. We are tempted, though somewhat at the expense of regular succession, to cite in this place a passage which does not occur till near the end of the book, as exemplifying a somewhat striking instance of fair exposition and halting inference.

In the time of Clement, the name Exxλnσ was given to the place in which Christians assembled for the purposes of divine worship. On one occasion, he opposes it to the word ouaywyn. But in general the word Exxxna is used by him to express the whole body of Christians, which he calls the great temple of God, the true believer being the small temple. In describing the progress of the Gnostic towards perfection, Clement says, that it is possible for a man, even in the present day, who exercises himself in the commandments of the Lord, and lives perfectly and gnostically according to the Gospel, to be enrolled in the number of the Apostles. Such a man is the true Presbyter of the Church, and the true minister (diaxovos) of the will of God, if he does and teaches that which is of the Lord; not chosen (XELPOTCOUμEvOS) by men; not deemed righteous, because a Presbyter, but enrolled in the presbytery because righteous; and although he may not be honoured with the first place (paroxabidea) upon earth, yet will he sit among the four-and-twenty thrones, judging the people, as John says in the Apocalypse."

Clement proceeds to remark, that these four-and-twenty judges will be selected from the most perfect members of the Church, now composed of Jews and Gentiles; and then adds, "for the degrees (a Tęоzолa) in the Church on earth, of Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, are, in my opinion, imitations of the angelic glory, and of that dispensation which is said in Scripture to await all who, walking in the steps of the Apostles, live in perfect righteousness according to the Gospel. These, according to the Apostle, being raised into the clouds, will first minister (Saxon), will then, receiving an advancement in glory, (for there are differences in glory,, be enrolled in the Presbytery, until they come unto the perfect man." Whatever we may think of the comparison which Clement here institutes, one consequence flows necessarily from the passage;-that there were in Clement's time three degrees or orders of ministers in the Church; Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons. On another occasion, Clement says, that precepts are addressed in Scripture to select persons; to presbyters, bishops, deacons, widows. Sometimes, indeed, only presbyters and deacons are mentioned. The office of the former is said to be to amend the soul;

of the latter, to minister. In the tract entitled Quis Dives Salvetur, the titles επισκοπος and πρεσβύτερος, are indifferently applied to the same person; but St. John had previously been described as travelling through Asia Minor appointing Bishops, forming whole churches, and admitting the clergy into the number of those who were marked (xλng) out by the Holy Spirit. Here there is no mention either of presbyters or deacons. It is evident, therefore, that the Bishop was distinguished from the rest of the clergy; he was in truth, the chief Presbyter.'

-No, it could but follow from the most one-sided interpretation of this, that he was primus inter pares, the foreman of a jury, the chairman of a bench of magistrates. But neither, in truth, does even this appear. Strip the passage of its Rhemish style of translation, by the way we except this from our 'concession of 'fair exposition,'-and what will be the result? In the first place, we learn that the Church does not mean the Hierarchy. Next, we find Clement running a parallel between the perfect man and the actual orders of the church: he may acquire the spiritual state and privileges of an apostle; he may be as truly an elder and minister as if he had been chosen, according to custom, by show of hands. The whole context is strangely confused in the translation, by the inadmissible application of terms now always used as titular, whereas they were, in their origin, simply discriminating and descriptive. Overseers, elders, stewards, have a clear and incontrovertible meaning: to call them bishops, presbyters, and deacons, is to throw dust in the eyes of the unlearned and credulous. With a clear understanding of their primary intention, the use of such terms may be allowed in practice; but to employ them in controversy, is a mere abuse of a questionable permission. The Bishop of Lincoln admits that Clement elsewhere uses bishop and presbyter as convertible terms, and that he describes the Apostle John as appointing bishops' in Asia Minor. Nothing, it should seem, occurs about suffragans or inferior clergy; and it is obvious that the passage refers to the formation of churches and the ordination of pastors. the whole, however, these paragraphs may be taken as illustrating the honesty with which Dr. Kaye exhibits authorities, whatever may be thought of the manner in which he explains or evades conclusions.

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The Founder of the Egyptian Alexandria had in view, says Matter, objects purely political.' We have a higher opinion of the pupil of Aristotle, and hold with Dr. Burton, that it was designed not only for the selfish purposes of a conqueror, but to promote the nobler aims of a lover of knowledge for its own sake. After a long and brilliant cultivation of science and philosophy in its celebrated schools, they became the scene of a contest widely differing from the strifes of words in which the sophists