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    Even without the aid of any such extensive generalisation as the one here suggested , however , there may be gathered from our daily experience sufficient evidence of this fact to serve the present ' purpose . The various modes in which . the features , constitutions , and characters of the parents are mingled in children of the same families ; the frequent revival of particular phy-8 ic » r car mental traits of long-dead ancestors ; the disappearance and reappearance of specific diseases in the descendants from certain houses ; the persistencywith which a dash of Indian or Negro blood will show itself in some solitary trait quite foreign to the rest of the appearance or naturetliese and like familiar evidences sufficiently establish the truth , as far as the hvmanrace is concerned . -

    £ f , ^ en j . bearixig in mind this truth , we remember the more or less com ^ pjoalte . character of the dvilised races--the mingling in ourselves , for e ^ Ka | npIe ^; of Celt , ^ Dane , withsprinkhngs of other tribes ; if ^ ^ contemplate the complicated mixtures of constitution that have arisen froni theunion of these , not ini any uniform manner , but with utter irregularity 7 and if we remember ibat the incongruities thus produced affect the

    whole nature , mental and bodily—nervous tissue and other tissues ; we shall , I ^^ Mfk j ' -at once see that there must exist in , all of us an imperfect correspj ^ adenc ^ : between parts of the organism that , are really related ; and that all " one manifestation of this ; there must be mom or less of discrepancy betiree ^ i ^^ e ^ tui ^ aiidI ^ ose parts of the nervous , system with which they hayeja-jp > h y ^ iolpg ical connexion ., . ^ ybji ^ tii i ^ b jBiispt then the difficulties that stand in the way of the belief tbajyteftutnr of character and beauty of face are related , are considerably dinwushed . It . becomes possible at once to admit that plainness may cocaaslb wiui nobility ; of nature and fine features with baseness ; and yet to hold .,. that mental , and facial perfection are fundamentally connected , and will , when tlie ^ present causes of incongruity have worked themselves out , be ever found united . ' !' r " 1 > . ¦ : .. ' > % \ •' ' ¦ ¦ ¦ . - " . '

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    real story of the picture ; in Retzsch ' s view it takes its place as a subordinate trait ; while the passion which animates the two figures , manifest by a deeply conscious repose , is made visible to the spectator by the voluptuous tender action and the speaking countenance , without either coarseness or violence . Here—in Retzsch we mean , not in the picture before us—the action or passion shows itself far more through a tender acquiescence than in the varied action of Mr . O'Keil , which almost amounts to romp . We have no biography bf O'Neil before us , but taking the internal evidence of his works , we incline to conjecture that he labours under the difficulty which besets

    most English artists , in being familiar with life in its tamest form , and having to draw for the original of anything like passion upon imagination rather thaa experience . It is for these reasons , perhaps , that when the English artist is dealing with real life , his best idea of passion is that arising from what is ordinarily called " trouble . " We still see malefactors hanged , and gentlemen are liable to arrest—a combination of elements which will give the ingredients for a prison seen * . Young ladies and : gentlemen continue to court , and even to sport ; and most men who have gone through the experiences of life can arrive at some such conjecture of emotion as Mr . O'NeiTs " Margaret . " .

    But , perhaps the view of English life which is most real in itself , and most invites the natural genius of English art , is that to which Webster has attached himself , —the expression of untutored feeling amongst the younger , or the more rustic parts of society . Nothing can be more true to natural feeling thaa his picture of the " "Village Offering "—a present of mushrooms , carried by a young girl in a plate to a venerable old lady , who may be the wife of the clergyman , or the Tillage schoolmistress . Infirm , gentle , almost too broken down to be actively benevolent , and wearing the trace , rather than the positive expression , of an amiable character ; the old riady has come tottering forth , in black gown and respectability , to receive

    thehuinble offering , which the girl presents with all the outward trace of an inward emotion ; her countenance gentle , affectionate , respectful , almost to the extent of being awe-stricken ; while her sturdy little brother , who has cpme thither , dragging his own carriage , stands bolt upright on his two feet , neither abashed nor hesitating , mutely performing his office as part of the deputation , and representing the type of manly duty in the bud . The finish of this picture is perfect . No detail . stands out in too great prominency , and yet it is all executed with a completeness that would make the still life alone worth possessing . The same may be said of the " Breakfast Party , *' in which a girl is sharing her porridge with a dog .

    THE BOTAI . ACADEMY . , *!?¦? . : ¦ . / . . , ' . Sxcc ^ lfotiuJR . ' . Theu ^ are several kinds of life which the painters of i-he Royal Academy collection reflect from life as it appears in England . There is the ultra , digfflfl ^ aspect on the whole surface , which forms the most common reflection -i ^ BPft- | B- an art ; which peers below the surface , and brings forth , in the fuwhed countenance , the deeper feelings that still throb under that exterior -p-aiid deeper still-there are the wells of passioii covered over , but not-cKoked i ^^ or ^ dried up , which will List so long as humanity existfc . We do not rciic ^ b ^ : lznong 8 t these the spasmodic life of the Jar figure galvanised and

    toat ^ nused , which is put into picttire-makirig tableaux . ¦ . r Sfcpf *^ jricn ^ fifW infinitely in SchyferV portrait of Lord Dufferin ; the ypyg ^ , Jtobieman standing in bis official coslonqutf as a peer ; more life in Gnat ' s portrait of Lord John Russell , a complacent , view of the statesman « ihe really is , with humanity smiling in bus face and animation glistening in his % ea ; in Lord Gough , a white-haired , moustachioed old cavalry officer , issuing his orders' abroad ; or in Mtddleton ' s portrait of the Emperor Na poleon the Third—a view of the potentate idealised to the drawing-room type , of an elegant-gentleman , gayer in countenance than the same inscrutable ffisttesinan as he appeared while he was in exile in London , but not gainsaying thWtfbwer which attaches to the very name of the man .

    There is some life , too , in E . M . Ward ' s " Duke of Argyle taking his last sleep before his execution . " It is on a larger scale than Ward generally uses . The duke , a man of strong frame , clothed in black , according to the costume of his period , is lying upon a bed ; the form much disguised by heavy repose in which he is sunk , and the wrinkling of its loose garments . The light falls so that it brings the features into strong light and shade ; the Countenance is sunk in deep sleep ; the legs are chained . The rank of the fleeper , his costume , his person , the marked character of the face , the deep repose of the hands , the awed look of those who come to awaken him to death , concentrate upon the sleeping countenance associations , which present a picture of passion , and even of action , through this repose .

    The life is infinitely greater than the composition , as it would be called , of Mr . Maclise ' s picture , or the ludicrous caricature of Mr . Hannah ' " Lady Nithsdale petitioning for her husband ' s pardon to George I ., " who ia endeavouring to bolt from the scene , and is dragging her on her knees along a ruffled carpet . If passion may often show itself in repose far more than in action , Mr . O'Neil might usefully have applied that truth in the scene from Faust Margaret is taking a flower to pieces , trying by a well known test , whether her suitor loves her or not . Faust is asking what she is at . She turns

    from him , and in this group does so with an earnestness as if the process were necessary to be done tlien and there , while her lover persecutes her with urgent questions . Retzsch understands the occasion better . In his well-known outline Margaret stands quietly , with countenance tender to a degree of melancholy , and is taking the flower to pieces abstractedly , while Faust , drawing her close to him , is watching the process ; infinitely more conscious , as she is , of their being together than of that work which is but a pretext for giving variety to their mutual consciousness . In Mr . O'NeiTa version , the picking of the flower—a trivial incident—becomes the

    In a minor degree Solomon ' s companion pictures , " First Class—the Meeting , " and , " Second Class—the Parting , " belong to this order . In the one , a young gentleman is making his first insinuating advances to the young lady , while her father is sleeping ; in the second , a mother is accompanying her son in his railway journey to his ship , while a friendly sailor in the next compartment , whose buxom wife has grown used to the severance , looks kindly over the partition . These pictures represent two pieces of English life

    as it actually occurs , not without merit . It may be asked of it , however , Cui bonof It is a fact that such things are so ; but the artist fetches out nothing more than the spectator can observe for himself if he has his eyes about him , in a first or second class carriage , as the case may be . Matter of fact is not subject for art . All composition requires the combination of ideas not necessarily co-existent , but fitly brought together in order to suggest the moral conclusion or the deeper impress of passion .

    All these requirements are met in the very simple picture which Mr . Holman Hunt calls the "Light of the World . " Mr . Holman Hunt is a Prae-Raphaelite , of whom we gather from this work that he is about to follow Mr . Millais out of the fantastic restrictions of that school , with all the power acquired under its rigorous study . There is still some Prae-Raphaelite narrow-mindedness in this composition , chiefly , however , in a tendency $ o adhere to poverty-stricken forms and combinations . The truthfulness of the design , however , is complete . The picture illustrates the verse from

    Revelations , 3 rd chapter , 20 th verse , " Behold I stand at the door , and knock ; if any man hear my voice , and open the door , I will come iato him , and will sup with hini , and he with me . " The door is such as might be the postern at the back of some great house—the ground before it is overgrown with grass and little flowers—creepers have trailed up it—its binges are rusty . At that door Jesus is knocking with a face of indefatigable patience and sweetness—knocking as a man would who is prepared to wait ; in his hand he holds a lantern—on his own head is the glory—beyond are the

    stars of night shining under the trees . The lantern casts its circumscribed but red light on the grass , the little flowers and the dew—on the door and the creepers , and upwards on the face of the bearer . From above the supernatural light of the head diffuses a mild but powerful light , which shines beyond the narrow range of the worldly lantern . The reader is left to make his own moral out of these accessories , and it is not difficult to read . The execution is beautiful . Defects might be pointed out here and thereas in the metallic character of the left , hand ; but the contrast of the two lights—the effect of colour in . the creepers and flowers glowing with individual tints through the artificial li ^ ht of the lantern—the soft yet vigorons effect of the whole—and the beautiful harmony between the expression of the countenance and the tones of the colour , constitute a complete example of design , in which the moral expression nnd the physical accessories all combine to tell the story , and the whole ia true to the laws of lifa , spiritual and human , organic and inorganic .

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    452 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 13, 1854, page 452, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2038/page/18/