are] animated by his spirit; agreeably to the Triad of the Pauline Benediction; the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, 2 Cor. xiii. 13;) and this is the basis of the doctrine of the Trinity in the scheme of Christian knowledge. It has an essentially practical and historical significance and foundation; it is the doctrine of God revealed in humanity, which teaches men to recognise in God not only the original source of existence, but of salvation and sanctification. From this trinity of revelation, as far as the divine causality images itself in the same, the reflective mind, according to the analogy of its own being, pursuing this track, seeks to elevate itself to the idea of an original triad in God, availing itself of the intimations which are contained in John's doctrine of the Logos, and the cognate elements of the Pauline theology." How hard this endeavour must be is shown by none more clearly than by Dr. Neander, through his elucidations of St. Paul. R. S. C. ART. IX.-CHARACTERISTICS OF PAINTERS. By HENRY REEVE, Esq. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. THIS is a volume of but a few pages, containing short passages of verse descriptive of the qualities peculiar to some of the most celebrated of the old Masters-memoranda of ideas and associations called forth by the contemplation of their works, and forming Poetic Pendants to their immortal names. The idea is a happy one, and is carried out with taste and ability. There is a genuineness throughout the whole, which is perhaps the greatest charm of the book; an entire freedom from cant; not an expression or a thought gathered from Catalogues Raisonées or the nomenclature of the Connoisseur, but a real delight in and appreciation of pictorial beauty, evincing a mind which has understood and felt the breathings and conceptions of poetry, brought to life and light by the divinest of human arts. We hail with pleasure an attempt that is calculated to bring painting into our familiar thoughts; to those who have enjoyed the happiness of looking upon its master-pieces, recalling the beautiful pictures they have seen; and to others affording in an unassuming form, some faint idea of those glorious treasures of art, and kindling an affection for such individual names as seem most attractive to their imagination; thus cultivating the taste and preparing it more readily to understand the different kinds of excellence which hereafter may be brought before it. The Spirit of Utilitarianism in this country has fallen like a blight upon the fine arts; and that not so much from its true character and tendency, as from the limited meaning attached to the word in men's minds. A more enlarged, and therefore more true, acceptance of its creed, would no more give a low place to the Fine Arts in the economy of human improvement and civilization, than it would to the Classics in a perfect system of education. But we may hope that a day of brighter promise has arisen. Music and Painting are no longer considered as sources of pleasure and relaxation belonging only to the rich, but as elements of happiness, the common property of all. The beauty with which we are surrounded is veiled to no eye,-the melody of sweet sounds is excluded from no ear, save where man has stepped in with his selfish exclusiveness, between his fellow man and the lavish bounty of the Creator. He has only to take a lesson from the wisdom and love exhibited in the Divine government, and in his efforts to ameliorate the condition of his fellow-beings, he will seek to adorn with flowers the rugged path of poverty and toil, and cause to spring up refreshing influences by the way-side of him who labours for his daily bread. Schools of Design and for instruction in music are now becoming general, and music has already raised her voice beneath a thousand lowly roofs, and as a means of social enjoyment it is perhaps natural that it should have attracted more attention than her silent sister; but though less apparent to general observation, the cultivation of the art of painting or drawing opens as deep a spring of mental and spiritual enjoyment; and in its effect upon the character, no pursuit has a more refining influence. To the educated eye, every variation of colour, every change of light and shadow, every new combination of form and expression, on the earth or in the heavens, present new and endless beauties, creating within the soul a hidden life of calm and blissful emotions in an undisturbed world of bright and beautiful imaginings. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter." Such a mind cannot pass through the commonest details of life without finding something to gratify this fine perception of beauty—and not only in things visible,—a spirit so attuned is peculiarly alive to the intimate connection which subsists between our material and moral existence, and the harmony of the one is brought out and illustrated by the vivid realities of the other. We think Mr. Reeve has been successful in nearly the whole of these sketches; and if in the Michael Angelo we turn involuntarily to the recollection of his own beautiful sonnets, we would give none the less praise to the effective lines before us. The Raphael, Claude, Cuyp, Domenichino, Rubens, and Pietro Perugino, strike us as the most expressive verses; but such opinions, we are well aware, can be only arbitrary, as they must depend in a great measure on incidental associations. The poem, if a few lines may be so designated, of the "Two Angels" is complete in its style and beautifully imagined. The Řembrandt appears to us unequal to its design, and the Murillo cannot we think have been inspired by the finest of the exquisite productions of that master. The following specimens will, we hope, give to our readers a favourable impression of this elegant and pleasing little volume : CLAUDE LORRAINE. The calm of moonlight and the pomp of day "" RAFFAELLE. "A mother's beauty when her babe is waking, "Mother of Christ! devoutly dignified, Clasp, clasp thine awful babe in tender pride; Would that our modern artists sometimes asked themselves what inspirations could be gathered from their pictures! There is not so great deficiency in poetical idea as in the artistic power of rendering painting itself a poetic medium, through which the subject is conveyed to the mind of the beholder in its original, or rather with added, beauty. Some of Martin's pictures might be instanced as examples, in looking at which the genius of the painter is felt not to be commensurate to the subject of his pencil. To make many extracts from so limited a number of pieces as the volume contains would be scarcely fair; but we are tempted to add these musical lines on Domenichino, and the very characteristic ones on Cuyp. “O'er the calm mirror, whose cærulean breast Might float a spirit in her charmed nest, The heavens drop sweetness, and their fragrant rain Wakes Eden's garden into bloom again. That muse has angels for her audience, Who hover on the harp-notes' sweet suspense; Unearthly passion gems that Sybil-eye, In which dark spells and hot affections lie; And John's pure gaze, in heaven's own light sublime, Rifts the great veil that curtains man in Time." "" ALBERT CUYP. "The moistened lowlands, delicately clear, Through the thin haze and morning gleam appear; |