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    portable volume . The peculiarity of this hook is that it examines the curative properties of each of the spas , illustrating their several characteristics , thus affording the invalid something like a guide as to which spa he ought to select for his own case . Although addressed to medical students , the style is popular , and fit 3 it for general reading . The Human Body and its Connection with Man illustrated by the Principal Organs . By James John Garth Wilkinson . Chapman and Hall .

    This solid volume of Swedenborgian Physiology embraces elaborate chapters on the Brain , the Lungs , Assimilation and ifs organs , the Heart , the Skin , the Human Form , and Health . It gives popular descriptions of these organs in accordance with the most advanced physiological views ; but the utility and interest of the volume is somewhat restricted by the intermingling of Swedenborgian views , which only the adepts will adopt . The work is written with , great earnestness and some power . General History of the Christian Religion and Church . Translated from the German of Dr . Aug-nstus Neander . By Joseph Torrev . Vol . 111 . ( Bonn ' s Standard Library . ) H . G . Bonn .

    The third volume of this elaborate history is not inferior in interest to the others . ^ The relation of the Roman Emperors to the Christfan Church is treated with great minuteness ; the chapters on Constantine and Julian being of the highest importance . The section on the Extension of Christianity beyond the limits of the Roman Empire is learnedly but heavily treated ; while that on the history of the Constitution of the Church is excellent , precise , ample , satisfactory . As usual we have to express gratitude for the honesty with which Neander executes his great work ; there is no " scamping" in his workmanship , nor is there any unfairness in his arguments . Great Exhibition , 1851 , Official , Descriptive , and Illustrated Catalogue . Part II . Machinery .

    This splendid companion to our Crystal Palace will certainly be the book on the subject , being at once comprehensive and exhaustive . The second part contains classes V to X , and is devoted to the immense subject of machinery . The illustrations are profuse , and executed with extreme care . The letter-press is precise , without being dry ; conveying all the needful information , without superfluous flourishing .

    The Characteristic Features of some of the Principal Systems of Socialism . Delivered at the Hooms of the Society for Promoting- Working Men ' s Associations . By Edward Vansittart ^ Neale , Esq . J . Tripling . A brief sketch of the Socialist systems of Fourier , St . Simon , Owen , and Greaves , with criticisms , and indications of Christian Socialism . Clearly and popularly written , this exposition will serve as a good introduction to the study of the subject .

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    THE PRiE-RAPHAELITES . I find the town , or the artistic section of it , divided in controversy about the Prae-Baphaelites ; that new school which piques itself on painting as men did before our great masters brought the art of design to its maturity . It is as if a new school of astronomers chose to go back to the Prae-Newtonian day , as , indeed , I have known them do at Rome ; or English poets preferred the Prae-Shakesperian jera , with the crude arrangement , bad metre , and bad grammar of Chaucer . The main idea of the school seems to be , that because early

    artists strive to realize nature , they must be greater than later students , who strive to realize art—as much greater as Nature is than Art . They forget that " art" is a mere expression for certain ascertained rules to carry out the Artists' endeavours ; rules that have been brought to something like completeness by the endeavours of the early artists , who , like the early workmen at the Temple , did not live to know the complete edifice . The more of real Art there is , the more Nature .

    These Prse-Raphaelites are what painters call " naturalisti "—naturalists , professing to copy nature exactly , because they copy individual traits and blemishes . Nay , to prove that they have no aesthetical pride , they prefer as models individuals who are not beautiful—who are uncomely , awkward , emaciated , feeble , and sickly , with ill-developed features . This is a Cockney idea of nature ; it is an idea suggested by the habitual sight of models whose frames have been stunted , whose

    countenances have been distorted and deformed , under the influence of crowded streets , bad drainage , and pauper wages . There is no reason to suppose that the human company in Noah ' s Ark was drafted from an English workhouse . Historical evidence bears the olher way . There is little reason to set up the forms of pauper humanity as those of nature . Why should you fix upon any individual as the type or model , especially if his form is marked by blemishes peculiar to himself ? yVhy lay your hand on John Smith or Tom Wilkinson , and say " this nature . " Mr . Wilkinson is not " nature , " even in your own limited and gross sense . Let us get out of the back streets of London or Paris , out of the confiiied mountains

    of the Savoy Alps , or the swamps of Michiganlet us go wherever the elements are untainted , wherever human limbs and energies have free play , and we -shall find a different type of humanity from that for which you monopolize the name of " nature . " Preferring harsh forms , the Pree-Raphaelites naturally prefer harsh actions ; the one mistake follows the other . But it could only exist in the truly civic view of nature . Wherever you find the forms healthily developed , the limbs in freedom , and the feelings unconstrained , or vivacious in themselves and direct in their expression , you will dnd the action animated , lmt not ungraceful . If Millais had followed the Hed Indian in his

    peculiarly unconstrained walk , where every movement is vigorous , curved , and cat-like in its noiseless grace ; if he had been familiar with the scantily clothed Italiant peasant , unrestrained by braces and not addicted to affectations—for the Italian is the most natural of human beings ; if he had watched the sailor springing from spur to spar , or dropping from rope to rope , in fair weather and foul , fostering a prosperous speed or confronting mortal peril with conquering hardihood ; if he had been familiar with such sights , he would cease to associate the idea of nature with knees tied together , elbows pinioned to the sides , sickly features , scraggy limbs , uncouth gestures , or angular action .

    1 suspect , that this propensity for the specially ill-formed is brought , about by no natural impulse ; but by a mistaken , a perverse , a superartih ' cial dislike to "the Ideal . " There has been much abuse of that same Ideal , much foolish talk about it : some of the most judicious teachers do not seem to me to explain iln nature distinctly or accurately . It . is generally represented an an imaginary model , created by the " eclectic" assemblage of excellences ; but that in not n ( nu . explanation either in fact or theory . The , Ideal is approached by the opposite process . By j m . . _ sand y and faithfully copying from Nature in ' its individual specimens , but . learning to cast off from each the erroru and blcmiuhcu peculiar to itself

    the student gradually approaches to his own Ideal ; which is the average of his experiences , errors excepted . " The Ideal" is no more than a vague expression for the whole knowledge of form acquired by the artist , in all its varieties , with such mastery that he is able to discriminate between that which is essential to the race , or even to the perfect development and action of any variety , and that which is a fault or blemish of the individual .

    What is the practical use of the Ideal to Art ? I will explain that by a familiar illustration . Nothing is more common than to observe that plainness of countenance is repulsive to us at first ; but that we grow used to it , and learn to value the expression of the mind within . We learn to understand that which at first is unintelligible ; though , as we afterwards find , it pleases us when we understand it . The features are the instruments for expressing the feelings ; when they approach to the typical Form , their play is to us a language intelligible , and it pleases us from the first . In proportion as they depart from the typical form , they not only speak a dialect which

    is alien to us , but one which conveys positively false impressions . By familiarity we learn to translate that dialect ; aided in doing so , however , by the auxiliary interpretation of the voice , the actions , and the direct avowals . Now , the artis is limited to the single medium of superficial form ; if he select a kind of form removed from the , type , he chooses an utterance which is a strange dialect , and one for which we are without the auxiliary interpretations : we have but slight opportunity of getting used to pictured plainness . In proportion as he seeks the typical form , the expression becomes direct , intelligible , forcible . This is the use of the Ideal .

    Millais—for , without disparagement to the others , to speak of the Prae Raphael school is to speak preeminently of him—has chosen to go through that course in his own person , which has been traversed by the great body of artists—a laborious courseof empyrical tentatives among mistakes and crudities . But I will in another article point out the special application of the principles to his latest pictures . They are full of power and beauty ; they show a growing appreciation of truth , a growing power over materials ; and unless the choice of a grotesque style is suggested by an instinctive desire to conceal some deficient sense

    of symmetry , Millais will advance from the nonage of Art to its maturity . I am inclined to think him the most promising apprentice that the English school has yet seen . T . H .

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    CRITICISM . During the fortnight I have been separated from my " gentle reader " the subject of Criticism has frequently solicited my thoughts . Unable to criticise , I meditated on Criticism . And first , is Criticism a lawful occupation ? St . Jerome in his tribulations over the Vulgate , which had cost him labours so immense , and had been met with criticisms so exasperating , exclaimed , " Had I been a maker of baskets no one would have

    troubled me ! It is very true ; the maker of baskets courts no " bubble reputation / ' and is sheltered in obscurity . Yet even he , perchance , haw to bear the Criticism of severe housewives ; but the insult is private , because the transaction is private ; if he aspire to a nobler glory he must endure a more public ignominy ; soliciting the " gentle voices " of a multitude , he must be prepared for rotten eggs . St . Jerome himself , Vulgate in hand , could not escape inexorable Criticism , and I think bo was weak to complain of it . None of us escape it . What is half our conversation but Criticism of our friends t Criticism more or lews elaborate and

    official is the shadow which accompanies publicity . In spoken talk , or printed talk , opinions will find utterance . When a man sets up to instruct or amuse \ m , and for that instruction or amusement demands our money as well as our applause , it is clearly a lawful thing in any or all of uh to express our opinion , be that opinion scorn . Consider the presumption implied in publicity 1 A man assembles nn audience , occupies their time , lightens their exchequer , under the express condition of repre-Hcnting Othello storm-tost on the sea of pasHion , or Figaro , the rentleHs factotum delta citta—and of so representing it that the high ec « tacieu of Art shall fill tho spectator ' s bouI . That ia the implied stipu-

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    We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the , Useful encourages itself . —Gokthk .

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    The Bkautiful . —Ideality is a strong guardian of virtue ; for they who have tasted its genuine pleasures , c : m never rest satisfied with those of mere sense . But it is possible , however , to cultivate the taste to such a degree as to induce a fastidious refinement , when it becomes the inlet of more pain than pleasure . Nor is the worst of over-refinement the loss of selfish gratification ; it is apt to interfere with benevolence , to avoid the sight of inelegant distress , to shrink from th « c-. mtnet of -vulgar worth , and to lead us to despise those whose feeling of taste is less delicate and correct than our own . If the heautiful and the useful be incompatible , the beautiful must give way , — . as the

    means of the existence and comfort of the masses must be provided before the elegancies which can only conduce to the pleasure of the few . Selfishness though refined ih still but selfishness , and refinement ought never to interfere with the means of doing good in the world as it at present exists . It is not desirable to appeal early to this feeling , or perhaps even directly to cultivate it . If the other faculties are well developed and properly cultivated , this will attain . sufficient strength of itself . The beautiful is the clothing of the infinite , and in the contemplation of the beautiful , ' and the love of peif < etion , not in churches , we seek our highest and most intimate

    communion with (« od , and draw nearer and nearer to Him . The fine arts —painting , sculpture , music , as well as poetry- —ought all to minister to ideality . The proper use of painting , for instance ' , ought to be to represent everything that is beautiful in the present , and to recall all that is worthy of remembrance in the past . To give body to those spiritual pictures of ideal beauty and perfection which ideality forms •—to give ; a faithful representation of the great and good that have departed , and to put vividly before us those actions and scenes , those pages from universal

    history winch have ii tendency to refine , to exalt ., and to enlarge the soul , — this is what , painting ought , to aim at . To paint , however perfectly , bonus being uliod , deer being hunted , t \ ni agony of poor animals in traps , bread and cheese , and lobsters , and foaming ale , in but an abuse and a perversion of one of tho highest g'fts l iittuiiiments , which a more civilized age will repudiate . A pig-Hty , however perfectly painted , Htill but . recnUti tho idea of a pig-Hty ; and if it , excites any feeling , it ia one of regret that such wonderful art should be so mian \ n > liu < l . —Julucatiunof ho Feelings , by Charles Bray .

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1851, page 734, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1894/page/18/