et by Lorenzo Ghiberti to complete one
of the ornamental festoons of the gates of the Florentine Baptistery,
there, (says Vasari) "Antonio produced a quail, which may still be
seen, and is so beautiful, nay, so perfect, that it wants nothing but
the power of flight."

14. Here, the morbid tendency was as attractive as it was subtle.
Ghiberti himself fell under the influence of it; allowed the borders of
his gates, with their fluttering birds and bossy fruits, to dispute the
spectators' favor with the religious subjects they inclosed; and, from
that day forward, minuteness and muscularity were, with curious harmony
of evil, delighted in together; and the lancet and the microscope, in
the hands of fools, were supposed to be complete substitutes for
imagination in the souls of wise men: so that even the best artists are
gradually compelled, or beguiled, into compliance with the curiosity of
their day; and Francia, in the city of Bologna, is held to be a "kind
of god, more particularly" (again I quote Vasari) "after he had painted
a set of caparisons for the Duke of Urbino, on which he depicted a
great forest all on fire, and whence there rushes forth an immense
number of every kind of animal, with several human figures. This
terrific, yet truly beautiful representation, was all the more highly
esteemed for the time that had been expended on it in the plumage of
the birds, and other minutiae in the delineation of the different
animals, and in the diversity of the branches and leaves of the various
trees seen therein;" and thenceforward the catastrophe is direct, to
the ornithological museums which Breughel painted for gardens of Eden,
and to the still life and dead game of Dutch celebrities.

15. And yet I am going to invite you to-day to examine, down to almost
microscopic detail, the aspect of a small bird, and to invite you to do
this, as a most expedient and sure step in your study of the greatest
art.

But the difference in our motive of examination will entirely alter the
result. To paint birds that we may show how minutely we can paint, is
among the most contemptible occupations of art. To paint them, that we
may show how beautiful they are, is not indeed one of its highest, but
quite one of its pleasantest and most useful; it is a skill within the
reach of every student of average capacity, and which, so far as
acquired, will assuredly both make their hearts kinder, and their lives
happier.

Without further pre