or familiarity of circumstance.
Among men whose minds are rightly toned, nothing is ludicrous: it
must, if an act, be either right or wrong, noble or base; if a thing
seen, it must either be ugly or beautiful: and what is either wrong or
deformed is not, among noble persons, in anywise subject for laughter;
but, in the precise degree of its wrongness or deformity, a subject of
horror. All perception of what, in the modern European mind, falls
under the general head of the ludicrous, is either childish or
profane; often healthy, as indicative of vigorous animal life, but
always degraded in its relation to manly conditions of thought. It has
a secondary use in its power of detecting vulgar imposture; but it
only obtains this power by denying the highest truths.

* * * * *

XXVI.

THE EXPULSION FROM THE TEMPLE.

More properly, the Expulsion from the outer Court of the Temple (Court
of Gentiles), as Giotto has indicated by placing the porch of the
Temple itself in the background.

The design shows, as clearly as that of the Massacre of the Innocents,
Giotto's want of power, and partly of desire, to represent rapid or
forceful action. The raising of the right hand, not holding any
scourge, resembles the action afterwards adopted by Oreagna, and
finally by Michael Angelo in his Last Judgment: and my belief is, that
Giotto considered this act of Christ's as partly typical of the final
judgment, the Pharisees being placed on the left hand, and the
disciples on the right. From the faded remains of the fresco, the
draughtsman could not determine what animals are intended by those on
the left hand. But the most curious incident (so far as I know, found
only in this design of the Expulsion, no subsequent painter repeating
it), is the sheltering of the two children, one of them carrying a
dove, under the arm and cloak of two disciples. Many meanings might
easily be suggested in this; but I see no evidence for the adoption of
any distinct one.

* * * * *

XXVII.

THE HIRING OF JUDAS.

The only point of material interest presented by this design is the
decrepit and distorted shadow of the demon, respecting which it may be
well to remind the reader that all the great Italian thinkers
concurred in assuming decrepitude or disease, as well as ugliness, to
be a characteristic of all natures of evil. Whatever the extent of the
power granted to evil spirits, it was al