has not lighted in some hearts the flame of high resolve, or warmed
into life the seeds of honorable ambition."

Many pictures, particularly portraits, by bringing up reminiscences,
are a great source of consolation. In millions of houses the
most-loved and treasured possession is the photographic album
containing the likenesses of dear absent or departed friends. SHEE,
writing of the soothing influences of the portrait, says:--

"Mirror divine! which gives the soul to view,
Reflects the image, and retains it too!
Recalls to friendship's eye the fading face,
Revives each look, and rivals every grace:
In thee the banished lover finds relief,
His bliss in absence, and his balm in grief:
Affection, grateful, owns thy sacred power,
The father feels thee in affliction's hour;
When catching life ere some lov'd cherub flies.
To take its angel station in the skies,
The portrait soothes the loss it can't repair,
And sheds a comfort, even in despair."
Or--
"The widow'd husband sees his sainted wife
In pictures warm, and smiling as in life,--
And--
While he gazes with convulsive thrill,
And weeps, and wonders at the semblance still,
_He breathes a blessing on the pencil's aid,_
_That half restores the substance in the shade_."

But it is more particularly with pictures as a direct means of
education that I have to speak. MR. STEAD holds that in the coming
education of the world the magic lantern will play a very great part,
for through its aid you can portray any object you wish--pictures of
scenery, of buildings, of distant countries, of the microscopic
world, and in fact any kind of pictures you choose, in a most
beautiful, life-like, interesting, and educational manner. I think
and earnestly hope that MR. STEAD'S prediction will be fulfilled.

There are two other ways which I think that pictures should be used
for educational purposes. Firstly, in books, as in this one, and
secondly, on the walls of buildings--outside and inside if you like
--but I will speak only of the inside in this paper. Why should not
every room of every house be covered with pictures where it is not
covered with furniture? In millions of rooms there is a great waste
of opportunity. Many times I have thought why do they not have
varying patterns of different scenery, etc, in the different rooms of
the houses instead of the wall paper, with its uninteresting pattern
p