ttered over Loreto, Arcevia, Citta
di Castello, Borgo San Sepolcro, Volterra, and other
cities of the Tuscan-Umbrian district. Arezzo, it may be
added in conclusion, has two altar-pieces of Signorelli's
in its Pinacoteca, neither of which adds much to our
conception of this painter's style. Noticeable as they may
be among the works of that period, they prove that his
genius was hampered by the narrow and traditional
treatment imposed on him in pictures of this kind.
Students may be referred to Robert Vischer's _Luca
Signorelli_ (Leipzig, 1879) for a complete list of the
master's works and an exhaustive biography. I have tried
to estimate his place in the history of Italian art in my
volume on the 'Fine Arts,' _Renaissance in Italy_, Part
III. I may also mention two able articles by Professor
Colvin published a few years since in the _Cornhill
Magazine_.

Such reflections, and many more, pass through our mind as we sit and
ponder in the chapel, which the daylight has deserted. The country
people are still on their knees, still careless of the frescoed
forms around them, still praying to Madonna of the Miracles. The
service is well-nigh done. The benediction has been given, the
organist strikes up his air of Verdi, and the congregation shuffles
off, leaving the dimly lighted chapel for the vast sonorous dusky
nave. How strange it is to hear that faint strain of a feeble opera
sounding where, a short while since, the trumpet-blast of
Signorelli's angels seemed to thrill our ears!

_LUCRETIUS_

In seeking to distinguish the Roman from the Greek genius we can
find no surer guide than Virgil's famous lines in the Sixth AEneid.
Virgil lived to combine the traditions of both races in a work of
profoundly meditated art, and to their points of divergence he was
sensitive as none but a poet bent upon resolving them could be. The
real greatness of the Romans consisted in their capacity for
government, law, practical administration. What they willed, they
carried into effect with an iron indifference to everything but the
object in view. What they acquired, they held with the firm grasp of
force, and by the might of organised authority. Their architecture,
in so far as it was original, subserved purposes of public utility.
Philosophy with them ceased to be speculative, and applied itself to
the ethics of conduct. Their religious conceptions--in so far as