r Daniel's hymn and David's psalm, as interpreted by Saint Francis,
and repeating after them the thought that all the Elements shall sing to
the glory of Him who created them.

Among these plates two were genuinely inspiring: that with the title,
_Stella Matutina_, and the other with the words, _Spiritus Sancte Deus_;
but another, the broadest, the most decisive, and the simplest of them
all, bearing the title _Sol Justitiae_, seemed best of all to set forth
the individual sympathies of the artist.

It was thus composed: A light, remote, translucent distance was lost in
infinitude--a peninsula, a desert waste of waters with ribs of shore,
tongues of land planted with trees repeated in the mirror of the lake;
on the horizon the sun, half set, cast its beams reflected by the sheet
of waters; that was all, but amazing placidity and calm, a sense of
fulness was shed over all. The idea of justice, to which that of mercy
answers as its inevitable echo, was symbolized in the serene solemnity
of this expanse lighted up by the glow of a kindly season and mild
atmosphere.

Durtal drew back to get a more complete view of the work as a whole.

"There is no denying it," said he; "this artist has the instinct, the
subtle sense of aerial space, of expanse; he understands the soul of
calm waters flowing under a vast sky! And then, this print diffuses
emanations as from a Catholic, which steal into us, slowly soak into our
heart.

"And by this time," said he, closing the portfolio, "I am far enough
away from the original matter, and none the nearer to any article I can
write for the _Review_. A paper on the primitive German painters would,
indeed, be quite in its line; yes, but what an undertaking! I should
have to work up my notes, and after dealing with Meister Wilhelm,
Stephan Lochner, and Zeitblom, to speak of Bernhardt Strigel, an almost
unknown painter, of Albert Duerer, Holbein, Martin Schongauer, Hans
Balding, Burgkmayer, and I know not how many more. I should have to
account for whatever may have survived of orthodoxy in Germany after the
Reformation; to mention, at any rate, from the Lutheran point of view,
that extraordinary painter, Cranach, whose Adams are bearded Apollos of
the complexion of a Red Indian, and his Eves slender, chubby-faced
courtesans, with bullet heads, little shrimps' eyes, lips moulded out of
red pomatum, breasts like apples close under the neck, long, slim legs,
elegantly formed, with the calf high