l to
delineate _this_ art.

The following is an extract from a letter reverting to
the illustrations of "Christ and Christmas":--

"In my last letter, I did not utter all I felt about the [10]
wonderful new book you have given us. Years ago,
while in Italy, I studied the old masters and their great
works of art thoroughly, and so got quite an idea of
what constitutes true art. Then I spent two years in
Paris, devoting every moment to the study of music and [15]
art.

"The first thing that impressed me in your illustra-
tions was the conscientious application to detail, which is
is the foundation of true art. From that, I went on to
study each illustration thoroughly, and to my amazement [20]
and delight I find an almost identical resemblance, in
many things, to the old masters! In other words, the art
is perfect.

"The hands and feet of the figures--how many times
have I seen these hands and feet in Angelico's "Jesus," [25]
or Botticelli's "Madonna"!

"It gave me such a thrill of joy as no words can ex-
press, to see produced to-day that art--the only true
art--that we have identified with the old masters, and
mourned as belonging to them exclusively,--a thing of [30]
the past, impossible of reproduction.

"All that I can say to you, as one who gives no mean

[Page 376.]

attention to such matters, is that the art is perfect. It [1]
is the true art of the oldest, most revered, most authen-
tic Italian school, revived. I use the words _most au-_
_thentic_ in the following sense: the face, figure, and
drapery of Jesus, very closely resemble in detail the [5]
face, figure, and drapery of that Jesus portrayed by the
oldest of the old masters, and said to have been authen-
tic; the face having been taken by Fra Angelico from
Caesar's Cameo, the figure and garments from a descrip-
tion, in _The Galaxy_, of a small sketch handed down [10]
from the _living reality_. _Their_ productions are expres-
sionless copies of an engraving cut in a stone. _Yours_
is a palpitating, living Saviour engraven on the heart.
You have given us back our Jesus, and in a much better
is form." [15]

Sunrise At Pleasant View

Who shall describe the brave splendor of a November
sky that this morning burst through the lattice for me,
on my bed? According to terrestrial calculations, above
the horizon, in the east, there rose one rod of rainbow [20]
hues, crowned with an acre of eldritch ebony. Little
by little this topmost