and to those who would wish to possess such a work solely as a
choice collection of illustrations upon sacred themes.

GUSTAVE DORE.

The subject of this sketch is, perhaps, the most original and variously
gifted designer the world has ever known. At an age when most men have
scarcely passed their novitiate in art, and are still under the direction
and discipline of their masters and the schools, he had won a brilliant
reputation, and readers and scholars everywhere were gazing on his work
with ever-increasing wonder and delight at his fine fancy and
multifarious gifts. He has raised illustrative art to a dignity and
importance before unknown, and has developed capacities for the pencil
before unsuspected. He has laid all subjects tribute to his genius,
explored and embellished fields hitherto lying waste, and opened new and
shining paths and vistas where none before had trod. To the works of the
great he has added the lustre of his genius, bringing their beauties into
clearer view and warming them to a fuller life.

His delineations of character, in the different phases of life, from the
horrible to the grotesque, the grand to the comic, attest the versatility
of his powers; and, whatever faults may be found by critics, the public
will heartily render their quota of admiration to his magic touch, his
rich and facile rendering of almost every thought that stirs, or lies yet
dormant, in the human heart. It is useless to attempt a sketch of his
various beauties; those who would know them best must seek them in the
treasure--house that his genius is constantly augmenting with fresh gems
and wealth. To one, however, of his most prominent traits we will
refer--his wonderful rendering of the powers of Nature.

His early wanderings in the wild and romantic passes of the Vosges
doubtless developed this inherent tendency of his mind. There he
wandered, and there, mayhap, imbibed that deep delight of wood and
valley, mountain--pass and rich ravine, whose variety of form and detail
seems endless to the enchanted eye. He has caught the very spell of the
wilderness; she has laid her hand upon him, and he has gone forth with
her blessing. So bold and truthful and minute are his countless
representations of forest scenery; so delicate the tracery of branch and
stem; so patriarchal the giant boles of his woodland monarchs, that the'
gazer is at once satisfied and entranced. His vistas lie slumbering with
repose either in shad