which
affects us the more as coming from one who, knowing himself an object
personally of disgust and ridicule, could yet satirize with a smile.

"Finally, throughout his works, we are conscious of an earnest, a lofty,
a religious aim and purpose, as of one who felt himself a pioneer of
civilization in a newly-discovered world, the Adam of a new Eden freshly
planted in the earth's wilderness, a mouthpiece of God and a preacher of
righteousness to mankind.--And here we must establish a distinction very
necessary to be recognized before we can duly appreciate the relative
merits of the elder painters in this, the most important point in which
we can view their character. Giotto's genius, however universal, was
still (as I have repeatedly observed) Dramatic rather than
Contemplative,--a tendency in which his scholars and successors almost
to a man resembled him. Now, just as in actual life--where, with a few
rare exceptions, all men rank under two great categories according as
Imagination or Reason predominates in their intellectual character--two
individuals may be equally impressed with the truths of Christianity and
yet differ essentially in its outward manifestation, the one dwelling in
action, the other in contemplation, the one in strife, the other in
peace, the one (so to speak) in hate, the other in love, the one
struggling with devils, the other communing with angels, yet each
serving as a channel of God's mercies to man, each (we may believe)
offering Him service equally acceptable in His sight--even so shall we
find it in art and with artists; few in whom the Dramatic power
predominates will be found to excel in the expression of religious
emotions of the more abstract and enthusiastic cast, even although men
of indisputably pure and holy character themselves; and _vice versa_,
few of the more Contemplative but will feel bewildered and at fault, if
they descend from their starry region of light into the grosser
atmosphere that girdles in this world of action. The works of artists
are their minds' mirror; they cannot express what they do not feel; each
class dwells apart and seeks its ideal in a distinct sphere of
emotion,--their object is different, and their success proportioned to
the exclusiveness with which they pursue that object. A few indeed there
have been in all ages, monarchs of the mind and types of our Saviour,
who have lived a twofold existence of action and contemplation in art,
in song, in politic