n miner would the same mountains, wandering among their precipices
through chill of storm and snow, and discerning that their strength was
perilous and their substance sterile. Both of us see truly, both
partially; the complete truth is the witness of both.

257. The notices of Holbein, and the English whom he painted (see
especially the sketch of Sir Thomas Wyatt in the sixth lecture), are to
my mind of singular value, and the tenor of the book throughout, as far
as I can judge--for, as I said, much of it treats of subjects with which
I am unfamiliar--so sound, and the feeling in it so warm and true, and
true in the warmth of it, that it refreshes me like the sight of the
things themselves it speaks of. New and vivid sight of them it will give
to many readers; and to all who will regard my commendation I commend
it; asking those who have hitherto credited my teaching to read these
lectures as they would my own; and trusting that others, who have
doubted me, will see reason to put faith in my friend.

PISA, _30th April, 1872._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 15: Preface to the above-named book, by the Rev. St. John
Tyrwhitt. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1872.--ED.]

[Footnote 16: See Mr. Ruskin's pamphlet on "The Relation of Michael
Angelo to Tintoret," being (although separately printed) the seventh
lecture of the course (1872) published as _Aratra Pentelici_--ED.]

ART SCHOOLS OF MEDIAEVAL CHRISTENDOM.[17]

A PREFACE.

258. The number of British and American travelers who take unaffected
interest in the early art of Europe is already large, and is daily
increasing; daily also, as I thankfully perceive, feeling themselves
more and more in need of a guidebook containing as much trustworthy
indication as they can use of what they may most rationally spend their
time in examining. The books of reference published by Mr. Murray,
though of extreme value to travelers, who make it their object to see
(in his, and their, sense of the word) whatever is to be seen, are of
none whatever, or may perhaps be considered, justly, as even of quite
the reverse of value, to travelers who wish to see only what they may in
simplicity understand, and with pleasure remember; while the histories
of art, and biographies of artists, to which the more earnest student in
his novitiate must have recourse, are at once so voluminous, so vague,
and so contradictory, that I cannot myself conceive his deriving any
other benefit from their s