Terrible things, I cannot bear to think of, Must fall upon you; Am I not here to be show me that you your little servant, love me : Follow your steps and wait upon your wishes? shoulder carry And on my Somewhere about this mystery be hidden, THE CHILD JESUS. (HOLDING THE CROSS FIRMLY.) Ask me not, my gentle brother,-ask no more, it must not be : In the heart of this poor trifle lies the secret unrevealed Which has brought me to this world, and sent you to prepare my way. In the long and weary woodland, where your path of life will lead, Thousand, myriad, other Crosses you will find on every side; And the same eternal Law that bids me take this chiefest one, Will be there to give you many, grievous as your strength can bear; But in vain would you and others sink beneath the holy load, Were I not with mine before you, Captain of the Crucified; THE VIRGIN. (WITH HER HAND ON THE CROSS.) My soul is weak with doubt,— What can I think or do? To which of these dear children shall I yield Ah me! I see within That artless wooden form, A meaning of exceeding misery, A dark, dark, shadow of oncoming woe. Oh! give it up, my child! I see your bright eyes close, Your soft fair fingers spattered all with blood, He grasps it firmer still! I dare not thwart his hand; For what he does, he does not of himself, And I, who labour blind In this abysmal work, Must bear the weight of dumb expectancy, IV. CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO PURGATORY. BY GIORGIONE, AT VENICE. THE saving work for man is finishèd, The kingdoms of the Earth and Air o'erthrown; Conscious their suffering never could atone TO GIOVANNI BELLINI. SUGGESTED BY THE FACT OF THAT PAINTER'S HAVING HAD IN HIS ROOM A GRECIAN STATUE OF VENUS AS A STUDY. THOU didst not slight with vain and partial scorn The inspirations of our nature's youth, Knowing that Beauty, wheresoe'er 'tis born, Must ever be the foster-child of Truth. Nor didst thou lower the Mother of the Lord But with such grace as Christians have adored To be the Painter's home, had done the same, The decline of pure religious feeling in Art in Venice may be, perhaps, most accurately dated from the influence of Aretino over Titian; up to that time he had hardly ever painted a profane subject, and no other artist ever seems to have thought of it. Afterwards such exceptions as Bonifacio and the piety of the people prevented so sudden a degradation as took place in the Roman school from Raffael to Giulio Romano, and in the Bolognese from Francia to Guido; but too soon came the younger Palma and his followers, the Caracci of the Venetians. TO RAFFAEL. "Raffael, alas! was the only person who conceived the project of recovering the remains of ancient Rome from its rubbish, by means of methodical excavations, and this led to no result whatever."-NIEBUHR. THINE was the scheme, and worthy to be thine, Of plague two centuries old with Guiscard's spoil, |