that Mabuse painted in England, and by that time his style was a cento in which the Italian element predominated.

It is strange that the descent of the later Flemish school or of the Dutch painters of genre from these early artists of Belgium is not traced out in the volume before us. It is clear that, in colour, in minuteness of detail, and in general naturalism, there is much connexion between the two epochs. The present compilers have perhaps declined the task, from feeling but little sympathy with the realistic school of Holland. Indeed, their personal predilection for Italian art is so marked, that it is a wonder they have so impartially and patiently investigated the history and works of a school which, with all its merits, had undoubtedly the germs in itself of that unideal and unspiritual development that was to succeed it. Their own taste is best shown by the following paragraph, which is the last that we shall quote. Speaking of the degenerate successors of the Van Eycks, as artists who produced pictures marked, perhaps, by a certain breadth of hand, but devoid of sentiment and ' lacking nobleness of conception and composition,' they thus continue:

'Respecting these painters, no judgment can be too severe, when we consider the degree of abasement to which they reduced the Flemish school, at a period when the arts in Italy had reached the pinnacle of their greatness. Nor can we consider the tendencies of the two countries, as exemplified by their works, more strikingly than by putting this comparison-that whilst the Flemings followed the tendency to naturalism, and the reproduction of the real by innate sense rather than by science, and gradually entered the track of simple imitation, making their art one of servile portraiture—whilst, at the same time, they perfected the technical processes of colour to such a degree, that they helped to found the Venetian school-the great masters of Tuscany and Umbria founded their art on severity and perfection of form, rising to the extreme point of grandeur in Raphael and Michael Angelo, the last of whom never painted in oil. In the same period we see the upward and the downward course. Can men of taste be blamed for preferring the former to the lowest extreme of the latter?'-P. 354.

With this extract we conclude our notice of a book which, if not all that we could wish, has most substantial merits, and cannot fail to be highly useful to the intelligent student of art. That such a literature as that of which the three works we have described are average specimens is flourishing among us, must be taken, we repeat, as a most wholesome sign and augury for the future. Time was when the study of art was a task of difficulty, and beyond the reach of most men, This is now altered. Not only is travelling, both abroad and at home, more easy and therefore more common, but, without travelling, it is possible for a considerable practical knowledge to be obtained of works of art. Exhibitions are becoming common in pro

vincial towns. Some places, as for instance Liverpool, have local museums of some value. The galleries of our great country-houses are rendered more accessible to their neighbourhoods, now that their contents are no longer merely objects of vulgar sightseeing but of a cultivated admiration. Manchester, in its noble Art Treasures Exhibition, has had the merit of making a forward step of extraordinary importance. In the metropolis, besides its annual exhibitions-which are no longer confined to English art, but afford specimens of the French and Belgian schools-we may now reckon the Ellesmere, Vernon, Sheepshanks, Dulwich, and Kensington Palace, and even the Hampton Court galleries, with the augmentation, under happy auspices, of the National Collection. Such opportunities of practically studying art have their fruit in the encouragement of a copious and instructive art-literature; and this literature re-acts, in its turn, on the love and appreciation of art. When, in addition to this, it is remembered how pure and high-toned are the works which we have enumerated, as well as those two or three which we have noticed more fully, it may be allowed us to express once more our hope that the increased cultivation of art among us is no result of a mere intellectual, or still less of a mere sensual refinement, but an ennobling and purifying influence, an antidote to the materialism of the age-an education, too, of our higher spiritual qualities, and to some minds, perhaps, 'a schoolmaster' to bring them to still more sacred truths. Art is not religion, indeed; but there has never been a true religion which has not made a handmaid of Art.

NO. XCVIII. -N. S.

300

ART. II.-1. Sinai and Palestine in connexion with their History. By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, M.A. London: Murray.

1856. 8vo.

2. Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and the adjacent Regions; a Journal of Travels in the year 1852. By EDWARD ROBINSON, ELI SMITH, and Others. London: Murray. 1856. 8vo.

3. Five Years in Damascus, &c., with Travels and Researches in Palmyra, Lebanon, and the Hauran. By REV. J. L. PORTER, A.M., F.R.S.L. London: Murray. 1855. 2 vols. fcap. 8vo.

·

No country in the world has exercised that attractive power over foreign nations which Palestine can boast even to the present day; for no country has equally influenced the religious mind of the diversified families of Europe, or contributed in anything like so large a measure to its sacred literature. Without precisely subscribing to the too partial statement of Mr. D'Israeli, that the Semetic principle,'-whatever that vague term may import -as represented by the Jews, absorbs all that is spiritual in our nature,' we admit, with some abatement for Oriental hyperbole, the remarkable fact that the Saxon, the Sclave, and the Celt have adopted most of the laws, and many of the customs, 'all the literature and all the religion,' not, indeed, as he either ignorantly or loosely states, of the Arabian tribes'-' the Bedouin race, that, under the name of Jews, is found in every country of Europe '-but of that elect family, owning a common origin with many of the Arab tribes, as being descended from the Father of the faithful, the progenitor likewise of Ishmael and Esau; but both in its origin, and in all its subsequent history, entirely distinct from the Joctanite family, the acknowledged staple of the Arab race, which absorbed those collateral branches of the Hebrew nation; while the identity of the nation itself was preserved in unbroken succession, and its separation from all external admixture jealously guarded, at first by traditionary precepts confirmed by the highest sanctions, and subsequently by a code of laws affecting the minutest details of civil and religious polity, so exclusive and so stringent as to furnish an effectual barrier to all social intercourse with aliens.

The high prerogatives of this peculiar people no Christian can have any wish to challenge; to do so would be to arraign the providential dispensation which has assigned to them the most prominent place in the annals of Revelation, and to ignore the debt of gratitude still due to them as faithful guardians

of the Divine oracles. We can even sympathise, in some measure, with Mr. D'Israeli's chivalrous feeling, which so gracefully becomes his name and race, and only regret that it should lead him, as it occasionally does, to distort historical facts, or to colour religious truths, in an attempt to found an exclusive claim to all intellectual preeminence, and all moral worth, on a purely spiritual title, of the real value of which he appears, meanwhile, wholly unconscious.

With the exception then of the Mosaic writings, including the book of Job, of the writings of the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, and perhaps of a few Psalms, the whole of the Old Testament was actually composed within the limits of Palestine; while of those writings which have been specified, all, with a single exception, centre in that narrow strip of land: for the Pentateuch, like its author on the summit of Pisgah, traces out the features of the country, and anticipates the occupation of it by the chosen people; Ezekiel in the land of his captivity, by the river Chebar, sings in swan-like strains the dirge of its capital, before which, portrayed upon a tile, as he watched three hundred and ninety days, he told the story of its ruin; while the prayers and prophecies of Daniel, like the man of loves' himself, with his window opened towards his darling west,' look back with fond regret upon the desolations of the city and its Holy House, and forward with firm faith and hope to its restoration. Contemplated, then, merely from its human side, the collection of records contained in the Old Testament is a marvellous phenomenon, extending back to an antiquity more remote than can be claimed for any other writings, yet covering a period longer than can be assigned to the literary history of Greece and Rome united, and, above all, embracing a range that is only to be measured by the eternal truths of which it is the depository; all its interest centred in that spot of land.

Now when it is considered that the varied events of fifteen centuries have all been enacted on this confined stage-for the area of Palestine does not much exceed that of the principality of Wales-it becomes at once apparent that every part of so small a country must abound in historical interest, and be associated with events which have obtained a world-wide celebrity. For the Scripture narrative is full of incident, shifting from one tribe to another, between the furthest limits of Dan and Beersheba, concentrated now about Hebron, now at Shechem, now at Jerusalem: encircling at one period the cities of Philistia, and then passing to Gilboa and the plain of Esdraelon; thence conducting us to the trans-Jordanic provinces; and anon passing over to the land of Cabul, and the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Further; the historical incident is so mixed up with

minute geographical and topographical detail that they cannot be divorced: and this is doubtless one secret of the life-like character of the sacred narrative. The outline is so distinct, the scene so vivid: the protraiture of places as of persons has an individuality and reality that stamps the whole with unmistakeable evidence of genuineness and truth. There are here no vague generalities, no confusion of places, no contradictions, no such difficulties as would be sure to occur in a work of fiction, however artfully and elaborately contrived. We are still taking only the human side of the sacred writings, and we maintain that no mythical history could be so true to geography as the Old Testament. We do not allude so much to that most remarkable description of the country contained in what Mr. Stanley very aptly terms the Doomsday book of the Hebrews, as to particular historical passages, such e. g. as those with which the books of Joshua and Judges abound. It may be sufficient to specify the minute description of the site of Ai, the course of Joshua's conquests in the south and north, the delineation of Shechem and its vicinity, in the history of Jotham, and the precision with which the position of Shiloh is marked in the last chapter of the book of Judges. The names of places once fixed, in the East, become as it were indelibly impressed on the soil. Ages of war and desolation may have swept over the land and effaced every vestige of house, and wall, and gate of the massive strongholds of the gigantic sons of Anak; but the name still cleaves to the deserted site, and the traveller, with no other guide than the narrative penned three thousand years ago, may walk up to the mouldering heap and say, Here stood Shiloh, there Ziph, there Arad, here Dan, there Beersheba; and the ancient echoes of the traditionary past will render the names distinctly from the mouths of the natives, sometimes slightly modified to suit the form of the Semetic language now prevailing in the country; occasionally in a translation of a Hebrew name by an Arabic equivalent, as e.g. ancient Dan has now become Cadi,-both signifying Judge.

If thus it is with sites of towns, much more with the unalterable natural features of the country-hills, and valleys, and plains. To give one or two examples. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho, taken by the pilgrims, and followed by all English travellers, in their stereotyped excursion to the Jordan, skirts a deep and rocky valley, through which runs a small stream, sometimes fancifully identified with the brook Cherith: this is beyond all question the river mentioned in the Doomsday-book, in the northern boundary of Judah, (Josh. xv. 7,) and this identification may be checked by the fountain, once named of the Sun, now of the Apostles, by the ascent of Adummim, and the