56 A CONTINENTAL TOUR. 



like a perfect triumph has hitherto accompanied the efforts 

 of the painter. He can bring together an untroubled sky, 

 a serene ocean, a smiling landscape ; but that forming 

 spirit which pervades and encircles the appearances of 

 nature can scarcely be regarded as an attribute of human 

 genius. Indeed, what imagination can conjure up scenes 

 so enchanting as those which nature displays with such 

 lavish profusion in every region of the earth? In the 

 most inspired dream of creative fancy, or the most suc- 

 cessful effort of imitative art, the objects, lovely though 

 they may often be, always possess some qualities which 

 hinder them from blending together into one just pro- 

 portioned picture, and the scene thus raised or depicted 

 partakes of the narrowness of mortal power. It is other- 

 wise, however, with the representations of the human face 

 divine ; for this branch of the art seems to bear away the 

 palm from nature herself. How many beautiful coun- 

 tenances are visible in every large town in Europe ! but 

 where is the one among them all which can bear a com- 

 parison with a fine Madonna of Raphael ? Yet what land- 

 scape painter has ever given the far-receding splendour of 

 the western sky which almost every fine summer evening 

 affords ? At the same time Claude, Turner, and Thomson 

 are each an honour to his age and country ; there are 

 some fine conceptions of aerial grandeur in the wild com- 

 binations of cloud and vapour in some of Schetky's skies ; 



