Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



493 



GARDENING AS A SCHOOL SUBJECT. 

 In the Farents' Rniew for October Miss Cracknell, 

 of the West Moors School of Nature Study and 

 {hardening, writes on the advantages of teaching 

 gardening to cliildren. With Nature-study as it is 

 often taught, the children, she says, are taken for 

 walks, and may thus learn much of interest ;il)out the 

 country-side. They may even rear plants in their 

 schoolroom. But from a plant in a pot or seeds 

 reared in a schoolroom they cannot learn the work of 

 rain and sunshine, insects and flowers, light and 

 darkness, soil and air, as they could in the real 

 surroundings of a garden. In a garden the child can 

 see the insects at work, and learn to recognise gardtn 

 friends and- foes. Nature-study and gardening should 

 go hand in hand. In teaching gardening one's first 

 aim should be to help the children to take an interest 

 in making a beautiful garden. Then there should be 

 cultivated observation and a spirit of inquiry as to 

 the meaning of familiar facts, iuch as the winter sleep 

 of plants and insects, the work of the frost, the spring 

 awakening, etc. Forethought can be fostered, for 

 practical gardeners have to think ahead. Plants 

 already blooming should not be bought ; the children 

 should sow their own seeds and watch the develop- 

 ment of the plants. Accuracy, order, and neatness 

 must be insisted on ; also the cleaning and proper 

 ' ,>re of tools. There is even a science in watering 

 and an art in the cutting of flowers, while on the 

 aistheiic side harmonious schemes of colour nuiy be 

 thought out. 



LEONARDO DA VINCI'S TEN PICTURES. 

 .\ WKiiLk in the Cunnoiisair lo\ October reminds 

 lis that the pictures by Leonardo da Vinci which have 

 come down to us are so rare that the authentic 

 examples from his brush may be numbered on one's 

 fingers. Not taking into account Leonardo's draw- 

 ings, which are fairly numerous, there are two works 

 by him in lingland, five in France, and three in 

 Italy. The solitary example beyond suspicion in 

 England is the large cartoon in chalk of "The Virgin 

 and Child, with St. .Anne and St. John," whicli hangs 

 in the Di[)loma Gallery of the Royal Academy. The 

 l)icture in the National Gallery, "The Virgin of the 

 Rocks," is by many supposed to be a copy of the 

 iiiiilar work in the Louvre, and to have been 

 \ecuted by Ambrogio da I'redis under Leonardo's 

 supervision. That this artist paintL-d on it is not 

 improbable, but the bulk of the work, says the writer, 

 must be asciibed to the master. Leonardo's known 

 Ijaintings in Italy comjirise the mutilated ghost of 

 'The Last Supper" at Milan, a cartoon of "The 

 Adoration of the Magi " at Florence, and a panel ol 

 ■'St. Jerome." His other pictures, "The Virgin 

 and Child, witli St. Anne and St. John," " 'I'lie 

 Virgin of the Rocks," " 'I'he -Annunciation," and 

 " St. John the 13.iptist," arc in the Louvre. Finally, 

 there is the " .Mona Lisa," the only known picture 



portrait by him, which was in the Louvre. This, 

 however, had a more perfect pedigree than any of 

 the others, for its history can be traced since its 

 inception. Vasari relates that while Leonardo was 

 painting the portrait he took the precaution of keeping 

 someone constantly near his subject to sing or play 

 on instruments, or to je^t or otherwise amuse her, 

 to the end that slie might continue cheerful, and so 

 that her face might not exhibit the melancholy 

 expression often imparted by painters to their por- 

 traits. The result is the haunting smile on the face 

 of the suljject which has been the theme of countless 

 writers. 



A MASTERPIECE OF SACRED SONG. 

 The Dies Ir.e and its History. 



The Open Court for October opens with an 

 interesting study, by Mr. Bernhard Pick, of the Dies 

 Irie ; the different texts and forms, and the various 

 translations of the great hymn. 



THIRTEEN "ORIGINAL" VERSIONS. 



There are no fewer than thirteen " original " 

 versions. The text, according to the edition of 

 Nathan Chytra:us (1594), for instance, includes 

 several introductory sta*«as, suijposed to have been 

 one of the inscriptions he found near a crucifix at 

 Mantua, in the Church of St. Peter. These stanzas 

 give the poem the aspect of a solitary devotional 

 meditation. Also in this text the seventeenth stanza 

 of the Dies Irje is omitted, and a new concluding 

 one is substituted for it. The authorship has been 

 ascribed to nine persons, but is generally attributed 

 to Thomas of Celano, the friend and biographer of 

 St. Francis of Assisi. 



ITS UOLU ON TilE .MINDS OF .MEN. 



In his article the writer also refers to the fine uses 

 made of the poem, or of parts of it, by various 

 authors — Goethe in " Faust," Scott in " The Lay of 

 the Last Minstrel," etc. Kerner, a Suabian poet and 

 mystic, makes use of it in a poem about four impious 

 brothers who enter a church to ridicule religion, but 

 are suddenly brought to repent by hearing this Judg- 

 ment hymn. Not only has the Dies Iise been 

 translated into many languages by many translators, 

 but one English translator is the author of thirteen 

 distinct translations. Dr. Neale's rendering of the 

 hymn appeared in the ChristUin Ranembraiucr of 

 October, 1861. I'he hymn has also given rise to a 

 number of musical compositions. Finally, a Latin 

 parody by a Roman priest is to be numbered among 

 the curiosities of literature. About the year 1700 

 this priest sought to gratify his hatred of Protestantism 

 by perverting the hymn into a prophecy of the down- 

 fall of the reformed religion in Holland and England, 

 which he hoped would be brought about from the 

 restoration of the Stuarts and the union of the Fr'-nih 

 and Spanish crowns. 



