DE MONSTRIS. 247 



tiara, and all having their mouths tightly shut, so that 

 if they are singing at all, they must be singing through 

 their noses. The creation of the world is ingeniously, 

 if simply, represented, by the disappearance of the 

 heads, and the appearance of successive concentric 

 circles within the open space, one circle being added 

 for each day. 



The earth being made, and the fishes, birds, and 



beasts duly placed in it, we come to a delightful 



Garden of Eden, walled and castellated, and its arched 



entrance guarded by a portcullis, through wliich 



trickle four diverging gutters representing the four 



rivers of Paradise. As for Adam, he is certainly not 



handsome, but he is very far superior to the Adam 



represented in the frontispiece of a Family Bible now 



before me. Wolgemuth's Adam, rudely though he be 



drawn, is at least represented as the first man might 



thave been ; whereas the modem Adam has had his hair 



Inicely cut, parted, and curled — has been shaved that 



loming, and wears a pair of neatly shaped whiskers. 



feet, he looks as if he ought to wear clothes ; where- 



Wolgemuth's Adam looks as if clothing were no 



|inore needed by him than by a Greek statue. Then we 



ive the creation of Eve, who is represented as being 



pulled bodily out of a large circular hole in Adam's 



ride ; and so we proceed with the history of the world 



[until we come to the building of the ark. 



This woodcut has a strange fascination for me, in 

 |its mingled truth and absurdity, strength and weakness. 



s 



