I. THE ROBIN. 15 



together ; and may almost sum their contributions 

 to ornithology in saying that they have plucked 

 the wings from birds, to make angels of men, and 

 the claws from birds, to make devils of men. 



If you were to take away from religious art these 

 two great helps of its — I must say, on the whole, 

 very feeble — imagination ; if you were to take from 

 it, I say, the power of putting wings on shoulders, 

 and claws on fingers and toes, how wonderfully the 

 sphere of its angelic and diabolic characters would 

 be contracted! Reduced only to the sources of ex- 

 pression in face or movements, you might still find 

 in good early sculpture very sufficient devils ; but the 

 best angels would resolve themselves, I think, into 

 little more than, and not often into so much as, the 

 likenesses of pretty women, with that grave and (I 

 do not say it ironically) majestic expression which 

 they put on, when, being very fond of their hus- 

 bands and children, they seriously think either the 

 one or the other have misbehaved themselves. 



12. And it is not a little discouraging for me, 

 and may well make you doubtful of my right 

 judgment in this endeavour to lead you into closer 

 attention to the bird, with its wings and claws still 

 in its own possession ; — it is discouraging, I say, to 

 observe that the beginning of such more faithful 

 and accurate observation in former art, is exactly 



