I. THE ROBIN. I 3 



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 3'ou 

 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 expression 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 husbands 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 be- 

 ginning of such more faithful and accurate 

 observation in former art, is exactly coeval 



