72 MORE POT-POURRI 



splendid Italian Cypresses, which seem to be mourn- 

 fully swaying in the wind. Down the rocks on each side 

 tumble somewhat conventional waterfalls into a fathom- 

 less ocean, perhaps meant to be typical of Life and 

 Death. Two white stone posts on each side of a step 

 mark the entrance to this sombre garden of peace and 

 rest. On the foreground of calm water floats a black 

 boat, which approaches this entrance rowed by a solitary 

 dark figure a realistic Charon. Across the front of 

 the boat lies the dead ; and a radiant, draped, mys- 

 terious mourner, with head bowed over the inevitable 

 sorrow of mankind, stands erect in the middle of the 

 boat. The combination of the horizontal dead figure and 

 the upright mourner, in their white draperies, seems to 

 form a shining cross against the deep shade of the 

 Cypresses. This print fascinated me with its eternal 

 facts transcribed into an allegory by a man of genius. 

 The picture from which it is taken is a replica, with many 

 alterations, of one painted some years ago which I have 

 seen. But, judging from the print, I believe that the last- 

 painted one is the finest. Certainly the allegorical details 

 in this later one are brought out with greater distinctness. 

 Several of Herr Boecklin's pictures have been bought by his 

 native town of Bale, and later on I will describe howl spent 

 a night there on purpose to see them. After my return 

 home I came across an interesting description of Herr 

 Boecklin and his work in a lately published book called 

 ' The History of Modern Painting,' by Kichard Muther, 

 from which the following extract will perhaps make others 

 wish as much as I do to see his pictures. Mr. Muther 

 says of him that : ' He belonged to the very time when 

 Richard Wagner lured the colours of sound from music 

 with a glow and light such as no master had kindled 

 before Boecklin's symphonies of colour streamed forth 

 like a crashing orchestra. The whole scale, from the 



