JULY 379 



Middle Ages. Froude says: 'In early life death had 

 seemed an ugly object to Erasmus. When his time 

 came he received it with tranquillity. He died quietly 

 at Bale on July 12, 1536, and was buried in state in the 

 cathedral.' The last words of Froude 's last lecture are : 

 'I have endeavoured to put before you the character 

 and thoughts of an extraordinary man at the most 

 exciting period of modern history. It is a period of which 

 the story is still disfigured by passion and prejudice. I 

 believe you will best see what it really was if you will 

 look at it through the eyes of Erasmus.' It is not always 

 so easy to see through the eyes of wisdom, especially for 

 those who are passionate and prejudiced. 



With regard to the typical pictures of Boecklin bought 

 by his native town, I must confess my first impression 

 was one of disappointment, in spite of their great power. 

 His large figure-pictures of mermaids and mermen, 

 fighting centaurs, etc., though in a way striking and re- 

 markable, are to me positively ugly, both in colour and 

 form, their only redeeming point being the beautiful 

 cloud -effects. In skies he seems never to fail. But there 

 is one small picture of exquisite beauty, which reaches 

 the height of the Todten-Insel, called ' The Sacred Grove ' 

 a deep, dark Ilex wood, just like those I had been 

 lately seeing near Florence. On the right a sunlit plain or 

 valley was only indicated, and the light seemed to beat 

 upwards as in Nature. Along the dark wood came a white- 

 robed procession of worshippers. On the left was a tiny 

 stone altar, on which burnt the sacred fire, the smoke rising 

 straight up into the absolutely still evening air. It was a 

 beautiful picture a thorough example of Mr. Buskin's 

 description, in one of his Oxford lectures, of landscape 

 painting. He says : ' Landscape painting is the thoughtful 

 and passionate representation of the physical conditions 

 appointed for human existence. It imitates the aspects 



