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and records the phenomena of the visible things which are 

 dangerous or beneficial to men ; and displays the human 

 methods of dealing with these, and of enjoying them 

 or suffering from them, which are either exemplary or 

 deserving of sympathetic contemplation.' 



On my return home I found a criticism of M. Arnold 

 Boecklin's work in the ' Eevue des Deux Mondes ' for 

 November 1897, by a fellow-countryman of his, 

 M. Edouard Eod. He describes how admiring crowds 

 came from all parts of Switzerland and the adjoining 

 countries, as if for a pilgrimage, to see the loan collec- 

 tion of Arnold Boecklin's paintings, brought together that 

 year and exhibited on the occasion of his having attained 

 the age of threescore and ten. Many strangers came, 

 somewhat doubtful as to the admiration to be bestowed 

 on a painter almost entirely unknown out of Germany 

 and German Switzerland. But the display seems to have 

 convinced all that the work showed wonderful power and 

 originality, executed in a novel manner. He was born 

 rich and became poor, and for years his art seems to have 

 had a hard and uphill fight with the world that did not 

 appreciate him, and poverty that dogged his steps from 

 Borne back to Bale. At last he went to Munich, where 

 the distinguished novelist, Paul Heyse, seems to have 

 held out to him a friendly and helping hand. Must one 

 believe that success is necessary to an artist ? The fact 

 is that Boecklin never really became himself till his 

 individuality was recognised. His best works all belong 

 to this latest period, and his admirers hope for him an 

 illustrious old age. M. Edouard Eod adds : ' In looking 

 at his later works I thought what a beautiful thing is 

 old age when it remains healthy, brave, and laborious. I 

 thought of those luminous evenings that sometimes are 

 the end of glorious summer days.' Boecklin's work will 

 be all the more interesting in the days that are to come, 



