388 MORE POT-POURRI 



and Boecklin. It was at BMe that Erasmus lived and 

 died. Fronde's lectures on ' The Life and Letters of 

 Erasmus ' had so recently brought that memorable time 

 vividly before me ; and thej"^ enable us to look ' through 

 the eyes of Erasmus at all events as they rose, with the 

 future course of things concealed from him. This is 

 the way to understand history. We know what hap- 

 pened, and we judge the actors on the stage by the light 

 of it. They did not know.' Holbein's portrait of 

 Erasmus is intensely interesting, and much more beauti- 

 ful than the one at Hampton Court, by the same painter, 

 of this thin-lipped, intellectual, sensitive ' Trimmer ' of 

 the Middle Ages. Fronde says : ' In early life death 

 had seemed an ugly object to Erasmus. When his time 

 came, he received it with tranquility. He died quietly 

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

 cathedral.' The last words of Fronde's last lecture 

 are : ' I have endeavoured to put before you the char- 

 acter 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 preju- 

 dice. 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 centam-s, etc., though in a way 

 striking and remarkable, 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 



