manifest. If what was once dead matter can by forces and agencies within itself be sublimated to their finer activities-if that which seems so gross can be finely touched to issues so fine as these then the universe of matter, self-moved to the noblest manifestations of thought and feeling, has no occasion for any other intelligence than such as sleeps in its own atoms and can be evoked by a happy combination or a swiftly moving stroke. The growth of materialistic evolutionism is similarly accounted for. Let the phenomena of life attract the scientific study of a generation of devoted students. Let the mysterious process of growth from the seed to the plant and the embryo to the perfected animal be the subject of curious yet familiar interest, and development becomes the word of the hour, at once exciting the curiosity by its peculiar mystery and then sating it by its frequent recognition till it forgets that it is the greatest of wonders. Let it be discovered that development has a wider range and application than had been supposed, even among living forms and beings; that many so-called species have originated from a simpler form. Let the truth be accepted among zoologists and palæontologists that a law of progress can be traced from simpler to more complex forms of life, from the fossil period down to the present. To any conclusions of this sort philosophy can have no possible objection, provided they are sustained by scientific evidence and are supported by scientific arguments. But when the analogies of the growing seed or embryo are extended to lifeless matter and made the substitute for creative force; when an unthinking tendency to variation coupled with a tendency to conservation equally blind are asserted to be the last formulæ which philosophy needs; when star-dust, rushing from a rarer to a denser medium, is deemed the only, and the ample, explanation of the structure and order of the planetary system, of the production of air and water and earth, of the production of animal and vegetable life, of the manipulation of sensitive, intellectual, and spiritual activity, of conscience, law, and religion; when, in short, the development of the germ of plant or animal is accepted as the ultimate solution of the evolution of the kosmos and all which it contains, even to the mind of a Humboldt which reflects it by scientific explanation, then we have a right to say in the name of philosophy that the idols of a single private chapel of knowledge shall not be admitted into its sacred fane and lifted up upon the high altar of philosophy. And we do this with reason, forasmuch as the doctrine of evolution, even if it were true, is no fundamental conception on which all the sciences

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can stand, but supposes many other such conceptions, preeminently one, and that is the conception of a plan beginning millions of ages past, most comprehensive of minute detail, infinite in the possibilities which it realizes and rejects, and steadily pressing forward towards its fulfilment-in a word, supposes a creative energy of unexhausted capacity and intelligent wisdom.

These remarks may serve to impress the conviction which thinkers of all schools of science are beginning to acknowledge, that the questions that are now agitating the devotees of any department of knowledge can only be answered by asking profounder questions in respect to man's nature, ¿e., his capacity to know either matter or mind; in respect to the essence of matter, of life, of sensibility, of science itself; in respect to duty and right and immortality; and again, in respect to the destiny of man as an individual and as a race, in the present and in the future life—most of all in respect to God; whether science compels us to recognize Him or must shut and bar forever the brazen gates which seem to lead into His inner sanctuary, and will forever delude and tantalize the successive generations that stream towards those gates by painted and gilded mockeries that at a distance seem to reveal the mysteries of the highest truth, and on a near approach vanish like the vapour before the sun.

Questions of this sort agitate thinking men to the very depths of their being. They cannot be evaded. They can only be answered by cherishing the truly scientific spirit-that spirit which, according to the great expounders of the modern scientific method, is coincident with the spirit which the great Master of Christian truth declared was indispensable to a man who desires to enter into the kingdom of heaven. In prescribing this spirit in searching after truth, the great Master of Christian thinking has given the sufficient rule and inspiration for all philosophical inquiry. Hence when He founded the kingdom of God upon earth He provided a place, and a very large place, in it for a Christian philosophy.

IV. THE MADONNA DI SAN SISTO.

BY THE REV. J. I. MOMBErt, D.D.

DURING a prolonged residence in the charming capital of Saxony, frequent pilgrimages to its magnificent gallery of paintings were of course attended by a constantly growing admiration and enthusiasm for the superb array of works of art which are there collected, and so judiciously arranged that the gallery may without exaggeration be described, "not only as a chief centre for the enjoyment of art, but also of instruction in it to the cultivated of the whole earth." In that exquisitely beautiful temple of art, filled with the masterpieces of the most famous painters of almost every period and every country, there is probably no painting more universally admired and more frequently visited than the Madonna di San Sisto, by Raphael Sanzio of Urbino.

It has a cabinet of its own, which is almost always crowded with visitors. The cabinet is situated in the north-western corner of the gallery; a peculiarly soft light falls on the picture, set up in an altar-like structure, and has, on account of the priceless gem it enshrines and the exquisite perfection of its peerless conception, been called by an enthusiastic lover of art "the holy of holies" of the entire gallery. The visitor, the moment he enters, feels a mysterious spell come over him. Fascinated by the eloquent appeal to his noblest emotions and highest aspirations, which seems to address him individually and to hold him captive, he yields himself unconsciously to the magic and subtile influence that pervades that sanctuary of art; and he in turn becomes one of the silent admirers that gaze intently on the Madonna, of which we propose to furnish a brief description, with such matters concerning its history as may enable those who only know the picture from copies, engravings, and photographs, to study it with increased interest.

The picture represents a window; a half-opened green curtain, fastened to a rod and gathered up at the sides, supposed to have just been opened, discloses to the spectators, imagined to stand or kneel before it,—that is, inside the room, a celestial vision of passing sublimity. In the centre,

enthroned on clouds and surrounded by a halo of innumerable angel heads, which from a tint of pale luminous white. gradually gathers intenser colouring till it culminates in softest azure, appears the Virgin Mary, holding in her right arm and supporting with her left the infant Saviour. On the Virgin's right, slightly below her, also on clouds, adores, in kneeling attitude, but with uplifted face, Pope Sixtus II.; his tiara is deposited in the extreme right corner of the embrasure, the central portion of which is occupied by two beautiful cherubs in a leaning posture, their faces turned to the spectator, but their glance directed upwards, the one seemingly lost in intent contemplation, the other in rapt introspection. On the Virgin's left, half-kneeling, also on clouds, the radiant features of St. Barbara are downwards bent toward the contemplative angels. All the figures are life-size, and so grouped together as to form a pyramid.

Returning to the central figure, and retaining the idea of a heavenly vision, we behold a woman so passing beautiful, of that beauty which the French call spirituelle, so transcendently lovely, so perfect in everything conveyed by the allied terms, beauty, goodness, grace, and loveliness, that we unhesitatingly say: "Here is the visible embodiment of the classical τὸ καλόν.”

The circular shape of the seemingly moving clouds beneath her feet, suggesting the spherical form of the earth, the garments of all the figures waving under the pressure of gentle breezes, the adoring posture of St. Sixtus and St. Barbara, the background of angel hosts, and the contemplative and, as it were, interpreting cherubs in position nearest to the spectator-this striking tout-ensemble combines to prompt the thought that here is the Virgin mother with her Divine Son visiting the earth to carry to the human race the blessings of Heaven. And then the Christ-child, clothed with every attribute of infant loveliness, that marvellously telling expression, that intense looking-forth, so utterly unlike infancy, and seeming to pierce one through and through, is altogether a unique creation, probably designed to kindle in the beholder's soul the conviction that in that innocent face shines forth the conscious Godhead-that the searching and suffering look is prophetic of the passion-that it is, in short, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The conspicuous display of the angel-world, moreover, makes one think of the mystery which "the angels desire to look into."

In admirable keeping with the matchless delineation of the human face divine in the Virgin, the Christ-babe, the venerable

head of the martyr-pope, and the exquisitely lovely St. Barbara, whose attribute of the tower appears immediately behind her right shoulder, are the grouping, the astonishing adjustment of space, the harmonious colouring, and the superbly chaste attire. But of such technical details as drawing and colouring we will not utter a word beyond the brief note in the gallery catalogues of 1806 and 1812, that "this painting seems to be a creation of the imagination without the brush."

The attire of the Madonna consists of a delicate crimson sopravesta, embroidered with gold, and skirt of the same material, covered from the waist downwards with a blue cloak of ample folds; from over the left shoulder depends across the chest, yet so as to be half-hidden by the infant Christ, a semi-transparent scarf of soft texture, while from the head floats an Italian veil, surrounding her left and gathered up under the child, of drab-like tint. The attitude is that of dignified majesty; yet it is difficult to say which feeling predominates in the serene calmness of that sunny face, the innocent dignity and loving pride of the Virgin mother, or the manifest consciousness of her exaltation as a woman; the two are probably united, melting into each other. At a certain distance from the painting, and a peculiar elevation, the deep eloquence of those hazel eyes seems to address the beholder, who feels that the Virginwho looks neither at the pope nor at St. Barbara, but sends forth her glance towards the spectator, alike heedless of the worship of venerable old age and beautiful youth-draws near as the mother in the very transport of bliss, as woman in the sublimity of virtue, and presents the incarnate Godchild; while her sweet mildness, so gentle and sympathetic, and her soft look of persuasive entreaty appear to invite him to set his affection and hope on the child Jesus.

The difficulty of portraying in words the appearance of the Virgin and the Christ vanishes with respect to the other figures of the painting; for here the real and the concrete predominate; while there we have mainly to deal with the ideal and the abstract.

The pope is arrayed in his pontificals. He wears the alba or sotane, a white linen garment reaching from the neck to the feet; the fano or ovale, a silk handkerchief; the pluviale, of gold brocade lined with red, an upper garment of ceremony; the stola, also of gold-thread texture, a sort of scarf depending from the shoulders; the last, as well as the alba, girded by the red cingulum, or girdle. The retention of these liturgical