nitions, both as for and against themselves, wherever religious toleration is the principle of the law, and where they might make it the principle of society!

There is another aspect of M. de Montalembert's character which is so prominent in his political life, that it must enter any estimate of his real love of freedom. He is a lover of minorities, an implacable enemy of triumphant causes of all kinds, and finding constitutional government very low in estimation in France at this moment, he comes forward as its advocate. There was no politician in France who less valued constitutional liberty when France had it than himself: to no administration in the time of Louis Philippe did he ever give his cordial adhesion, but always contented himself with that amount of support which enabled him to exercise considerable influence in ecclesiastical appointments, especially under M. Guizot, who highly appreciated his oratorical faculty. At the same time he directed his fiercest eloquence against the policy of Lord Palmerston, which was then, as always, founded on the extension of constitutional principles, and which has never ceased to identify English interests with the reasonable and well-ordered freedom of all other nations. But when the Republic became the established order of things, the men and forms of the preceding system rose in his esteem to a high elevation, and he was proportionally unmerciful and unjust to what succeeded them. His position at that moment was one of much responsibility, for his parliamentary experience gave him high rank among so many new men. The moment was now come when the principles which he had maintained in his youth, and which had brought him as a criminal before the bar of the Chamber of Peers, might be put into practice, and when he might consistently advocate at once the liberties of the Church and of mankind. But the same Assembly which contained as representative of Paris the ancient preceptor of the young enthusiast, M. de Lamennais, witnessed the unceasing attempts of M. de Montalembert to vilify the Republic and, through the Republic, the people who endured it: no speaker more assisted the anti-socialist panic, and thus more played into the hands of those who have used it so sagaciously for their own purposes. And when that edious political contradiction, the imposition of a detested temporal government on the Roman people by a French republican army, had succeeded in alienating from the rulers of France the sympathy of all liberal-minded men, he called for 'un expédition de Rome à l'intérieur,' which could mean nothing more than an abrogation of the first principles of national independence, and an utter abasement of all popular

rights. He perhaps hardly anticipated how much of his prayer would be speedily granted, although, when it did come, he was still sufficiently under the influence of the same opinions to incur the unhappy notoriety of being the one distinguished orator of the old Chamber of Deputies who consented to transfer his services to the Legislative Chamber of the then approaching and now consummated Empire.

But no sooner do we find him there, than the same disturbing elements which had made this able man so useless, or worse, in former deliberative assemblies, again drove him into opposition; and now this essay not only isolates him again from a political system, but from a large portion of the fellow-religionists, whose homage has hitherto surrounded him, and who looked on him as their uncompromising and even unscrupulous advocate.

M. de Montalembert permits himself to indulge in the hope, that the remnant of the forms of constitutional government preserved under the Empire, will be the nucleus of further liberties, and instances periods in English history when parliamentary institutions had as little internal vitality. Such analogies really mean nothing in the face of altered circumstances and the progress of mankind. But where a power has not in its origin trusted itself to popular discussion and criticism, every hour of its existence increases the difficulty of the experiment. Whether, however, some such result occurs or no, it is equally true that if there is a nation on the globe which requires this comparatively safe outlet for popular excitement, for nervous impatience, for all the oscillations of hope and fear, it is the people of France; and Europe cannot feel herself secure from some outburst of the moment, now that these forces are merely repressed by that authority, which may be compelled, in its own defence, to direct upon others the violence and passion that would otherwise threaten its own existence.

ART. VIII. Legends of the Madonna, as represented in the Fine Arts. Forming the Third Series of Sacred and Legendary Art. By Mrs. JAMESON. London: 1852.

TH

HE recent sale of Marshal Soult's collection of paintings has familiarised most of our readers, at least by name, with the celebrated picture by Murillo, called Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.' The title, however, conveys to the English reader but little information as to the subject represented by the painting. Nor is the meaning more intelligible to the generality of those persons who have seen either the

painting itself or an engraving after it. It represents a female figure with grave sweet eyes and golden hair,' and beautiful features. Her hands are crossed on her bosom as if in prayer. She is supported on clouds. From her head, as from a sun, radiate streams of light, under her feet are visible the horns of the crescent moon. Beneath the clouds is seen the outline of the globe, on the surface of which a serpent is gliding along. To those conversant with the mysteries of religious art the picture has a meaning which the uninitiated cannot penetrate. The Virgin is here represented not only as Maria 'purisima sin pecado concepida,' but as the second Eve, whose seed was to bruise the head of the serpent. The painter has endowed her with the attributes of the woman of the Apocalypse, clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.'

6

Could we in all cases read the thoughts which lie beneath the surface of pictures, veiled in the emblematical and allegorical language of the old painters, how much greater would be the interest felt in Italian Art! What deep significance would be found attached to accessories which the idle spectator ascribes to the fancy or imagination of the painter! Even the situation in which the picture is placed can a tale unfold.' In the Madonnas set up at the corners of streets, over the doors of houses, or gates of gardens, or in the colossal figures of the Virgin, whose ample robe, supported on either side, throws its protecting shade round men, women, and children, the student of religious art sees Our Lady of Succour,' Notre dame de bon secours,' La Madonna di Misericordia.' The Virgin is here in the character of Protectress. In the Virgin reading he sees the Mater Sapientiæ, the Virgo Sapientissima. In the coronation of the Virgin, he beholds the type of the Church triumphant. When she wears the crown or holds the sceptre, she is adored as Regina Coeli; when attended by adoring angels, as Regina Angelorum. When she is merely veiled, with folded hands, and in her features all the beauty, maiden purity, and 'sweetness which the artist could render, she is simply the Blessed Virgin, the Madonna, the Santa Maria Vergine.

But how is the English visitor in Italy to understand these symbolical meanings and the traditionary legends of the old painters? Mrs. Jameson will inform us; and our best thanks are due to her for another beautiful volume elucidating religious art, which forms the third series of Sacred and Legendary 'Art.' The subject of the new work is The Legends of the Madonna ;' and it is impossible that they could have found a better interpreter than Mrs. Jameson. The work is divided into

two parts, namely, Devotional and Historical subjects, and is preceded by a long introduction, which contains an account of the rise and progress of the worship of the Madonna. In this the authoress traces the first worship of the Virgin to at least the very commencement of the fifth century; she shows that the earliest effigies and pictures of her were considered as symbols of faith, and not as mere representations. She notices the fury of the Iconoclasts under Leo the Isaurian and his successors, which resulted in the final triumph of image worship; the Nestorian heresy, which denied to the Virgin the title of 'Theotokos' (Mother of God); the introduction, after the Crusades, of the Apocryphal gospels; the compilation of the Golden Legend, the influence of Dante, the Council of Constance, and the Condemnation of Huss, all of which contributed to the establishment of the worship of the Virgin.

The real cause of the prevalence of worship of the Madonna for more than ten. centuries is a question which has seldom been fairly discussed. The one party is strongly prejudiced in its favour; the other is as strongly opposed to it. We give Mrs. Jameson much credit for the able and novel manner which she has treated this subject of contention. Although considered chiefly in an artistical point of view, she remarks upon the softening influence which the worship of the Madonna exercised over the Christian world. Everywhere, she tells us, the Art-treasures of the Middle Ages suggest one prevalent idea'it is that of an impersonation in the feminine character of beneficence, purity, and power, standing between an offended Deity and poor, sinning, suffering humanity, and 'clothed in the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our Lord.' Even through the obscure myths of antiquity she finds dimly shadowed forth this prevalent idea of a mother-goddess, chaste, beautiful, and benign.'

'As in the oldest Hebrew rites and Pagan superstitions men traced the promise of a coming Messiah, -as the deliverers and kings of the Old Testament, and even the demigods of heathendom, became accepted types of the person of Christ, - -so the Eve of the Mosaic history, the Astarte of the Assyrians,

"The mooned Ashtaroth, queen and mother both,'

the Isis nursing Horus of the Egyptians, the Demeter and Aphrodite of the Greeks, the Scythian Freya, have been considered by some writers as types of a Divine maternity, foreshadowing the Virgin Mother of Christ. Others will have it that these scattered, dim, mistaken, often gross and perverted, ideas which were afterwards gathered into the pure, dignified, tender image of the Madonna, were but as the voice of a mighty prophecy, sounded through all the gene

rations of men, even from the beginning of time, of the coming moral regeneration and complete and harmonious development of the whole human race, by the establishment on a higher basis of what has been called the feminine element' in society. And let me speak for myself. In the perpetual iteration of that beautiful image of THE WOMAN highly blessed, there, where others only saw pictures or statues, I have seen this great hope standing like a spirit beside the visible form; in the fervent worship once universally given to that gracious presence, I have beheld an acknowledgment of a higher as well as gentler power than that of the strong hand and the might that makes the right, and in every earnest votary one who, as he knelt, was in this sense pious beyond the reach of his own thought, and "devout beyond the meaning of his will." (Pp. 19, 20.)

Mrs. Jameson then shows how, in the early ages of the Christianity, the Virgin was endowed with the attributes of Ceres and of the Diana of the Ephesians; and how, with Christianity, new ideas of the moral and religious responsibility of Woman entered the world.

'With Christianity came the want of a new type of womanly perfection, combining all the attributes of the ancient female divinities with others altogether new. Christ, as the model-man, united the virtues of the two sexes, till the idea that there are essentially masculine and feminine virtues intruded itself on the higher Christian conception, and seems to have necessitated the female type.' (P. 21.)

To the reverence felt towards the mother-goddess, chivalry added fresh honours. The title of Our Lady' was given to the Virgin because she was the lady of all hearts, whose 'colours all were proud to wear.' The great religious communities enrolled themselves as her votaries. The Serviti,' or 'Esclaves de Marie,' we learn from Mrs. Jameson, devoted themselves in her name, as 'Our Lady of Mercy,' to acts of charity. The Cistercians, she tells us, wore white in honour of her purity, the Servi, black, in respect for her sorrows.' The Franciscans were the champions of the Immaculate Conception, and the Dominicans introduced the Rosary.' It may be necessary to explain that by the Rosary,' is understood a cycle of devotional subjects consisting of fifteen mysteries, for a complete explanation of which we must refer our readers to Mrs. Jameson's book, p. lxi.

The Apocryphal Gospels and the Golden Legend, by introducing new traditions concerning the Virgin, gave not only a fresh impulse to the general veneration for her, but supplied new themes for artists. Dante also lent his powerful influence to promote the honour of her whom he apostrophises as En' nobler of thy Nature!' and the enthusiasm and religious vene