same, I perceived, was felt by others; for when later the same night I assisted at the solemn Mass in S. Luigi dei Francesi, I heard a French gentleman remark to another who was with him, "" Le peu que j'ai connu ce soir du Saint Père et des cardinaux doit m'encourager dans le sentier du bien."

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CHAPTER VI.

A STROLL THROUGH THE GALLERIES OF THE VATICAN. The Sala Ducale—Galleries of Raphael-Rooms of Raphael-Remarks on Raphael's Style of Painting-Raphael compared with Michael Angelo ---The "School of Athens"-Other Works of this great Master— The Library—The Stanza de' Papiri-Manner in which the Books are kept-Curious Works in Print and Manuscript-Books condemned in the Index-Beautiful Vases and other Ornaments-Sacred Objects, &c. of early Christian Times-Fine Collection of Byzantine and Mediæval Italian Painting—Various other curious and interesting Objects-The Librarians of the Vatican-Some remarkable ones. OPPOSITE the Capella Sistina you enter the Sala Ducale, in which the public consistories are held, when cardinals are first admitted into the Sacred College; and thence you can pass to the Loggie di Raffaelle, or Galleries of Raphael. Hither, in company with an Italian friend, I bent my steps on the first Monday after my arrival in Rome, that being the "open day," or the one on which this portion of the Vatican is thrown open gratuitously to the public. Raphael and his scholars under his immediate superintendence executed only a part of the frescoes on the walls; but his tasteful, creative mind traced the designs for all. From one of these galleries a door opens into

* "These are called the galleries of Raffaelle, because painted by that great master or by his scholars. The first gallery in the middle story is the one executed by Raffaelle himself, or, to speak more correctly, partly by him and partly by his scholars, under his inspection, and not unfrequently retouched and corrected by his hand. In the thirteen arcades

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the Camere di Raffaelle, or Rooms of Raphael, and in these I spent the greater part of the first day. These rooms are totally unfurnished, the cabinet-maker and the upholsterer had no business here; the soul and hand of D'Urbino* fills and beautifies them. Whoever

that compose the wing of the gallery is represented the History of the Old and part of the New Testament, beginning with the Creation and closing with the Last Supper. The plan, the arrangement, the ornaments of these celebrated pieces are in general great and beautiful the fancy and expression oftentimes rise to the grand and even to the sublime. To the encomiums passed in general on the decorations of these galleries, I need not add that the intermediate ornaments, such as the basso-relievos, which are supposed to be antiques taken from the halls of the different thermæ, and the arabesques which separate and grace the different compartments, are much and justly admired."-Classical Tour.

* Raphael was born at Urbino in 1483, and was the son of a painter of no great merit. He learned the rudiments of painting from his father, and was afterwards placed under Pietro Perugino, whose style he imitated to such perfection that their works could scarcely be distinguished. His genius soon taught him to soar far beyond his instructor. He studied with ardour the sculptures of the ancient masters; he minutely examined the works of Leonardo da Vinci and of Michael Angelo; he availed himself of all that could be collected from the artists of his age, and at last struck out a manner which has been acknowledged perfect. During his brief career he exhibited proofs that he was gifted by the hand of Nature with excellences rarely bestowed. His manners were in the highest degree attractive, whilst the beauty of his countenance and form struck every beholder. He died at the early age of thirty-seven, in the year 1520, and was buried with the greatest pomp and magnificence in the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, formerly the Pantheon.

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The character and merits of Raphael and his great rival, Michael Angelo, are pretty well described by the editor of the Classical Tour. "The latter," he says, speaking of M. Angelo, 'may be compared to the Old Testament, the former seems to have sought a model in the New. The one condemned his enemies to the society of the damned; the other exalted his friends to the company of the philosophers and sages of antiquity. The women of Michael Angelo may be 'moulds of

has thought of Raphael as the greatest of artists, the divinest of painters, the most perfect in manner, the most admirable in design, and the most graceful in execution, let him come here to see all these highest and fondest dreams beautifully and completely realized. He will not behold Raphael's greatest works-to these we will come later-but he will see productions which no other hand could form, and no other head conceive. Michael Angelo was more sublime; but Raphael excelled in every other quality. All the delightful parts of the art were his. The propriety, beauty, and majesty of his characters, his judicious contrivance of composition and correctness of drawing, are unequalled by any other artist; while the purity of his taste, the ineffable grace and softness of his pencil, and the elegance of his finish, are beyond all praise. As you look around, and walk from room to room, you will mark the simplicity and dignity with which the minutest objects are expressed and disposed, and the truth to nature and to reason that reigns in all his works. You will also be struck with the skilful display of other men's conceptions to his own purposes, and the art with which he draws all your attention from his accessory figures

generation,' but those of Raphael are the mistresses of our affections, and exalt our nature even to idolatry. The children of the former may 'teem with the man,' but who shall attempt to describe the intelligence beaming in the countenances of the boys of Foligno. The Transfiguration of Raphael displays the divinity of Christ, and teaches the lesson of faith. It was reserved to the perverse genius of his rival to depict the Son of God in the act of cursing man, and the Saviour of the human race reels from his hands the terrible minister of divine vengeance."

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to fix it on the principal object of the piece. His. portraits are remarkable as the representation of the great men of the age in which he lived; and his Meeting of Leo and Attila," for a particularly good one of himself, introduced as a "crucifer" in the Pope's train. He is excellent in the characters of philosophers, apostles, and the like, and he invests the popes and cardinals with wonderful dignity and expression. In composition he was distinguished by the highest merit -the power of giving the appearance of chance to the arrangement of his figures. In design, he was chiefly characterized by an elegant simplicity; we nowhere meet in him the affected contrasts of Michael Angelo, or the studied attitudes of Guido. In invention he is principally remarkable for the genius and sagacity with which he seizes the most striking and energetic moment of time for representation. He was the best ethic painter the world produced. No man ever expressed the sentiments so happily in visage, attitude, and gesture. His "School of Athens" is to all intents and purposes a school of expression. Its admirable variety in the air and countenance of those four boys is a very miracle of art. This, indeed, seems to me by far the most wonderful of all the frescoes; it filled me with higher emotions of veneration for its great author than any of the others. I looked with intense satisfaction on the "Judgment of Solomon," and was charmed with "The Angels delivering Peter from Prison," and the "Coronation of Charlemagne;" but it was with rapture that I gazed on the "School of Athens." Often I returned, after having examined the others, to study more mi