ings in the Chigi palace had excited much criticism; and the opinion was publicly expressed that his talent was on the wane. To such an opinion the artist was sensitive, and he resolved to refute it by some brilliant work. The Cardinal Guiliano de' Medici commissioned him to paint a "Transfiguration" for the church in the diocese of Narbonne. The Transfiguration was the last effort of his life, and, certainly, one of the grandest. Passavant, in his scholarly work on the life of the artist, thus writes of it: "Raphael divided his subject into two distinct parts. In the upper part, Christ has just risen into the air above Mount Tabor, and has appeared to his apostles, in the midst of a dazzling and supernatural light, of which he himself is the centre. His eyes and arms are raised to heaven. At his side, likewise self-supported in air, are figures of Moses and Elijah. On the mountain itself the apostles, Peter, James, and John, are lying prostrate on the ground, their eyes being unable to bear the brilliancy of the supernatural light. 'This is my beloved son; hear him.' "But when our eyes descend from this height to the lower part of the picture, we are struck by the most striking contrast between the celestial apparition, which is so full of majesty, and the human and demoniac nature in its most disturbed state; for the principal subject of this part of the composition is a father, who has just brought his son, possessed by a devil, and is vainly seeking help from the apostles. The physical and moral suffering, the misery and weakness of human nature on the earth, are heart-rendering sights, but this feeling, which the master wished to arouse as a contrast between things celestial and terrestrial, finds its consolation and true christian interpretation in the different gestures of the apostles, directed towards the Christ, the Saviour of men. These gestures, so animated by faith, unite the two scenes in the composition and form them into one of the greatest richness and divinely-combined depth. "We must remark a strange and almost miraculous coincidence. The last picture that Raphael painted of the history of Christ was the 'Transfiguration,' as the last picture of the Madonna, which terminated his many representations of the Virgin, is the 'Madonna di San Sisto,' in which the Virgin seems transfigured by the celestial light which surrounds her. It may be said, too, that these two masterpieces are those that have excited the most constant admiration and the greatest veneration during three centuries throughout all christendom. It was, while engaged in finishing the sublime painting just described, that Raphael was struck down prematurely. He had caught a severe cold while pushing his researches among the ruins of Rome, and this illness terminated in a violent fever. Before his death he was able to execute his will. To Margarita, the girl whom he had always loved, he bequeathed a rich amount of his property. His relations at Urbino, and his friends everywhere, were each generously remembered. During his last illness, the pope did every thing in his power to re-assure and encourage him. Great was his fright when the apartment he occupied, and which had been built by Raphael, fell down!* He was obliged to move from it as soon as possible, and his fear redoubled when he learned, almost immediately, that the great master had breathed his last. Raphael died on Good Friday, April 6th, 1520, in the thirty-eighth year of his age; and was buried in one of the small chapels in the Pantheon.† As an illustration of the veneration in which his memory is held throughout Italy, especially at Rome, we may mention * It should be remembered that Raphael was a great architect, as well as a great painter, and wrote elaborate and learned works on architecture. An edition of these works was published at Rome, in 1845, by Carlo Fontana one of the most eminent Italian architects of the present century. M. Ch. Blanc, one of the French biographers of Raphael, gives his impressions of his style as follows: "C'est un style élegant et pur, une harmonie harmante dans les proportions, beaucoup de saillie et de richesse dans les profils, d'où résulte un jeu pittoresque d'ombres portées, l'accouplement habituel des colonnes et des pilastres adossés aux trumeaux des entre-croisées, un prédilection particulière pour les corniches (les frontons ?) alternativement cintrées et triangulaires, enfin la superposition des divers ordres d'architecture, en commençant volontiers par le rustique pour le subassement et en passant par l'ionique, pour finir par le corinthien." "Sa mort fut pour Rome et pour l'Italie," says M. Gruyer, "un deuil universel. Son corps fut exposé sur un lit de parade ayant à sa tète le tableau inachevé de La Transfiguration. Ses funérailles furent splendides, et il fut déposé au Panthéon, non loin de la pauvre Maria Bibiena, sa fiancée, et sur sa tombe le Bembo inscrivit une epitaphe qui se termine par ce distique si connu : "Ille hic est Raphael, timuit quo sospite vinci -Essai sur les fresques de Raphael au Vatican. that, in 1833, a commission consisting of the principal members of the various academies of the Eternal city was appointed for the purpose of searching for his tomb and ascertaining whether it contained his remains. The search lasted seven days, until finally the skeleton of the great artist was found under the altar of the Virgin Mary, where it had lain for more than three centuries. The enthusiasm which this discovery created is will described by Nitoly, in a letter written to Quatremère de Quincy, from which we extract the following passage: "Vous ne pouvez vous figurer, l'enthousiasme qui s'empar de nous lorsque, par un dernier effort, on découvrit les restes d'une caisse mortuaire et le squelette tout entier, étendu tel qu'il avait été placé, légèrement couvert de terre ou de poussière humide provenant des débris de la caisse qui était décomposée et des vêtements et des parties molles; on reconnut que le tombeau n'avait jamais été ouvert. Le premier soin que l'on prit fut de degager, peu à peu, le corps de cette poussière, que d'ailleurs on recueillit religieusement pour la replacer dans un autre sarcophage. On trouva dans ces débris des morceaux de la caisse, qui était de bois de pin, et des fragments de peinture qui avaient orné le couvercle, plus de morceaux d'argile du Tibre, indices qui prouvent que l'eau du fleuve y avait pénetré au moins par infiltration, plus une stilletta de fer, sorte d'éperon dont Raphael avait été décoré par Léon X., quelques fibules, beaucoup d'anelli de métal, partie des boutons du vêtement."* Raphael had a regular, agreeable, and delicate face, wellproportioned features, brown hair, eyes of the same color, full of sweetness and modesty; the tone of the face bordering upon the olive; the expression, that of grace and sensibility. His neck was long, his head small, his frame feeble; nothing in him indicated a constitution of long duration. His manners were charming; his exterior was prepossessing; his dress was elegant-in a word, he belonged to the bon ton of Roman society. The artist's moral qualities fully coincided with his physical features. Of gratitude for kindly action he lacked not a whit, Feelings of envy or jealousy never entered his mind. He was free to give assistance and to offer his services when needed. Though not strictly possessed of a high * Vie de Raphael, par Quatremère de Quincy. education, he was, nevertheless, well informed. From his earliest youth, he had aimed to know the causes of all things, and seeking knowledge he always found it. Of Raphael's character as a painter, it would be presumption to say anything. People do not like to be told what they learned already in infancy. Whatever may be said of the artist Raphael, can be only in praise; such praise posterity has bestowed for more than three centuries. As did the past, so will the future continue to address to the great painter of Urbino, the famed eulogy of his earliest biographer, TU SOLO IL PITTOR SEI DE' PITTORI. ART. V.-1. Obituary Notices of the late REV. Isaac Ferris, D.D., LL.D. June, 1873. 2. Funeral Oration. By ALEXANDER R. THOMPSON. 3. Biographical and Obituary Notices of the late REV. JOHN EARLY, S. J. June, 1873. 4. Catalogues of Colleges, Universities, etc., Good Bad, and indifferent. 5. Some Catholic Organs and their Performances. New York and Cincinnati. BEFORE We mention either of the honored and beloved names which stand at the head of this paper, and which, with their good works, are all we have now left of those who bore them, we beg leave to make an observation or two; only prenising that although they may delay the reader a few minutes, will seem neither irrelevant nor uncalled for at the end. There will be something else also for which we should probably ask indulgence in advance, for we intend taking the liberty of interspersing ur remarks with some personal reminiscences and experiences, and perhaps introducing here and there a little episode which may seem to violate the unities. We feel all the more justified in claiming to be thus indulged because we are convinced that there is no intelligent, unbiased man, or woman, whether Catholic or Protestant, that accompanies us in our discussion, who will not admit at the close, if not before, not only that our object is a good one, but that our discussion will do good. Were it possible for us to write a separate article on every topic connected with higher education, which we feel claims more or less attention, then we would avoid the discursive style, refrain from digressions and exclude episodes. Especially would we do so when our chief object, as in the present instance, is partly to pay our humble tribute to those honored dead, whose honors were earned by the most useful labors perseveringly and faithfully performed, and partly to suggest to such of the living as are so disposed how they may profit by those labors, or by the good examples which they present. But such a course is not possible. Moreover the very name of a review embraces the idea of a wide range; and those who established the first periodical bearing that name claimed Socrates as their prototype; and more particularly did they invoke the example of the great Athenian sage in making their comparisons between the good, bad and indifferent, and contrasting the different species with each other. It is a strange commentary on public sentiment in this country that, of all occupying important positions, none are less honored in life or in death than our educators. At first sight, it may seem a paradox that if they do, sometimes, receive honors it is much more for their being incompetent than for their being competent; but such, nevertheless, is the fact. Those who are educators merely in name, and are in sad need of education themselves, are treated as great personages-precisely the class alluded to by Quintilian, when he says, that "none are more contemptible than those who, having got the merest smattering in learning, vainly persuade themselves, and try to persuade others, that they are men of knowledge,”* *Nihil enim pejus est iis qui, paulum ultra primas literas, progressi, falsam sibi scientiæ persuasionem induerunt.-De Institutione Oratoris, lib., i. 2. |