The Saviour had been addressing a multitude by the sea, or lake, of Gennesareth, when, desirous to avoid the pressure of the throng, and observing two small fishing-boats lying at the water's edge, he entered one of them, and besought the owner of it to push out a little from the land, that he might from thence continue his instructions with greater convenience. The vessel he had entered belonged to two brothers, Peter and Andrew, to whom he had some time previously made himself known. When his discourse was concluded, he desired Peter to go out into deep water, and let down his nets to fish. Peter respectfully obeyed, although he had already been fishing the whole night previous without catching anything, and could therefore have no reason to anticipate success in a farther attempt. On this occasion, however, so many fishes were taken, that not only the boat of Andrew and Peter, but the other likewise, which belonged to James and John, the sons of Zebedee, whom the former now called to their assistance, was so filled as to be in danger of sinking. The whole party were struck with astonishment at the miracle; but especially Peter; who, at all times disposed to feel, and to express his feelings, with warmth and earnestness, and now awed and somewhat terrified by the presence of a person en

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dowed with supernatural power, fell on his knees at the feet of Jesus, and said, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" But Jesus, to encourage him, replied, in terms easily intelligible to one of his occupation, "Fear not: from this time forth thou shalt catch men."-Such is the subject of this Cartoon: the moment represented is evidently that, when Peter's exclamation has been uttered, and our Lord is commencing his reply. The treatment of the subject by that great artist whose heart was profoundly responsive to the harmonies of truth and nature, is both in strict accordance with the immediate circumstances, and indicative of the object designed in the

event.

Raffaelle was, in this instance, limited by the facts of the history to a smaller number of figures than in any other of the series; he has, nevertheless, found means within these confined limits, to indicate all the various emotions necessary to convey a complete impression of the event. A part of the peculiarly striking effect produced, is indeed owing to this paucity of the characters, each in particular being the more distinctly individualized, and more deeply stamped on the spectator's mind: the extraneous accompaniments-in the painter's phrase, "the ac

cessaries"—are likewise, both in the foreground and in the distance, calculated in the highest degree to aid in producing the result designed.

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Before the spectator's eye, is spread the calm surface of the lake, which, stretching its waters to the distant elevated horizon, appears well entitled to its more usual appellation of a sea." Over that part of the expanse into which the small fishing-barques have been brought, is diffused a sentiment of solitariness and serenity. A mild and uniform light falls from the untroubled sky. The water is disturbed only by the ripple which the action of hauling up the net occasions, and by the sudden escape of one or two of its mute captives. The immediate foreground, a

lonely point of the beach, strewed with sea-shells, and overgrown with aquatic plants, affords a retreat

"Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play,"

to several wild-looking gigantic water-fowl of the crane kind, whom the near neighbourhood of human visitors scarcely disturbs from the pursuit of their prey. Birds of different species are seen at intervals, disporting themselves or seeking their food on the remoter surface of the water, or in the serene

* Paradise Regained.

air: all nature seems hushed, as if in expectation of some great event.

The figure, which from the energy of its action, and the intensity of its expression, perhaps, first attracts regard, is that of Peter: to pursue the proper order and gradation of interest, however, we must begin with the representation of the Divine Saviour, the chief both in moral and graphic importance, and that on which the eye, after the first glance, fixes with the greatest complacency and delight.

The picturesque and unscrupulous character of the Romish religion has allowed, without censure, the pictorial representation of God, as the Father -the I AM, the Primal Fount of Deity. From making this attempt, if a reflective piety had not prevented it, the hand of the artist ought to have been deterred by the palpable inadequacy of his mind and materials to embody that awful and abysmal idea. Or, if he had ventured to depict the Jehovah of the Old Testament, he ought not to have essayed to do it, as it frequently has been done, under the form of an ancient man-a form which, however venerable, could, within the limits of our conception, or at least within the representative powers of art, ascend no

higher in the condensed expression of mingled power and benignity (the nearest embodyment of the idea, if any may be termed near) than the point reached by the Greek sculptors in their Jupiter. At the least, adopting the theological dogma of the fathers, that Jesus Christ is, properly, in the etymological sense of the term, the person of God--God making himself visible and acting as a man among men; that for this purpose he was man (homo publicus) in the union of himself to human nature in the abstract, long before he became historically a man by his incarnation; and that hence he was in person Jehovah, and frequently appeared to divinely favoured individuals, under the old dispensation-on which occasions he is called sometimes an "Angel," "the Angel of the Lord"-sometimes merely " a man";-the Supreme Being, if represented bodily at all, should have been represented with the appearance usually termed angelic-as a man in the bloom of immortal youth and vigour. There is no relation-there is, on the contrary, an absolute incongruity-between the idea of eternity and the idea of age: that such relation exists is an illusion probably imparted to the mind by the use of the term Father, to denote the absolute underived Godhead. It is evident, however, that the term implies, in this case, accord