of the multitude upon him-he would possess the power of concealing his feelings, at least as long as he retained any consciousness of his situation; and, indeed, being a disbeliever, the daily exercise of his sacred function must have made him an habitual dissembler. The most emphatic expressions of surprise, of terror, of adoration, and of love, are seen in the faces and attitudes of all by whom, from their position, the bleeding Host can be seen; and it is evident that the point of time chosen by Raphael is the moment in which the miracle is discovered, by its effect not having spread beyond the nearest spectators. The astonishment, therefore, of the priest must at that instant be extreme; but a start or expression of terror would have united him in feeling with the groups behind him, and adoration would have been too sudden in one who up to that moment was an infidel. Vasari speaks of the "irresolution" of the priest-and this, there can be little doubt, was the intended expression; irresolution, arising from a conflict of feelings, suppressing for an instant the predominance of any one. So far the main subject. The rest of the picture is made up of episodes of dignity, of grace, and of tenderness, such as the mind of Raphael could alone supply,—and which render this, though the theme is unfavourable, one of the very finest of his works. I have no intention of going regularly through the Stanze of Raphael, otherwise that exceedingly beautiful composition the "Dispute of the Sacrament" should have been mentioned first. Its striking peculiaritynamely, the entire separation of its upper and lower portions-is the separation of Heaven and Earth, and, |