modern student of these dismal masterpieces. The truth is, Reynolds
excepted, there were no contemporary painters strong enough for the
task, and the honours of the enterprise belong almost exclusively to
Smirke's "Seven Ages" and one or two plates from the lighter
comedies. The great "Bible" of Macklin, a rival and even more
incongruous publication, upon which some of the same designers were
employed, has fallen into completer oblivion. A rather better fate
attended another book of this class, which, although belonging to a
later period, may be briefly referred to here. The "Milton" of John
Martin has distinct individuality, and some of the needful qualities
of imagination. Nevertheless, posterity has practically decided
that scenic grandeur and sombre effects alone are not a sufficient
pictorial equipment for the varied story of "Paradise Lost."

It is to Boydell of the Shakespeare gallery that we owe the "Liber
Veritatis" of Claude, engraved by Richard Earlom; and indirectly,
since rivalry of Claude prompted the attempt, the famous "Liber
Studiorum" of Turner. Neither of these, however--which, like the
"Rivers of France" and the "Picturesque Views in England and Wales"
of the latter artist, are collections of engravings rather than
illustrated books--belongs to the present purpose. But Turner's
name may fitly serve to introduce those once familiar "Annuals" and
"Keepsakes," that, beginning in 1823 with Ackermann's "Forget-me-
Not," enjoyed a popularity of more than thirty years. Their general
characteristics have been pleasantly satirised in Thackeray's
account of the elegant miscellany of Bacon the publisher, to which
Mr. Arthur Pendennis contributed his pretty poem of "The Church
Porch." His editress, it will be remembered, was the Lady Violet
Lebas, and his colleagues the Honourable Percy Popjoy, Lord Dodo,
and the gifted Bedwin Sands, whose "Eastern Ghazuls" lent so special