anything about it. The real cause of this nonchalance is ignorance, and the cause of the ignorance is the difficulty of acquiring the right information exactly when it is wanted. If catalogues of picture galleries were properly made, or something much more to the purpose than mere lists of names and titles of pictures, such information would certainly be much more available than it is at present; but even if catalogues were as they should be, our difficulties would be but half obviated, as there would still be the necessity of purchasing and carrying many books, in itself an inconvenience sufficiently great to deter all but the most energetic from troubling themselves about the matter at all. A general guide that could be made available on all occasions is what is really required.
We take it for granted, then, that people are generally indifferent about pictures and painters, and really ignorant of the vast stores of Italy in particular, illustrating this interesting subject, even after they have seen them, because they have not had any easy ready means of instructing themselves in the matter, when the opportunity has offered. All intelligent travellers must have felt this; vast series of frescoes, causing epochs in art, consummate oil pictures; the crowning efforts of Italian civilisation and ingenuity are crowded together in one confused chaos in their minds, because, when they saw them they could not identify the true positions of their authors, and thus grasp an adequate impression to be treasured in the memory. People are generally interested in what they understand, and though every subject represented may carry its own interest with it, the interest of a subject is quite distinct from the interest we take in a work of art. The canvases and walls of Italy illustrate almost every important matter in the history of human civilisation, but it is not this class of interest that this little hand-book pretends to enhance. Independent of the subject, without a knowledge of the character and position of a master, a picture is at most a pleasing distribution of masses of light and shade, and colour. To add, then, to this enjoyment, the pleasure of enjoying a painting also as a work of art, is opening up a new province of delight to the visitor to a picture gallery, and this is the interest that this little hand-book does lay pretensions to develope. The art itself has its history and its difficulties, and every master has his individual services to be recognised, as well as his position; and it is his position which qualifies his merits, and defines his rank among painters.
Without a moderate preparation of this kind no picture gallery can be appreciated or thoroughly enjoyed, and no opportunity fairly used; the more frequent the visits to galleries, the more is the
