Of BOTTICELLI'S deathless fame:

"Quaint immaturity to reach with him,"

I cried, "is Art's true aim.

"To plunge, self-blinded, in the mystic past,

That makes the present small:

If eyes artistic be not backward cast,

Why have we eyes at all?"

Punch, July 7, 1877.

PART II.

YET oft the riddle of Art's real drift