of this composition is seen again in “Death Crowning Innocence” and “The Dweller in the Innermost,” and the same expressive indefiniteness and lowness of the colour tones.  In the latter effort we have the figure of Conscience, winged, dumb-faced and pensive, seated within a glow of light.  On her forehead is the shining star, and in her lap the arrows which pierce through all disguises, and a trumpet that proclaims peace to the world.  Here, therefore, is the greatest reality from the psychological side.  We have also cosmical paintings representing “Evolution,” “Progress,” the “Slumber of the Ages,” and “Destiny,” all of them asking and answering; not indeed finally and dogmatically, but as Watts desired that his pictures should do, stimulating in the observer both the asking and the answering faculty.  In “Faith” we have a companion to “Hope.”  Wearied and saddened by persecutions, she washes her blood-stained feet in a running stream, and recognising the influence of Love in all the beauty of Nature, she feels that the sword is not the best argument, and takes it off.  The colouring of this picture is rich and forcible, the maroon robe of the figure being one of Watts’ favourite attempts.

A satisfying picture of a little child emerging from the latest wave on the shore of humanity’s ocean, asks the question, Whence and Whither.  I reserve for “Hope” the final word (see Plate III.).  If, as I said, the optimism which is spiritual and ideal springs from the pessimism which is material and actual, so too does Hope grow from the bosom of Despair.  This the picture shows.  Crouching on the sphere of the world sits the blindfold figure of a woman, bending her ear to catch the music of one only string preserved on her lyre.  When everything has failed, there is Hope; and Hope looks, in Watts’ teaching, for that which cannot fail, but which is ever triumphant, namely, Love.

The Love Series.—­According to Watts, Love steers the boat of humanity, who is seen in one of his canvases tossed about and almost shipwrecked.  Love does not do this easily, but he does it.  Love, as a winged youth, also guides Life, a fragile maiden, up the rocky steep—­Life, that would else fail and fall.  Violets spring where Love has trod, and as they ascend to the mountain top the air becomes more golden.  This picture, “Love and Life” (see Plate V.) was painted four times.  “Love and Death,” painted three times, represents the irresistible figure of Death tenderly, yet firmly, entering a door where we know lies the beloved one.  This is an eternal theme, suggested, I believe, by a temporal incident—­the death of a young member of the Prinsep family.  Love vainly pushes back the imperious figure; the protecting flowers are trodden down and the dove mourns; and with it all we feel that though Love fears Death, yet Death respects Love.  Just as “Love and Death” are companion pictures and tell complementary truths, so “Time, Death, and Judgment” is related