Arnold Winkelried, at the battle of Sampach, broke an Austrian phalanx in this manner.

285. ’The Last Supper’ of Leonardo da Vinci. [xxvi.]

    ’Though searching damps and many an envious flaw
    Have marred this Work.’

This picture of the Last Supper has not only been grievously injured by time, but the greatest part of it, if not the whole, is said to have been retouched, or painted over again.  These niceties may be left to connoisseurs,—­I speak of it as I felt.  The copy exhibited in London some years ago, and the engraving by Morghen, are both admirable; but in the original is a power which neither of those works has attained, or even approached.

286. Statues on Milan Cathedral. [XXVII.]

    ‘Of figures human and divine.’

The Statues ranged round the spire and along the roof of the Cathedral of Milan, have been found fault with by persons whose exclusive taste is unfortunate for themselves.  It is true that the same expense and labour, judiciously directed to purposes more strictly architectural, might have much heightened the general effect of the building; for, seen from the ground, the Statues appear diminutive.  But the coup-d’oeil, from the best point of view, which is half way up the spire, must strike an unprejudiced person with admiration; and surely the selection and arrangement of the Figures is exquisitely fitted to support the religion of the country in the imaginations and feelings of the spectator.  It was with great pleasure that I saw, during the two ascents which we made, several children, of different ages, tripping up and down the slender spire, and pausing to look around them, with feelings much more animated than could have been derived from these or the finest works of art, if placed within easy reach.—­Remember also that you have the Alps on one side, and on the other the Apennines, with the plain of Lombardy between!

287. A Religious Procession. [XXXII.]

    ’Still, with those white-robed Shapes—­a living Stream,
    The glacier pillars join in solemn guise.’

This Procession is a part of the sacramental service performed once a month.  In the valley of Engleberg we had the good fortune to be present at the Grand Festival of the Virgin—­but the Procession on that day, though consisting of upwards of 1000 persons, assembled from all the branches of the sequestered valley, was much less striking (notwithstanding the sublimity of the surrounding scenery):  it wanted both the simplicity of the other and the accompaniment of the Glacier-columns, whose sisterly resemblance to the moving Figures gave it a most beautiful and solemn peculiarity.

288. Elegiac Stanzas. [XXXIII.]