Art must adapt itself to the conditions of the time and the life it has to reflect. See what follows. If pictures are to be hung in rooms instead of churches, and public halls and palaces, they must be small. Work on a small scale, being meant for the satisfaction of a close eye, must be highly finished. These conditions did not affect the old painters and must affect the moderns, and these conditions my young friends the Pre-Raphaelites appear to be conscious of and to submit to, for which I cannot blame them, but praise them rather, for wisely recognising the necessity of adapting Art to surrounding circumstances. What have they recognised besides? That the truest representation and grandest creation may and must be combined by the great artist; that as man works in a setting of earth and air, all the beauties and fitness of that setting must be rendered--the more truthfully the better--and that the most accurate rendering of these need not detract from the crowning work--the creation of the central interest which sums itself in human expression. The practice of painting hitherto has seemed to challenge the possibility of combining these two things--human expression and accurate representation of inanimate or lower nature. These young men take up the gauntlet, and say, "We are prepared to do this--at least to try and do it." Their first-fruits are before the world, and already it has felt that the undertaking is new and startling and cheerfully courageous: nay, more: that to a certain point--and further than might be expected from such beardless champions--it has already succeeded. So God speed these young Luthers of the worn-out Art-faith; they have burnt the Bull of the Painter-Popes of their time. They have still enough work before them, such as their spiritual father before them went through--devils of their own creating to hurl their palettes at, and many mighty magnates to wrestle with, and confute, and put to shame--by trust in their gospel truth that Accurate Representation is the first requisite of Art. [Sidenote: Enthusiasm of a Convert]