Last Supper, would pass muster, as, according to the facts of the case, our Saviour and His disciples would not be sitting at a table, but reclining on the ground. But I think these liberties not only defensible, but that the artist's faculty of thus introducing successfully into his paintings the scenes passing before his eyes is often a great proof of his genius; and pictures often owe much of their power and reality to this very circumstance. Space, as well as time, is often annihilated not from ignorance or inadvertence, but purposely, and with the most happy results. Tintoretto, in a painting of the Entombment of Christ, has introduced the stable of Bethlehem in the background; thus finely contrasting the birthplace of Him who was found "lying in a manger" with the fulfillment of the prophecy of His being "with the rich in His death:" and such liberties both of time and place are equally allowable in pictures of at all an imaginative character, the artist feeling that by sacrificing a minor and lower truth he can gain a higher, or make his subject appeal more to the sympathies of his spectators. The instance also noticed by P. P. in Vol. iv., p. 150., is no mistake, but a legitimate employment of a symbol: the cross or flag, with the motto "Ecce Agnus Dei," soon became the recognised symbol of St. John the Baptist, and as such was generally used without reference to the exact time when the motto became strictly applicable. The same strict criticism which would disallow this license, would require the Madonna to be always painted as a Jewess: but I cannot think that paintings are fairly liable to such close and prosaic scrutiny. P. P.'s instance of Zebedee's sons being represented as young children, is treading on more doubtful ground, and some great counterbalancing gain to the picture would alone justify such a bold alteration of facts: but if the subject be altogether treated in an allegorical manner, it might be defensible. His modern instances are, of course, sheer blunders, and cannot be too severely reprehended; and artists must always remember that such liberties should never be taken, unless by these means some higher object is gained. Nor should modern painters expect the same indulgence, until they express in their works the same spirit of devotion, and simple, childlike earnestness of feeling, which distinguish the early painters of the Italian Religious School. B. H. C. Oxford. "AGLA," MEANING OF. (Vol. iv., p. 116.) I have the pleasure of being able to refer MR. MARTIN to an interpretation of this inscription. The mystical word AGLA belongs to that species of Cabbala, used by the Rabbinical writers, which is called _Notaricon_, and which consists of forming one word out of the initial letters of a sentence. Thus Agla is composed of the initials of [Hebrew] Attâh-Gibbor-Leholâm-Adonâi ("Thou art strong for ever, O Lord!"), and signifies either "I reveal," or "a drop of dew," and is the cabbalistic name of God.