‘The Jews flagellate Paul and Silas.’ I know but one picture of this subject, that of Niccolò Poussin: the angry Jews are seen driving them forth with scourges; the Elders, who have condemned them, are seated in council behind: as we might expect from the character of Poussin, the dignity of the apostles is maintained,—but it is not one of his best pictures. * * * * * ‘Paul, after his conversion, escapes from Damascus;’ he is let down in a basket (Acts ix. 25): the incident forms, of course, one of the scenes in his life when exhibited in a series, but I remember no separate picture of this subject, and the situation is so ludicrous and so derogatory that we can understand how it came to be avoided. * * * * * ‘The ecstatic vision of St. Paul, in which he was caught up to the third heaven.’ (2 Cor. xii. 2.) Paul, who so frequently and familiarly speaks of angels, in describing this event makes no mention of them, but in pictures he is represented as borne upwards by angels. I find no early composition of this subject. The small picture of Domenichino is coldly conceived. Poussin has painted the ‘Ravissement de St. Paul’ twice; in the first, the apostle is borne upon the arms of four angels, and in the second he is sustained by three angels. In rendering this ecstatic vision, the angels, always allowable as machinery, have here a particular propriety; Paul is elevated only a few feet above the roof of his house, where lie his sword and book. Here the sword serves to distinguish the personage; and the roof of the house shows us that it is a vision, and not an apotheosis. Both pictures are in the Louvre. * * * * * ‘Paul preaching to the converts at Ephesus.’ In a beautiful Raffaelesque composition by Le Sueur, the incident of the magicians bringing their books of sorcery and burning them at the feet of the apostle is well introduced. It was long the custom to exhibit this picture solemnly in Notre Dame every year on the 1st of May. It is now in the Louvre. ‘Paul before Felix,’ and ‘Paul before Agrippa.’ Neither of these subjects has ever been adequately treated. It is to me inconceivable that the old masters so completely overlooked the opportunity for grand characteristic delineation afforded by both these scenes, the latter especially. Perhaps, in estimating its capabilities, we are misled by the effect produced on the imagination by the splendid eloquence of the apostle; yet, were another Raphael to arise, I would suggest the subject as a pendant to the St. Paul at Athens. ‘Paul performs miracles before the Emperor Nero;’ a blind man, a sick child, and a possessed woman are brought to him to be healed. This, though a legendary rather than a scriptural subject, has been treated by Le Sueur with scriptural dignity and simplicity. * * * * *