visited the temple it was not completed. "Forty and six years was this temple in building." (John 2:20.) Birds are flying in and out! "Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, . . . even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts." (Ps. 84:3.) The little boy with the fly-driver tells the season of the year, the light and the few worshippers and the idle musicians tell the time of day. Everything has a message, even the ornament upon wall and floor! That tells whence the Jews derived their art. This picture is more than a commonplace illustration of a single text: it is a graphic presentation of an era. The particular event is shown in its historical setting. The picture is a supreme work of art. [Illustration: Finding of Christ in the Temple.] Plate 35. _Finding of Christ in the Temple._ Holman Hunt. 1827- If pictures of this sort are to be studied, every pupil in the class should have a copy. The teacher's business is to direct the pupil to individual observation and inquiry. The perpetual questions should be, What do you see? What does it mean? Why is that here? What does it contribute to the total content of the picture? What does the picture as a whole have to say? Plates 8, 9, 18, 25, 29, 33, 40, 81, 89, 93, 110, 139, 153, 159, and 167, might be mentioned among those especially worthy of this analytical and exhaustive study. Occasionally pupils will find both interest and profit in the comparative study of a series of pictures. For example take the five plates of The Annunciation, pages 9 and 10. After the facts have been determined by a study of the text, the investigation may proceed as follows: What are the essential elements found in all the pictures alike? Which artist has told the story most simply and directly? The different artists have emphasized or given special attention to some one phase or phrase. Which has embodied more perfectly the first, or the second, or the third? Which has introduced elements of his own? Why? Do they help? Which has, on the whole, told the story most vividly? Which most beautifully? A study of this group of pictures in the light of such notes as will be found printed therewith, will enable any teacher to formulate for himself a plan for studying any other group of pictures. In such study it is essential that each pupil be supplied with a complete set of the pictures to be compared. [Illustration: Madonna of the Shop.] _Madonna._ Dagnan-Bouveret.