The various schools of art--the elder Italian--the later Italian--the Spanish--the old German--and the Flemish, pass successively under review. The distinctive qualities of the mighty masters in each school--the fantastic and truly Dantesque wildness of Giotto--the soft outline of Perugino--the depth of feeling that characterises Leonardo da Vinci--the ideal beauty--the various, the infinite charm of Raphael--the gigantic conception of Angelo--the glowing reality of Titian--the harmonious elegance of Correggio--the bold vigour of Julio Romano--the noble effort of the Caraccis to revive in a declining age the style of the great masters--the true Spanish earnestness and concentrated energy of Murillo--the deep-toned piety of Velasquez--the profound and comprehensive understanding which distinguishes his own Dürer, whom he calls the Shakspeare of painting--the distinctive qualities of these great masters, (to name but a few of the more eminent) are analysed with incomparable skill, and set forth with charming diction. I regret that the limits of this introductory memoir will not allow me to give an analysis of these enchanting letters; but I cannot forbear observing in conclusion, that at the present moment, when there seems to be an earnest wish on all sides to revive the higher art among ourselves, whoever would undertake a translation of these letters, would, I think, confer a service on the public generally, and on our artists in particular. To the friends and followers of art, such a work is the more necessary, as the illustrious author has in a manner taken up the subject where Winkelmann had left off. These letters are followed by others equally admirable on Gothic architecture, where the characteristic qualities of the different epochs in the civil and ecclesiastical architecture of the middle age are set forth with the same masterly powers of fancy and discrimination. This sublime art seemed to respond best to Schlegel's inmost feelings. But I am now approaching a passage in the life of Schlegel, which will be viewed in a different light according to the different feelings and convictions of my readers. By some his conduct will be considered a blameable apostacy from the faith of his fathers--by others, a generous sacrifice of early prejudices on the altar of truth. To disguise my own approbation of his conduct, would be to do violence to my feelings, and wrong to my principles; but to enter into a justification of his motives, would be to engage in a polemical discussion, most unseemly in an introduction to a work which is perfectly foreign to inquiries of that nature. I shall therefore confine myself to a brief statement of facts: noticing at the same time, the intellectual condition of the two great religious parties of Germany, immediately prior and subsequent to Schlegel's change of religion.