That Turner’s art moves mainly among the highest interests of man’s spiritual nature accounts to some extent for the pre-eminent position he now occupies among modern artists. It is always as an artist conscious of man’s high destiny that he claims to be judged, and though he often stumbled and his hand faltered, he never once sank to the level of the passive and prosaic imitator of nature’s finitude. This is not the place to inquire minutely into Turner’s failings and shortcomings, nor to study their connection with the innumerable masterpieces in which he dared and sometimes attained the very highest of which art is capable. An adequate discussion of the subtle inter-connection of Turner’s triumphs and failings would involve the raising of questions of which English criticism seems to prefer to remain in happy ignorance. I cannot therefore attempt to justify my conviction that he is not only the greatest artist our nation has yet produced, but also one of the greatest of modern artists, a man we must rank with Rembrandt and Jean François Millet. But this at least will be generally conceded, that he fully deserves that consideration and sympathy, which the ready instinct of mankind reserves for those who devote themselves without stint and without measure to the highest and most difficult tasks. A. J. FINBERG. [Illustration: Plate I THE ARCHBISHOP’S PALACE, LAMBETH FIRST EXHIBITED DRAWING. R.A. 1790. SIZE 15″ × 10½″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate II THE MOUTH OF THE AVON. CIRCA 1792. SIZE 11¼″ × 8¾″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate III PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH CIRCA 1794. SIZE 7″ × 4¼″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate IV THE PENT, DOVER CIRCA 1794. SIZE 10¼″ × 8″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate V DISTANT VIEW OF LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL CIRCA 1798. SIZE 30½″ × 19¾″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate VI EDINBURGH: FROM ST. MARGARET’S LOCH CIRCA 1801. SIZE 7¾″ × 5″ IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON] [Illustration: Plate VII STONEHENGE: SUNSET CIRCA 1804. SIZE 8¾″ × 6¾″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate VIII SCARBOROUGH CIRCA 1812. SIZE 16″ × 11″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF C. MORLAND AGNEW, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate IX LULWORTH COVE CIRCA 1813. SIZE 8½″ × 5¾″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate X GOARHAUSEN AND KATZ CASTLE CIRCA 1817. SIZE 12″ × 7¾″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF W. G. RAWLINSON, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate XI THE LAKE OF NEMI CIRCA 1818. Size 8½″ × 5½″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF C. MORLAND AGNEW, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate XII TURIN: FROM THE CHURCH OF THE SUPERGA CIRCA 1818. SIZE 8½″ × 5½″ FROM THE COLLECTION OF C. MORLAND AGNEW, ESQ.] [Illustration: Plate XIII THE CROOK OF THE LUNE