If I should whisper that since I came to Germany I have not seen one really fine modern portrait, the Germans would never forgive me; they would fall upon me with a score of great names--Wach, Stieler, Vogel, Schadow--and beat me, like Chrimhilde, "black and blue." But before they are angry, and absolutely condemn me, I wish they would place one of their own most admired portraits beside those of Titian or Vandyke, or come to England, and look upon our school of portraiture here! I think they would allow, that with all their merits, they are in the wrong road. Admirable, finished drawing; wonderful dexterity of hand; exquisite and most conscientious truth of imitation, they have; but they abuse these powers. They do not seem to feel the application of the highest, grandest principles of art to portrait painting--they think too much of the accessories. Are not these clever and accomplished men aware that imitation may be carried so far as to cease to be nature--to be error, not truth? For instance, by the common laws of vision I can behold perfectly only one thing at a time. If I look into the face of a person I love or venerate, do I see _first_ the embroidery of the canezou or the pattern on the waistcoat? if not--why should it be so in a picture? The vulgar eye alone is caught by such misplaced skill--the vulgar artist only ought to seek to captivate by such means. These would sound in England as the most trite and impertinent remarks--the most self-evident propositions: nevertheless they are truths which the generality of the German portrait painters and their admirers have not yet felt. * * * * *