optimism which is spiritual and ideal springs from the pessimism which
is material and actual, so too does Hope grow from the bosom of
Despair. This the picture shows. Crouching on the sphere of the world
sits the blindfold figure of a woman, bending her ear to catch the music
of one only string preserved on her lyre. When everything has failed,
there is Hope; and Hope looks, in Watts' teaching, for that which cannot
fail, but which is ever triumphant, namely, Love.

_The Love Series_.--According to Watts, Love steers the boat of
humanity, who is seen in one of his canvases tossed about and almost
shipwrecked. Love does not do this easily, but he does it. Love, as a
winged youth, also guides Life, a fragile maiden, up the rocky
steep--Life, that would else fail and fall. Violets spring where Love
has trod, and as they ascend to the mountain top the air becomes more
golden. This picture, "Love and Life" (see Plate V.) was painted four
times. "Love and Death," painted three times, represents the
irresistible figure of Death tenderly, yet firmly, entering a door where
we know lies the beloved one. This is an eternal theme, suggested, I
believe, by a temporal incident--the death of a young member of the
Prinsep family. Love vainly pushes back the imperious figure; the
protecting flowers are trodden down and the dove mourns; and with it all
we feel that though Love fears Death, yet Death respects Love. Just as
"Love and Death" are companion pictures and tell complementary truths,
so "Time, Death, and Judgment" is related to "Love Triumphant" (see
Plate VI.). In the one we see Time, represented by a mighty youth half
clad in a red cloak, striding along with great vigour. His companion,
whom he holds by the hand, is Death, the sad mother with weary, downcast
eye and outspread lap ready to receive her load; but with neither of
them is the final word, for Judgment, poised in the clouds, wields his
fiery sword of eternal law and holds the balance before his hidden face.