singly  expressed,  —  for  it  was  said,  "  Thy  kingdor.i  is
divided,"  —  simultaneously  impressed  upon  the  fancies
of  a  thousand  courtiers,  who  were  implied  in  it  neither
directly  nor  grammatically  ?

But  admitting  the  artist's  own  version  of  the  story,
and  that  the  sight  was  seen  also  by  the  thousand  cour-
tiers, —  let  it  have  been  visible  to  all  Babylon,  —  as  the
knees  of  Belshazzar  were  shaken,  and  his  countenance
troubled,  even  so  would  the  knees  of  every  man  in
Babylon,  and  their  countenances,  as  of  an  individual
man,  have  been  troubled  ;  bowed,  bent  down,  so  would
they  have  remained,  stupor-fixed,  with  no  thought  of
struggling  with  that  inevitable  judgment.
Not  all  that  is  optically  possible  to  be  seen,  is  to  be
shown  in  every  picture.  The  eye  delightedly  dwells
upon  the  brilliant  individualities  in  a  "  Marriage  at
Cana,"  by  Veronese,  or  Titian,  to  the  very  texture
and  color  of  the  wedding-garments,  the  ring  glittering
upon  the  bride's  fingers,  the  metal  and  fashion  of  the
wine-pots;  for  at  such  seasons  there  is  leisure  and
luxury  to  be  curious.  But  in  a  "  day  of  judgment,"
or  in  a  "  day  of  lesser  horrors,  yet  divine,"  as  at  the
impious  feast  of  Belshazzar,  the  eye  should  see,  as  the
actual  eye  of  an  agent  or  patient  in  the  immediate
scene  would  see,  only  in  masses  and  indistinction.  Not
only  the  female  attire  and  jewelry  exposed  to  the  criti-
cal eye  of  fashion,  as  minutely  as  the  dresses  in  a  Lady's
Magazine,  in  the  criticized  picture,  —  but  perhaps  the
curiosities  of  anatomical  science,  and  studied  diversities
of  posture,  in  the  falling  angels  and  sinners  of  Michele
Angelo,  —  have  no  business  in  their  great  subjects.
There  was  no  leisure  for  them.
