Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-05-05
From The Cincinnati Herald.

Among the pictures at the Arts Union
is the famous serial one, ''The Voyage of
Life" by II. Cole. 1t is the properly of
Mr.. Shoenberger. We call it one picture,
because, though it is in four frames, it is vet
but one whole. Though many Of our readers
may have seen them, and the rest have read
ter descriptions of them than we can give, yet
we cannot torbear the opportunity Offered of
saying something concerning them.
There are four distinct parts, representing
four eras in the life of Man Infancy; Youth;
the hour Of the trial of his Manhood and the
hour of Death.
In the first, the stream Of life is represent
ed as just Issuing from its source in the
mountains, and gliding away into the distant
and unknown future. On the left, rise dark
and irowning rocks, their tops crowned with
the glory of clouds reeking with the light of
the sun of spring. On the banks of the
stream grow trOpic flowers of s|upernal beau
ty, fresh with the joyous life of youth, aud
beyond the shore the plain stretches away to
lose itself in the east. On the stream is the
boat of the voyager, curiously wrought like
the barge of Cleopatra. At the bow is a f.
CURE holding an hour-glass, and along its
sides are other figures which seem to give it
motion. In the boat, on a bed of flowers, is
the infant and, beside him, with his hand on
the helm, is his guardian angel.
About the whole of this picture there is an
air OF luXuriant life which is wonderful. The
flowers seem TO be products of regions more
beautiful than earth, Of Eden. The rocks
and the sky have a grandeur that is heroic
1t is a fitting commencement for the life of
man. 1t is the infancy Of one destined TO
live forever.
The second picture represents the entry of
youth upon the stage of action. The guar
dian has committed the rudder 10 his hand,
and stands upon the shore, as if half regret
full, half hoping. The stream glides between
banks upon which grow trees lofty and grand
in their proportions and heroic in their forms.
The picture represents the r%ipeness of the
early summer. The flowers are mostly gone,
but there is promise of much fruit. The
voyager stands with his left hand on the
helm, his right is stretched before him as
g~rasping the future. His eager gaze is d.
rected to the temple of hope which rises a.
gainst the sky before him, unsubstantial
b~aseless, but glorious in beauty, rising, arch
above arch, cOllonade over collonade, gallery
above gallery, till its summit is almost lost
in the blue empyrean.
This is, in our opinion, the greatest of the
series. The trees, the banks, the sky, cloud.
less and of an azure that deepens into inten.
sity at the zenith, and above all that males
tic though unsubstantial temple, are all the
conceptions and the executions of a mind il
which strength, beauty, and harmony are
equally developed.
The third represents an hour of trial.
Rocks, against whose bases the waters chaft
and roar, overhang him clouds, angry anC
portentious, lower above him, and in the al
is a cloud of demons, shapeless and huge
with wide expanded %talons, ready to seiz'
their prey. His boat is going with a head
long speed down a gulf among rocks, on
torrent mad and angry. His rudder is bro
ken, and the voyager, hopeless of human aid
kneels and prays. 1t is the hour of Jaith.-
On the clouds above sits his guardian ange
and smiles. A more than mortal power vii
guide him through the roaring rapids, ant
prayer ayails where force is helpless.