THE WORLD'S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
however as was pointed out to me a painting of blue 
over a ground of green that is very effective.” 
After the Book of Kells, to paraphrase an expres- 
sion of Professor Saintsbury of Edinburgh with re- 
gard to the great Latin hymn the Dies Irae, no 
artist could say that any effect of illumination was 
as far as color goes unattainable, though few could 
have hoped to equal it and perhaps no one except 
Giotto and Raphael has fully done so. This is the 
acknowledged masterpiece of book illumination. 
The secret of its unquestionable power lies in the 
fact that it is a decoration of the copy of the Scrip- 
tures to which a great artist lent all the power of 
his genius caring neither for time nor pains, ready 
to spend all his inventive talent in order to produce 
an overwhelming effect. He succeeded marvelously 
in accomplishing this because of the fortunate com- 
bination of a great subject worthy of the highest 
efforts of human artistry, worked out with surpass- 
ing effectiveness, with a great artist or perhaps a 
group of artists, though probably it would be better 
to say with a great artistic people just at the height 
of its genius for expression in art. As it is, it re- 
mains the most surprising monument of a time and 
people so often supposed to be lacking in the powers 
needed for its accomplishment. 
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