which many apologies may be offered, I cannot help expressing my indignation for others who, from their elevated stations, ought to exert their utmost endeavours to encourage, instead or depressing, the talents of genius.

To amass wealth is thought by many to be the height of all human attainments; but this depends oftener on fortunate circumstances than talents or abilities; and if successful, if not properly applied, is always more a vice than a virtue. Indeed, the common occupations of life, although they may display a degree of honour and industry, seldom evince anything extraordinary in talent. Some of the professions that are considered by the generality of mankind to rank above that of mere trade, such as the clergyman and the apothecary, require nothing extraordinary in the mind to proceed through life with credit and respect the physician and surgeon must rank but as secondary in the class of intellect, and, indeed, so must the study and acquirements of forensic knowledge, which requires much application and a good capacity, unless united to that uncommon eloquence with which an Erskine, a Romily, or a Curran adorn the dreary regions of the law.

A first-rate work of art requires a display of talent and a toil of study as rare as that for which a judge or a commander receives thousands from the pockets of the public. To those who consider the fine arts in their least favourable point of view, will find they have changed advantageously the mode by which the powerful and opulent expended their superfluity. The chieftain who had armour and horses for a hundred combatants, whom he occasionally employed to make incursions into the territories of the helpless, or to swell the ranks of civil war, is now employed in building a palace, and adorning it with works of genius and art.

Those who really look at their utility as displayed in the actions of mankind, will find, as Ovid had found before them, that

Learning, if deep, if useful, and refined,
Communicates its polish to the mind;"

and thus softens and improves our rude, uncultivated nature. These will consider the poet to rank highest in the scale of intellect next to him the painter and sculptor demand a similar ana exalted distinction, and which have received a like homage with hers from the respect and admiration of mankind, by being honoured with the title of sister to that glorious art.*

* The writer of "The Last Days of Pompeii" says of the statuary :
"Their looks with the reach of past ages were wise,
And the soul of eternity thought in their eyes."

Painting is not only capable of delighting the fancy, but of instructing the mind; it is as poetry to the eye: an historical painting is the drama of a scene; and the portrait of a friend or an eminent man is as a living epitome of his feelings, his fame, or his virtues. And next to the moral and personal beauty and dignity of man, there are no subjects more interesting to a cultivated taste than the representation of the symmetry and power of animals, because there is a grace and power of muscular action—a power in many respects superior to "the lords of the creation." Next comes the vivid landscape, (in the language of Bloomfield, "the field was his study, nature his book,") which teaches man scientifically to estimate the scenes of nature, and, by such impressions, to acknowledge the power which produced them; they lead us to feel and appreciate the wisdom of an Almighty from a survey of his works. Respectable as the talents of many individuals are that now receive the applause and homage of the admiring multitude, such talents history proves may be had in all ages. But such luminaries as a Shakspeare, a Milton, a West, a Titian, and a Raffaele are proved by biography to appear but now and then, like beautiful meteors, to enliven and delight mankind, and to adorn and instruct the ages in which they lived.

To those, therefore, who do not properly appreciate the utility of such talents, let them be told that the works of a Titian, a Raffaele, or a West demand and exhibit a variety of science, a knowledge of anatomy, of colours, light, and shade, of perspective, of history, of the various costumes, and customs, and the manners of nations; and, what is above all, of the human heart.

Many people little suspect how much of estimation they lose in unwary assertions on this subject, because they little consider the importance of a well-cultivated taste, simply as an innocent and delightful amusement to individuals; thus some will cast an unintentional reflection on their Creator for blessing them with ears to receive and an imagination to delight in the "concord of sweet and harmonious sounds:" how few there are who know that tones, mere "tones, tell more than words; folly is prone to babble, and passion to rave, craftiness to gloze, and affectation to mince or swell; but true eloquence pours forth the living energies of the soul in the convincing language of sense and the moving tones of nature;" in truth, there are in tones "thoughts that glow and words that burn."

Others conceive the time thrown away that is occupied in composing an elegy or an ode. But let them be told that the arts are the liberal and enlightened means which equalize o connect all ranks of society; they humanize the passions

while they refine the heart. Besides these important general effects, they invariably afford us individually a delightful source of amusement under all difficulties and situations, insomuch so as to confer upon us another species of existence: they are a source of commercial improvement and wealth to nations; they enlarge the boundaries of intellect, and, consequently, the physical boundaries of states; and above all, as being, as Blair states, "favourable to many virtues." "To be entirely," says that popular writer, " devoid of relish for eloquence, poetry, or any of the fine arts, is justly considered to be an unpromising symptom of youth, and raises suspicion of their being prone to low gratifications."

Let us, therefore, do honour to those mighty geniuses and beneficent beings who occupy their time and talents for us; who write for us, or who enrich us by their discoveries: let us do them that justice their merits have a right to expect while they are living; and while their wives, their children, or their friends may be occupied by the melancholy care of closing their eyes, let us at least pay to their ashes a tribute of recollection for the pleasure and benefits they have procured us. Let us sprinkle with our tears the urns of Socrates, of Alfred, and Washington. Let us strew flowers over the tombs of a Justinian, of a Bacon, of a Locke; and let us revere the immortal shades of those happy geniuses whose songs and sentiments yet excite in our hearts the most tender sentiments.*

"Compassion proper to mankind appears,

Which nature witness'd when she gave us tears." JUVENAL.

This excellent essay appears to me proper to introduce the following remarks on

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

"Possessing more than vocal power,

Possessing more than poet's tongue." CAMPBELL.

"THAT love of art which was so violently suppressed at the reformation, was scarcely revived before the time of Charles I., 1625." Of this unfortunate monarch it has been said, “The art of reigning was the only art of which he was ignorant." The amusements of his court were a model of excellence to all Europe, and his cabinets were the choice receptacles of what was exquisite in painting and sculpture; one but men of first-rate merit found encouragement from him. Jones was

* I copy this from my common-place book for the year 1813.

his architect, Vandyke his painter, and Dr. Child his musician. Indeed he patronised any or all that were

"Well seene in everie science that mote be,
And everie secrete worke of nature's wayes;
In wittie riddles, and in wise soothesayes-

In power of herbes, and tymes of beastes and burdes."

SPENCER.

This was also the period of the Earl of Arundel, who has the honour of being called the father of "virtu" in England. An anonymous French writer has well observed: "It is not to the most powerful monarchs, nor to the most opulent princes, nor to the chief rulers of a nation, that most states owe their splendour, force, and glory;" though they may do much, and the Earl of Arundel was one of those who had lent his powerful assistance. In England more particularly, "it is private persons who have made the most astonishing improvements in the arts and sciences, and even in the art of government. Who measured the earth? Who discovered the systems of the heavens? Who invented those curious manufactories with which we are clothed? Who has laid open the secrets of natural history? Who has explored the intricacies of chemistry, anatomy, and botany? Certainly private persons, who, in the eye of a wise man, must eclipse the pretenders to greatness, those proud dwarfs who too often cherish nothing but their own vanity. In effect, it is not kings, ministers, persons invested with authority that govern the world." This important point could never be perceived by this unfortunate monarch, so his life paid the forfeit of his misgovernment. The noble Arundel, who was also "a noble of nature," began his collection about 1615. Alas! he lived to see them dispersed by the agency of ignorant political fanatics. "But what so pure that wicked wits will spare ;" nothing was safe or sacred in such a state of things.

"Those polish'd arts which humanize the mind,

Soften the manners and refine mankind."

So thought and sung an ancient classic poet, but not so the

modern excited rebel.

The palace of Whitehall contained a collection of 460 pictures; twenty-eight by Titian, eleven by Corregio, sixteen by Julio Romano, nine by Raffaele, four by Guido, and seven by Parmegiano. So highly did Charles appreciate these treasures, that he preferred holding the great court fetes in temporary buildings, to the risk of injuring his pictures by lighting up the apartments in which they were hung.

Rubens arrived in England in 1630 as an ambassador, but he was induced to use his irresistible pencil, of whom it has been said, "he seemed to have been sent by heaven to teach mankind painting "

He painted the ceiling of the banqueting house, Whitehall, for which he received £3000; and among many other splendid specimens of his great abilities are the cartoons of Raffaele : they were acquired in Flanders through his means.

TAPESTRY.

PAINTING on walls was general during the middle ages, which afterward gave place to tapestry. The most ancient tapestry is in the church at Bayeaux, in Normandy. Lord Arundel bequeathed the tapestry hangings of his hall in 1392, which had been made in London. Probably the art was lost, and reintroduced by William Sheldon, Esq.*

About 1677 France established the famous Gobelins tapestry, which supplied all Europe. In England it was attempted, but with very limited success. William Sheldon, Esq., of Weston, Warwickshire, warmly patronised it. A curious set of maps were woven under his direction, which covered two sides of a large room. This tapestry, nearly eighty feet square, when the furniture was sold at Weston in 1781, was purchased by Mr. Horace Walpole, who presented it to the Earl of Harcourt, and it is now carefully preserved at Nuneham, CourteThe change in religion, and the desecration— which she had undergone, left her without a school of design capable of such undertakings.

nay.

De Piles informs us that "Bernard Van Orley, of Brussels, Michaelis Coxis, of Mechlin, and other Flemish pupils of Raffaele, were commissioned by him or Pope Leo X., on their return to Flanders, to superintend the working of the tapestries." "All these astonishing historical works of art, for the most part of worsted, have, down to the present day, preserved a most surprising force of tone and power of effect, except in those parts or colours of carnations which, being of silk, are now faded. But, notwithstanding these changes, they must still be allowed to form one of the most brilliant monuments of Raffaele genius."-Parthenon.

Tapestry, or arras-work, was not only an ornamental embellishment in great houses, but served as screens and sly hiding places, Thus a character in the "Woman Hater says:

* Brown's "Principles of Practical Perspective."