The ftruggle in the breaft of Orchamus, and the malignant joy that Clytie expreffes, are natural; and the measures are well adapted to the fentiments.

In the interval of the Acts, Leucothoe being convicted, and condemned to be buried alive, the firft fcene of the third act opens with a representation of a rocky fhore, the sea, and a city, at a distance. Several men and women appear in affliction; who after defcribing the wintry horrors of the place and cavern where Leucothoe was to be fhut up, the chorus laments (s) the occafion, till one of the men defires them to defift, as he faw the royal facrifice approach. The scene concludes with this notable addrefs of one of the women.

Now, Sun, eclipfe!

At once the Lover, and the God affume,

And fnatch her trembling from th' untimely tomb.

Scene fecond, a proceffion appears at a confiderable distance, confifting of priests, youths, virgins, &c. Leucothoe in the center, covered with a black veil: as the proceffion approaches the audience, the femichorus fings, with frequent pauses.

The whole of this fcene is masterly; the parts, femichorus, and chorus, in Strophe, Antiftrophe, and Epode, are well maintained. Were we to give the best specimen of our Author's poetical abilities, it fhould be taken from these.

Leucothoe then putting afide the veil, and appearing in white, with fillets, after the manner of a facrifice, fings a pathetic air.

Oh, mighty God! that guides the day, &c.

The lamentation of the virgins and youths that follow, is, in general, well appropriated; only the doubt they exprefs, as to the future deftiny of Leucothoe, feems to be a little impertinent, at least in their mouths, as the Perfians believed in the foul's immortality.

LEUCOTHOE.

Weep not my dear companions! Chorus of youths and virgins.

Cruel ftroke!

Can nothing then thy deftiny revoke !

Her answer is pleafingly folemn. The Chorus then addresses Sorrow to come from her gloomy cell, and with her

Frantic geftures, fullen moans,

Fury of conflicting paffions,

Sighs, and tears, and lamentations,

(s) Would Horace allow his moral Chorus to lament on fuch an occafion?

REV. Aug. 1756.

M

Sighs,

Join with us in doleful lay,

Řage and death triumph () to day.

The proceffion then difperfes, and the mufic ftrikes dead and folemn. The fecond fcene, though less pompous is more affecting; for Orchamus, having acted the Judge, and Sovereign, now appears the Father. We forgive the King, the fentence he had paffed, and pity the daughter.

The good old King having vented his forrow, commands the priests to do their office, and retires. A rock being accordingly removed, the mouth of the cavern appears; Leucothoe ftarts-but advances towards it; then refolutely defiring it to receive her in its horrid jaws, the priests prepare to put her down. Upon this the diftreffed King bursts in again, defires them to defift but one inftant; and kneeling, fervently implores the Gods to stop the facrifice, if he is too fevere in his fentence. The Chorus begs the fame; but no figns of mercy appearing, Leucothoe is thrown in; while her father turning afide as the difappears, breaks into an apoftrophe that is nobly wild, and pathetic.

Here, we are inclined to think, the Poem fhould have end. ed; but the Author has added three pretty long fcenes; in which Clytie goes mad, and is turned into a ftatue by Apollo; who, with the affiftance of the Horæ, having in vain attempted to bring his beloved Leucothoe to life, changes her into a tree of (u) Frankincenfe, and the defolate landichape into a beautiful champaign country. This is fucceeded by a dance proper to the subject, and the Chorus finishes with a song.

() Here the accent is placed on the last fyllable; Milton once ufes it in that way.

(u) As the laws of the Opera require a happy ending, and admit of the marvellous, we could rather have wished that Apollo had brought Leucothoe to life; the one was as eafy as the other.

I

Tis with great pleasure we obferve, that our countrymen at prefent, more univerfally, and more fuccefsfully, than ever, apply themselves to the culture of the graphic arts, and that in the number of our prefent painters, fculptors, gravers, and defigners, there are fome who excel any whom thefe islands could boaft, before the prefent age.

Nor is this pleasure derived to us merely by the ideas excited in our minds, on feeing an excellent performance: the confideration of the advantages, as well as honour, that our country may attain by the culture of arts, in which every polite and learned nation has endeavoured to excel, and without which, many very confiderable manufactures cannot ar

five to a tolerable degree of perfection, greatly augments the fatisfaction we feel on this occcafion.

This confideration enhances the value of these arts to a trading nation, and fets the artifts themselves in the most advantageous light; for they hereby appear not only to merit our efteem, as ingenious men, but to claim our attention and encouragement, as useful members of fociety, and ornaments to their country.

The perfection of manufacture may, in some sense, be defined, The giving fuch an elegance of form to matter, as may render it truly ornamental, at the fame time that it is useful; or, in other words, that not only its matter, and texture, be fine, but its form beautiful. Is it not then extraordinary, that in a country like ours, on the flourishing state of whofe manufactures fo many national advantages depend, -that the ftudy, whofe peculiar object is, elegance of form, fhould have been, till now, fo little encouraged by our miniftry, our men of fortune, and our merchants, and fo much neglected by our artists?—The latter, indeed, is only the confequence of the former.

We cannot fuppofe this deficiency owing to any want of genius in our countrymen; or that they, as fome foreigners have afferted, are deftitute of thofe difpofitions of mind, those exquifite fenfations, that are neceffary, in order to excell in these arts; for, whoever will analyse painting, for inftance, must be convinced, that there is no talent, no knowlege, requifite to the forming an excellent painter, which our coun trymen have not poffeffed in a very high degree.Who will fay, that our poets have wanted imagination, fublime or florid; that our geometricians and anatomifts are inferior to thofe of any other nation; or that our mechanics are any where furpaffed for the truth and delicacy of their workmanship? We even doubt, if in France and Italy (our most formidable. and most jealous rivals in fcience) the general fuffrage would not acquit us of vanity, tho' we fhould infift, that in each of these particulars, Britain has produced fome geniuses fuperior to any that other countries can boaft; and we are fully perfuaded, that whenever our countrymen fhall apply themselves properly to painting, they may equal, nay, furpafs, all that have any where appeared, fince the revival of the arts among the moderns.A fertile imagination, a knowlege of anatomy and optics, and what the antients understood by the terms ethe*,

*Equalis ejus fuit Ariftides Thebanus. Is omnium primus animum pinxit et fenfus omnes expreffit, quos vocant Græci Ethe, L 35. c. 9.

or mores joined to a happy execution with the pencil;these make up the fum of the painter's accomplishments. Nor are we deftitute of facts, that strongly support this advantageous opinion we entertain of our countrymen; for, without wounding the modefty of any truly ingenious artift now living, or gratifying the vanity of any pretender to merit, it may be affirmed, that in perspective (one of the effential parts of painting) we have greatly furpaffed every foreign writer; and that the method which Brook Taylor has happily deduced, from a few fimple principles, is, for its univerfality, exactness, and facility, notwithstanding the modest affertion of a certain tranflator, inconceivably fuperior, not only to Sirigatti, but to Barbaro, to Ignatio Dante, to Pozzi, to Bibiena, or any other fubfequent Italian writer: but of this more, on a future occafion.

We shall at prefent content ourselves with taking notice of a book entitled,

The Practice of Painting and Perspective made easy: In which is contained, the art of painting in oil, with the method of colouring, under the heads of, Firft-Painting, or Dead Colouring; Second-Painting; Third, or Laft-Painting; Painting Back-grounds; On Copying, Drapery-painting, Landschape-Painting; and a new, fhort, and familiar account of the Art of Perspective, illuftrated with copper-plates, engraved by Mr. Vivares. By Thomas Bardwell, Painter. 4to. 10s. 6d. Printed for the Author, in Lower-Brook-ftreet. The practice of colouring, is one of the most effential branches of painting. It is that part in which, according to fome Authors, fewest artifts have excelled; fo that we fhall be, doubtless, much obliged to any one, who, with precision and perfpicuity, will communicate the precepts of colouring to the public. But if any man fhould fuppofe himfelf equal to this tafk, without poffeffing, in any adequate degree, the rationale of the art, and without rightly conceiving the intimate connection between the theory and the practice of it, he will miferably expofe his own prefumption, and egregioufly mislead thofe who fhall truft their genius to his culture. If, indeed, he should, in excufe for his attempt, urge the goodness of his intention, and, with many other pretenders, plead his pro bono publico;-let us allow him all the indulgence he can claim on this account:-But if such a man should assume the character of a rigid cenfor, and, full of that conceit which is generally the companion of craffitude and ignorance, prefume to indulge his fpleen, by an attack on our beft artifts, or their excellent performances, he would then certainly deserve the fevereft reprehenfion, if not the most abfolute contempt.

In qua pinxiffe mores videtur. 35. 9.

Mr.

prac

Mr. Bardwell's book, as we have feen in the title, is divided into two parts; the defign of the firft is to teach the tice of painting in oil; and of the fecond, to inftruct the reader in the principles of perfpective. To each of these parts there is an introduction.

The first introduction feems intended to prove, that the art of colouring has gradually degenerated, and funk, from Rembrandt down to Mr. Richardfon; and were now in danger of being totally loft, but for the fmall portion of it remaining with the communicative Mr. Bardwell.

The principal caufe of this degeneracy, he affigns in the following words. Those painters who had acquired fo fine a manner of colouring, might, if they pleafed, have communicated it to pofterity in writing; but I never heard, ⚫ that any attempt was made towards it; tho' it is probable, there might be fome. It is aftonifhing, nevertheless, all Europe should suffer alike at the fame time, for want of that noble frankness and generous fpirit, which might have been expected from thofe mafters.'

Another caufe for this pretended degeneracy feems to be hinted, in the following curious paragraph.

་

Sir Godfrey Kneller, in Lely's time, ftudied his manner, and prepared his grounds, and first lay of colours, on fuch cloths as Lely used: but after his death, he foon fell into a flighter manner, which was more agreeable to his † genius and inclination, and invented the cold grey-coloured cloths, ⚫on which he established his flight expeditious manner. Then ⚫ was the time when the painters expofed their understanding, in neglecting the charming ftile of Vandyck to follow Kneller.• But tho' colouring was not his talent, yet he was in his time ‡ the best face-painter in Europe: nor has there been an artist 'fince him, whose heads can ftand comparison with his. After him, colouring hung here for fome time between the manners of Mr. Richardfon and Rofalba; the followers of "the latter failing in oil, established her method.'

* A man who is guided by principles can furely convey his knowlege to the world by writing; and in truth there are many excellent books on this fubject, in the language of every country that has produced artists. A catalogue of no fewer than 300 books on painting, fculpture, and architecture, is published in the Abecedario Pittorico.

Who is the gentleman talking about, Kneller, or Lely?

He feems to be expofing his understanding in admiring fo fuperlatively the works of Kneller; and his affertion, tho' pofitive, is falfe.