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professors from being blindfolded by the mists of political contention, and that our ecclesiastical courts would echo to the still small voice of truth alone; yet even here party rage predominates with the same violence as in the courts of Parliament, in the meetings of a county, or in the councils of a borough.

Such is the mode in which this rage of party spirit now operates. Let us next only glance at the fairness and candour with which upon either side it is brought into play.

-Were it at all practicable to decide with certainty between the right and the wrong, and to apply the standard of immutable truth to fix the merits or demerits of either party, it might then be discovered to what extent one man is right, and all other men wrong. But, unfortunately, facts cannot be brought to bear upon the test, for such is the prevailing blindness, that neither party can look at facts through natural optics. If, upon one side, facts are viewed through a telescope, the partisans of the other side are sure to look at them through the instrument inverted. In proof of this, let but the heads of a parish assemble to express their opinion upon any political event; on such an occasion, a Whig sees only a room-full of men assembled in a laudable attempt to reform some partial abuse, while a Tory discovers a whole county up in arms to overturn the Constitution.

The evidence as to the guilt or innocence of the Queen was developed alike to Whig and Tory in disgusting profusion; but how differently were their minds impressed in consequence? The one party, looking through the Tory end of the telescope, saw the most damning proofs of guilt, and in their minds, she rests guilty accordingly; while the Whig, purely because the Tory believes otherwise, can with equal confidence appeal to Heaven and his own conscience, in the firm belief that she is as spotless as the polar snow. In such a state of matters, this perplexing question might with equal justice have been decided without any evidence at all. The optical deception, indeed, operated to such an extent, that learned bishops were unable to get at the true meaning of a biblical text, hitherto considered as clear as the sun at noon-day, As to the illuminations which follow

ed in honour of what the Tories called the abandonment of proceedings against, and the Whigs, the acquittal of, her Majesty,-the detailed accounts given by those trumpeters to their respective factions,-the Times and the Courier,-exhibited another striking and ludicrous display of party illusion. Many of your readers, Mr Editor, have, no doubt, in an idle hour, gazed upon a revolving light, placed" far amid the melancholy main," or have had their eyes dazzled with the blaze, from the turrets of Inchkeith, till, gazing a few seconds, "in an instant, all was dark :" So, after reading the accounts in the Times and in the Courier, one would be apt to imagine such a thing as a revolving illumination, and that the Times had taken its peep while the bright side, and the Courier, while the dark side, presented itself.

Each of these papers might have had its appropriate motto from Shakespeare.

Lights, lights, more lights,

would have suited the Times, and the following,

There's husbandry in Toryism,
Whig candles are all out,

would have served equally well for the Courier. Where the one saw here and there only some faint glimmering of a farthing taper, the other saw whole masses of luminaries all trimmed in joyous brilliancy.

But what are Whigs, and what are Tories? which are right, and which wrong? and how far? are questions, which, while party predominates, will never be answered to universal satisfaction. Let us, therefore, call in the officious, prowling Cerberus, already described, and examine its three heads, according to the doctrines of Spurzheim, whose rules, however, admit of some exceptions. And,

1st, I find the Tory head that of a little pug-dog, accustomed to repose in the lap of favour, and to fawn and cringe to all who are in power. It is so plausible, nay so polite, that it will bark at no one who is as well fed and pampered as itself; no, not even at the domestic spoiler, or the intrusive robber, if he speak unto it fair words, and give it a little of his gains. It will bark only at a Whig.

2d, The Whig head appears to be

that of a full grown mastiff; its barkings are most vociferous; it is ever on the watch, and, withal, very noisy. This may be accounted for, from its being fed on humbler fare than loaves and fishes, and not admitted into the highest company. But with all its boasted pretensions in favour of liberty, it is said to be a tyrant in its own petty domains,-an oppressor of its inferiors, and somewhat backward in paying its debts,-though this is perhaps more owing to its poverty than its principles.

3d, The Democrat, or Radical head, is a lusus naturæ, apparently sprung from the Whig stem, but equally hated by both the other heads. It has but a small modicum of brains,-is very stupid,-knows no distinctions, -and is so very blind, that it will sometimes bark alike at the hand that feeds, and the hand that threatens it. In its nature it is as changeable as the mob.

But upon these subjects, Mr Editor, I have now said enough; and until party spirit shall find its legitimate grave" in the tomb of all the Capulets,"

The topic is unfit for you and me,
Who shall decide, when doctors disagree?
NO POLITICIAN.

I am,

LIFE OF NICHOLAS POUSSIN.

(Concluded from Vol. VIII. p. 505.)

IN 1638, Cardinal Richelieu suggested to Louis XIII. the plan of finishing the Louvre, and of accomplishing the magnificent designs of Francis I. As the reputation of Poussin was now high, he was immediately fixed on to execute the principal pictures, and to superintend the rest, and he was almost instantly appointed first painter to the king, with a handsome allowance, intimation of which appointment was conveyed to him, in the most flattering terms, by a letter from the hand of Louis himself. Yet, strange as it may appear, we do not find him in Paris, till the expiry of two years after the date of this letter. This fact would seem to evince his great affection for his adopted country. Nor, indeed, did he consent to go to France, until his intimate friend, M. de Chantelou, who had a place in the king's household, had been sent to

Rome to fetch him. This man was a lover of the arts, and was resolved that his country should not, merely on a matter of etiquette, be deprived of a share in the works of one of her own children. It was at the suggestion of this individual, that Poussin painted a new series of the Seven Sacraments; he was not willing that another should copy, and perhaps murder his first series, and he could not endure the idea of sitting down to make a slavish copy of his own compositions. This second series, which was once in the Orleans gallery, is now in the possession of the Marquis of Stafford. There has been much controversy, however, among all the different tribes of connoisseurs, whether the Seven Sacraments at Rome are finer than those now in possession of the Marquis of Stafford. "Who shall decide, when doctors disagree?" Those at Rome have been censured for hardness of execution and defective colouring, but in felicity of conception, and, above all, in beauty of expres sion, they are believed not merely to atone for these defects, but even to surpass those formerly in the Palais Royal.

In the interval that elapsed between the invitation sent to Poussin and his journey to Paris, he was not idle, but painted, for his friend M. de Chantelou, the "Israelites gathering Manna in the Wilderness," of which he himself thus speaks in a letter to Stella, a French artist of some consideration: "I have invented for M. de Chantelou's picture a certain distribution of parts, and certain natural accidents, which display the misery and famine to which the Israelites were reduced, and also their subsequent joy and delight; the admiration with which they are seized; their respect and veneration for their legislator; with a mixture of men, women, and children, of various ages and complexions, which I imagine will not displease those who are able to read them." It is, we believe, one of the greatest faults of design, when it cannot be easily "read," and when a sixpenny pamphlet must be purchased in order to gather information of the furniture of the canvas. Poussin was a learned painter, and many of his designs are classical and learned, but still to those who possess the necessary information, who are able.

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to read," nothing is easier than to collect the scope and intention of the artist, whose distinguishing merit it undoubtedly is to have made his figures and groupes tell his story more perspicuously, fully, and effectually, than perhaps any other painter. At length, having finished this picture, he set out for Paris, leaving his family affairs under the especial care of the Commander Del Pozzo. The reception which he met with at the French court was most flattering, and, by a letter of his own, written subsequently to that event, appears to have made a deep impression on his sensitive and grateful mind. He was immediately presented to Cardinal Richelieu, and soon after taken to the country-seat of M. de Noyers, in order to be presented to the king, by whom he was most graciously and even affectionately received, and who, to mark his particular regard for the painter, superadded to the office already conferred on him, that of superintendent of all the works of decoration for the palaces, and confirmed these favours by brevet, dated in March 1641. At this period, the ambition of the court was to realize the splendid designs of Francis I. who, it is well known, endeavoured, by his liberal patronage, to attract to the French capital the greatest artists of Italy. It is said, that this warınhearted and gallant prince carried his affection for the arts so far, that Leonardo da Vinci died in his arms. present all seemed to be disposed to tread in his footsteps, and nothing was talked of but copying the Arch of Constantine, and the Pillar of Trajan; while it was actually resolved to cast in bronze, and place at the gate of the Louvre, the colossal statues of Monte Cavallo. We shall afterwards see how these designs were disposed of.

At

Poussin was not allowed to be idle. Some cartoons, to be copied in tapestry for the chamber of Louis, were the first task assigned him. We say task, for, from the moment of his arrival, till that of his departure, never more to return, he was tasked, without measure and without mercy, to the performance of works that he abhorred, and forced to labour, not as his own feelings and judgment, but as the whim and wanton caprice of affected tasteless courtiers directed.

These cartoons are unhappily lost: they were of the same size as those of Raffaelle, and, in them, many of Poussin's earlier compositions were repeated. He had no sooner finished them, however, than, in prosecution of the plan which ultimately drove him from his native country, he was set to design frontispieces for books printed at the Royal Printing-office. The first of these which he executed was for the Bible commonly called by the name of Sixtus V., and sometime afterwards he furnished many designs for Horace and Virgil, which were printed at the Royal Press. How he felt under this most extraordinary but perfectly French usage, we learn from an extract of a letter of his to Del Pozzo, dated September 20, 1641. "I am labouring without intermission, sometimes at one thing, sometimes at another. I should do this willingly, but that they hurry me in things that require time and thought. I assure you, that if I stay long in this country I must turn dauber like the rest here." About this time, too, he finished a great picture containing fourteen figures larger than nature, the subject of which is one of the miracles of St Francis Xavier in Japan, where he restores to life the daughter of a nobleman. "It was finished at the time prescribed," and from the merited applause which it elicited, brought out into full cry against the hard-earned fame of the gentle Poussin, the whole pack of envy and detraction, who never once relaxed the pursuit till they finally succeeded in the object which to them was of the last importance, namely, forcing him to forswear for ever his most ungrateful country. The leader of his persecutors was one Vonet, whose name would never have reached posterity had it not been thus inauspiciously associated with that of Poussin. Zoilus owes his immortality to Homer, and Maevius to the Mantuan Bard. This Vouet had some notoriety before the arrival of Poussin,—an event which of all others he dreaded the most, and, accordingly, having clustered around him all those who were as Gothic, and as stupid, and as malevolent as himself, he proceeded to the assault with all the distempered industry of baulked selfishness and mortified vanity. "Christ in his Glory," which Poussin finished about

this period, was attacked with the most licentious severity, and the figure of Christ compared to a Jupiter Tonans, while the colouring was ridiculed as opaque, and the outline as hard, dry, and without feeling. The criticisms of his enemies were met by Poussin with the calm dignity of sterling merit and conscious truth. "Those," said he, "who assert that the Christ in my picture is more like a Thundering Jupiter than a God of mercy, may be assured that I shall never fail in careful endeavours to give my figures expressions conformable to what they are intended to represent; but I neither can, nor ought to imagine Christ in any situation whatever with the face of a whining Methodist, or a mendicant friar, SEE

ING THAT WHILE HE WAS UPON EARTH IT WAS SCARCELY POSSIBLE TO ENDURE THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COUNTENANCE!" Notwithstanding the clamorous criticism of Vouet and his corps, the king, queen, and Richelieu openly espoused the side of Poussin, and thereby indicated, in this instance at least, at once their taste and impartiality, qualities to which the atmosphere of courts is generally supposed to be peculiarly noxious. Yet, in spite of this high encouragement, he complains bitterly of the usage he met with in being bound down to trifling and insignificant tasks, in the performance of which he was hurried on by the eager impatience of those who thought that a painter could throw off great works by a dash of his pencil, or that a gallery could rise up, like the gourd of the prophet, in a single night; and he actually states, that they employed him on frontispieces to books, designs for ornamental cabinets, chimney-pieces, bindings of books, and other nonsense." This was humiliating enough, no doubt, and he set himself to complain in good earnest ; but the only satisfaction he received was large promises and fair words.

Belle parole e cattivi fatti, &c,

Some where about the beginning of 1642, we find that he had fixed his plan for the decorations of the Tuilleries, the production of which was the signal for his enemies to commence fresh operations against his happiness and fame. It must be owned, that in this plan, at once ori

ginal and comprehensive, he had used but slender ceremony with the vanity of the architect Le Mercier, who, feeling that Poussin had, as he imagined, invaded his province, went over and joined the party of the pitiful Vouet. He was particularly tormented, too, with a dandy of a landscape painter, called Fouquières, who, though sprung from the dregs of the people, had the impudence to pretend that he was a man of family. Poussin laughed at his folly and hatred, but found that there is no animal in the creation so absolutely worthless as not to become a formidable, if an inveterate, enemy. Seeing that the hatred of his enemies was approaching to a crisis, he gave in a strong remonstrance to M. de Noyers, complaining of and criticising the operations of Le Mercier on the gallery of the Louvre, and exposing, in very calm but manly and decided terms, his utter ignorance and want of taste. We believe there is not at this day a human being of the smallest pretensions to common sense, not to say taste, who shall read the observations contained in this letter, having previously seen the place to which it alludes, and not be instantly, and almost intuitively, sensible of their truth. His remonstrance concludes with these memorable words: "I feel my own powers, and know what I am capable of, without priding myself too much on them, or yet seeking favour. I write to bear witness to truth, and will never descend to flattery, which are too opposite ever to be reconciled." Little attention was, however, paid to this remonstrance, and a counter-memorial was given in, "wherein it was, artfully insinuated, that the honour of the nation was compromised by the parsimony of his plans for the public buildings:" To which insinuation Poussin made the following pointed reply: "The calumnies of my enemies are sharpened by their hopes of gain."

But this state of continued warfare could not last, and, in the end, became intolerable to so great a lover of peace as the subject of this memoir. Accordingly he applied to M. de Noyers for permission to return to Rome, and received from that minister a conditional leave, on an implied promise that he would return early

in the following September. The last picture which he painted in the French capital had a very appropriate subject, viz. "Time bringing Truth to light, and delivering her from the fiends Malice and Envy." He left behind him another, however, which bears a more pointed allusion to his private vexations and persecutions. The subject is the Labours of Hercules, to which he has added an imaginary one, in which the hero destroys Folly, Ignorance, and Envy: these hateful personages are caricatures of Fouquières, Le Mercier, and Vouet; while the Hercules bears resemblance to Poussin himself." Fouquières is Folly seated on an Ass, from whose neck hangs a medal with the initials J. F.: Ignorance, as Le Mercier, is busy tearing up the works of Vitruvius; she holds a square and compasses in her hands: Envy is of course Vouet." In this picture, and in several others, particularly the Death of Philemon, who expired of laughter at seeing an ass eat figs, he displays a quiet and genuine humour, which, in minds of acute perceptions and strong sensibility, is often combined with great talents for pathos.

At length, however, Poussin returned to Rome, where he had not been long, before he was invited again to return to France, in consequence of the changes which had there taken place by the death of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII. and the recal of his patron, M. de Noyers, who had been some time in disgrace. Poussin's answer to this proposal was prompt and manly. "I will never go to Paris," said he, " to be employed as a private man, though my works should be covered with gold for it." This, of course, put a final period to the negociation, but he continued to enjoy from Louis XIV. the pension which had been conferred on him by his predecessor. Upon his return to the favourite seat of art, and his own beloved residence, Poussin resumed his labours with his wonted vigour and enthusiasm. "I grow older," says he in a letter to a friend," but I feel more than ever inflamed with the desire of surpassing myself, and of reaching to the highest pitch of perfection." During this period of his life, he lived retired from company, and spent much of his time in his workingroom, being visited only by a few sc

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lect friends in whose society he delighted to relax. By one of these he was one day asked what was the chief benefit which he had derived from his extensive reading?" How to live well with all the world," was the admirable reply. His brother-in-law, Gaspar Poussin, Claude Lorraine, and Charles Le Brun, were frequently his companions in his walks, and imbibed, from his conversation, the noblest and purest maxims both in morals and in art, and in the true method of studying nature, and of transfusing into the groupes of the canvas her native and unsophisticated forms. There can be no manner of doubt that the two great landscape painters here named derived incalculable advantages from the interchange of friendship with this great man.. Graham has finely discriminated the styles of Gaspar Poussin, and of his friend and contemporary Claude Lorraine, and contrasted the opposite aspects under which they loved to view the same scene, with the justest and nicest tact, and the correctest feeling of the great characteristic beauties of each. And we cannot but regret that we find it impossible to lay it before our readers in her own words, both as a specimen of her style, and an example of that unaffected and truly becoming simplicity and chasteness of manner in which she has learned to dress her sentiments. The truth is, that Poussin would never receive any pupil, but he interested himself deeply in the success of other artists, and was no niggard of his praise whenever he thought it deserved. "Your Lordship wants only a little poverty to become a good painter," said he on one occasion to a nobleman who had shewn him a piece of his own, and asked his opinion of the design and execution. In the success of his young countryman, Charles Le Brun, he took a very particular and warm interest, and omitted nothing in the way of precept or example that could extend his views or incite him to exertion. It is well known how agreeably he was surprised to find that a picture painted secretly by Le Brun, and publicly exhibited in Rome without a name, was thought to be one of his own.Le Brun waited on the venerable artist, carried him to see the picture, and, on their return, confessed that he had done his best to imitate the

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