physician; but unfortunately mistaking one phial for another, he gave her laudanum. The mistake being immediately discovered by examining the other phial, efficacious antidotes were applied; and the lady, after undergoing much torture from the conflicting operation, to the inexpressible terror and horror of her husband, at length recovered.

Burkę lost, in his eminent friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, almost the last of the literary and. convivial associates of his early years. Sir Joshua had always regarded Burke as the first of men, and was in turn loved, esteemed, and respected by his illustrious friend. He had assisted him when embarrassed, and, by his will, after cancelling a bond for 20001. bequeathed him 20001. more. The orator and painter were so often together, and the fulness of Burke's mind ran in such abundance, force, and clearness, that Sir Joshua must have remembered many of his ideas, and even expressions. At the opening of the Royal Academy, Jan. 2, 1769, Sir Joshua, the President, delivered a discourse on the object of the institution and the principles of painting. At the annual distribution of prizes, he also thereafter delivered an oration on similar subjects. The ingenuity of the reflections, the extent of the knowledge, and the elegance of the composition, made them supposed by some to be the productions of genius more exclusively devoted to literary efforts than

Sir Joshua's. They were, at one time, imputed to Dr Johnson. Admitting the just and philosophical view exhibited by Mr. Courtenayof the influence of that great man's intellectual exertions on literary composition, readers had no evidence that he actually assisted the painter in composing his essays. From his intercourse with Johnson it was probable that he derived knowledge and principles which may have been transfused into his discourses. But neither testimony, nor the internal evidence of the works themselves, are in favour of the supposition that they were written by Johnson. Mr. McCormick thinks they must have been written by Burke; and internal evidence is certainly much more in favour of his hypothesis than of the former.+ Burke was much more conversant in the fine. arts than his friend Johnson. But there is the testimony of Mr. Malone, who had every opportunity, as the constant companion of Sir Joshua, to be informed of the truth during Sir. Joshua's life; and as his executor, from the perusal of papers after his death, who had the best means (if any one could have them) of not being deceived himself, and could have no motive to deceive others, positively asserts that they were the composition of Sir Joshua himself. Agreeing, therefore, in the probability, a priori, of Mr. McCormick's supposition, I think it overturned in fact by the evidence of Mr. Malone. Burke was one of the chief mourners at his

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friend's funeral. An account of the procession was drawn up by Mr. Burke and Mr. Malone. The following sketch of his character, composed by Burke, was also published. "His illness was long, but borne with a mild and chearful fortitude, without the least mixture of any thing irritable or querulous, agreeably to the placid and even tenor of his whole life. He had, from the beginning of his malady, a distinct view of his dissolution; and he contemplated it with that entire composure, which nothing but the innocence, integrity, and usefulness of his life, and an unaffected submission to the will of Providence, could bestow. In this situation he had every consolation from family tenderness, which his own kindness had, indeed, well deserved.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS was, indeed, on very many accounts, one of the most memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the great masters of the renowned ages. In portrait he went far beyond them; for he communicated to that description of the art, in which English artists are the most engaged, a variety, a fancy, and a dignity, derived from the higher branches, which even those, who professed them in a superior manner, did not

always preserve, when they delineated indivi dual nature. His portraits remind the spectator of the invention of History, and the amenity of Landscape. In painting portraits, he appeared not to be raised upon that platform, but to descend to it from a higher sphere. His paintings illustrate his lessons, and his lessons seem to be derived from his paintings.

"He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his art. To be such a painter, he was a profound and penetrating philosopher.

"In full assurance of foreign and domestic fame, admired by the expert in art and the learned in science, courted by the great, caressed by sovereign, powers, and celebrated by distinguished poets, his native humility, modesty, and candour never forsook him, even on surprise or provocation; nor was the least degree of arrogance or assumption visible to the most scrutinizing eye, in any part of his conduct or discourse.

"His talents of every kind, powerful from nature, and not meanly cultivated by letters, his social virtues in all the relations and all the habitudes of life, rendered him the centre of a very great and unparalleled variety of societies, which will be dissipated by his death, He had too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too much innocence to provoke any enmity. The loss of no man of his time can be

felt with more sincere, general, and unmixed sorrow." Perhaps the history of eloquence does not afford a more masterly instance of panegyric than this which I have just quoted; at once general and appropriate, compressed and complete; exhibiting, in a few words, the constituents, operations, and effects of its subject's characteristic excellence.

Not long before Burke was deprived of his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, another gentle. man, who had once been very intimate with him, endeavoured to renew their intercourse. Mr. Gerrard Hamilton had always retained a very warm regard for Mr. Burke. He fully admitted his reasons for discontinuing their political connection, and uniformly praised the letter that Burke wrote on the occasion, as one of the finest compositions he had ever perused. He venerated the disinterestedness that had resigned the pension. His admiration of the talents of his late friend rose higher and higher as they more fully unfolded themselves, and many of his exhibitions he, contemplated with astonishment. When the abilities of Fox, more exclusively parliamentary, raised him to be the leader of Opposition, Hamilton said, "In parliament only would Mr. Fox be the first man; in parliament only would Mr. Burke NOT be the first man." The discriminating mind of Hamilton distinguished between that combination of cognitive and active powers that fits