he offends by laboured and inflated rhapsodies on the most celebrated monuments of art. To him Germany owes the shackles of her artists, and the narrow limits of their aim; from him they have learnt to substitute the means for the end, and by a hopeless chase after what they call beauty, to lose what alone can make beauty interesting, expression and mind. The works of Mengs himself are no doubt full of the most useful information, deep observation, and often consummate criticism. He has traced and distinguished the principles of the moderns from those of the ancients; and in his comparative view of the design, colour, composition, and expression of Raffaello, Corregio, and Tiziano, with luminous perspicuity and deep precision pointed out the prerogative or inferiority of each. As an artist, he is an instance of what perseverance, study, experience, and encouragement can achieve to supply the place of genius.

"Of English critics whose writings preceded the present century, whether we consider solidity of theory or practical usefulness, the last is undoubtedly the first. To compare Reynolds with his predecessors would equally disgrace our judgment, and impeach our gratitude. His volumes can never be consulted without profit, and should never be quitted by the student's hand, but to embody by exercise the precepts he gives, and the means he points out."

In 1802 Mr. Fuseli visited Paris, where he remained about six weeks. He there conceived the intention of writing some account of the treasures of art which at that time were accumulated in the Louvre, and collected materials for the purpose; but the renewal of the war prevented the booksellers from encouraging the production of the work.

In 1805, Mr. Fuseli's critical powers were again displayed in a new and much enlarged edition of "Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters."

One of the friends of Mr. Fuseli's earlier life was Lord Orford, then Horace Walpole. Cipriani was a favourite

artist of Mr. Walpole's, and was much employed by him. The latter, however, wishing for a picture of Hero and Leander, Cipriani said that it was not a subject that would suit him, but that he knew a young artist who could execute it better than any man in England. He accordingly, in the kindest and handsomest manner, introduced Mr. Fuseli to Mr. Walpole, for whom he painted several pictures, which, we believe, are now at Houghton. Mr. Coutts, Mr. Angerstein, Mr. Lock, Mr. Roscoe, Mr. Knowles, Mr. James Carrick Moore, and Vice Admiral Sir Graham Moore, were among Mr. Fuseli's most intimate friends. Mr. Balmanno, and Mr. Moses Haughton (the excellent artist in miniature, who, exchanging for a while the pencil for the graver, transferred to copper some of Mr. Fuseli's finest productions), maintained for many years a constant and kind intercourse with him. For thirty or forty years Mr. Fuseli was in the habit of dining once a week at the hospitable table of his old friend Mr. Johnson, the bookseller.

Here he met a number
Among the frequent

of distinguished literary characters. visitors at Mr. Johnson's, during that long period, were Mr. Bonnycastle, Dr. Aikin, Mrs. Barbauld, Sir Humphrey Davy, Mr. Godwin, Mrs. Mary Wolstonecroft *, Mr. Horne Tooke, Dr. Walcot, Dr. Stock, the late Bishop of Killala, Dr. Priestley, the Rev. John Hewlitt, Dr. Henry, Mr. Holcroft, &c. &c. Such were the attractions of Mr. Fuseli's conversation, which was full of point, that it was considered quite a blank day at Mr. Johnson's when any accident prevented him from being of the party. He was remarkably happy in repartee. He had also great powers of argument, but he was an enemy to protracted discussions, and especially if at any time he found that he had taken the wrong side, he generally contrived to turn the matter off with a joke. His friends relate many of his felicitous remarks; but owing to the peculiarity and vigour of his enunciation and gesture, they lose much in narrative; and, when they have not the advantage

Every one has heard of the animated correspondence between this lady and Mr. Fuseli.

even of imitative tone and action, their spirit in many cases almost entirely evaporates.

On one occasion, when dining at Mr. Johnson's, a gentleman called out to him from the other end of the room,-"Mr. Fuseli, I lately purchased a picture of yours." Mr. F. “Did you? what is the sobject?" Gent. "I really don't know." Mr. F. "That's odd enough; you must be a strange fellow, to buy a picture without knowing the sobject !" Gent. (a little nettled)" I don't know what the devil it is." Mr.F. Perhaps it is the devil: I have often painted him." Gent. "Perhaps it is." Mr. F. "Well! you have him now ; take care that he does not one day have you!"

66

Lounging in his Milton Gallery, a decently-dressed stranger accosted him:-"These pictures, Sir, are from Milton ?" "They are." "Milton wrote Paradise Lost ?" "He did." "I never read it; but I will." "You had better not; you'll

find it an exceedingly tough job."

When Mr. Fuseli resided in Berner's-street, two of the Royal Academicians, men more remarkable for their abilities than for their attention to " the outward man," of which they were sadly negligent, called on him to talk over some business connected with the Academy. The host and his visitors disagreed on the subject, and on their departure, the discussion which had commenced above stairs continued as they descended, and was prolonged as they all three stood on the step of the street-door. At length, Mr. Fuseli, adverting to his friends' shabby habiliments, put an end to the conversation by saying to them in a humourous tone, "Come, go away! go away! I don't wish my neighbours to think I have bom-bailiffs about me!"

He had a great dislike to common-place observations. After sitting perfectly silent for a long time in his own room, during the "bald, disjointed chat" of some idle callers-in, who were gabbling with one another about the weather, and other topics of as interesting a nature, he suddenly exclaimed, "We had pork for dinner to-day." "Dear! Mr. Fuseli,

what an odd remark!" "Why, it is as good as any thing you have been saying for the last hour."

Like most persons of studious habits, he was occasionally liable to fits of great irritability. A well-known living engraver, a man not only of extraordinary powers in his art, but in perfect possession of every faculty of mind and body, with the exception of his hearing, which is much impaired, tapped one day at the door of Mr. Fuseli's painting-room: "Come in," was the answer, in a subdued tone of voice, which, of course, was not audible. Another tap followed. "Come in," again said Mr. Fuseli, with a slight increase of emphasis, that still did not vibrate sufficiently on his visitor's tympanum. A third tap: "Come in!" roared Mr. Fuseli, with the lungs of a Stentor, accompanying the alarming request with an ejaculation, as loudly vociferated: of which, however, it may be enough to say that it was exceedingly expressive, although perhaps not strictly classical. The astonished Mr. L. entered the den, and received the full glare of the lion's eye. It can scarcely be necessary to add, that as soon as Mr. Fuseli discovered who it was, he laughed at his misapprehension, and apologized for his rudeness.

Speaking one day of a contemporary artist, whose countenance was not of the most prepossessing character, and who, although he had a firm and vigorous pencil, did not evince much taste in the selection of his subjects, Mr. Fuseli said, "He paints nothing but thieves and murderers, and when he wants a model he looks in the glass."

Mr. Fuseli understood the Latin language thoroughly, and wrote it with great elegance and power. He was likewise an excellent Greek scholar. When Cowper was preparing his translation of the Iliad for the press, Mr. Fuseli, having seen the "Prospectus" of the work, made some observations upon it while sitting at Mr. Johnson's table, which, having been reported to Mr. Cowper, struck him so forcibly that he requested the critic's assistance in the revision of his manuscript, and received it. In Hayley's "Life of Cowper" there is a

letter from Cowper to the Rev. Wm. Unwin, dated March 13, 1786, in which the fact is mentioned in the following

terms:

"I have put my book into the hands of the most extraordinary critic that I have ever heard of. He is a Swiss; has an accurate knowledge of English; and for his knowledge of Homer, has, I verily believe, no fellow. Johnson recommended him to me. I am to send him the quires as fast as I finish them off, and the first is now in his hands."

In a letter to his bookseller, dated February 11, 1790, Cowper says:

"I am very sensibly obliged by the remarks of Mr. Fuseli, and beg that you will tell him so; they afford me opportunities of improvement which I shall not neglect.”

And in another letter, dated Sept. 7, 1790:

tures.

"It grieves me that after all, I am obliged to go into public without the whole advantage of Mr. Fuseli's judicious stricI beg you to present my compliments to Mr. Fuseli, with many and sincere thanks for the services that his own more important occupations would allow him to render me."

"It is a singular spectacle," Mr. Hayley remarks, "for those who love to contemplate the progress of social arts, to observe a foreigner, who has raised himself to high rank in the arduous profession of a painter, correcting, and thanked for correcting, the chief poet of England, in his English version of Homer."

*

On the publication of Cowper's work, Mr. Fuseli wrote an admirable critique upon it, in the "Analytical Review ;" which publication, indeed, is enriched with a great many contributions from his pen, on subjects connected with natural history, the fine arts, and classical learning. It would be difficult to convey a more adequate notion of the soundness of Mr. Fuseli's remarks, than by showing, in the following passage of a letter from Cowper to Samuel Rose, Esq.

*For January, 1793.