Λαροντες γλωσσησιν αραιησιν μελαν ὕδωρ
Ακρον.

You see the minuteness and the rapidity of his observation in the simple circumstance which he introduces to give emphasis to his sketch the slender tongue. The natural precedes the picturesque; the first the characteristic of an uninitiated, the second of a refined, age.

Bolingbroke.-What, then, do you strictly understand by the picturesque in composition?

Pope. I understand every thing that relates to an arrangement of objects with a particular reference to the general effect of the picture-to what the French critics call the coup d'œil, and including, of course, the number and position of the figures, the composition and costume of the groups, the distribution of light and shade. Of this art Tasso was a great master, Shakspeare learned it by intuition, Spenser presents some noble specimens of it, Virgil is pre-eminent, and Claudian frequently reminds me of Rubens himself.

Bolingbroke. And in prose you might point to Livy, the Virgil without metre, and whose histories are only so many episodes in the great epoch of his country. In the historian, as in the poet, we trace the same eye of taste and imagination tinging every scene with its own soft and enchanting light. If you call Tacitus the Rembrandt, you must admit that Livy is the Correggio of his art.

Pope. There are shadows of flowers upon the stream of Livy, but there is gold in the magnificent tide of Tully. One writes to the eye, the other to the understanding; yet not without a profound insight into the machinery of the human will, and a thrilling mastery over the passions. I love him, also, for his deep conviction of another and an enduring existence. The radiancy of a future life seems, in his page, to dart its kindling heat and lustre through the shadows of the present. For my own part I feel so strong, so lively an impression of the immortality of the soul, that, as I have often remarked to you upon various occasions, I seem to feel it within me as by intuition. Nor can I sit with patience and hear this doctrine of consolation, not to say of dignity, derided and condemned. I think that even in some cases I might be induced to give my suffrage against the liberty of unlicensed printing. I confess with the eloquent Hooker, that I would put a chain upon these blaspheming tongues; I would not suffer them to spit their venom upon the innocent passers-by, and utter every word of contumely which the evil spirit that agitates and rends them may inspire.

Bolingbroke. Nay, let criticism possess its rack, but not its inquisition. If you wish to strengthen an opinion, tie it down. Like this green bough, which I now bend with my finger, it will retain its altered position only while the hand of authority is applied to it, and will spring back again with a vigour increased by restraint, when that hand is withdrawn.

THE two great nations separated by the English Channel, after so long viewing each other with aversion and contempt, as natural enemies, rivals in arms and power, seem now to have entered on a nobler field of rivalry. They vie with each other in the profusion with which they place before their people those objects of science and taste which delight, refine, and elevate the human mind. Britain, in particular, rousing herself from a long apathy, has, of late, made very rapid strides in this career. It had become a standard reproach, that while the Continental collections were thrown open in the most liberal manner, hers were guarded on an exclusive system, and rendered accessible only to a favoured few. Yet so great have been the recent advances, that, perhaps, on a comparison of present arrangements, she may be found to have now somewhat the advantage. It is singular, indeed, that while the objects are the same, so great a diversity should exist in the terms, modes, and times of admission. If guided by reason, they ought surely to make some approach to uniformity. A survey of these diversities, inquiring which is right and which is wrong, may, perhaps, be of some use to the public, and thus merit a place in our columns. An estimate may not improperly follow of the comparative extent and value of these collections. It may be observed, that the writer's survey of those in the French capital was made about two years ago, but he has reason to believe there has been no material change.

able allowance, and as long as most men would be inclined to read daily. Students, however, may be prevented by various engagements from attending during a part or the whole of those hours, which are the very busiest in the day. The evening, and even the early morning, must to many be a great accommodation.

For admission to the Museum reading-rooms, a respectable recommendation is required; it is now, at least, so liberally granted, that very few, perhaps, are excluded who could make a good use of the privilege. Yet the foreign institution has a more liberal aspect, in granting two days on which all are indiscriminately admitted. We question, however, if so much benefit be thence derived as is commonly supposed. Such a collection can never supply the means of general reading to a city of upwards of a million of people. It can only be an instrument of research to those who undertake to inform and enlighten the public. Good common books are procurable in various modes, and on easy terms. If government is to do any thing to render them accessible, it should be by smaller detached libraries. It did not appear to the writer that the attendance at the Royal Library on public days was greater than at the Museum every day. After all, we think one public day might be advantageously allowed for young or humble students, who might find difficulty in procuring the necessary recommendation.

The student at Paris labours under a sad disadvantage, in not having access to a catalogue of any description. He derives no aid to his researches from such a source, and is obliged to ask blindfold, as it were, for any book of which he knows the title. One was said to be preparing, We but is not yet forthcoming. cannot but think, had the activity usual in French institutions been exMS catalogue might long

of the visitors. About one-third of the Museum Catalogue is now MS., and there are two copies. The numerous folio volumes of which it consists are perfectly open to the student, being ranged along a double row of shelves, in front of which are desks on which they can be placed. This arrangement is liable to exceptions, the shelves being usually more or less blocked up, and difficult to reach without inconvenient jostling. The old plan, by which the desk was placed opposite to them, with a suitable interval, was decidedly more commodious. The volumes are usually in extreme disorder; but this is the work of the readers, by whom the reasonable injunction, to replace them where they were found, is shamefully disregarded. Generally, the conduct of the officers and attendants in both institutions is very unexceptionable.

The next object which attracts attention, one superior even in splendour, though not in importance, consists in the grand collections of art contained in the galleries of the Louvre. This class of objects ought as much as possible to be thrown open to the whole public, who have otherwise no means of procuring or even seeing such costly productions. The writer, having gone with the impression of the admission being peculiarly liberal, was not a little surprised to find the footing on which it really stood. The French public are admitted only one day of the week; and what day? Sunday! and only from ten to four, opening when church service begins, and closing when it closes, thus precluding the visitors from any attendance on public worship. It may be too true that a great majority of the citizens feel no annoyance from this cause; but is this a spirit which the government wishes to encourage? Besides, though the religious public of Paris may be small, yet it exists, and must be allowed to be somewhat respectable, so that its entire exclu

sion seems scarcely consistent with liberal profession. Even supposing that, by giving up all attendance on public worship, the whole time could be secured, that time is too short, and with too long intervals, to admit the formation of that high and refined bh.

fessional men and foreigners are admitted during five other days. Art, however, is destined, not for artists, but for the world. The paintings of the great masters are not mere tools, out of which to manufacture other paintings. They ought to be objects of improving and refined contemplation to the great body of mankind. The opportunity afforded was certainly used with very great activity. Fair and youthful students were seen busily employed on frames sometimes larger than themselves. Yet, on seeing so many busy hands, and recollecting the numerous facsimiles which, under the title of duplicates, repetitions, replicas, &c., professed all to have come from the hand of the master, somewhat uneasy reflections arose. What seemed singular was that they should, in no instance, be mere studies or sketches, but always full-finished copies. Could not some security be taken against the employment of these for a fraudulent purpose? With regard to foreigners, the display before them of treasures of this description is, no doubt, a fair object of national pride; and their free admission, on the mere production of their passports, is every way deserving of approbation. But surely the almost total exclusion of native-born subjects from the same privilege is most extraordinary. Why should not the thirty millions of provincials, many of whom may visit the capital only for a short interval, be placed on at least an equal footing?

The arrangements made at the British National Gallery appear to be every way more liberal and rational. Four days are allowed to the public, native and foreign, and two days to artists. The hours of admission, too, in summer at least, are longer.

The French public have, also, access to the palace of Versailles, converted now into a vast musée. It is open on the most liberal footing for six hours during four days in the week to visitors of every description. Unfortunately, the collection is of far inferior value. We are not aware of any special accommodation for artists; a curious contrast, the reason of which seems difficult to conjecture. The British public have access to

to each of their works. All the English catalogues judiciously follow the order in which the pictures are placed.

The light in the Louvre Gallery, as observed by Mrs. Trollope, is most miserable. It enters at the angle between the wall and the roof, and is so ill distributed as to render it often necessary to go all round a picture before finding a point from which it is visible. Perhaps, from the want of any means of illumination from above, the evil may be irremediable. The British gallery is in this respect much superior, nor can there be much exception taken to any of the exhibitions named, except the room at Hampton Court containing the cartoons. It is all most imperfectly lighted, and the two fine ones of" Ananias," and "Giving the keys," being stuck on a side wall, are always in deep twilight. Such a defective view, though it may leave the outline distinguishable, hides from the spectator many of the more delicate beauties. It is the more tantalising when in other apartments so many of the humblest productions appear "basking in the full glare of day."

There are some arrangements of a minor description, yet a good deal conducive to the comfort of the visitor. No position is more uneasy and fatiguing, especially for persons at all delicate, than of standing for a great length of time. It is painfully felt during the period necessary to view such an immense collection as the Louvre. There are, indeed, a few seats placed in corners, where he may occasionally rest his wearied limbs; but while there he sees nothing, and all the time so spent is lost. In the National, and generally in British galleries, benches and chairs are ranged along the middle of the apartment, where the spectator, comfortably seated, may contemplate at leisure the objects displayed. In the palaces there is no regular provision, yet sittings may mostly be found; but in the British Museum the deficiency is still greater than in the Louvre. In this last collection, too, the galleries are entirely distinct, so that, after passing through one, you must walk back, sometimes

the edifice may prevent a more convenient arrangement. The indications pointing to the different branches did not appear to us very lucid, and the stranger has considerable difficulty in tracing his way.

The Louvre contains a collection of very fine drawings by the great masters. Such works it is well known are highly esteemed by persons of taste, being in many cases little inferior to the finished picture. The British Museum possesses also many of great value, bequeathed mostly by Knight and Cracherode. The view, however, is only upon recommendation, and thus confined to artists and amateurs of some consideration. They meet with every attention; yet this seems one of the objects which ought, if possible, to be placed within reach of the public, who have no other means of viewing such objects. Nor does there appear any obstacle to a selection of them being framed, like those in the Louvre, and placed in a gallery. There is a very

splendid royal collection which is not, so far as we know, open at all to any part of the public. Waagen, when in England, had great difficulty to find out where it was. The best specimens from it and the Museum might form a gallery probably at least equal to the fine one in the Louvre.

Both nations possess extensive collections of engravings, which are kept, the one in the Bibliothèque Royale, the other in the British Museum. The former are accessible to artists all the week, and two days to the public in general. Although the apartment is not very spacious, we are not aware of any inconvenience arising from this indiscriminate admission. A certain number of the finest are framed and suspended in the room, or in a small antechamber. The British collection is shewn only on the same limited footing as the drawings. It has been alleged that our people cannot be trusted with the handling of portfolios; yet, when duly tested, they have mostly shewn themselves undeserving of such charges. There could, at all events, be no objection to the framing a select number, which, if properly done, would be unattended with the slight