afford no effectual benefit: it cannot then be too ftrongly urged, that the first appearance of the difeafe fhould be the fignal for departure; and young people, in whom the predifpofition to it is very decided, would do well not to await even its approach; as a fkilful gardener ad pts the juft degree of temperature to a tender exotic, the judicious phyfician fhould fofter the delicate offspring of confump tive parents.

ART. III. A Defcription of the Collection of ancient Terra Cottas in the British Mufcum, with Engravings. 4to. 39 pp. 41 plates. 11. 11s. 6d. G. and W. Nicol. 1810.

AMONG the many additions which have been made of

late years to the British Museum, none has been fo confiderable, nor fo creditable to the munificence of Parliament, as the collection of ancient fculptures, made by the late Charles Townley, Efq; who, during a long refidence at Rome, and likewife fince his return to England, loft no opportunity of procuring materials, and ultimately forming an aggregate, which has for many years been confidered by artifts and antiquaries as one of the chief ornaments of his country. The gallery built for the reception of this important acquifition is now viewed with admiration by a great concourfe of vifitors *, who at the fame time express their approbation of the facility recently afforded to the public, both for improving the national tafte by a free and repeated accefs to thefe exquifite productions of art, and for the opportunities offered to artifts for drawing from models of fuch fuperior excellence.

The whole of this collection, exclufive of the Egyptian antiquities obtained by the capitulation of Alexandria, and which occupy one of the rooms of this gallery, is now depofited in nine rooms; and the first of these contains the Terra Cottas, which are the fubjects of this publication.— Moft, if not all, of them were found in and near Rome; a great part were brought over by Mr. Nollekens, who after. wards fold them to Mr. Townley, but a confiderable number were imported by the latter gentleman, These ancient baffo

* Mr. G. Rofe, on a late occafion, ftated to the House of Commons, that the number of perfons admitted during the last twelve months amounted to no less than 30,000.

relievos

relievos of baked clay, appear to have been chiefly cast in moulds, though perhaps afterwards retouched by the graver. They were used as decorations in the public and private buildings probably as friezes, and they have at all times been prized by artifts, as being often the firft thoughts and the freeft exertions of the genius of the fculptor. Of the defigns some are of Roman invention; but many appear to have been copied from the works of Greek artifts.

The plates to this volume, including the vignette, are 41 in number, Two of them exhibit a general view of the two fides of the room; and the remainder contain 80 fubjects, five of which reprefent ftatues lefs than four feet high, two are heads of the bearded Bacchus, four are Amphoras, and the remainder are baffo relievos, moft of them on mytho logical fubjects. The drawings were made from the Terra Cottas by Mr. Alexander, of whofe fkill as an artist sufficient proofs are to be found in Sir George Staunton's Account of Lord Macartney's Embafly to China. The engravings are by various hands, and moft of them executed with much neatnefs, and we can vouch from comparison, with an equal degree of accuracy. Those we have the leaft in our power to commend, are the numbers 26, 27, 28, and 29. The descriptions are by Mr. Taylor Combe, librarian for the department of Antiquities in the British Museum, who in this his first publication, amply evinces his tafte and various eru dition; particularly his kill as an antiquary. As the work is intended to be continued throughout the collection, we may fafely augur, that practice will produce a ftill higher degree of perfection in the fucceeding numbers.

A work of this nature being incapable of abridgment, we must content ourselves with laying before our readers a few fpecimens of the defcriptions, in order to convey an idea of the ftyle in which that part of the work is executed.

No. XVI.

"A bas-relief, reprefenting the goddefs Minerva, fuperintending the conftruction of the ship Argo. The figure employed

* σε Αὐτὴ γὰρ καὶ νῆα θοὴν κάμε· σὺν δὲ οἱ Ἄργος Τερξεν Αρετόριδης, κείνης ὑποθημοσύνησι. Apol. Rhod. i. 111, -ipfamque fecundis

Argois trabibus jactent fudaffe Minervam.”

Claud, de Bella Get. v. 15:

in ufing a chiffel and hammer is Argus, the builder of the ship; and the other figure, affifted by Minerva in fixing the fail to the yard, is Tiphyst, the pilot of the veffel. The hip was built at Pagafe, a fea-port of Magnefia, in Theffaly, where there was a temple of Apollo; and the timber with which the veffel was conftructed, was cut from the foreft of Pines on the top of Mount Pelios. Winckelman is therefore of opinion that the tree and part of the edifice, which are introduced into this bas-relief, reprefent, both the foreft of Pelios, and the temple of Apollo. This foreft, however, could hardly have been reprefented fo close to the town, fince they ftood at a confiderable distance from each other; and as the temple of Apollo could have no particular connection with the prefent fubject, it is probable that the edifice rather reprefents part of the walls of the city of Pagafe, namely, that part which fronted the fea. The ftyle of the building coincides ftrongly with this fuppofition. This bas-relief, and two others fimilar to it, were found in an old wall of a vineyard, near the Porta Latina at Rome, where they had been made ufe of inftead of bricks §. One of these bas-reliefs was procured for the collection of Cardinal Albani, and is engraved in the frontispiece to the first volume of Winckelmann's Monumenti Antichi inediti. Dimenfions foot 10 inches, by z feet 1 inch." P. 10.

No. XLVII.

"A bas-relief, reprefenting Bacchus received as a gueft by Icarus. Bacchus is reprefented in the coftume of India, with a

ad carum Tritonia devolat Argum Moliri hunc puppim jubet, et demittere ferro Robora."

Val. Flacc. v. 64.

+ « Τίφυν το Αγνιάδην δολιχῆς ἰθύνορα νηός. Orph. Arg. V. 120. quem curfus penes imperiumque carinæ

Tiphyn agit violenta lues."

Val. Fl. v. 14.

It should be Pelion; though Cellarius has once written Pelios. -In the following paffages it is in the nominative cafe.

Et quas Offa tulit, quafque altus Pelion herbas.

Pelion Hæmoniæ mons eft. Id. Faft. 5. 381. Ovid Met.7.224. ftet impofita,

Pelion Offa. Seneca Agam. 337. and various other places.

See Winckelman, Hiftoire de l'Art. tom. 1. p. 29.

et cunctis Baccho jucundior hofpes

Rev.

Icarus. Tibul. IV. i. 9. "Cum Liber Pater ad homines eft profectus, et fuorum fructuum fuavitatem atque jucunditatem oftenderet, ad Icarium et Erigonen in hofpitium liberale devenit. Hyginus i. 130.”

beard,

beard, and a garment reaching to the ground. A Faun is in the act of taking off his fandal, while another Fawn is fupporting Bacchus during the operation. Icarus is feated on a couch wel coming the arrival of Bacchus. In front of the couch is a table, covered with fruits and other refreshments. Erigone, the daugh ter of Icarus, is also feated on the couch, at the feet of her father; her own feet are refting on a footftool. The figure, ftanding be tween Icarus and Bacchus, appears to be a fervant in attendance, and his looks, which are directed towards Icarus, feem to watch the commands of his mafter. Behind this group is a curtain, which extends across the back-ground. A bas-relief, reprefenting the fame fubject, but more amplified, may be feen among the ancient marbles in this collection. Dimensions I foot 5 inches, by foot 6 inches." P. 25.

This fubject has till lately been erroneously confidered as reprefenting the feaft of Trimalchio, defcribed by Pe

tronius.

We have often lamented an injudicious practice in writers on Antiquities, who, while they lay before their readers engravings of the fubjects which they mean to illuftrate, enter into minute details of the attitudes, draperies and appendages, of all which an accurate knowledge may more easily be obtained by mere infpection of the plates. Mr. Combe, we acknowledge with pleasure, has trefpaffed in this respect much less than the generality of his predeceffors, especially the Italians, but we wish him to be quite free from fuch redundances. The following fpecimen will best explain the tendency of our animadverfion. It may be urged, that in many cafes, unless an author be allowed to enter into fuch particu lars, he will have nothing to fay on the fubject: but to this we briefly answer, "Let him then say nothing."

No. XXX.

"A bas-relief, reprefenting Bacchus leaning on the shoulders of a Faun, who is bearing an inverted torch in his left hand. At the feet of Bacchus, is a Panther holding up its mouth to receive the wine, which is poured from a vafe held in the right hand of Bacchus. Before this group is a Bacchante, holding a thyrfus decorated with fillets. Bacchus is here reprefented in his youthful character; his head is crowned with vine-leaves, and he holds fome of the fruit and leaves of the vine in his left hand. Dimenfions foot 5 inches, by i foot 14 inch."

P. 19.

Perhapa, however, only the words printed in Italics can ftrictly be called fuperfluous, ev n here. We must fuppofe that Mr. Alexander was reftrained as to the fize of his de. lineations, and that had he had his own option, he would not have preferred fo fmall a fcale: and we muft add, that con fidering the minutenefs of the objects, mere outlines would, in our opinion, have been lefs operofe, and equally, if not more, fatisfactory both to artists and amateurs.

ART. IV. Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Beddoes, M. D. with an analytical Account of his Writings, by John Edwards Stock, M. D. 4to. pp. 413. Murray. 1810.

N all Biographical publications, the Reviewer must be fuppofed to have two objects before him, the subject of the hiftory, and the Biographer. We have in the prefent work, an account of the Life and Writings of an eminent phyfician, written by a brother phyfician of reputation and abilities, and were we to go regularly through the book, in order to present the reader with a critical commentary on its contents, we fhould have perhaps nearly as much to fay of the hiftorian, as of the perfon whofe hiftory he writes. We do not mean to intimate that Dr. Stock really writes about himself, but in giving an account of the writings, remarks and discoveries of his friend, he interfperfes further remarks of his own, fo as to render his hiftory a kind of review of Dr. Beddoes's writings and opinions. Now it fo happens that almost all the writings of Dr. Beddoes, mentioned in this volume, have already been reviewed by our. felves, nor do we fee any particular occafion to alter our opinions, fo that in our account of the work before us, we shall have more to do with the man than with the phyfician and Philofopher. The lives of literary men, Dr. Stock obferves, feldom fupply the biographer with much diversity of incident; we are bound, however, at the fame time to acknowledge, that what they may want of this popular attraction, is for the moft part likely to be compenfated by the importance and utility of the researches and occupations to which fuch perfons may have devoted their time, and from the nature and character of the particular purfuits in which Dr. Beddoes engaged, we are very ready to admit, that no man's life could well have been more uninterruptedly, zealously and enthufiaftically applied to the advantage of his fellow creatures, than that of

the