Nor yet, too fanguine, fondly deem that fame
Awaits to crown your triumphs, and proclaim,
That honour ftill on excellence attends,
And praise in clouds at Merit's fhrine afcends:
Foes, pleas'd to crush coeval worth, combine,
And cenfure circulates the critic's coin ;
The modern's claim faftidious taste denies,
Or, while he lives, reluctant grants the prize;
Fame lurks behind, till, Merit's death delay'd,

And having loft the fubftance,crowns the fhade.

Hitherto we have spoken chiefly of the reasoning or design of the work before us; but its execution is also deserving of some attention. The author has great command of language, and very considerable powers of fancy. His taste, indeed, is not always perfectly correct; and he is apt to run riot among clusters of me taphors, and to heap up his tropes and figures till the reader is rather bewildered than enlightened: But there is a force, a richness, and a spirit about his compositions, which makes amends for all this; and places him in a station, both as a prose writer and as a poet, which very few authors have been able to attain by a first publication. The following passage will give an idea of the general tone and cast of his introductory dissertation.

It is a miftake, unworthy of an enlightened government, to conceive that the arts, left to the influence of ordinary events, turned loose upon fociety, to fight and scramble, in the rude and revolting conteft of coarfer occupations, can ever arrive at that perfection which contributes fo materially to the permanent glory of a state,

This is the true handicraft confideration of the fubject-the warehouse wisdom of a dealer and chapman, who would make the artist a manufacturer, and measure his works by the yard. The arts treated commercially,-intrufted to that vulgar and inadequate impreffion of their importance, which is to be found in the mass of society, never did, and never can flourish in any country. The principle of trade, and the principle of the arts, are not only diffimilar, but incompatible. Profit is the impelling power of the one-praife, of the other. Employment is the pabulum vita of the first-encouragement, of the laft. These terms are fynonymous in the ordinary avocations of life; but in the purfuits of tafte and genius, they differ as widely in meaning, as coldness from kindnefs as the fordid commerce of mechanics, from the liberal intercourse of gentlemen.' Pref. p. xx.xxi.

Whether our artilts may not 66 get their bread in decent competence" from the profits of panoramas, or the projects of printfellersby drudging in our modern manufactories of frontispiece and vignetteofficiating as the decoy-ducks of sporting booksellers, and luring the public eye to works

"In which the pictures for the page atone? POPE. Thefe are queftions, which, whatever importance may be attached to

them,

them, the author certainly had no intention to discuss. Neither did he defign to plead the caufe of imbecility, or afk honours and rewards for thofe who have fhown neither ambition nor merit.-The painter who purfues his art as a trade, and thinks when he is paid that he is rewarded, fhould certainly be content if he is allowed, on equal terms, to play at the round game of profit and lofs, and fhuffle his cards with the contentious crowd,

"Who follow fortune through her filthy maze.

The author's observations were directed to higher points. It is not for the cultivation of mediocrity he contends, but the production of excellence; not that the artist may live in eafe and luxury, but that the arts may flourish in pride and perfection; that an object may be held out to the ambition, not to the avarice of the painter; and that he may be fired to fuch exertions as fhall immortalize his name, and shed a glory on his country.' Pref. p. l-lii.

The following affords an example of that disorderly style into which he is sometimes hurried by an unruly imagination.

The balance of trade is indeed (to fpeak commercially) completely againft us; and although the hardy progeny of commerce and manufacture (upon whofe rough and lufty limbs the cumbrous swathings of miftaken affection act but as the fetters of obftruction and restraint) are cautiously cradled up in bounties and protecting duties-the tender offfpring of tafte are left helplefs, naked, and expofed.

Their fituation appears a paradox; and, like the Spaniards after the difcovery of the treafures of the New World, they are impoverished by an importation of wealth. So many rich galleons of art have been brought home from the Peru of picture-dealers, that we disdainfully turn from our native productions; and even an ingot from the British mine is confidered a metal too bafe for the circulation of tafte.

• Our critics are transformed to antiquaries, with whom every thing is prized that is proved to be old; and the fterling currency of the day, though ftamped in the mint of genius, is cried down in favour of rufty coins, and Queen Anne's farthings.' Pref. xxx.-xxxi.

This is more like poetry than prose; and the poetry has the same excellences and defects. There is a good deal of spirit in the following reply to those who maintain that there is something unfavourable to the arts, in the climate and physical constitution of Britain.

Infult! to think the land where Shakspeare fprung,
The heav'n he breath'd-where feraph Milton fung!
In ftrains more fweet than erft from fabled shell
Of Orpheus old, or fam'd Amphion, fell:
Where Pope, where Dryden fwept the founding lyre,
With Maro's melody, and Homer's fire!
Where Science, (long on weak Conjecture's wing,
A thwarted falcon, flutt'ring from the ftring),

Loos'd

Loos'd by her Newton's hand, firft fhot on high,
And perch'd amid the manfions of the fky:
Infult to think this garden of the globe,
This fpangle fhining bright on Nature's robe;
From finer joys in cold feclufion plac'd,

A kindlefs clime beyond the beam of taste!
On wings of fire fuftain'd, th' immortal mind,
Nor clime controuls, nor fog, nor froft can bind;
Where freedom, man's moft cheering funfhine, glows,
Whether on Lybian fands, or Zemblan fnows;
Where life exults, with each bold feeling fraught,

And Fancy fearlefs fprings the mine of Thought!' p. 7-8. The same thought is afterwards pursued with equal animation. What though! in Greece, when Ammon's glory fway'd, When proftrate Rome Auguftus' power obey'd,

In latter days, when Leo's luftre fhone,

And gorgeous Louis grac'd the Gallic throne;
What though! like rockets from the hand of time,
Through life's long gloom, fhot fparkling and fublime,
Thofe meteor ages of mankind were given,

To mark with clufter'd ftars the mental heaven,
And pour their blaze on earth's astonish'd view,

When Freedom's cloud-encompafs'd orb withdrew!
Britain, for thee! a brighter age expands,

Blefs'd rock, on which the church of Freedom ftands!
For thee remains to prove what radiant fires
Gild the clear heaven, where liberty infpires;
To fhew what fprings of bounty from her hand,
As gufh'd the rock at Mofes' high command,
O'er Art's impoverish'd plains refreshing flow,
And cheer the fainting tribes of Taste below.
The following picture of Hogarth we select from a considerable
number.

Hogarth, with thee! fatiric Humour fed,
Proclaims our graphic moralift is dead;
Who, Sampfon-like, in confcious might fecure,
Burft the ftrong bonds that meaner minds endure;
Difdain'd the beaten track, the common crown,
And fore'd an untried paffage to renown :
To nature true his fportive pencil mov❜d,

Taught while it trifled, pleas'd while it reprov'd:

P. 41-43.

Struck by the harlot's woes, with fhame opprefs'd,

Reviving virtue wins the wanton breast ;

No more the midnight scene to riọt warms,

The rake reviews his progress, and reforms.' p. 15-18.

Though there be some coarseness, there is a good deal of power

and satirical effect in the following passage.

• Behold!

Behold! how pleas'd the confcious critic fneers,
While circling boobies fhake their affes' ears ;*
Applaud his folly, and, to feed his pride,
Bray forth abuse on all the world befide:

Hear him, ye gods! harangue of fchools and ftyles,
In pilfer'd fcraps from Walpole and De Piles !
Direct the vain fpectator's vacant gaze,

Drill his dull fenfe, and teach him where to praife;
Of every toy, fome tale of wonder frame,
How this from Heav'n, or Ottoboni came;
How that, long pendant on plebeian wall,
Or lumber'd in fome filthy broker's ftall,
Lay, loft to fame, till by his tafte reftor'd,

Behold the gem-fhrin'd, curtain'd, and ador'd.' p. 88. 89. The next is more turbulent and outrageously abusive, though indicating an ardent and vigorous imagination, which might carry the author far up the steeps of glory, if reined by a more practised hand.

• Wherever power or pride, or wealth keep court,
Behold this fulfome, fawning race refort;

A motley group-a party-colour'd pack,
Of knave and fool-of quidnunc and of quack,
Of critic fops, infipid, cold, and vain,

Done in the drip of fome poor painter's brain;
Dabblers in fcience-dealers in virtù,
And fycophants of every form and hue.
Low artifts too, a bufy, babbling fry,

That frifk and wriggle in a great man's eye,

Feed on his fmiles, and fimp'ring at his fide,

Catch the cold drops that flatt'ry thaws from pride;

A cunning kind of fetch-and-carry fools,

The fcum of tafte, that bubbles up in schools;
Savealls of art, that shed a glimmering ray,

And burn the fnuffs their betters caft away. p. 91. 92. Upon the whole, we think very well both of Mr Shee's cause and of his talents; though we are of opinion that he has been a little too warm in support of the one, and a little too rash and intemperate in his display of the other. We desire more of his acquaintance, and have no doubt of his improvement.

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