Sharpe's London Magazine: a Journal of Entertainment and Instruction for ...

seats took away all the ease that I have with you in the woods."

"Dear child, you must not feel thus; all the beauties here are as natural, and I am as ready to hear you; such trifles should not influence you. Come, we will rest on this bench, it may not be as soft as our turf seat; however, it is in the shade."

But the child would not sit down, and remained timidly leaning on the arm of the seat, while she gave her account of her new friend.

"You certainly have found a pleasant acquaintance, and I hope he may prove a valuable adviser; but I cannot see why you should have hesitated telling me this

before."

The difficult part is to come: he loves me already; he has no one to take care of him, and I want to live with him; I can do a great deal of house work, and I would not then run about the fields all day; I want to learn all he has to teach me. I am afraid you will think this very bold of me, when he has never given me leave, and he looked so grave when I told him, that I thought

you might do the same."

"This is a strange idea; and I can scarcely think you are right in dwelling on such a plan. I fear you are not sufficiently grateful to your aunt. Had you a more contented mind, you would be less restless, and happier where you are."

"But I am certain that the old man would teach me what was right much better than my aunt."

"Have you already learned perfectly all the duties which she teaches you? Is there nothing that she tells you, that you neglect?"

Mary felt that she was very wrong; the beautiful scenes that surrounded her seemed to reproach her; she covered her face with her hands, and now bitterly repented her ill-humour. She owned her errors, and knew where to seek for that forgiveness and direction which no human being could give her. After a few minutes' silence, she ran after Ellen, who had walked on; her smiling face was now as cheerful as ever.

My heart is quite bright now," she exclaimed, "and I want you to grant me a favour before I go, then I can

run home and wait for James."

"You may ask your favour; but I shall be obliged if you will carry the flowers in for me."

Mary had not intended to meet the stranger again, but, remembering how uncharitable her ill-temper had made her towards Anna, she ran in with her basket, and taking the prettiest rose she could find, laid it by her side; and without waiting for an acknowledgment,

bounded back to Ellen.

"Now for my request. Will you promise to come and see my old man directly he comes? You know I may sometimes, if my aunt will let me, visit him; and if you were there at the same time, it would be almost as pleasant as the ruin."

"I will try and come, if you will first ask him whether he would like to see me; and if my cousin does not require my company."

"Will she not come with you?" In her heart Mary hoped Anna would not come; but she thought of her former bad feelings about her, and fancied she should thus make some amends, as she could not doubt that she

would like the visit.

"We will see, Mary: I cannot say what would be most agreeable to her; but when you let me know that your friend is come, and willing to see me, I shall use every endeavour to come to him."

With this assurance the child was obliged to be satisfied; taking leave of Miss Stanmore, she returned to Mrs. Adams for the fresh supply of work, and was soon running down the road leading to her uncle's cottage. (To be continued.)

Biographical Sketches of Eminent Painters.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

HAVING traced the history of some of the most eminent painters of the Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and French schools, we seek for instances of genius and celebrity in artists of our own country; and the name of Sir Joshua Reynolds is foremost on the list. His birth took place on the 16th of July, 1723, at Plympton, in Devonshire. children, five of whom died in infancy. He was master His father, the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, had eleven of the Grammar-school at Plympton, and he instructed his son in the classics himself.

When quite a child, Joshua's great delight was in copying his elder sister's drawings, and some prints which he found in his father's books, particularly in Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives; and in his eighth year he made himself so completely master of a treatise on perspective, which he accidentally met with, that he never had occasion afterwards to study any other book on that subject. He then put his knowledge into practice, by drawing, according to rule, the Grammar-school of Plympton, which was a building raised on stone pillars; and he accomplished his task so well, that his father was struck with this evidence of his little son's talents, and being fond of drawing himself, he encouraged his child in his love for the art.

Young Joshua now began to take the likenesses of his family and friends with tolerable success; and the perusal of Richardson's Treatise on Painting so delighted him, and inspired him with such enthusiastic feelings with regard to Raphael, that he considered that great painter to have been the most illustrious character of either ancient or modern times.

Until he was about seventeen years of age, he exercised his juvenile pencil in different parts of his native county; and at that period his father placed him under the tuition of Hudson, who was also a native of Devonshire, and the most distinguished British artist of that day. He remained in London, with Hudson, three years, and then left him in consequence of some slight disagreement, and returned to Plympton; this he afterwards considered to have been a fortunate circumstance, since it induced him to abandon the tame and insipid style of his master, and to adopt a manner of his own.

Reynolds was in his twenty-third year when his father died, and the young man was left to make his own way in the world; and, although he is said to have made but few efforts, and to have improved but little during the three preceding years, he now devoted himself assiduously to the practice of his profession, and, after the lapse of about four years, having been introduced to Lord Mount Edgecumbe, and to Captain, afterwards Lord Keppel, the latter, upon being appointed to a command in the Mediterranean, invited Reynolds to accompany him on the voyage. Having spent two months in the island of Minorca, he sailed for Leghorn, whence he proceeded to Rome.

The works of Raphael, in the Vatican, did not at first make that striking impression on him which he had anticipated; this mortified and dejected Reynolds, but, with becoming diffidence, he imputed the disappointment to his own want of taste, and his incapacity to appreciate the real excellence of a painter of whom he had conceived so exalted an opinion. He was, however,

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consoled by the assurances of those with whom he conversed on the subject, that a similar effect had been produced on many persons of acknowledged genius; as the beauties of those great performances are by no means superficial, and require to be studied by the eye of a real artist in order to discover and appreciate their genuine merit.

In his Notes on Du Fresnoy, he says: "Notwithstanding my disappointment, I proceeded to copy some I viewed them again and of those excellent works. again. I even affected to feel their merit, and to In a short time admire them more than I really did. a new taste and new perceptions began to dawn upon me, and I was convinced that I had originally formed a false opinion of the perfection of art; and, since that time, having frequently revolved the subject in my mind, I am of opinion that a relish for the higher excellences of the art is an acquired taste, which no man ever possessed without long cultivation, great labour, and attention."

It is not probable, however, that when at Rome he spent much of his time in copying, for in a preserved "the man of true fragment of his writing he says, genius, instead of spending all his hours as many artists do while they are at Rome, in measuring statues and copying pictures, soon begins to think for himself, and endeavours to do something like what he sees:" but he minutely examined the works of the great masters, and fixed in his mind their peculiar and characteristic merits.

Reynolds in the same paper says, that he considered general copying placed the student in danger of imitating without selecting; and that, as it requires no effort of the mind, those powers of invention and disposition, which ought particularly to be called out and put in action, lie torpid, and lose their energy for want of exercise.

After an absence of three years, he returned to England, and hired a large house in Newport-street, in London; and the first specimen he gave of his great ability is said to have been a boy's head surmounted by a turban, in the style of Rembrandt, which so attracted the attention of his old master, Hudson, that he called every day to watch his progress, and perceiving at last that there was no trace of his own manner in any part of the picture, he exclaimed:-" Reynolds, you don't paint so well as when you left England!"

He soon afterwards painted a whole length portrait of his friend and patron, Admiral Keppel. It was so admirably executed, that it at once placed him at the head of his profession as a portrait-painter.

Reynolds possessed the art of uniting to a dignified characteristic resemblance of the head, an endless variety of spirited and graceful attitudes, picturesque back-grounds, novel and striking effects of light and shade, with great richness and harmony of colour. His performances at this period did not, however, possess those excellences to the degree which is observable in his later works; for he was one of the few whose efforts to improve ended but with his life. He was accustomed to say, that he never began a picture without a determination to make it his best; and his favourite maxim, which he was fond of repeating continually, that "nothing is denied to well-directed industry," seems to have been justified by his own unceasing progress.

but he had the happy art of diving into, as it were, and
embodying the minds, habits, and manners of those who
sat to him.

Though the landscapes forming the back-ground of
many of his portraits are extremely beautiful, he
seldom exercised his hand in regular landscape-painting.
In the historical department, however, he was eminently
successful, and has not only enriched various collections
at Rome by his works in that higher branch of his art,
but he extended the fame of the English school of
painting to other foreign countries.

Soon after his return from Italy, Reynolds became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, and a friendship was afterwards formed between those two great men, which lasted until the end of their lives. Reynolds supplied his learned friend with three essays on painting, which were published in the Idler, in the latter part of the year 1759:-these essays were his first literary productions.

In December 1768, His Majesty, George the Third, was pleased to incorporate, by charter, the Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, to be composed of the ablest and most respectable artists resident in Great Britain. Reynolds was unanimously elected president, and shortly afterwards the king conferred on him the honour of knighthood.

The expenses of this new institution were at first only partly met by the product of annual exhibitions of The aid of his Majesty's works of art, and the deficiency was supplied out of the king's privy purse. bounty was required for a few years, but the exhibition became eventually so profitable, as to suffice for more than the support of the establishment; and it still continues to afford a cheap and delightful annual gratification to the lovers of the fine arts, and to encourage the taste for cultivating and improving them.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, when president of the Royal Academy, voluntarily undertook the task of giving periodical lectures on painting; and, between the years 1769 and 1790, he delivered fifteen discourses, which contain such just criticisms on that difficult subject, couched in such clear and elegant language, that they compete with the efforts of his pencil as monuments of his fame.

The Empress Catherine of Russia was so pleased with the perusal of these lectures, that she sent Sir Joshua a gold box with a basso-relievo of her Imperial Majesty on the lid, set round with diamonds. Within the box was a complimentary note written with her own hand.

In 1773, the University of Oxford honoured Sir Joshua Reynolds by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. In the summer of 1781, he went to the Netherlands and Holland, and on his return he wrote an account of his journey. It contains much excellent criticism on the works of Rubens, Vandyck, Rembrandt, &c., which he saw in the churches and collections at Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, in the Dusseldorf gallery, and at Amsterdam.

The elegant translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, by Mr. Mason, was published in 1783, with a very ingenious commentary by Sir Joshua Reynolds, consisting chiefly of practical observations on, and explanations of, the rules laid down by the author of that poem; and in the following year he was appointed principal painter in ordinary to His Majesty, in which office he

Reynolds's portraits were not only correct likenesses, continued until his death.

Sir Joshua had now reached the highest step in his profession; but he was a man whom prosperity could not spoil. His whole life, until his sight failed him, was passed in the unwearied practice of the art which formed his chief delight. His house was filled to the remotest corners with casts from the antique; statues, pictures, drawings, and prints by the various masters of all the different schools and nations; and thus he was constantly surrounded by objects of amusement, of study, and of competition.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was rather under the middle size; his complexion was florid, and his countenance had an honest, lively, and pleasing expression. His manners were polished and agreeable, and he possessed a constant flow of spirits which rendered him at all times a most desirable companion. His hours of recreation were chiefly passed in the society of his numerous friends and acquaintance; and at his hospitable table were assembled, in succession, for above thirty years, almost every individual in the three kingdoms who was distinguished for his attainments in literature and the arts, or who was remarkable for his eminence in the pulpit or at the bar, in the senate or in the naval and military service.

This amiable man was always ready to be amused, and to contribute to the amusement of others, and anxious to receive information on every subject which presented itself. In the exercise of his professional talents, he was, as we have shown, indefatigably assiduous, and he neither suffered a failure to make him despond, nor success to render him negligent.

In conjunction with Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua established the Literary Club, a society which can boast of having had enrolled among its members many of the most enlightened characters of the last century.

From the period of Sir Joshua's return from Italy, he had the misfortune to be very deaf; this affliction arose from a severe cold which he caught when painting in the palace of the Vatican near a stove, which attracted the damp vapours of the building. When in company with several persons, he was obliged to use an ear-trumpet to enable him to enjoy and share in the conversation of his friends; and such was the serenity of his temper, that what he did not at once hear he never troubled those with whom he conversed to repeat.

For a long series of years, Sir Joshua enjoyed excellent health, which has been in a great manner at tributed to his custom of standing to paint; but in the year 1782 he was afflicted with a paralytic affection, from which he soon recovered; but in 1789, whilst painting the portrait of Lady Beauchamp, his sight became seriously affected, and it was with difficulty that he could proceed with his work. He had recourse to the aid of the most skilful oculists, but he was shortly afterwards deprived of the sight of his left eye.

After many struggles, he made up his mind to desist from painting, lest his right eye should also fail him. This resolution must have been the result of a painful effort, since it deprived him of an occupation, which he loved more for its own sake than for the great emolument which it produced. Nevertheless, his usual flow of spirits remained unchanged, and he enjoyed the society of his friends as much as ever. In the latter part of the year 1791, however, he became afflicted with disease of the liver; he bore this painful malady, and a confinement to the house of nearly three months, with

great fortitude and gentleness, and expired at his house in Leicester Fields, on the 23d of February, 1792, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.

On the 3d of March following, his remains were interred in the crypt of St. Paul's cathedral, near the tombs of Sir Christopher Wren and Vandyck. A great number of the most distinguished persons in this country attended his funeral, and the pall was supported by three dukes, two marquesses, and five other noblemen: indeed, every respect that could be paid, by an enlightened nation, to the memory of worth and genius, was displayed on this occasion.

THE FALSE MERCHANT.

SIR FELIX was a warrior of high prowess, but therewithal of small possessions and slender income, and careful of his little patrimony. Summoned to the defence and rescue of the Holy Sepulchre, he looked around for one in whose hands he might repose confidence:

for he had sold his few fields in order to raise a

sufficient following of armed esquires to enable his banner to be raised with credit on the fields of Palestine. Some little of his money yet remained, and Sir Felix desired to place it with some man of trust, that it might remain for him, should he ever return from his hazardous expedition.

Among all the merchants of the imperial city no one bore a higher or more extended reputation than Cautus; from east to west, from north to south, his agents were in motion, and every nation recognised the power and the energy of the great Roman merchant; the wild hordes of the deserts of the east, and the roving bands of the Scythians, were alike in his pay,-the hired guardians of the long files of camels, or the countless waggons that bore his goods from one nation to another people.

"His argosies with portly sail,

Like signors and rich burghers of the flood,
Or as it were the pageants of the sea,-
Did over-peer the petty traffickers,
That curtsied to them, did them reverence,

As they flew by them with their woven wings."

To outward appearance, no man was more calm, or less excited by good or evil fortune, than Cautus. The least part of his affections seemed placed on his many ventures; he cared little how the wind blew, whether fair or foul, and seldom consulted in his maps for the ports or tracks to or over which his vessels were sailing.

"His ventures were not in one vessel trusted,
Nor to one place; nor was his whole estats
Upon the fortune of a present year;
Therefore his merchandize made him not sad."

To this merchant Sir Felix went.

"Good Sir," said the knight, "I come to entrust you with the little that remains to me of my paternal fortune, after raising my followers for the Holy Land, and furnishing their and my equipments. There are a thousand pieces of gold; receive them in trust for me should I ever return. If I fall in Palestine take them to yourself. For nor wife, nor child, nor relative have I, and of my wealth none can I take with me to the grave."

"Freely do I receive the trust, Sir Knight, and

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honestly will I, if it so please you, employ your money until you come, that you shall receive back your own with interest."

"Nay, nay, good merchant, I am no trader; make thou what thou willest of the gold, so that I do but regain my money on my return."

With these words Sir Felix turned to leave the house of the merchant, when Cautus stayed him.

"Sir Knight, stay, Sir Knight, until I can give you a written acknowledgment of the trust, and a bond to return it on your demand."

Nay, nay, Sir Merchant," rejoined the knight, "no scholar am I. If I cannot believe the word of Cautus, how can his bond profit me?"

Years passed over before the merchant and the knight met again. Mixed fortune had followed the merchant; some of his ventures had gone to wreck, but the majority had come to a good market, and the wealth and repuFar different tation of Cautus was greater than ever. had been the fortune of the crusader. His life indeed had been spared to him, but sickness had borne down his frame, and death in every form had destroyed one by one the gallant and faithful band that had followed his person. Eager to regain the small sum he had deposited in the hands of Cautus, the knight made his way to the imperial city.

Meanly clothed in a pilgrim's dress, Sir Felix entered the splendid house of the merchant.

"What news, Sir Pilgrim?" said Cautus. Disease and war "But little good, Sir Merchant. wear down the bodies of the holy warriors, and dissensions weaken their strength. I, too, have suffered; and now I return to redeem the pledge with which I entrusted you on my departure."

"The pledge, good pilgrim-what pledge?" "Dost thou not know me?" asked the knight, as he "Sore as disease has wasted bared his face and head. me, many must there be that know me."

"Sir Pilgrim, I know thee not-who art thou?" "Am not I the knight Sir Felix, and art not thou the merchant Cautus, in whose hands I placed a thousand pieces of gold, when I sailed for the Holy Land."

Nothing know I of thee or thine, Sir Knight; but come, if that thou sayest be true, show me my bond, and I will pay thee that I owe."

"I have no bond," rejoined the knight.

"No bond, Sir Knight, and yet wouldst persuade a merchant that thou didst entrust him with a thousand pieces of gold? Go to, ask of any man whether the merchant Cautus ever takes a pledge without giving his bond. Go to,-thou art a bold impostor."

"If thou wilt deny thy trust, Sir Merchant, at least have pity on my distress, and of thy abundance give me that which thou dost deny me of my right."

"Away, Sir,-away, Sir; to a case of real woe and misery, the ears of Cautus and his wealth were ever open, but to an impostor he has nothing to give but punishment. Go, Sir Pilgrim, for thy garb's sake I refrain from giving thee up to justice."

Driven from the merchant's house amid the sneers and threats of Cautus and his subordinates, Sir Felix wandered haplessly through the noisy city, and sought the silence of the fields without its walls. Wandering along a bye-road, deeply grieving over his miseries, the dressed like himself knight met an old and feeble woman, in the weeds of a pilgrim. Hardly able to support herself on her staff, the old woman tottered along, stumbling over the stones that lay scattered in her path. In pity on her condition, Sir Felix moved some of the impediments out of her path, and assisted the devotee to a part of the road whereon her shoeless feet might walk with less pain and discomfort.

"Thanks, good father, for thy kindness. Old as I am, and sore worn with fasting, prayer, and travel, methinks my aged features bear a less mournful appearance than thine."

Good mother," rejoined the knight, "sorely have I
suffered in the Holy Land by disease and wounds; but
now more grievous is my loss, for he to whom I had
entrusted the little remnant of my property denies the
pledge, and drives me from his house as an impostor."

When the old devotee heard the whole of the knight's
story, she bade him take comfort and follow her advice:
then the old devotee sent for a crafty workman, a man
of trust and ability, and he made by her order ten
large and fair chests of wood, well adorned with orna-
mented locks and hinges, and enriched with curious
When these chests
devices and colours on the outside.
were well filled, she sent for ten porters, and told them
to take the ten chests to the house of Cautus, each suc-
With the workman she went herself to
cessive man to be at least several minutes after his
predecessor.

the merchant's house, and told Sir Felix to come in with
the porter that brought the first chest.
"Good mother," said Cautus, as soon as he saw the
"good mother, what can I do
old woman come tottering in, and recognised her as a
devotee of great repute,
for thee?"

"My son," replied the old woman, pointing to the workman, "this my friend leaves Rome to-day for Egypt, and would find some safe place for his great wealth. To thee, my son, for thy known probity, have I brought him; and look, where the first of the ten chests in which it is contained is now being brought hither."

At this moment the porter entered with the first chest, and placed it with apparent difficulty on the ground. Hardly had Cautus expressed his thanks to the old devotee, and her supposed friend, before Sir Felix entered, and not far behind him was seen another porter staggering under the second chest. Only too glad to sacrifice the thousand pieces to obtain the treasure of the ten chests, the merchant hastened to Sir Felix and embraced him with every demonstration of joy.

"Ah, my friend, my dear knight! where have you been? when did you return? Receive, I pray you, the gold you entrusted to my care, and take the interest it has made during thy absence,-three hundred like pieces. Come, my dear friend, receive thine own."

Whilst Cautus was paying Sir Felix his money, the ten chests continued to arrive, until the whole number were arranged on the floor, and gladdened the eyes of the merchant with their external glitter, and apparent "there be yet more weight. "My son," said the old devotee, than these ten chests; we will go and see after them; do thou take care of these during our absence."

With these words the old devotee and the workman left the shop of Cautus and followed Sir Felix. Every day, every hour, Cautus expected their return, but they came not; the ten chests were borne into another warehouse, and the merchant regarded them as his own, as he had given no document for them. After much delay, first chest. The labour was great, but endured gladly his avarice overcame him, and he proceeded to open the in the hopes of the treasure within: at last, lock after lock was forced, and the lid kept down by its own weight alone. Sending every one away, Cautus entered the closet and approached the chest: with a trembling hand he raised the heavy lid, and held the lamp over the box, that he might better scan its contents. With a sudden scream he reeled backwards, and the lamp fell from his hand, and was broken on the stones with which the box was filled. With the three hundred pieces he had given to the knight, he had purchased nought but tons of pebbles.

Poetry.

In Original Poetry, the Name, real or assumed, of the Author, is

printed in Small Capitals under the title; in Selections, it is

printed in Italics at the end.

Miscellaneous.

"I have here made only a nosegay of culled flowers, and

have brought nothing of my own, but the string that ties

them."-Montaigne.

THE RETURN OF THE SENNERIN.'

From the German of Anastasius Grün, by M. H.

THE mountain tops are glancing

With ice all silvery sheen,