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THIS composition is certainly magnificent. The azure, retiring light upon the distant mountains, is finely contrasted with the depth and solemnity of the foreground. The position of this picture is not favourable to the discovery of its merits.

281. View on the Thames, near Richmond. W. Daniell. THERE can be but one opinion respecting this cabinet picture, and that must surely be a favourable one. The composition is beautiful: the figures fishing in the foreground, the boats gliding down the stream, and the distant houses on Richmond Hill, all contribute to produce an effect the most natural and pleasing. Here is no affectation, either in composition or colouring.

299. Liboya Serpent destroying a Tiger. J. Ward.

Mr. WARD has justly obtained a celebrity in these kind of representations : but, in the present picture, it may be questioned whether the folds of the ser

pent are not a little fanciful, and the mouth of the tiger does not resemble that of a dog or a wolf?

Published by LONGMAN, HURST, REES, and ORME, Paternoster Row; J. HATCHARD, Bookseller to Her Majesty, 190, Piccadilly; and WILLIAM MILLER, Albemarle Street.

William Savage, Printer, Bedford Bury.

THE DIRECTOR.

No. 19. SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1807.

Caterarum rerum studia, doctrina, et præceptis, et arte constare: poetam natura ipsa valere.

CIC.

THE characters of the poet and painter have been often compared; and the analogy between their objects and their methods is so striking, as to have been generally felt and acknowledged. Visible images constitute the great charm of poetry, and they are the elements of painting and the end of both arts is to represent the admirable in nature, and to awaken pleasurable, useful, or noble feelings. Painting, however, ap

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peals to the eye by immediate characters; it possesses a stronger chain of association with passion; it is a more distinct and energetic language, and acts first by awakening sensation, and then ideas. Poetry is less forcible; for it operates only by imagination and memory, and not by immediate impression; unless indeed in the performances of the drama, or in empassioned recitation. A representation by words is inferior in strength to representation by images; -but it has the advantage in being more varied, and capable of a more extensive application. It speaks of sentiments and thoughts and affections, which can never be delineated by the pencil; and it has within its power, not only the world of sensation, but likewise the world of intellect.

IN music the powers of art are infinitely more limited, than in poetry or painting. The pleasure results from mere combinations of sounds; and is as tran

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