service, not only by public exhortation, but by private instruction and personal attention; Wins straying souls with modesty again; THE three papers on the Structure of our Theatres, and on the ballet of the Siege of Troy, I will venture to say are written by a gentleman, who to an improved and cultivated taste unites a zeal for the fine arts, and a very enviable power of fostering and protecting them; who not only ranks with the scientific amateur in the study of the principles of design, but rivals the professed artist in detail and execution. I can see in minute and almost invisible marks, the warm glow of a mind, invigorated and stimulated by the contemplation of the classic remains of antiquity, in the genial soil which gave them birth.-Happy will it be for England, when our educated and opulent countrymen shall generally imitate his example; and direct the advantages which they derive from foreign travel, to the encouragement of their own artists, and to the promotion of science, literature, and the arts, in our beloved and respected country. IN your paper, No. 3, on the Colossal Statue of Achilles, I trace the production of a female mind, eminently conversant in works of taste, and animated by filial piety. It is however, or my skill deceives me, intermixed with touches of another, and not a female hand. The separation and distinction of the parts I might atchieve by labour; but I shall forego, or at least delay the attempt, from a wish not to trespass too much on your time, or on that of your readers. YOUR 13th paper on the Moral Effects of Music, I pronounce to be an insulated production. You would have done better, Mr. Director, and have afforded more pleasure to your readers, if you had. given us, instead of one, many specimens from his hand; and at the same time you would have lessened my difficulty in decyphering the genius, character, and his tory of this writer. What, however, my skill has discovered of him, I will faithfully give. The author of the thirteenth number has been endued from his birth with talents of such a cast, that no branch of study could have been the object of his attention without eminence. He might have been a Virgil or a Martial, a Pliny or a Cicero. He would have succeeded as a poet, a painter, a sculptor, a musician, an historian, or a philosopher The world was all before him, where to choose. Happily for this country, he has, (as I find by my art) consecrated his life to religious functions, and to moral and intellectual studies. The more you can induce him to write, the better it will be for mankind:-and I therefore blame you, excuse me, good Mr. DIRECTOR, for being content with a single production, when the interest of the community demanded many. IN the Bibliographiana, the Postscript to the Fly-flap, the account of the British Gallery, the Sketches of modern characters ; the Walk in London; the Mirror of Truth, and the Alarmist, I discover clear and distinct evidence of identity of character. The same talent of application, the same habit of research, and the same urbanity of manner, pervade every part of them, These, however, are marks, which float upon the surface, and may be apparent to your readers as well as to myself: I shall therefore proceed to notice, what, with out personal and intimate knowledge of the party, they could not have discovered; and what I, without my own extra ordinary art, could not have developed. I find that this gentleman is also of the clerical order; and that, though his af fection and attention to literary pursuits are severe and unremitting, yet that he performs with religious and assiduous care all his professional duties. He may therefore exclaim with Cicero, "Who will have any right to blame me, if I devote to these delightful studies those hours, which others sacrifice to public amusements, to social intercourse, to pleasure, to indolence, to repose*? His attention to literature, to Bibliographi cal knowledge, and to the fine arts, united with suavity of manners and facility of conversation, have made him known and respected. But he has not yet reap ed those fruits and advantages, which it requires no prophetic character to foretell he will assuredly reap, whenever his merits and claims are fairly apprecia ted. Before I conclude, it may be expected that I shall also notice the contents of your first and introductory number, the Quare quis tandem me reprehendat, aut quis mihi jure succenseat, si quantum cæteris ad suas res obeundas, quantum ad festos dies ludoruin celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates, et ad ipsam requiem animi et corporis, conceditur temporum: quantum alii tribuunt tempestivis conviviis; quantum denique aleæ, quantum pilæ, tantum mihi egomet ad hæc studia recolenda sumpsero? CIC: PRO ARCHIA, |