ful touch concentrated the spirit of all that had been said or done in the various works then extant, still keeping up the character of the burlesque united with the deepest pathos :

"For within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king,

Keeps Death his court: and there the antic sits,

Mocking his state and grinning at his

Allowing him a breath, a little scene

pomp;

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,

As if this flesh, which walls about his life,

Were brass impregnable: and, humoured thus

Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle walls, and-farewell king!"

The same play has the following monitory passage, equally expressive of the frailty and folly of man, who,

"Most ignorant of what he's most assured,—

His glassy essence,”

is apt to play the game of life with too much confidence.

Some there are who make Death the whole business of life: shutting their eyes on the fair face of nature, they think a snare is set in every beauteous object by which they are surrounded, and plunge at once into the gloom of solitude, lest the light of

heaven should dazzle their sight and darken their understanding, and work them perdition by tempting to the indulgence of those feelings it was meant to inspire:

"And thus, in one continued strife,

"Twixt fear of Death and love of life,"

they pass their existence in a state of deadening apathy or of feverish self-denial; immolating the charities of life and the best affections of the heart at the shrine of superstition. True, the tenure of our being cannot be beneficially held without occasionally adverting to the terms on which it has been granted; and it is sometimes necessary to call in aid the admonitions of the wise and the reflecting, to bring our truant thoughts to a proper estimate of life.

In this view, most of the designs of skeleton forms have been presented to the contemplation of the careless and unthinking; but, as has been before observed, few of them have been so managed as not to border on the ludicrous. Of their capability of and tendency to the caricature, a very recent instance appeared in some examples of death-like figures engaged in a variety of occupations, as gambling, dancing, boxing, &c. &c. These designs were chalked on a wall bordering the road from Turnham

Green towards Kew Bridge: they were drawn of the natural size, and displayed, on the part of the unknown* artist, no small skill in composition and character. Of the artist's intention there can be no question; it was to exhibit forms the most strikingly grotesque. But they are now swept away, like many other efforts of art, to give place to the names and nostrums of the charlatans of the day.

The subject of Death has continued to employ the pen and the pencil, with more or less of character, down to the present time; though the productions of recent date possess less point, and have, perhaps, more of the grotesque than works more remote, and do not, in their graphic form, exhibit the higher qualities of art, which are seen in the performances of the old masters; but are principally addressed to the eye and understanding of the many, rather than to those of the artist or amateur. It should appear, however, from the reception and extensive sale of some of these subjects, that they have been equally

*The editor of "The Times," in alluding to this passage, observed that these chalk sketches were made by a nephew of Mr. Baron Garrow, who at that time was living in unenviable retirement nearly opposite the scene of his early morning operations; but that the gentleman had fortunately, some time since, obtained a situation in India.

acceptable to the present as they were to past times. Among the most striking and popular designs of this class, are two which have long occupied a place in the print-shop in St. Paul's Church Yard; and in which the skeleton shape appears as one half of a gorgeously dressed human form. These prints represent a male and female, thus powerfully contrasted, and, it must be confessed, hold out as perfect an example as can well be imagined to show us what we are, and to warn us what we are to be.

Another specimen of the monitory kind is a representation of a heathen philosopher, contemplating the structure of a human skeleton, and thence inferring the existence of a Deity.

Of the more whimsical and pointed of these moral lessons, is one where a man is draining an enormous bowl, and Death stands ready to confirm the title of the print,-"The Last Drop.".

There is also, among the varieties of this sort, an etching representing a gay couple visiting a tomb. It is called, “An Emblem of a Modern Marriage :" in the background of the piece is a view of a noble

mansion, behind which appears a rising ground; beneath the print are the following lines:

"No smiles for us the godhead wears,

His torch inverted, and his face in tears;"

answering to the figure of a Cupid in the act of flight, which the artist has also introduced into his subject. This etching is the performance of a lady, Mrs. Hartley, the wife of D. Hartley, Esq., who constructed a building on Putney Common, which he rendered incombustible. The original was sketched with a diamond on a pane of glass, and the print published in 1775. There can be little doubt that this curious design had a reference to some individual of the time; but its application might be made to every unhappy and fatal marriage that has taken place, or may take place, any where and at any time.

These later productions (as was before observed) possess little of art in the composition, or skill in the execution, to recommend them, though some of them have probably outlived the expectations of the inventors. It was for the artists of an earlier period to combine in these subjects every quality of painting, whether of design, composition, character, or expression.