and the paraphernalia of legal learning. Hone introduced his friend to look at his neighbour's encroachment: and the Judge, with all wisdom and becoming gravity of character, pronounced, in the hearing of the shoemaker, that the whole must come down, if Mr. Hone should determine to proceed in due course of law, according to the statute. This sentence, uttered from under a great wig, had such an effect of terror upon the poor man, that he left his wall in the state it then was. Few practical jokes are more successful."

"The example of the Great Duke of Marlborough in making collections of the foreign Masters, introduced a similar taste to several of the general-officers of the army. The Duke possessed himself of no less than fifteen original pictures by Rubens, which are now at Blenheim. In the reign of George II. General Guise became a distinguished collector, and his pictures were subsequently bequeathed by him to Christ Church, Oxford*. He was extremely jealous of his connoisseurship; and having expended much of his private fortune, he delivered his opinions concerning his own collection in a decisive and caustic manner. When showing his pictures to Prince Frederick, he pointed out one of the most excellent to His Royal Highness, who slightly looked at it, and then asked the cost. 'Two hundred guineas,' replied the General. The Prince observed, 'that it was a great deal of money for so small a piece.' 'And does Your Royal Highness suppose that I buy my pictures by the yard!'

"Showing a portrait of himself by Sir Joshua, which, from some material he had used, remained sticky, the General in his usual blunt way exclaimed, "There's myself, by G—, like Domitian in his own hall, catching flies!' Then proceeding to the next, he said, That's a Guido! Little Hugh Howard, the painter, t'other day, said that it was not. Now the next man that says so, by G-, I will knock him down:-Pray, Sir, have the kindness to favour me with your candid opinion!""

[To be continued.]

[* The Editor cannot pass over this opportunity of expressing his regret that this collection should be left in so neglected a state as it is at present. The Fitzwilliam collection at Cambridge also, though so recent an acquisition seems to require a little better superintendence:-of both we shall take an early opportunity of giving descriptive accounts.]

CALLIMACHUS AND ONOPHRONUS: A DIALOGUE ON THE INVENTION OF THE CORINTHIAN ORDER.

THE anticipations of the learned world, who were fain to hope that many of the lost literary treasures of antiquity would be discovered among the Herculaneum papyri, have not hitherto been realized, nothing of importance having as yet been brought to light, with the exception, perhaps, of the following Fragment, which we consider not only curious in itself, but also of some value, inasmuch as it serves to show that certain modern critics had their prototypes even in Greece itself. How it happened to fall into our hands is a matter of very minor importance; still, for the satisfaction of our readers, and to leave them no room for incredulity, to remove any doubt they might else entertain as to the genuineness of this production, we may as well inform them that it was communicated to us by a learned peregrinator lately returned from Italy. The Doctor had been permitted to gratify his erudite curiosity by witnessing the process employed for evolving and restoring the manuscripts. His enthusiasm kindled at the sight; his imagination was active-so likewise were his hands; and he seized an opportunity of secreting a scroll containing a transcription from one of the papyri, which was lying on a desk for the purpose of being again copied out in a fairer

In plain English, our worthy friend purloined the precious document: but plain English is not to be used on every occasion; purloined' is too ugly a term to be applied in speaking of those ingenious artifices resorted to by virtuosi to gratify their tasteful longings for what they cannot otherwise obtain either for love or money. Each class of society has its little by-laws of morality; nor is an antiquarian, when he swallows a medal in order to carry it off undetected,—or a bibliomaniac, when, in the abstraction of his rapture, he puts an unique volume into his own pocket instead of replacing it on the shelf whence he took it,—or a connoisseur who dexterously substitutes a capital copy for a valuable original, to be considered amenable to those every-day laws intended only for every-day people. Jove, they say, laughs at the perjuries of lovers: surely then Apollo will not frown upon our learned friend for the little stratagem he employed, especially as he has VOL. III.-No. 17. 30

shown his liberality in permitting a translation of it to be printed pro bono publico, and his sound judgment in making choice of our journal as the channel of his valuable communication.

After the above explanation, no reasonable person can suspect that we are hoaxing him with a fabrication of our own. We therefore bring our prefatory remarks to a pause, merely adding, what most of our readers, we presume, already know; namely, that Callimachus is the reported inventor of the Corinthian or foliage capital. With regard to the other interlocutor in the dialogue, history has recorded nothing of him; but whoever he may have been, he survives in his progeny to the present day;-an Onophronus is to be met with in every company

we enter.

Onophronus.-May the immortal Gods confound thee, Callimachus, as a traitor to the Arts, who, after being nourished in their bosom, and instructed by their doctrines, perfidiously turnest against them the gifts thou hast received at their hands!

Callimachus. You deal in hard words, Onophronus. Truly I did not think to incur your wrath, even though I might not exactly obtain your approbation. But wherefore should you express so much indignation against me because I have been making an experiment, and endeavoured to compose a new species of capital that I flatter myself will be found to manifest both invention and tolerably good taste?

Onoph.-And can you actually intend that fantastical piece of ornament for the capital of a column? Good taste, forsooth!-really a law ought to be enacted to prevent such geniuses as you from playing your freaks, and barbarizing architecture by the introduction of such intolerable caprices, such absurd new-fangled devices. I will defy you to point out anything in the least resembling this precious invention of yours.

Cal. Its want of resemblance to what we have hitherto been accustomed to behold is not necessarily a demerit,—rather quite the reverse, provided the thing be good in itself, and adapted to the purpose for which it is designed. Unless, therefore, you can allege something more reasonable against it, I must be allowed to consider your objections as dictated by mere prejudice.

Onoph. You have the vanity, then, forsooth, to imagine that you have all at once struck out of your own mind an entirely new species of capital, worthy of being admitted into architecture, and take its place by the side of those legitimate modes of decoration which have been established for ages! I must confess, Callimachus, that I admire your modesty.

Cal. What you have just said is a mere futile evasion of the point in question. My modesty or conceit in the matter is a very secondary consideration; or rather, you have no right to charge me with a fond vanity, before you have shown that what I have originated is faulty in itself, and contrary to correct principles of taste. You merely say that it is new; I should now like to have your reasons for vilifying it as positively bad.

Onoph.-Were it ever so absurd or extravagant, Callimachus, I do not imagine I should be able to convince you that it is not a masterpiece of excellence-a rare invention that will earn for you never-dying enown. I appeal, however, to common sense.

Cal.-Well then, Onophronus, fancy me, for once, to be a personification of that excellent quality. Imagine that vain coxcomb, Callimachus, to have left us, and that you really see an embodied vous before you, ready to discuss the matter quite dispassionately.

Onoph.—(Aside.)—This self-satisfied impudence really becomes altogether intolerable; but I will soon cure him of his conceit.-Now, Mr. Common Sense, what is your opinion of this strange odd-looking affair, which a certain Callimachus wishes to impose upon us as an original pattern of his own for the capitals of columns? Those in present use, it seems, are not good enough for him: oh no! he must astonish the world by something quite new-something entirely his own. Happening, therefore, the other day, to see a basket against which the leaves of some plant had grown up, spreading themselves around it, he forthwith conceives the notable idea of fashioning it into a capital for a new-fangled order of columns, although it is obviously unfit for such a purpose;―since what can be more preposterous than to place a basket where it would be crushed by the architrave of the entablature, and to fix a parcel of unmeaning leaves around it? It was indeed very natural for the leaves to grow up accidentally against the basket when it was upon the ground close by the stem of the plant; but how they can be imagined to grow out of the summit of the shaft of the column is past my comprehension.

Cal.-Admirably well argued, Onophronus! By Jove, I would give something to have that varlet Callimachus to listen to our discourse, that we might enjoy his confusion. Yet hold!—we must admit, that although in the contour of this capital some resemblance may be traced to the general outline of such an object, this neither is nor professes to be a fac-simile representation of it. Even you yourself would entertain no apprehension of this solid mass of stone being crushed, or appearing to be crushed, by the architrave above it. I apprehend, too, that the

knave will say the foliage cannot possibly be mistaken for real leaves; because, independently of their want of colour to favour such deception, they are so methodically disposed, both individually and as regards each other, as to be evidently mere sculpturesque embellishment, derived from vegetable forms, and regulated by the laws of architectural design; consequently we need not be at all perplexed to account how they can grow in such a situation.

Onoph.-I do not mean to say that this foliage can in fact be mistaken for real leaves; yet notwithstanding that, and however it may flatter the eye by intrinsic elegance of form, and by the ingenuity displayed in the whole composition,-for I will so far allow it to be not without merit,-it offends the judgment. According to you, it is at one and the same time both like and unlike the prototype whence you have derived it.

Cal.-Exactly so: it is sufficiently like to point out its origin, and sufficiently unlike to prevent its appearing a direct imitation instead of a piece of embellishment, the idea of which is taken from what in itself would be inadmissible.

Onoph.-I am glad to hear you make that last confession, because it may spare me the trouble of extorting it from you. Upon what ground, then, can you defend so irrational a practice as that of altering, merely for the sake of novelty, any of the indicial features of our architecture, and substituting for them the chimeras of a fanciful imagination? Architecture totally rejects all such freaks: its laws are immutable. It admits of no other embellishment than what is suggested by propriety, and for which there is an evidently satisfactory reason. It tolerates nothing that is merely arbitrary.

Cal. I am not exactly sure of that. The principles of architecture are, I grant you, immutable; but there are many of its laws which are altogether arbitrary and conventional, those more especially which relate to embellishment. If you are not disposed to tolerate anything that does not carry with it some appearance of direct utility, or some better apology for itself than being beautiful in its effect, and not repugnant to sound taste, I am afraid you cannot be very well satisfied with much that we are now accustomed to admire. Is there nothing arbitrary, I ask, in the practice of channelling the shafts of columns ? What obvious meaning or utility, either direct or indirect, is to be discovered in it? You will say that it contributes to variety and beauty; certainly. How, again, will you reconcile what you have urged against my capital, yonder-namely, that the foliage I have applied to it is an unmeaning embellishment,-with your admiration of that which, were it