competitor who has outrivalled him | thou shouldst expect a better situ

by artifice; and he who but a few weeks since was received with universal plaudits passes quietly along the street, happy if he can escape the derision of the multitude.

But it would not have been thus with me, said the unquiet Hafiz, who assumed courage from the manner of Aladdin-Had I been possessed of power it should have been exercised with judgment and tempered with mercy. Wealth in my hands should have procured blessings for others, and the poor

should have shouted at my name—

ation? Wherefore is it that thou assumest the right to complain or pretendest to be angry with thy lot? The temper which has made thee discontented under thy present circumstances has proved thee unworthy of a better condition. Behold therefore the punishment that awaits thee-While Hafiz paused at the thoughts which these words of the Genius occasioned, he had disappeared from the sight; but immediately Hafiz perceived that his of the enemy who ravaged the froncottage was in flames, and a band

tier seized on the defenceless and

complaining Hafiz and bound him for life as a slave in their galleyş.

FINE ARTS.

Ignorant man (interrupted Aladdin) thou art unacquainted with the infirmity of thy nature. Every disposition is assailed by its own peculiar temptations, and that which is most congenial to it is sure to be successful. The elevation to power or to wealth would have exposed THE following examination of the you more casily to the dangers question "What are the ultimate which surround it on every side; prospects of the Arts in England ?" for the perplexities that are occa-will reward the attention it requires, sioned by it are made to arise as The writer who, if it be a sin to some kind of balance to the pleas covert honour, is the most offending ures of the place.-But how unrea-soul alive," has conducted his en

sonable are thy complaints! see quiry with much ability and inforthere that band of unfortunate be-mation, and has given us the result ings who have no home for protec-of his labors in an easy and elegant tion, and no ability for labour, to style. It is taken from the Monthwhom idleness and poverty have ly Magazine, published in March. grown familiar and inseparable, who work that generally gives us the A have no solace in the sentiments of most important literary information friendship and no acquaintance with and claims the first rank in the perithe feelings of the heart. They odical publications of the age. live a wandering and dissolute life, unknowing when they rise, what they shall eat, or where they shall sleep again;-borne down and distressed with pain and sickness; loathing existence and obliged to bear its burthen, in society they are The experience of the naturalist dea reproach and disgrace-beyond it monstrates, that nothing more powerfully contributes to bring a tender and senthey have no thought, and for wantsitive plant to maturity, and finally to of capacity can have no delight in perfection, than the nourishment of it reflection. What art thou then that by a constant renewal of materials agree

It is proposed to consider, the probable efforts of encouragement given to the cultivation of the arts, and of excitement produced in their progress, by the means of honours, and through the channels of distinctive rank.

able to its original growth, or nature. | one of the most congenial modes of elic. In a similar manner, reason will show iting the native powers of genius. us, that, in the intellectual, as in the physical garden, the blossoms of the tree will ever be most beautiful, when the nutrition it receives from the care of superintendance, is congenial with its essential qualities.

But they may likewise be considered as necessary to the most salutary exer tions of genius. It is desirable, not on. ly to cultivate the genius of our land, but to give to its cultivation a philan throphic tendency, to make it beneficial as well as powerful, and that while it acquires the force requisite to win admiration, it should also adopt the modes most calculated to obtain our affection. These modes it will the most readily assume, while it looks forward to a return of favourable attention from the minds of those, to whom it directs its

Honour, if it may not be considered as an innate object of desire in the breast of men of talents, is at least the sensible image of that impression on the infant mind, inscrutable in its origin, but inde. lible in its effects, which alone appears to command the energies and direct the superior exertions of genius. The painter and the poet, indeed, often turn a-influence. Merit, compelled to watch side from the guilding brightness of their guarding star, to seek support, or ease under ignobler influence; but it will be found that they never do so without a consciousness that they degrade, or, as it were, desert their native faculties, nor without, at the same time, deviating from the paths which lead to excellence and immortality.

and cherish in solitude the germs of in-
ternal talent, and unable finally to res
cue its claims from obscurity, will not,
indeed, lose its powers, nor forfeit its
essential title to superiority, but it is in
danger of eventually assuming an air
than benevolent, of dictat
more savage
ing rather than persuading, of deter-
ring instead of inviting: if urged to con-
test by opposition, it too frequently de-
serts the path of instruction, to obey
the impulses of irritated feelings, de.
rides or stigmatizes what nature would
have prompted it to admire, and en-
deavours to subvert what it is not al-
lowed to polish.

On the other hand necessity may sometimes chain down the reluctant spirit, and the sense of honor may remain firm and vivid, although its call can no longer be obeyed; but, on the supposition of the freedom of choice and action being on an average footing Every laudable purpose of society, with the moderate conditions of life, it with regard to the arts, is therefore acis unquestionable that the wish the con-complished by annexing honours to the test for honourable distinctions, may be regarded as the invariable test of such talents as are designed by providence to illumine and instruct mankind.

successful exertion of talents. Nor is this doctrine new in respect to the general instruction of all civilized nations, for the progress of intellectual studies. It is not meant, by honorable distinc- It is, fortunately for learning, new only tions, to imply the acquisition or poss in respect to the cultivation of the arts -ession of merely ostentatious, or inap- of painting and sculpture; and, unfor propriate titles, but the acquisition of tunately for us, it is, in this respect, such marked acknowledgment of emi- newer in England than in any other nent powers, as may every where secure country in Europe. An Academy of the claims of the possessor to deference the Arts established by royal favour and respect. Titles and rank bear no has, indeed, elevated a certain number essential relation to intrinsic merit, yet from the common mass, and the indusare they still the agreed symbols, or, try of its members has secured then in a manner, the current and legal coin from the desolating prospect of mexof public esteem. The coin, it is allow- dicity, but there is no great honour in ed, is often debased, and often counter-attaining what it is a disgrace not to a feit; but these are circumstances which produce no alteration in the value of its original standard.

If distinctions, then, imply the acknowledgment of superior merit, if they reflect back to the mind the sensation of honour, they must be found to form

void; the seat which mediocrity may reach cannot be a ground of distinction: for other distinctions are necessary to wards the exaltation of the arts.

Let us now enquire what other r wards of honour are open to those ars in England. The only one which our

state acknowledges, is the title of
King's Painter, annexed to an office to
which the painter is generally advanced,
not by public competition, but by private
favour, and so little regarded as an ob-
ject of fame, that the artist, if he do
not disdain, at least overlooks the em-
ployment; for he hires inferior painters
at a cheap rate, to paint the pictures
required of him, and to enable him to
take what he regards as the only re-
spectable fruits of his office, into his
pocket. This office was, some years
since, ludicrously conferred on the late
Sir Joshua Reynolds: I say ludicrous,
for who but must smile on reflecting
that an artist, to whom the sovereign
always declined to sit for his portrait,
was chosen to convey the resemblance
of that very monarch to foreign nations,
and to their latest posterity? Yet, ri-
diculous as this circumstance may ap.
pear, it was, alas! the only instance of
royal favour which graced the profes-
sional efforts of that most accomplished
painter, either before or after he be-learning and patriotism.
came, from secondary views, the titled
President of the Academy.-He, to
whose hand nature gave her own truth,
and from whose pencil she borrowed
grace, he, by whom Alexander would
have chosen, in the polished age of
Greece, to transmit his image to future
ages, absolved his long career of public
admiration, wholly unemployed by the
sovereign whose reign and country he
adorned.

excitements, whereby his talents might
have been fully called into exertion.

This instance is sufficient to explain the views of our enquiry, regarding the influence of honours and rank on the arts. Such honours as empty titles can bestow, by no means appear to constitute the species of distinction, which may be supposed at once to reward and stimulate genius. Before the arts can be expected to reach their ultimate degree of elevation in a philosophical land, a more solid and permanent basis must support the honours to be allotted to them, and they must find their establishment on fair and public ground, where their claims may be duly investigated and as duly rewarded. If they be truly denominated liberal arts, it is among the national classes of liberal study that they must take their station. It is here that they must be taught to seek for distinction, not from the favor of a partial admirer, or a courtly patron, but from the more exalted suffrages of

This extraordinary, nay, almost incredible circumstance, leads to the fuller elucidation of the nature of those national distinctions which may be considered as provocative of talent. Reynolds, with us, was a Knight, and King's Painter; but these honours were so far from serving as a ground of future emulation in his art, that they have| merely left a riddle, scarce to be solved by posterity, wherefore no picture of an artist so signalized, is to be found in any of the various palaces of his sovereign. It is evident, therefore, that the case of Reynolds, notwithstanding nominal honours, cannot be quoted as an instance of due distinction conferred on merit; on the contrary, it may be safely asserted, that at least half of the opportunity offered by the life of so illustrious an artist, to raise the character and general estimation of English art, was lost to our country for want of proper

It may be the more requisite to insist of this point, on account of some unjust prejudices under which the arts of design evidently labour in this country. The degree of rank or estimation, in which we hold those studies, is at va riance with the terms in which we speak of them.

We call them liberal arts; but how can that be construed liberal which is unconnected with established liberal education and in which no person in the liberal classes of life would professionally engage? The father who would bring his son up to the practice of physic, or the law, will besitate to make him a painter or a sculptor.

Our present system of opinions therefore, allows painters to be gentlemen, but will not allow gentlemen to be painters. Men of liberal rank, in their intercourse with artists, rather consider them as entitled to their condescension, than a footas admitted to their presence on a Indeed, so little has ing of equality. the profession of a painter been hitherto made the subject of attention, by the reflecting classes of society, that the mental part of it, and the mechanical, are still spoken of under the same denomination; and a painter is equally a term expressive of the man who fills the mind with the awful exhibitions of the Sistine Chapel, and of him who covers the wainscot or the walls of our

houses, to secure them from the injuries | alike. Look round thee, Oh man;

of smoke and rain.

trace the infinitely diversified modifications of nature. Must not that

There is, no doubt, a reason of a more substantial nature to be given, wherefore, an English gentleman should mind be omniscient which conceivnot consider painting as an eligible em-ed so grand a design-Must not that ployment for his son, viz. the impossi- arm be omnipotent, which thus easi bility of acquiring wealth by the pur-ly executed its purpose?

ADVICE.

Advice from the lips of experi

suit of it; and this, is a fault inherent in its nature. With regard merely to honour, many situations in life are preferred for our children, which yet we can hardly esteem more creditable to the holders. It certainly is no where ence, however great our veneration thought more honourable, for instance ought to be for the speaker, some. to brew than to paint, to fabricate that which eclipses the intellect than that times fails of making proper imwhich enlightens it; but brewing is pression upon a young mind. We productive of immense opulence, pain-are apt to suspect that age has chillting of none.

:

To state the whole result of the question in congenial cultivation, watchful encouragement, and just, public distinctions, will be found the true supports of genius. Such is the real channel of honour, in which the graphic artist, under the philosophic guidance of English patrictism, may hope to rival

"What e'er of Latin or of Grecian fame Sounds in the ear of Time;"

and such are the desirable means of perfecting the ultimate prospects of the Arts in England.

ed all sensibility to pleasure, and that maxims of prudence are the ef fects of apathy and indifference.That when amusements have lost their attraction and pleasure can no longer charm, age commences its monitory caution and would reduce the ardor of youthful feelings to the coldness of the isicles, which time has collected round its own bosom.

THE BIBLE.

The Bible, whether we consult it as the earliest and most correct history now extant; whether we consider the awful sublimity of its sentiments, the picturesque beauty of its images, the boldness and brilliancy of its metaphors, the unaffected symplicity of its style, the noble range of its beautiful poetry, the cogency and force of many parts of its reasoning; but above all the pure system of morality it inculcates, ought to be read and attentively studied. The man who objects to its principles can claim as little credit for his morality as he can for his taste, who cavils at the manner in which these principles are conveyed. If religion be false the Bible is nev ertheless valuable; if revelation be a fable the Bible should be deserved ly dear,

It is the pleasing apologue of Trajano Boccalini that to a famous critic who presented all the faults of a celebrated poet to Apollo. Apollo gave a sack of undressed wheat-desired the critic to separate the chaff from the wheat-and when the good man had with solemn and impatient industry done so, bestowed on him the chaff for his pains.

Nearly similar I much suspect s the fate of those who have pecujar quicksightedness to discern the minute and evanescent miseries of

human existence-He who can with microscopic eye discover freckles, roughness, wrinkles and squalid colours on a face that is to me bewitchingly beautiful, has only the misfortune to be frightened by ugliness where I am ravished with charms. He that is so nice a connoisseur in good eating as to find that of twenty dishes of any one of which I eat with appetite there is none so dressed as to be fit to be tasted by an epicure of his nice skill, has by this only the misluck to make a bad dinner while I at the same table enjoy a very good one.