much as a description may correspond with the looks, it cannot suggest their real appearance. The colour of the eyes, the eye-brows, and hair, may be given; the nose classed with the Roman or the regular; the lips as thick or thin, straight or serpentine; yet how little do all these indicate what the world regards as likeness, or of that recognizable aspect or peculiarity of character which, however much it may be modified in passing from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age, preserves its original character still. This is a quality peculiar to human nature, yet so delicate, so difficult to be imitated or caught, so remote too from mechanism in its imitation, that all the painter's art and sculptor's skill are called forth to record it aright.

With the poet or the historian the character of an individual can, at the best, be but imperfectly given: they can make a nearer approach when they attempt personal appearance. We all remember Hamlet's description of the picture of his father:

"See what a grace was seated on this brow :
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,
New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man."

Beautiful as this imagery is, it is simply a comparison of feature and look with imagery of a most exalted kind; but it conveys no likeness, no resemblance more than the historical portrait of Hume gives

us of the real look and appearance of King Charles the First.

"This prince was of a comely presence, of a sweet but melancholy aspect. His face was regular, handsome, and well complexioned: his body, strong, healthy, and justly proportioned, and being of a middle stature, he was capable of enduring the greatest fatigues." This description, however graphic and defined, is not to be compared with the portrait of the same prince by Vandyke, a likeness seen in a moment of time; and, like a living person, when once seen and acknowledged, never forgotten.

It is this ability to call up the real person, of portraying the human looks and mind, which raises art above both epic and dramatic poetry. The human eye is drawn with peculiar care, as an object conscious of being seen, and of seeing in its turn. There seems something mysterious in its resemblance to the real person, as if it shared in the virtues of the person it represented. It is known that domestic animals have been disturbed by the steady glare of the eyes of a picture, and that the minds of men, far too experienced to be affected by other deceptions of art, have yet been startled with its life-like look. Who is there that has not been touched with what is called a speaking picture, with eyes that look upon you, see you, and appear to follow you round the room; with lips which move, and seem to belong to a visiter or a familiar spirit, and might, at the witching hour, suggest to a superstitious mind an actual presence? The very stillness of a fine picture, perhaps, gives rise to such reveries, and allows time for imaginative

thoughts to rise, which, however illusory, are the most pleasing of the dreams which spring from art, being, as it has been most truly said, a part of her expressive and her silent language.

By the human countenance-that expositor of the inward workings of the mind of man, and index of his temper and powers of thought, we are guided in our every-day intercourse with our species; and by this let the painter find light to his art. In the endless modifications of the human face, every variety of age, and character, and condition, may be shown; every tribe and nation may be exemplified, every local situation and climate indicated, and every event and incident in the history of mankind expressed or illustrated. The spirit revealed in the human face has a voice for all lands, and is a book for all ages; it makes itself felt without the aid of the canvas-ever understood without the intervention of art. With such a talisman let the genius of painting go forth in all her strength, conquering and to conquer; and, once become the rouser and awakener of the simple and uninformed, what will hinder her to superadd all the accomplishments now current with the learned; and, like the famed Madonna of Raphael, which, while regarded as furnishing a splendid example of art by the professor, is equally dear to the ordinary observer from majesty of form and elevation of sentiment.

SECTION III.

Portrait-Painting.

I HAVE attempted to show, in the foregoing remarks, that the patronage of art in this country is dependent on the taste and liberality of private individuals, distinct from any influence or power of artists themselves, and that to cherish and continue that patronage, it is necessary that works of art should in their conception and character coincide with the opinions of the great body of private patrons, and reflect their tastes and feelings; for to artists these are the representatives of the purchasing world at large.

These conditions of patronage and encouragement may appear to some a giving up of the great cause of the independence of genius and originality of thought, and annihilating the authority of the greatest masters in the calling, and setting at nought the taste and dictum of experienced judges in the labours of the pencil. But I have spoken very unhappily if it is supposed that I desire to set the will of the ignorant above the judgment of the learned. I desired but to waive all discussion of what can be best dispensed with, and suggested that genius might haply triumph in the opinions of both, by adding what has been gained from the taste and experience of ages to what might secure the suffrages of the greater number for the greater period of time.

With this in view, preferring the most plain and simple ideas, and proceeding upon the certain axiom that the most interesting object to man is man, it

follows that whatever has relation to man, or bears the semblance of his image, will most readily engage the sympathies of his class and kind, who appreciate works of art only by their supposed reference to the business and enjoyments of life. To accomplish this, the representation of man- the graceful delineation of his form the sentiments written on his forehead and on his face are the surest means of obtaining extensive sympathy; for a picture which wants his attraction, and trusts to the auxiliaries of man, ranges more with natural history than with elevated art. Man, on the contrary, forms a perpetual object of interest and curiosity: he interests not only by his own likeness, but through other objects which engage his attention, and vary the attractions of the picture; the eye that sees and the subject seen bearing that relation to each other which leads to those manifold combinations by which every element of thought, in the most extended work of art, is arranged and united into a whole.

In this chain of connexion, the human eye, which with the painter is so powerful an agent of intelligence, may be said, with its riveting gaze, to be the connecting link. While it has a faculty of expression possessed by no other human feature, it has a lustre and a beauty peculiarly adapted to painting, which no other art but painting can represent. The power of the eye in a picture rests not entirely with itself, but in its glance seems to perceive and regard other objects; and, like the magnetic needle in navigation, makes known, by the direction to which it points, where its attraction lies. In the intercourse of life, it is rather by the rejoicing eyes of the crowd than by their voice,