on his first interview with her, after the victory over the Saxons. Das Niebelungen lied. 1818. Dante in his descent to Hell, discovers amidst the flight of hapless lovers, whirled about in a hurricane, the forms of Paolo and Franscesca of Rimini. Vide Inferno, Cant. 5. A Scene of the Deluge. 1820. An Incantation. See the Pharmaceutria of Theocrites. Criemhild, the widow of Siegfried the Swift, exposes his body, assisted by Sigmond his father, King of Bel- Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur, in the Labyrinth, 1821. Amphiaraus, a chief of the Argolic League against Thebes, endowed with prescience, to avoid his fate withdrew to a secret place known only to Eriphyle his wife, which she, seduced by the presents of Polynices, disclosed: thus betrayed, he on departing commanded Alcmeon his son, on being informed of his death, to destroy his mother. Eriphyle fell by the hand of her son, who fled, pursued by the Furies. Jealousy. A Sketch. Prometheus delivered by Hercules. A Drawing. 1823. The Dawn. "Under the opening eye-lids of the morn: What time the gray-fly winds his sultry horn." Vide Milton's Lycidas. 1824. Amoret delivered by Britomart from the spell of Busy For by much the larger and more interesting portion of the facts contained in this memoir, we have been indebted to the kind communications of several of Mr. Fuseli's intimate friends. We have also availed ourselves of the biographical notices in Pilkington, the Monthly Mirror, and the European, Gentleman's, and Imperial Magazines, 271 No. X. THE REV. ABRAHAM REES, D. D. THIS eminent person long held a most distinguished rank in the literary and scientific world. He was the son of the Rev. Lewis Rees, a dissenting minister, who contributed, during an almost unexampled length of active life, to promote the cause of nonconformity in North and South Wales. When Mr. Lewis Rees first settled in the northern part of the principality, the country was, with regard to religion, in a state of extreme barbarism, for which it is by no means difficult to account. For many years after Wales was incorporated with England, great pains were taken to eradicate the Welch language, and, by a particular statute in the reign of Henry the Eighth, it was enacted that "no man that used that language could enjoy any office or fees under the Crown." Though the stigma thus fixed upon the tongue of this hardy race of ancient Britons produced no material change among the generality of the Welch, yet it did not fail to excite, in a considerable degree, the ambition of those who were best capable of instructing in the sound principles of morality and religion the great mass of the people. Looking to the favour and preferment which generally attach to those who readily acquiesce in the measures of a court, many of their ecclesiastical guides either ceased to labour in the vineyard of their heavenly master, or delivered their instructions in an unknown language. It is true, that after the reformation, both under the aupicious reign of Elizabeth, and during the profligate one of Charles the Second, the Welch language was commanded to be used in the churches in Wales, where that language was commonly understood; but, as if to counterbalance the good effect which those ordinances were calculated to produce, it was long the custom to induct to the best ecclésiastical preferments persons who were absolutely ignorant of Welch. Under such circumstances the care of the Welch churches naturally devolved upon men who were, in the strictest sense of the phrase, the "hireling shepherds" alluded to in the gospel; and who, for the sake of a moderate subsistence, were content to serve two, three, or even four congregations, at the distance of several miles from each other. The duties of the holy office were necessarily hurried over in a slovenly manner; the people derived little advantage from public instruction; and the more important benefits which ought to have accrued to the rising generation from private teaching, and the example of the teacher, were wholly unknown to them. To these defects in the administration of the national religion may be ascribed that ignorance which generally prevailed in North Wales. in the early part of the last century; and to the same cause may be attributed the rapid progress of Methodism in that country, and the prevalence of various absurd and fanatical sects, more especially of that which is peculiar to Wales, and which is known by the whimsical appellation of "Jumpers." Mr. Lewis Rees, during the whole of his ministry, discouraged in his followers every species of enthusiam, but his zeal in the assertion of the doctrines of Christianity was eminently distinguished. In the laborious discharge of all the duties pertaining to a Christian minister he was singularly assiduous and indefatigable. The insults which he frequently experienced in the performance of his sacred functions excited his pity and sorrow, but had no effect in abating his ardour. To avoid the assaults and indignities of the bigot and fanatic, who even threatened his life, he travelled from place to place in the darkness of night. On Sundays, and during the hours of leisure on other days, he preached to crowded congregations; and he neglected no fit opportunity which presented itself of instructing in virtue and the Christian religion the children and younger branches of those families who attended upon his ministry. Such was his success, that he became most popular in the very places in which he had begun his labours at so much personal hazard. In the course of a few years the minds of a great mass of the people became enlightened, and their dispositions ameliorated to a degree scarcely conceivable; and the name of Lewis Rees is to this day held in veneration by the descendants of those who were originally his bitterest enemies and persecutors. After having spent the most vigorous and active part of his life in this scene of labour and danger, and having laid the foundation of many dissenting congregations in North Wales, he removed to Glamorganshire, where he passed his remaining years, an eminently popular and useful preacher; and died at the advanced age of ninety. By his mother's side, Dr. Abraham Rees was collaterally descended from the celebrated Perry, who died a martyr to nonconformity in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Dr. Rees was born at or near Montgomery, in the year 1743. Having, with a view to the ministry, to which his father devoted him from his birth, received the elements of education under Dr. Jenkins, who superintended a respectable seminary for Protestant dissenters at Carmarthen, he was removed to London, and became a pupil in the academy for dissenting ministers, founded by Mr. Coward at Hoxton, and which was then conducted by Dr. David Jennings, the learned author of a work on Jewish antiquities, and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Samuel Morton Savage. Here he made such proficiency, especially in the mathematics and in natural philosophy, to which studies, on the recommendation and with the assistance of his friend Dr. Price, he devoted as much of his time as his other engagements and his views as a candidate for the ministry would allow, that in 1762, on the death of Dr. Jennings, and when a new arrangement took place in the academy, Dr. Kippis being appointed classical tutor, Dr. Rees, although only nineteen years of age, and although his regular term of study was not completed, was appointed by the trustees of the institution to the mathematical department of tuition. In this arduous situation he gave so much satisfaction, that he was soon after chosen to the more responsible office of resident |