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virtuous and to honest friendship, may likewise administer to a society in vice and wickedness: yet, every thing in human life being but a choice of difficulties, it seems wiser to prefer a public to a private education, on account of the greater advantages it holds forth*. A young man will most assuredly become wiser, and most probably more virtuous, by.public than by private education; for virtue consists in action and in trial.

The following anecdote of the high sense of honour in two Eton boys, is well known to many persons who have been educated in that illustrious seminary.

"Two young men, one of whom was the late lord Baltimore, went out a-shooting, and were detected_in that unpardonable offence by one of the masters. He came up quickly enough to one of them to discover his person; the other, perhaps having quicker heels, got off unknown. The detected culprit was flogged pretty severely, and threatened with repetitions of the same discipline if he did not discover his companion. This, however, he persisted in refusing, in spite of reiterated punishment. His companion, who was confined to his room at his boarding-house by a sore throat (which he had got by leaping into a ditch to escape the detection of his master), on hearing with what severity his friend was treated on his account, went into school, with his throat wrapped up, and nobly told the master, that he was the boy that was out a-shooting with the young man who, with such a magnanimous perseverance, had refused to give up his name."

* Osborne begins his celebrated "Advice to a Son" thus: "Though I can never pay enough to your grandfather's memory for his tender care of my education, yet I must observe in it this mistake, that by keeping me at home, where I was one of my young masters, I lost the advantage of my most docile time. For, not un dergoing the same discipline, I must needs fall short of their experience that are bred up in free-schools, who, by plotting to rob an orchard, &c. run through all the subtleties required in taking a town, being made by use familiar to secrecy and compliance with opportunity qualities never afterwards to be attained at cheaper rates than the hazard of all. Whereas these see the danger of trusting others, and the rocks they fall upon by too obstinate an adherence to their own imprudent resolutions, and all this under no higher penalty than that of a whipping. And," adds he, "it is possible this indulgence of my father might be the cause I af. forded him so poor a return for all his cost. Children," continues Osborne, "attain to an exacter knowledge both of themselves and of the world, in free and populous schools, than under a more selitary education."

MELANGE.

No. IV.

Chacun à son gout.

JOSEPH HOUGH, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

This intrepid and excellent prelate thus addressed the commissioners whom king Janies the second sent to Magdalen college, Oxon, to impose a catholic fellow upon that learned and venerable society:

"My Lords,

"You say your commission gives you authority to change and alter our statutes and to make new ones, as you think fit: now, my lords, we have taken an oath, not only to observe our statutes (laying his hand upon the book of the statutes of the college), but to admit of no new ones, or alterations in these. This must be my behaviour here: I must admit of no alteration from them, and by the grace of God I never will."

The bishop was as amiable and excellent in private as he was upright and spirited in public life: His servant having one day let fall a very fine barometer belonging to him, which he had caused to be brought into his drawing-room to shew to his company, the glass broke, and the quicksilver flew about the floor; the bishop, turning round to his guests, said with a smile, "I protest 1 never saw the quicksilver so low in all my life."

THE BRAVADO OPPOSITE TO WHAT HE WOULD SEEM. -Some years ago, at St. George's Hospital, Westminster, two boys underwent each the amputation of an arm. The one expressed just and natural apprehensions of the operation, yet bore it in a firm and reasonable manner. The other despised the timidity of his fellowpatient, made extremely light of the operation, and even set it gloriously at defiance; yet complained during the process in the most womanish and dastardly stile, and was, in short, totally subdued by it. Upon my seeming greatly surprised, the surgeon said, that it was always so.-I believe it is so in other things, as well as courage. Whenever vanity ostentatiously parades either upon wealth, or knowledge, or learning, &c. &c. there suspicion should naturally arise: and why? because realities are seldom solicitous about appearances, yea, often not enough attentive to them; while wind and emptiness inflate and puff.

THE ARTS.

No. V.

SIR,

THE ENGRAVERS OF THIS COUNTRY.

[Resumed from Page 240.]

WHEREVER the arts have been held in estimation, and properly encouraged, ENGRAVING has been supported by PAINTING. In England even the name of historic painting must nearly have been forgotten, had it not been supported by our art; and it must, for a number of years yet to come, principally depend upon engraving for public patronage: no other means can so certainly propagate a love for its high excellence.

Engraving, considered as a commercial speculation, is worthy of national consideration; the numerous large editions of books that have been printed, wherein the publishers have principally depended upon the embellishments of art for a superiority of sale, are beyond computation. Ten contending editions of Shakspeare were, at one time, soliciting the favours of the public, boasting their elegance, and expensive ornaments. The poets are daily publishing in new editions, either emblazoned or deformed by the graver, and the dry study of the law has been enlivened by graphic ornament; the number of such books exported to America, the continent of Europe, and every other part of the globe where science has dispelled the clouds of barbarism, is immense. The employment given to designers, engravers, copperplate makers, and copper-plate printers, paper makers, letter-press printers, bookbinders, &c. becomes a national benefit, where the numbers of the people are considered as the riches of the government.

The art of engraving has been, by some, considered in a more degraded light than it deserves. The greatest glory of the painter is invention. Because the engraver has not occasion to study this first essential of the painter, it is surely too much to say that he wants the capacity for it. To make him a mere copier of what is laid before him, without completely appreciating and understanding its merits, is to make him a parrot that talks by rote. VOL. I.

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Engraving from a painting is a translation from one mode of art into another essentially different. As easy might it be for a linguist to give a faithful translation of Euclid, by barely understanding the Greek language, without being able to solve a problem in geometry, as for an engraver to give a faithful copy of a fine painting, whose excellencies he does not comprehend. The knowledge of anatomy is equally requisite to the two professions, for no man ever copied a muscle with fidelity, without having studied its form from nature, and all its variations, uses, actions, and insertion. In the knowledge of light and shadow, those artists must go hand in hand. To suppose the engraver capable of copying colours whose meaning he does not understand, or the relation they bear to the whole, is ridiculous: to represent passions he cannot conceive, or expression of which he is ignorant, is impossible. His business is to enter into the very thoughts of the painter, and with a congeniality of soul to feel all that he has felt. Garrick never could have represented the characters of Shakspeare so forcibly as he did without a great portion of that fire which animated the poet. That versatility of talent, and pliability of power, which are demanded from the actor, to do justice to the number of poets he must represent, is equally required of the engraver to preserve the variety of manner, and variety of power, of the different painters he has to translate. A knowledge of composition is indispensable, for that composition is frequently as much affected by light and shadow as the disposition of the figures; of which the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds are a remarkable instance. As to simple mechanical execution, the difficulties of the painter can never be put in competition with those of the engraver, exclusively of taste, disposition of line, and variety of manner in his work.

The age of Louis the Fourteenth will be remembered by mankind with very different sensations; his plan of universal conquest will be contemplated with horror, from the devastation caused by his ambition, whilst his encouragement of the arts will place him amongst the benefactors of the human species. From his reign to the present time, France has owed infinitely more of her celebrity in the fine arts to her engravers than to her painters. Le Brun confessed that the engravings after his battles of Alexander, were superior to his own

paintings, from which they were copied; and, in this country, productions of modern art frequently evince the assistance which the painter has received from the engraver, however justly the former may sometimes have to complain of the latter.

From the revival of the arts in Italy to the present day, men of the greatest powers have not thought engraving unworthy their exertions. Albert Durer employed a great portion of his time in this art; Metzotinto was the invention of a prince and a hero; and the names of those genuine painters who have favoured the world with their productions upon copper by engraving, will not only shew the ability required to excel, but the splendour of talent that has honoured this art.

Many other circumstances in favour of our art, and in illustration of the difficulties under which it labours, might be pointed out, but that I fear I am encroaching upon the limits of your publication. Under all those difficulties, England at present, and for a long time past, has had to boast of the first engravers in the world. Were the encouragement given to this useful branch of the fine arts, equal to the benign laws, and free constitution under which we have the blessing to live, what might not be expected from men whose love of their profession has persevered through difficulties and oppressions? Those difficulties and oppressions have, for some time past, been increasing. The long-protracted war, however necessary, has been felt, with all its evil effects, by all the branches of the arts, but by none more than that which we follow. I humbly conceive, that if something is not done in this country in favour of engraving, it must decline; for every art, science, and profession, will languish, that is deprived of honours and emoluments. A public exhibition of our works would certainly be the means of giving us some consideration in the minds of mankind, and might, otherwise, essentially serve us. By admitting works of merit into the BRITISH INSTITUTION, or some other grand gallery, the public taste might be improved, and they might there contemplate the difference between good and bad impressions of our works, which would be some check on the parsimony of publishers; this advantage would excite amongst us an honourable emulation, one of the surest means of carrying our art to the highest point of perectibility. AN ENGRAVER.

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