eye, and is amenable to the same laws. The St. Sebastians of Guido and Razzi; the St. Jerome of Domenichino; the sternly beautiful Judith of Allori; the Pietà of Raphael; the San Pietro Martire of Titian; are all so many tragic scenes, wherein whatever is revolting in circumstances or character is judiciously kept from view, where human suffering is dignified by the moral lesson it is made to convey, and its effect on the beholder at once softened and heightened by the redeeming grace which genius and poetry have shed like a glory round it. Mrs. Jameson.

EVE.

SHE who brought death into the world,
There stood before him, with the light
Of their lost Paradise, still bright
Upon those sunny locks, that curled
Down her white shoulders to her feet—
So beautiful in form, so sweet

In heart and voice, as to redeem

The loss, the death of all things dear,

Except herself and make it seem
Life, endless life, while she was near!

Moore.

MENTAL PICTURESQUE.

It is not alone the visible picturesque of Italy which thus intoxicates; it is not only her fervid skies, her sunsets which envelope one-half of heaven, from the horizon to the zenith, in living blaze; nor her soaring pine-clad

mountains; nor her azure seas; nor her fields "ploughed by the sunbeams;" nor her gorgeous cities spread out with all their domes and towers unobscured by cloud or vapour;—but it is something more than these, something beyond, and over all

The gleam,

The light that never was on sea or land,
The concentration, and the poet's dream!

Mrs. Jameson.

HARMONY.

As sounds of sweetest music, heard at eve,
When summer dews weep over languid flowers;
When the still air conveys each touch, each tone,
However faint-and breathes it on the ear
With a distinct and thrilling power, that leaves
Its memory long within the raptured soul,-
E'en such thou art to me!-and thus I sit
And feel the harmony that round thee lives,
And breathes from every feature. Thus I sit-
And when most quiet, cold, or silent, then,
E'en then, I feel each word, each look, each tone!
There's not an accent of that tender voice,
There's not a daybeam of those sunbright eyes,
Nor passing smile, nor melancholy grace,
Nor thought half uttered, feeling half betrayed,
Nor glance of kindness,-no, nor gentlest touch
Of that dear hand, in amity extended,
That e'er was lost to me ;-that treasured well,
And oft recalled, dwells not upon my soul
Like sweetest music heard at summer's eve!

Mrs. Jameson.

SHAKSPEARE.

UNDER the wizard influence of Shakspeare I had been walking all day in a complete delusion. I had surveyed the landscape through the prism of poetry, which tinged every object with the hues of the rainbow. I had been surrounded with fancied beings; with mere airy nothings, conjured up by poetic power; yet which to me had all the charm of reality.

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Ten thousand honours and blessings on the bard who has thus gilded the dull realities of life with innocent illusions; who has spread exquisite and unbought pleasures in my checkered path; and beguiled my spirit in many a lonely hour, with all the cordial and cheerful sympathies of social life.

W. Irving.

MEMORY IN ART.

WHEN in Parian stone we trace

Some best remembered form or face;

Or see on radiant canvass rise

An imitative Paradise;

And feel the warm affections glow,
Pleased at the pencil's mimic show;
'Tis but obedience to the plan
From nature's birth proposed to man;
Who, lest her choicest sweets in vain
Should blossom for our thankless train;

Lest beauty pass unheeded by

Like cloud upon the summer sky;

Lest memory of the brave and just
Should sleep with them consigned to dust,
With leading hand the expedient proves,
And paints for us the form she loves.

Robert Snow.

PORTRAIT PAINTING.

THERE is no study which requires a longer period of application, unproductive in a pecuniary view, than that of painting; and there are, perhaps, no students worse prepared to encounter such a course than those who usually undertake it. The young votary of taste has commonly more genius than money; hence he is obliged to pursue the trade, before he has had time to acquire the art of painting, and to commence business without capital or credit. *** The practice of portrait painting however, though it tends to divert our artists from the nobler pursuit of history, is not unproductive of advantage. If it is unfavourable to purity of design, it is the best school of colouring. The continual intercourse with nature, which it occasions, produces a power and truth of imitation, a richness, vigour, and variety of execution, which are rarely attained by any other means. What the portrait painter can do, he generally does better than any other artist. The necessity of giving interest to a single figure compels him to a punctilious accuracy, and refinement of effect, seldom displayed in larger compositions. He supplies by his execution the defect of his materials; and often invests vulgarity and deformity with a charm, which makes us forget the imperfections of the subject in the art with which it is represented.

M. A. Shee.

POWER OF GRACE.

In joyous youth, what soul hath never known
Thought, feeling, taste, harmonious to its own?
Who hath not paused, while Beauty's pensive eye
Asked from his heart the homage of a sigh?
Who hath not owned, with rapture smitten frame,
The power of grace, the magic of a name?

Campbell.

MATERIALS.

It is not with pigments, oils, and varnishes alone that a picture is wrought. Reynolds, Titian, Rembrandt, and Wilson, mixed their colours with genius; and painted, not only with their brushes, but with mind.

Library of the Fine Arts.

THE GOOD AND FAIR.

AWAKE, arise! with grateful fervour fraught,
Go, spring the mine of elevated thought.
He who, through Nature's various walk, surveys
The good and fair her faultless line portrays;
Whose mind, profaned by no unhallowed guest,
Culls from the crowd the purest and the best;
May range, at will, bright Fancy's golden clime,
Or, musing, mount where science sits sublime,
Or wake the spirit of departed time.
Who acts thus wisely, mark the moral muse,
A blooming Eden in his life reviews!

Rogers.