Fairy's, in answer to the Cardinal Ferrara. That cardinal shewed to Cellini two designs for a salt-cellar wanted by Francis I, and wished him to choose one and execute it. But the artist requested time for consideration, and then brought a model of his own designing, and said that if a peasant were shewn children of most rich and noble parents, yet he would prefer his own brats, and would not take to the strangers. The cardinal was pleased with the speech and with the model, and afterwards employed him to engrave his own official seal. The proper size for these seals, Cellini tells us, is that of the palm of a boy's hand of ten years of age. The cardinals vied with each other in their seals, from the paucity of other means of competition. Cellini did not confine himself to kings and cardinals; his principal exploit was the Pope's button which fastened his cope. All the artists of Rome were invited to send designs for this button; only it was understood that the figure of God the Father was to be the main object; and that the Pope's great diamond was to be introduced. All the artists but Cellini introduced the diamond in the breast of the figure. Cellini's design, which was selected, is given us in his own interesting autobiography. He says that the Pope, on seeing his design, exclaimed—“ Benvenuto, had you been my very self, you could not have designed this with greater propriety." The diamond was placed by Cellini in the middle of the button. The figure was sitting above it; its right hand was lifted up giving a blessing. Under the diamond were three little boys supporting it with their arms raised aloft. The middle boy was in full, the other two in half relievo. The greater part of the figure was concealed by a cloak, which appeared to wave in the wind, and was richly ornamented. His Holiness gave

N

Cellini five hundred ducats upon sight of the model, which was made of a white stucco upon a black stone.

As relevant to the subject of parental affection, may be mentioned the Laocoon, that celebrated relic of ancient art, which is in the Vatican Gallery at Rome. Dryden's translation of Virgil's description of Laocoon and his children is very vigorous, but is less applicable to the statue than the following by Lord Byron :

Or, turning to the Vatican, go see
Laocoon's torture dignifying pain,
A father's love, and mortal's agony,
With an immortal's patience blending :-vain
The struggle; vain against the coiling strain
And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp
The old man's clench; the long envenom'd chain
Rivets the living links ;-the enormous asp

Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp.

This ancient statue is mutilated; but an antique model of it in its original state is preserved. Michael Angelo executed a part of an arm which is wanting, but desisted from finishing it on account of his despair of vying with the original. I should have mentioned in a former page, whilst speaking of the statue of the she-wolf that suckled Romulus, which has evidently been injured by lightning, and is of the age of the Republic, that Cicero, in his third Catilinarian oration, mentions that a gilt statue of Romulus sucking the dugs of a wolf had been struck by lightning, and that all the augurs of Etruria had been convened to deliberate on the portentous incident. The helmet of the Roman soldiers was usually decorated with the device of Romulus and Remus sucking the wolf. On the subject of antique statues in connection with the ages of men, it may be further noticed, that Lorenzo de

Medici had put up in his garden several Grecian statues which he had collected at great cost, and allowed the artists of Florence to make models in imitation of them. One morning he perceived a young artist making a model from the statue of an old Satyr, but, in order to heighten the expression of the countenance, he had opened his lips and made teeth visible. Lorenzo observed to the young man that an old man would not be likely to have such good teeth, and passed on. The next morning he looked again at the progress that had been made in the model, when to his surprize he found that the young artist had struck out some teeth and, had given the mouth all the appearance of having suffered this deformity from age. Lorenzo was so delighted with the ingenious manner in which the alteration had been made, that he immediately patronized the artist; and brought him into public notice. The model is still preserved; the young artist was Michael Angelo.

Lord Kames, in his Elements of Criticism, observes, that, as friendship is a much less powerful feeling than self-love, so it is found that it often fails to enlist our affections in favor of the children of our friends. Perhaps this is rather a harsh judgment of human nature; as the love of offspring, unless in particular instances, such as are pourtrayed in Sir Giles Overreach's eagerness for the advancement of his "Right Hon'ble Daughter," is not exclusively a selfish passion. And, on the other hand, we know that even admiration for a parent, which may be thought a weaker motive than friendship, created a strong expression of public sympathy in favor of the surviving descendant of Milton; and that similar feelings were recently entertained in regard to the surviving relative of Goldsmith. Nevertheless, it may be thought that few persons can have

read Charles Lamb's humorous essay on the maxim "love me, love my dog," without applying it to some of the children of some of their friends. Lord Kames, however, adverts to a beautiful example of a daughter influencing her father's heart, by reviving the image of her deceased mother. It occurs in Otway's play of Venice Preserved; a play which our great female tragedians have selected for their benefits, perhaps, more often than any play of Shakespeare's. Belvidera entreats her father, the Dôge, to save the conspirators, because if they suffer, her husband Jaffier is pledged to stab her with his dagger.

Priuli-My daughter!

Belvidera—Yes, your daughter, by a mother

Virtuous, and noble, faithful to your honor,
Obedient to your will, kind to your wishes,
Dear to your arms. By all the joys she gave you,
When in her blooming years she was your treasure,
Look kindly on me, in my face behold

The lineaments of her's y' have kissed so often,

Pleading the cause of your poor cast-off child.

With regard, next, to notices of the absence or perversion of parental affection, the illustrations are fortunately rare. It will commonly be found that they are cases in which the love of offspring has been overpowered by some sudden and violent passion. The subject of Medea killing her children under the impulse of jealousy, to revenge herself upon her husband Jason, was not only a noted subject of ancient dramas, but the Grecian painters chose it as a test of their rival talents. These paintings are the subject of several Greek epigrams. Lucian tells us, that in one of them the artist's merit consisted in representing the children playful and happy, at the moment their mother's arm is raised to shed their blood. The sacri

fice of Iphigenia was equally celebrated in poetry, and painting. Lucretius avails himself of it as an example, in his splendid description of Superstition, Like the stories of Orestes and Phodra, it would seem unsuited to the modern stage ; Racine, however, wrote an Iphigenia. One picture on the subject is spoken of by Cicero, Quinctilian and Pliny, and has been commented on by the most eminent French and English artists. In this picture the face of Agamemnon, the father, who is sacrificing his daughter, is veiled with his mantle. Sir Joshua Reynolds condemns this device; but it is ably vindicated by Fuseli, who represents it not as evincing an abandonment of the power of expressing a father's face on such an occasion, but as a suitable and natural action, just, as in real life, Timoleon is known to have covered his face with his cloak, when reluctantly participating in the assassination of his brother. One of the finest passages in Ovid's Metamorphoses is the soliloquy of Althea before throwing into the fire the fatal stick upon which the life of her son Meleager depended; he had killed her two brothers. The judgment of Brutus on his sons is another memorable example of the stifling of parental feelings. As such examples have been less frequent in modern history, it may be interesting to cite from the luminous pages of Gibbon some passages relating to Roman institutions and usages, which, like those of Sparta, may have contributed to harden the hearts of fathers:

The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human species the returns of filial piety. But the exclusive, absolute, and perpetual dominion of the father over his children, is peculiar to the Roman jurisprudence, and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the city. The