ed, sends in nothing this time. Barret will be better off than ever. He puts in a night-piece in a very noble style, and another very beautiful landscape, with a part of a rainbow on a waterfall. They seem to be both excellent pictures. Jones, who used to be poet laureate to the exhibition, is prepared to be a severe and almost general satirist upon the exhibitors. His ill-behaviour has driven him from all their houses, and he resolves to take revenge in this manner. He has endeavoured to find out what pictures they will exhibit, and, upon such information as he has got, has beforehand given a poetic description of those pictures which he has not seen. I am told he has gone so far as to abuse Reynolds at guess, as an exhibitor of several pictures, though he does not put in one. This is a very moral poet. You are, my dear Barry, very kind in the offers to copy some capital picture for me; and you may be sure, that a picture which united yours to Raphael's efforts would be particularly agreeable to us all. I may one time or other lay this tax upon your friendship; but at present I must defer putting you to the trouble of such laborious copies. Because, until we have got another house, it will be impossible for me to let you know what size will suit me. Indeed, in our present house (Queen Anne-street), the best picture of any tolerable size would embarrass me. Pray let me hear from you as often as you can; your letters are most acceptable to us. All your friends here continue to love and constantly to inquire after you. Adieu, dear Barry, and believe me most sincerely

yours,

VOL. I.

P

"E. BURKE."

"MY DEAR BARRY,

August 24, 1767.

"It is with shame I find myself so late in answering a letter which gave me such sincere pleasure as your last. Whatever you may think of my delay, be persuaded that no want of regard for you had the least share in it. We all remember you with much esteem and affection; and I hope we are not, any of us, of a character to forget our friends, because they are fifteen hundred miles distance from us, and away a year or two. I did indeed strongly flatter myself that Will. and I might probably have taken a trip to Rome in the recess. But the session ran to an unusual and mortifying length; and as soon as it closed, a political negotiation, for bringing my Lord Rockingham to the Administration, was opened, and thus our summer insensibly slid away; and it became impossible for me, either in his company, or alone, to begin an enterprise that would demand four good months at least. The mention I have made of this negotiation has, I dare say, put you a little in a flutter.*.... At present there is no prospect of a sudden change; therefore we remain as we are; but with all the content which consciences at rest and circumstances in no distress can give us. We are now in the country, in a pretty retired spot about three miles from town. Richard is at Southampton for the benefit of sea-bathing, which has already been useful to his leg, and he gathers strength in the limb every day. This is our situation. As to your other

* The sentence omitted here has been already quoted in another part of this work.

friends, Barrett has got himself also a little countryhouse. His business still holds on; and indeed he deserves encouragement, for, independent of being a very ingenious artist, he is a worthy and most perfectly good-humoured fellow. However he has had the ill-luck to quarrel with almost all his acquaintance among the artists, with Stubbs, Wright, and Hamilton; they are at mortal war, and I fancy he does not stand very well even with West. As to Mr. Reynolds, he is perfectly well, and still keeps that superiority over the rest, which he always had, from his genius, sense, and morals.

"You never told me whether you received a long, I am afraid not very wise letter from me, in which I took the liberty of saying a great deal upon matters which you understand far better than I do. Had you the patience to bear it? You have given a strong, and, I fancy, a very faithful picture of the dealers in taste with you. It is very right that you should know and remark their little arts; but as fraud will intermeddle in every transaction of life, where we cannot oppose ourselves to it with effect, it is by no means our duty or our interest to make ourselves uneasy, or multiply enemies on account of it. In particular you may be assured that the traffic in antiquity, and all the enthusiasm, folly, or fraud, that may be in it, never did nor never can hurt the merit of living artists: quite the contrary,

in

my opinion; for I have ever observed, that whatever it be that turns the minds of men to any thing relative to the arts, even the most remotely so, brings artists more and more into credit and repute; and though now and then the mere broker and dealer in

such things runs away with a great deal of the profit; yet in the end ingenious men will find themselves gainers, by the dispositions which are nourished and diffused in the world by such pursuits. I praise exceedingly your resolution of going on well with those whose practices you cannot altogether approve. There is no living in the world upon any other terms.

"Neither Will. nor I were much pleased with your seeming to feel uneasy at a little necessary increase of expense on your settling yourself. You ought to know us too well not to be sensible that we think right upon these points. We wished you at Rome, that you might cultivate your genius by every advantage which the place affords, and to stop at a little expense, might defeat the ends for which the rest were incurred. You know we desired you at parting never to scruple to draw for a few pounds extraordinary, and directions will be given to take your drafts on such occasions. You will judge yourself of the propriety, but by no means starve the cause. Your father wrote to me some time ago. The old gentleman seems to be uneasy at not hearing from you. I was at some distance in the country, but Mr. Bourke opened the letter, and gave him such an account as he could. You ought from time to time to write to him. And pray let us hear from you. How goes on your Adam and Eve? Have you yet got your chest? Adieu!-let us hear from yon, and believe us all most truly and heartily yours."

* Daily observation shows the truth of this sagacious remark.

If these letters exhibit the writer's knowledge of the arts, sincerity of regard, wisdom of remark upon every subject he touches, and generous delicacy of conduct in taking off as much as he could the feeling of dependance from the mind of the painter by veiling the patron under the friend, the following is perhaps still more admirable for its keen estimate of the importance of temper and conduct to all menfor teaching the truest wisdom in the practical business of living, not merely in the world, but with the world. The occasion was the froward temper of Barry, involving him in frequent squabbles with his brethren at Rome; and it should be read by every wayward and contentious man the moment he rises in the morning, and before he retires to rest at night. It displays also, in a peculiar degree, the same prophetic sagacity which so often distinguished Mr. Burke; the prediction as to what the fate of the artist would be if he did not correct his peculiarities, being literally verified.

"MY DEAR BARRY, Gregories, Sept. 16, 1769. "I am most exceedingly obliged to your friendship and partiality, which attributed a silence very blameable on our parts to a favourable cause: let me add in some measure to its true cause, a great deal of occupation of various sorts, and some of them disagreeable enough.

"As to any reports concerning your conduct and behaviour, you may be very sure they could have no kind of influence here; for none of us are of such a make as to trust to any one's report for the character of a person whom we ourselves know.