turned to England, improved by travel and refined by education. On the road to London from the port where he landed, he accidently found in the inn where he lodged Johnson's life of Savage; and was so taken with the charms of composition, and the masterly delineation of character displayed in that performance, that having begun to read it while leaning his arm on the chimney-piece, he continued in that attitude insensible of pain till he was hardly able to raise his hand to his head. The admiration of the work natu rally led him to seek the acquaintance of its author, who continued one of his sincerest admirers and warmest friends, till 1784, when they were separated by the stroke of death.

The first thing that distinguished him after his return to his na tive country, was a full length portrait of Commodore Keppel ; which in the polite circles was spoken of in terms of the highest encomium, and testified to what a degree of eminence he had arrive ed in his profession. This was followed by a portrait of lord Edge. come, and a few others, which at once introduced him to the first Business in portrait painting; and that branch of the art he culti vated with such success as will for ever establish his fame with all descriptions of refined society. Having painted some of the first Fate beauties of the age, the polite world flocked to see the graces and the charms of his pencil; and he soon became the most fashionable painter not only in England, but in all Europe. He has indeed preserved the resemblance of so many illustrious characters, that we feel the less regret at his having left behind him so few historical paintings; though what he has done in that way shows him to have been qualified to excel in both departments, The only landscape, perhaps, which he ever painted, except those beauti ful and chaste ones which compose the back grounds of many his portraits, is "A View on the Thames from Richmond,” which in 1784 was exhibited by the Society for Promoting Painting and Design in Liverpool,

of

In 1764 Mr. Reynolds had the merit of being the first promoter of that club, which having long existed without a name, became at last distinguished by the appellation of the Literary Club. Upon the foundation of the Royal academy of Painting, Sculp ture, and Architecture, he was appointed president; and his acknowledged excellence in his profession made the appointment ac

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ceptable to all the lovers of art. To add to the dignity of this new institution, his majesty conferred on the president the honor of knighthood; and sir Joshua delivered his first discourse at the opening of the Academy on January 2, 1769. The merit of that discourse has been universally admitted among painters, but it contains some directions respecting the proper mode of prosecuting their studies, to which every student of every art would do well to pay attention." I would chiefly recommend (says he,) that an implicit obedience to the rules of art, as established by the prac tice of the great masters, should be exacted from the young stu, dents. That those models, which have passed through the appro bation of ages, should be considered by them as perfect and infal Jible guiles, as subjects for their imitation, not their criticism. I am confident, that this is the only efficacious method of making a progress in the arts; and that he who sets out with doubting, will find life finished before he becomes master of the rudiments. For it may be laid down as a maxim, that he who begins by presuming on his own sense, has ended his studies as soon as he has commenced them. Every opportunity, therefore should be taken to discountenance that false and (vulgar opinion, that rules are the fetters of genius. They are fetters only to men of no genius; as that armour which upon the strong, becomes an ornament and a defence, upon the weak and mishapen turns into a load, and cripples the body which it was made to protect, visi

Each succeeding year, on the distribution of the prizes, sir Joshua delivered to the students a discourse of equal merit with this and perhaps we do not hazard too much when we say, that from the whole collected, the lovers of belles lettres and the fine arts will acquire juster notions of what is meant by taste in general, and better rules for acquiring a correct taste, athian from the multitudes of those volumes which have been professedly written on the subject.

In the Autumn of 1785 he wont to Brussels, where he expended about £1000 on the purchase of paintings, which having been taken from the different monasteries and religious houses in Flanders and Germany, were then exposed to sale by the command of the emperor Joseph. Gainsborough and he had engaged to paint each other's portrait; and the canvas for both being actually stretch

ed, sir Joshua gave one sitting to his distinguished rival; but to the regret of every admirer of the art, the unexpected death of the latter prevented all further progress.

In 1790 he was anxiously desirous to procure the vacant professorship of perspective in the academy for Mr. Bonomi, an Italian architect; but that artist not having been yet elected, an as- sociate was of course no academician, and it became necessary to raise him to those situations, in order to qualify him for being a professor, Mr. Gilpin being his competitor for the associateship, the numbers on the ballot proyed equal, when the president on his casting vote decided the election in favour of his friend, who was thereby advanced so far towards the professorship. Soon after this, an academic seat being vacant, sir Joshua exerted all his influence to obtain it for Mr. Bonomi; but finding himself out: voted by a majority of two to one, he quitted the chair with great dissatisfaction, and next day sent to the secretary of the academy a formal resignation of the office, which for twentyone years he had filled with honor to himself and to his country. His, indignation however subsiding, he suffered himself to be prevailed upon to return to the chair, which within a year and a half he was again desirous to quit for a better reason.636.1

Finding a disease of languor, occasioned by an enlargement of the liver, to which he had for some time been subject, increase upon him, and daily expecting a total loss of sight, he wrote: a letter to the academy, intimating his intention to resign the office of president on account of bodily infirmities, which disabled him from executing, the duties of it to his own satisfaction. The acade micians received this intelligence with the respectful concern due to the talents and virtues of their president, and either then did enter, or designed to enter, into a resolution, honorable to all parties, namely, that a deputation from the whole body of the academy should wait upon him, and inform him of their wish, that the authority and privileges of the office of president might be his during his life, declaring their willingness to permit the perfor mance of any of its duties which might be irksome to him by a deputying t

From this period sir Joshua never painted more. The last effort of his pencil was the portrait of the honorable Charles James

Fox, which was executed in his best style, and shews that his fancy, his imagination, and his other great powers in the art which he professed, remained unabated to the end of his life. When the last touches were given to this picture,

"The hand of Reynolds fell, to rise no more".

On Thursday February the 23d 1792, the world was deprived of this amiable man and excellent artist at the age of 68 years; a man, than whom no one, according to Johnson, had passed through life with more observations of men and manners. The following character of him is said to be the production of Mr. -Burke,

"His illness was long, but borne with a mild and cheerful fortitude, without the least mixture of any thing irritable or querulous, agreeably to the placid and even tenor of his whole life. He had from the beginning of his malady a distinct view of his dissolution which he contemplated with that entire composure which nothing but the innocence, integrity, and usefulness of his life, and an unaffected submission to the will of Providence, could bestow. In this situation he had every consolation from family tenderness, which his tenderness to his family had always merited,

Sir Joshua Reynolds was, on very many accounts, one of the mast memorable men of his time: he was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace in facility, in happy invention, and in richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the great masters of the renowned ages. In portrait he went beyond them; for he communicated to that description of the art in which En glish artists are the most engaged, a variety, a fancy, and a dignity derived from the higher branches, which even those who professed them in a superior manner did not always preserve when they delineated individual nature. His portraits reminded the spectator of the invention of history and the amenity of landscape. In paint ing portraits, he appears not to be raised upon that platform, but to descend to it from a higher sphere. His paintings illustrate His Tessons, and his lessons seem to be derived from his paintings. to podt av. In.

"He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his To be such a painter, he was a profound and penetrating phi losopher.

"In full happiness of foreign and domestic fame, admired by the expert in art, and by the learned in science, courted by the great, caressed by sovereign powers, and celebrated by distinguish ed poets, his native humility, modesty and candour, never forsook him, even on surprise or provocation; nor was the least degree of arrogance or assumption visible to the most scrutinizing eye in any part of his conduct or discourse.

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"His talents of every kind-powerful from nature, and not meanly cultivated in letters his social virtues in all the relations and all the habitudes of life, rendered him the centre of a very great and unparalleled variety of agreeable societies, which will be dissipated by his death. He had too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too much innocence to provoke any enmity. The loss of no man of his time can be felt with more sincere, general and unmixed sorrow."

Authorities. Encyclopædia Brittanica, vol xvi. &c.

THE LIFE OF

SOAME JENYNS.

[A. D. 1703-4, to 1787.]

SOAME JENYNS a distinguished English writer, was born in Great Ormond-street, London, in the year 1703-4. Sir Roger Jenyns, his father, was descended from the family of the Jenyns of Churchill, in Somersetshire. The country residence of sir Roger was at Ely, in the isle of the same name, where he turned his attention to such kind of business as rendered him most beneficial to his neighbours, for which amiable deportment in particular