stolen what little they know either of the useful or substantial. Next morning, being Sunday, I went ashore, for the purpose of attending the American Missionary service, there being then no English Church. Landing after a heavy fall of rain, the streets presented a degree of filth beyond even the average; and it would not be fair to describe the condition they were in. A quarter of an hour's walk brought us to the Mission House, where, in an upper chamber, "prayer was wont to be made," and the precepts and doctrines of the Gospel faithfully enforced. HEATHS. It is well ascertained that there is not a single heath to be met with throughout the whole of the two Americas. A FASHIONABLE BALLAD. By one of the Beely's. I stood amid the glittering throng; Fiddle de dee, Fiddle de dee! I stood and star'd, and star'd and stood, To have seen me stood, would have done you good, Fiddle de dee, Fiddle de dee! And I stood, and I stood, till the dawn of day. Then I stood amid the throng so gay, IT has always appeared to us that much unnecessary complaint has been made respecting the degeneracy of the Fine Arts in the present age. To laud the divine sculptures of antiquity, to speak in ecstacies of the sublime conceptions of the old masters in painting, of the middle ages, has of late been considered to evidence a taste and refinement unequalled by any qualifications, but those which are exhibited in the contempt and abuse of our own times. To this, we must acknowledge, we are not altogether equal, and can see neither the wisdom nor the charity of placing in invidious competition the productions of men whose styles of execution are so radically different, and whose thoughts and conceptions must necessarily be diversely expressed. To place the works of two masters of the fine arts in juxta-position, and then deduce a comparison between their respective merits, can never be wise, and must be, at all times, unjust. Not that all men are equally excellent, but it should be recollected that there are styles as well as degrees of perfec tion, and that, though he most certainly is the greatest man who can accomplish most in the highest style, yet we are not, on that account, to under-rate the merit of another, whose genius may take a different, though a lower flight. The softness of Raphael, the splendour of Titian, the nature of De Vinci, the force of Angelo, the depth of Rembrandt, are, it is true, each inimitable in their style, and incomparable in beauty; but to these it may be added, that granting the full measure of fame which is due to them, we must not be considered as attempting to depreciate, when we say that time has softened the rudeness of the one, raised the dullness of another, mellowed the colouring of a third, and century by century has confirmed the opinion entertained of the grace and beauty of the whole. To place any in competition with men who have filled the world with their glory, may appear ridiculous and assuming, but we trust that we shall be acquitted of a vain nationality, if, for once, we attempt to vindicate the rights of our countrymen to a high place on the rolls of fame, and look upon Wilkie, Leslie, Newton, Landseer, Danby, Martin, Lawrence, Wilson, Morland, Reynolds, West, Bacon, Nollekens, Westmacott, Flaxman, and Chantrey, as men who shall, hereafter, give laws to their profession, and teach the double enjoyment of nature and her representative. Every day's existence shows us that time throws a colouring over all things, and the slightest observation is unnecessary to prove how much inanimate, as well as animate objects, partake of this change. All that is of art is altered, and though the sparkling river, the smiling landscape, and the towering hill, may see ages pass by, and be still the same; yet not so is it with all that the finger of man has touched. This we cannot but state, and though our opinion may expose us to the sneer of the bigoted connoisseur, we must continue to affirm, it is one, and no very inefficient cause of the sweetened beauty, observed in all paintings by the old masters. The picturesque costume, and peculiar manners of the period, gave them no small advantage; and, though the painters of modern times may glean a lesson in every touch of the efforts of their great prototypes, yet, at the same time, it must be allowed, that the field was, previous to their time, altogether unoccupied, and a merit for originality more easily obtained. Added to this, the glory of the men was the reputation of their country, and kings and princes vied in encouraging their talent, and rewarding its endeavours. With us, albeit the man may enjoy a far famed reputation, it is too frequently unaccompanied by either emolument or honour. We con Another point remains to be touched upon. clude our notice of a subject in which, we confess, we feel a high, and we trust, if such an epithet can be applied, a worthy pride! To the present century we are indebted for the perfection of an art which most happily comes in as an assistant to the other two, and completes the magic number of the Graces. By engraving, the works of the great and glorious are no longer confined to the princely, the noble, and the wealthy, but become distributed, at an accessible rate, to every class of individuals; and, like a noble river, meandering with its fertilizing streams, through a wealthy land, contributes, by its influence, to the expatriation of evil, by the substitution and cultivation of the better principles of our nature. To enumerate the names of those who are the leading magnates of this delightful art, would be only an unnecessary waste of time, for they are familiar to every one; and we trust to add some further interest than they already possess, by giving in a future number a brief history of the art which they have so materially advanced. But it is time that we return more immediately to particulars, and illustrate the cut which stands at the head of our article. We have selected the portrait of Vandyck for our first illustration, because, in the first place, holding an eminent place among those who are termed the old masters, and though a foreigner, he yet owes his celebrity and his fortune to the encouragement he met with in England, and, becoming almost naturalized, he was one of the first to adorn, and by his talents to found a school of painting in England. Most of the productions of his pencil are deposited in Britain, and in almost every mansion some one or other of his productions are carefully preserved. We cannot, therefore, do better than give a brief account of his progress to wealth, respectability, and renown. Sir Anthony Vandyck was born at Antwerp in the year 1599, and early became a disciple of his equally celebrated master, Rubens. One day during their master's absence the pupils were at play in the painting room whilst one of his most famous pictures was on the easel, that which afterwards embellished the high altar in the Augustin church at his native place, when, through an accident, the colour which was still wet was brushed off the breast of one of the figures (St. Sebastian), and after much trepidation, Vandyck was engaged to recolour it, which he did with such truth and correctness, that his fellow criminals were in hope that Rubens himself would not perceive it. But in this they were mistaken, the eye of the master soon detected the flaw, and having discovered the offender, took him into his closet and there pointed out to him the line of conduct he ought to pursue. The result was a journey to Rome, partially at his master's expense. Thence he removed to Venice, where he was soon enabled to acquire the brilliant mellowness and harmony of colouring by which the painters of that school were distinguished, and he returned to Brussels one of the most accomplished artists of his day. The temperament of his phlegmatic countrymen however was but ill calculated to bring out the powers of one comparatively new to his profession, and poverty and its accompanying inconveniences were constantly Vandyck's lot. Little inclined to be satisfied with such a state of things, he determined to try his fortune in England, and he accordingly came hither with but slender means (having borrowed ten pounds of his friend, D. Teneirs), but full of hopes of success. |