The apology was undoubtedly made for the occasion; for there is nothing to distinguish this from any other river god; nor does it answer the purpose so well as the pyramid discernible in perspective. This country must, from this accessory, have been ho other than Egypt, and the river could have been no other than the Nile.

In the annexed discovery of Moses in his cradle of bulrushes, this artist has fallen into a similar error. Notwithstanding he has embellished the scenery by the Sphynx, an embellishment that points to the locality of the transaction as plainly as the pencil is capable of doing, he still preserves his river god which has no tendency whatever, to characterize the river.

In this picture, the eldest daughter of Pharaoh is discovered leaning upon the youngest, and gently extending her hand towards the infant, which is presented by a slave. Moses smiles on the woman who is taking him in her arms. Several men are seen passing the river in a boat at some distance. The perspective is adorned with some temples, acqueducts, and a pyramid is placed adjacent to the ancient city of Memphis. This picture was formerly in the possession of the French monarch.

Poussin's neglect of colouring on one occasion gave to his piece a solemnity, grandeur, and pathos which the most vivid tints were incapable of bestowing. His painting entitled the Deluge is of a dark and gloomy gray, where every object is almost colourless, representing a humid atmosphere that seems to betoken the dissolution of the elements.

He was not always felicitous in the disposition of his groups, a defect ascribable to his passionate attachment to antiques. Of this we have a memorable instance in his death of Sapphira, where the apostle John stands like a statue by the side of Peter, unaffected either by consternation or devotion at the sight of so stupendous a miracle. Professor Fuseli irritated at the spectacle of such monumental insensibility, denominates the saint "a novice of an apostle."

The annexed engraving represents St. John baptizing in the river Jordan. There is a gravity and a mute solemnity that seems to accompany the exertions of the precursor of our Saviour; the attitudes are simple and the figures naturally grouped. The

St John baptizing on the borders of the Jordan.

painter was more attentive to the general effect of his personages, than to preserve delicacy of detail. The surrounding sce nery is executed in a grand style. The picture is about two feet and eleven inches in height, three feet and eleven inches in width. It was painted by Poussin for the chevalier del Pozzo, who exerted all his influence to promote the interest of the painter during his residence at Rome. He was incessant in his endeavours to bring him into notice, and solicited for him the most lucrative engagements. Poussin, as a testimony of his gratitude for such kind services, presented the chevalier with this picture. At his death it passed into the hands of M. Le Notre. Afterwards it adorned the cabinet of the unfortunate Louis XVI.

NOTES OF A DESULTORY READER.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

BEN JONSON thus speaks of the eloquence of lord Bacon: "There happened in my time one noble speaker (lord Verulam) who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more prestly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry or pleased at his devotion. The fear of every one that heard him was, lest he should make an end."

This is certainly high praise; but there has been no time or place perhaps, in which eloquent men have not appeared, upon whom, some of their cotemporaries might not be disposed to pass an equally lofty panegyric. The parliamentary oratory of lord Bolingbroke has been extolled as unrivalled: so, in later times have been the speeches of lords Chatham and Mansfield by their respective friends; and still more recently, those of Burke, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Erskine and Curran.

It seems to be matter of just regret, that we have no method of perpetuating the merit of those, who have excelled in this

captivating art. The genius of the writer is displayed in his works; that of the painter in his pictures; that of the composer of music, in the note book which records the "concords of sweet sounds" of which he has been the eliciter or combiner. But, if even the words of the orator are preserved, his manner, his voice, his tones, his looks, his gestures, are lost to future ages; and the circumstances which constitute the essence of his art, his action, never go down to posterity. Hence it is, that the comparative excellence of Demosthenes and Cicero, and that of the other great names which have been mentioned, cannot be estimated; and for the same reason, no scale can be established, whereby to determine the relative merits of the "well graced actors," of past times with those of the present, or one with the other, of those who have left the scene. Whether, therefore, with due allowance for national manners and tastes, Le Kain and Clairon of the French stage, were superior to Garrick and Siddons of the English; or whether Betterton, the paragon of his day, was superior, or in any degree comparable to Garrick, the paragon of his, must ever remain a mere matter of conjecture, as probably it would be of dispute, were they all alive and marshalled for comparison before the most exquisitely refined audience that ever crowded a theatre.

But it is further to be remarked, that there is a fashion in these things as in all others that are the objects of taste; and that what is called a new school, is nothing more than a new fashion, which puts down an old one. They who will not accede to this, but insist that every innovation is an improvement, are advocates for human perfectibility, or at least for man's continual progression towards perfection-a doctrine, in which, however well disposed to acquiesce in the orthodoxy of new schools, and new modes, and new fashions, I must profess myself a sceptic. Hence, though I might be disposed to believe, that Garrick was a better actor than any of his predecessors, that belief would not be at all founded on the circumstance of his coming after them. This celebrated performer has indeed the credit of correcting some of the acknowledged errors of the English stage, particularly the starch and formal manner of its declamation; and a similar reform, we are told by Marmontel, was, through his suggestion,