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DUTCH AND FLEMISH SCHOOLS.

great value, and allowed him a noble pension, besides paying him munificently for his productions; and upon the wife of Vanderwerf presenting him with a picture drawn by herself, their royal patron presented her husband with six thousand florins, and the lady with a magnificent toilette of silver. What a model of munificence and liberal policy for princes! The pictures of this eminent master are very rare, and bear very high prices. He is principally celebrated for the roundness and relief of his figures; his defect lay in a coldness of colouring. Upon his pictures he labored with unsparing toil, which injured the spirit of his productions.

His brother, Peter Vanderwerf, was born near Rotterdam in 1665, and was the pupil of his brother Adrian. His principal subjects were portraits and conversations, which entitled him to rank as a very able artist, and as a further proof of it, a small picture of his sold, in 1713, for five hundred and fifty guilders; and another, a copy from one of his brother Adrian's, for eight hundred guilders. I did not hear of any living painter at Rotterdam of very distinguished eminence, a circumstance somewhat singular, when it is considered how many fine artists, though inferior to Vanderwerf, that city has produced.

The perfection to which the Dutch and Flemish schools. arrived, proves that great artists may be formed, without.

1

the assistance of great galleries. The present low state of the French school demonstrates, that the most magnificent collection ever known, containing the renowned and exalted specimens of art, and opened to the inspection of every one with a becoming spirit of liberality, cannot form good artists. The St. Jerome of Corregio, and the St. Cecilia of Michael Angelo, have created no successful disciple since their arrival at Paris.

At Dort, or Dordreght, a city of great antiquity, about nine miles from Rotterdam, resides a celebrated artist of the name of Varestage, aged about fifty; he is justly celebrated for his candlelight subjects, which are masterlyone of his works, a school by candlelight, and a number of children, is spoken of as truly exquisite. On account of his eyes growing weak, he has altered his manner, and at present confines himself to large figures, portraits, and

conversations.

As I was informed there was nothing very attractive at Dort, I did not visit that city: it is however famous for having given birth to several able men. John Gerard Vossius studied there in 1577, and wrote a great number of learned works; he was the father of Isaac Vossius, also a man of profound erudition. Our King Charles humor

ously observed of him, alluding to his credulity and infide"that he would believe any thing but the Bible.”

lity,

Adrian Junius was born here in 1511, and was considered to be one of the most profound men of his country, and wrote many learned works. Dr. Johnson observes of Junius, in the preface to his Dictionary," the votaries "of the northern muses will not perhaps easily restrain "their indignation, when they find the name of Junius. thus degraded by a disadvantageous comparison, (alluding to Skinner); but whatever reverence is due to "his diligence, or his. attainments, it can be no criminal degree of censoriousness, to charge that etymologist with "want of judgment, who can seriously derive dream from "drama, because life is a drama, and a drama is a dream."

It would be an inexpiable offence to pass over the name of Albert Kuyp, or Cuyp, who was born here, son of the well known Jacob Gerritze Kuyp, whose pupil he was, and whom he infinitely surpassed. The former excelled in whatever he attempted to represent-the diffusion of his lights is as exquisite as it is natural, and the very times of the day in which he painted are immediately discoverable; the misty haze of the morning, the brilliant lustre of noon, the last blush of evening, and the lunar beam of night from his hands, presented the closest imitations of nature,

ANECDOTE OF COWPER.

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and the utmost powers the art is susceptible of. Most of his subjects were furnished by his native city and the adjacent scenery, particularly his celebrated representation of the cattle-market at Dort, and the square where the troops exercised his works are much sought after, and preserved as great curiosities; and yet, though now so highly prized, they fell into so much disrepute, that not many years since, a large collection of his best pictures sold for eight guineas apiece, so uncertain is the opinion and taste of the public.

"He that depends

"Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,

"And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye

"With every minute you do change a mind,

"And call him noble that was now your hate;
"Him vile that was your garland."

Coriolanus, Act I.

Even our immortal Cowper experienced the severity of popular caprice. So diffidently did he think of his abilities, that he offered his first poems to his publisher, reserving only as a remuneration, a few copies to present to his friends, from an apprehension that his works might produce rather loss than profit. These productions were, on their first appearance, very rudely handled by most of the reviewers, and nearly the whole of the copies lay like so much waste paper for a long time in the bookseller's shop.

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INTERPOSITION OF PROVIDENCE.

Some time afterwards, not wholly discouraged by this mortifying neglect, he presented through the hands of a friend, his manuscript copy of that divine

"The

poem, Task," upon the same terms, the merit of which, dispelled the folly or ignorance of the town, as the rays of the sun pierce through and absorb the mist, and Cowper took high rank amongst the living great men of his century: the fame of " "The Task" brought into light his former discarded productions, and their sale has ever since continued ́ to augment the wealth of his bookseller, the venerable and much respected Johnson.

The following very interesting and extraordinary circumstance occurred at Dort in the year 1785, which is still the frequent narrative of the young and old of that city, who relate it with mingled sensations of awe and delight, as an interposition of Divine Providence in favor of a widow and her family of this city. This woman, who was very industrious, was left by her husband, an eminent carpenter, a comfortable house with some land, and two boats for carrying merchandize and passengers on the canals. She was also supposed to be worth about ten thousand guilders in ready money, which she employed in a hempen and sail-cloth manufactory, for the purpose of increasing her fortune and instructing her children (a son and two daughters) in useful branches of business.