XVI.

The following is simply and unaffectedly good.

"There is no denying that these 'old masters' had a something in them which we, of the present time, may in vain hope to imitate. But we can, if we please, do what is perhaps almost as good a thing: we can duly admire and appreciate their exquisite works.”

XVII.

He is always great in describing gentlemen's places. Take the following about Knowle Park

Immediately you pass the lodges, there rises before you, at a distance of about a hundred yards, a noble mass of foliage, consisting of oaks, beeches, and chesnut trees, finely blended and contrasted together in point of shade and colour, but wearing the appearance of a solid impenetrable body, rising like a green wall, to shut out all intruders from the imaginary scene beyond. The bright gravel road,-which intersects the rich turf between this mass of trees and the spot where you enter the park, -branches into two, just as it reaches the trees, and pierces into the thick of them in opposite directions.”

XVIII.

"The face of Silenus I will compare, for the quantity of expression it includes, to that of the child in Wilkie's Cut Finger.' With the exception of that, I have seen no expression which so o'er-informs its tenement of clay.' The flesh seems literally melting away with the meaning that is flowing in upon it, and is ready to burst with overmuch excitement."

XIX.

The following is clear and philosophical:

"I should say, of the Apollo Belvidere and the Venus de' Medici, that the former is the finest work in the world, as it respects the art and the spectator, and the latter the finest as it respects the artist-that the former is calculated to do most good in the world now it is produced, and is therefore the most valuable; but that the lat ter required, not only greater natural genius in the artist who produced it, but greater knowledge, taste, and practical skill."

XX.

"The next room is 'Lady Betty Germain's Bed-room.' The very names of these places, even without the sight of them, carry one back half a dozen generations. This room, and The Spangled Bed-room,' which follows, contain nothing worthy of remark, except some curious old faded tapestry, and a noble ebony wardrobe, that seems to tell of fine old silk dresses that,

The visitors of Dulwich College are thus admonished :

"Let them, as they pursue the gracefully winding and picturesque road that leads to the village, watch (through the unclothed hedge-rows) the various changes in the prospect on either hand-which they cannot do in summer, and which would scarcely look more lovely if they could ;let them listen to the low call of the robinredbreast, as he flits pertly from the roadside at their approach, or sings wildly sweet as he perches himself on the topmost twig of YONDER THORN, that has been suffered to outgrow the rest of the close-cut hedge; -FINALLY, let them, as they arrive at and are about to enter the Gallery, turn to the little upland that faces it at a short distance, heaving its green bosom into a gentle sweep, and looking as bright and happy beneath the winter sun as it does beneath the sum

mer!

"The reader must not think that I am heedlessly calling upon him to attend to these objects of external nature, instead of leading him at once to those of which we are more immediately in search. I have purposely asked him to fix the former on his memory, and to yield himself for a moment to their influence exclusively, in order that, by a pleasing and not abrupt contrast, he may be the better prepared to appreciate the blush, the bloom, the burning glow of beauty that will fall upon his senses from the rich summer of Art that greets him on his entrance to this exquisite Gal lery: for whatever season may obtain without, within these walls a perpetual summer reigns, and diffuses its sweet influence through all that come, in virtue of those exquisite works of the Flemish landscapepainters which form the staple of this collection."

XXII.

Apropos to a picture of Peg Woffington, we have the following very fine burst of wisdom :

"If the lady before us-(for a lady she was one of Nature's own making)—if she chose to fling away the gem of her beauty, did that destroy its value ?-or was it the less a gem ?-Diamonds have been lost in the dirt of London streets; and they have been found there again, diamonds as they were lost!"

XXIII.

The volume concludes with this piece of idiocy and impertinence :

"In Garrick's face, fine as it is, there is no characteristic expression whatever

FEW subjects have received less care ful and minute examination, and, consequently, are less thoroughly understood and appreciated, than the vast and rapid progress of this nation in everything connected with the improvement of its inhabitants; and yet what subject can be more important, or contain within itself the sources of greater interest? Our ignorance with regard to the nature and extent of them, ought not, however, to be set down to apathy; it arises from different causes. Our advances in the comforts and luxuries of life, in national wealth and power, in every species of knowledge, and in literary habits and acquirements, have been so gradual, though rapid, that we are as little sensible of them, as a person who is constantly with a child, is of his increasing height; or, perhaps, a more closely fitting comparison would be, that of a person in the cabin of a ship, who, carried along with her, is quite insensible and unaware of the progress she is making. Such a person, however, has an advantage over the inhabitants of a country advancing rapidly in improvement; for he, as soon as he goes upon deck, perceives that he has been carried forward; whereas, the whole state of things, as it existed half a century ago, being forced out of existence by modern improvements, there is no immediate and palpable standard by which we can compare our present with our by-gone condition.

Of this we shall be sensible, if we endeavour to contrast the domestic economy and habits of our immediate ancestors with our own; the roads and vehicles for conveying passengers and goods, with which they were obliged to content themselves, with the rapid and pleasant mode of intercommunication among all parts of the kingdom which we possess; and, above all, if we endeavour to obtain the means of such a comparison between the present results of human industry, aided as they are by the gigantic powers of ma

Wits' Commonwealth.

chinery, and the scarcely less extraor dinary power which chemistry has given to man over the most minute and elementary operations and changes of matter, and the rude, feeble, and unsteady industry of our ancestors.

In one point, however, and to that we mean to confine ourselves, the case is considerably different; we mean the literary habits, acquirements, and taste of the present day, as contrasted with those which distinguished this country half a century ago. We do not allude here principally or exclusively to what is called information, though there are documents and proofs sufficient in existence, and easily obtained and appealed to, which would mark and measure with considerable exactness the progress that has been made in science and general information during the period we have mentioned.

Our allusion and object, however, is more definite and confined. We mean to maintain that in intellect, properly so called, (that is, in the structure and workings of the human mind, as they are exhibited in its reasoning powers, in its imagination and invention, in its taste, as well as in its mode of expressing them,) the standard is much higher than it was half a century ago; and that this position admits of more indubitable and direct proof and illustration, by an appeal to obvious and conducive facts, than any other position relative to the progress of this country.

To appeal to a most easy and simple proof, let any person compare the columns of a newspaper fifty years old with the columns of one published at present, and he will be immediately and strongly struck with the vast superiority of the latter with respect to the power of thought, and correctness of taste, it displays; and not less so with the much superior correctness, elegance, and vigour of its style.

Let him next take up any of the magazines that were published half a century ago, he will be soon wearied

and uninterested with the commonplace topics with which they abound, with the feeble and common-place manner in which these topics are treated, and with the bareness, if not the vulgarity, of the style. He will immediately decide that the authors of such papers must either have possess ed very little power of mind original ly, or that they could never have improved it by exercise; and he will not hesitate a moment to draw this conclusion, that the public, which could encourage, which could even endure, such publications, must have been far behind the public of the present day in strength and comprehension of intellect, as well as in correctness and purity of taste, and in the knowledge of the structure, the powers, and the graces of their own language.

Occasionally, however, it must be confessed, there appeared in the periodical publications of the period to which we allude, essays that displayed a vigour and reach of thought rising far above the level of the mass of the contributions; but the rareness of these essays only proves the paucity of the readers, who were able and disposed to peruse and understand them. Not only does the supply of every article, whether it be the production of the soil, of the forge, of the loom, or of the intellect, adapt itself in less time than would seem possible, with most admirable precision and fitting, to the exact demand for it; but the nature and particular quality of the article supplied, follows invariably the fancy and the ability of those who are able and willing to pay for it. This remark applies to all articles; and we can as surely and safely pronounce, that the intellect of the public generally is feeble, and its taste puerile and incorrect, when we see it supplied with commonplace essays in the principal periodical works, written in a bald and schoolboy style, as we can pronounce that a nation is little advanced in civilization and wealth, when we perceive the products of its industry not only few, but awkward, rude, and imperfect.

The parallel may be carried still farther. If, amidst the rude, awkward, and imperfect products of a nation's industry, we perceive some few that in dicate greater skill and science, we may be assured that these would not have been produced unless there had existed a demand for them; but we may

at the same time rest satisfied, that this demand is very limited, and that those who are both able and disposed to make it, are very few, compared with the great mass of the nation.

So it is with regard to periodical publications; they are a surer index of the state and progress of the mind, than works of a higher character. As, by throwing up a straw, we can easily and at once perceive the direction, as well as the strength, of the wind; whereas we may often be left in ignorance, or even be deceived, if we endeavour to ascertain them by throwing up a heavier object; so the force as well as the direction of the public mind may be measured and ascertained by periodical publications, more certainly, as well as more easily, than by any other mode.

There is still another point of view in which this subject may be regarded. We have hitherto confined our remarks to the comparative nature and quality, in respect to matter and style, of the periodical publications of the present day, and of those which existed half a century ago; and from this comparison we have drawn the sure inference that the public mind and taste have advanced very much within that period. But the periodical publications of the present day, besides having wonderfully improved in the quality of their contents, rise above their predecessors in as wonderful a degree, in their variety and numbers, as well as in the extent of their respective sales.

Fifty years since, readers of such works were content with one or two in a month; the number at present published weekly, monthly, and quarterly, we shall not stop to calculate, even if we possessed the means for accurate and complete enumeration. Their vast increase, and the constant additions which are almost daily making to their number, are too notorious to require proof or illustration. Another point of comparison, however, though equally important and decisive of the truth of our position, not being so obvious and palpable, requires some elucidation. If we may judge from the contents of the periodical publications half a century ago, their readers must have consisted of persons to whom an essay on some common-place topic, such as anger, pride, the shortness and vanity of human life, or those of a

similar nature, with just as much infusion of intellect as was necessary to give the symptoms of vitality to the words, and this essay written in a most loose, feeble, and incorrect style, quite on a par, however, with the thoughts-was a high treat, as being exactly on a level with their intellects, and adapted to their comprehension and taste. Even if we turn to the papers on any other topics, the solution of which would seem to imply a consciousness of intellectual power, we shall find them equally tame, feeble, and common-place in their thoughts, and bare, inelegant, and incorrect in their style. It may, however, be alleged, that, at this period, only very common-place authors wrote for periodical works; but this plea will not avail; for, allowing such to have been the case, does it not prove that the intellect of the mass of readers was also common-place; for the mass of readers then, as now, though not nearly so numerous, principally engaged themselves in reading periodical works.

Besides, in what work, however low its literary character, can we, at this day, find essays so feeble and destitute of thought, as those which filled the pages of all the periodical works half a century ago? Is not then another inference plain and undoubted ;that the level of mental habits and acquirements the level of intellectual power, both in writers and in readers, has risen very considerably within the stated period?

We are by no means unaware that in the periodical works of our immediate ancestors, there appeared, occasionally, essays which required and displayed considerable range and depth of thought, or a clear and familiar insight into the workings of the human heart, or a cultivated and refined taste-; and that these essays were written in a perspicuous, correct, vigorous, and, it may be, an elegant, or even eloquent style. But such were very rare, and it puzzles us extremely to conjecture, how a magazine, filled as it usually was, by common-place papers, could be endured by those readers who were able to comprehend and relish such essays.

We have already stated, that in comparing the intellectual character of the present day with that of our immediate ancestors, we did not mean to enter on the investigation, except so far as it related to literature-not that

literature which consists in a knowledge of the classics-but that, which, as contradistinguished from science, is conversant about man, his intellectual and moral constitution-his duties, feelings, and character: from the nature of the papers, however, on other topics, we may draw inferences regarding our immediate subject. If we peruse such papers as relate to facts, or conclusions deduced from those facts, we are immediately struck with the ignorance and credulity which the former display, and the unsoundness of the inferences drawn, even when the facts are accurate and appropriate. How many superstitious, how many absurd things were believed then, to which, at present, even the lowest and least informed of the populace would not give credit? We do not exclusively allude to such things as could not be known to be true or false, without more observation or investigation than men in general have inclination or leisure to give but to such as, in the very statement of them, would, at the present day, be perceived to involve or suppose something extremely absurd and improbable.

In the attempts at reasoning from the facts, there appears an equal inaptitude to attain and distinguish the truth. Instances of almost every species of false logic may be found; either authority alone supplies the place of argument; or the whole question is taken for granted; or the position to be proved, is first made the basis of the principle or argument on which afterwards the proof is more exclusively to rest; or we have the mere semblance of logical arrangement and proof; everything, in short, set down and conducted according to the most legitimate and popular system, of what was called logic in those days, and then the inference drawn in terms and manner equally agreeable to the rules of this logic. But as, when we examine the best written papers in the periodical works of this period, we most frequently find an excessive paucity and feebleness of thought, concealed under a flowing and interesting style; so, when we examine those papers which profess to argue on any subject, we find merely the skeleton-the dry bones of logic, destitute utterly of vitality.

No one can take up a periodical work of the period to which we refer, and