than for the beauty of the composition. Poussin is to painting, what Tacitus is to history.

This insatiable Italy enumerates also among her pupils, two celebrated French artists, who flourished about the same period: Valentin, who, seduced by the sombre, and energetic style of Caravaggio, equalled him in general effect, and surpassed him in the choice of forms:-Claude Lorraine the first of landscape painters, who combines in his pictures the utmost magnificence of scenery with all the charms of brilliant coloring, and who, in his own department, is truly a Raphael.

While the French school was rising under Louis XIV, the schools of Italy were on the decline. That of Lombardy alone sustained its reputation, by means of Guido, and Domenichino, who were still alive. The Flemish school was pursuing another route at the same period, with signal success; and merited almost an equal share of glory with its great rivals.

Rubens had then already exhibited, in his numerous historical pieces, all the riches of coloring, and whatever there is most extraordinary in the powers of the pencil.-Opulent and poetical in his ideas, great in his composition, brilliant in general effect, full of warmth, of sentiment, of animation, and of fire, he astonishes and transports those who contemplate his works. The connoisseur is made to forget, in spite of himself, the want of dignity in his forms, the incongruity of his drapery, and even the incorrectness of his outline. His canvas breathes, and commands admiration.

His school, rich as it was in great painters, produced none who could be compared to him in the line of history. Gaspard de Crayer, and Jordaens, the next in rank to Rubens, followed the same track, and adhered closely to his manner. Many others were but servile imitators. Vandyke, his most celebrated disciple, was eminently successful when he attempted history, but he soon abandoned it in favour of portrait painting, in which he particularly excelled. In this walk, he surpassed all those who had gone before him. Among his contemporaries, Rembrandt alone, enjoyed an equal measure of renown. They reached the same end by opposite paths. Vandyke succeeded, by the use of the simplest means, in exhibiting nature in all her sublime naiveté.-Rembrandt, sombre and energetic in his style, sought after and represented her, in her most striking, bold and extraordinary appearances. He made important improvements in the science of the clair-obscure, and in furnishing new materials to color

ists, is intitled to a share of that glory which redounds to Rubens from the same circumstance.

The taste and manner of these great painters naturally exerted a sensible influence over the pupils of their respective schools. Although they themselves had seen Italy, they were but little affected by the treasures of antiquity which it contains; and on their return to their country, devoted themselves exclusively to the exact imitation of nature, without the omission even of her deformities;-to the charms of coloring and to the triumphs of effect. Their success in these branches of the art, fully justified their choice. Their disciples, who never left their native soil, who had before their eyes none of the great models in style and correctness of outline, and who were, moreover, seduced by the example of their masters, and the inexpressible attraction of coloring and effect, gave themselves up wholly to the simple imitation of nature. No external object seemed to them unworthy of the efforts of their pencil. Under their hands arose what may be termed the comedy and pastoral of painting-Rustic and kitchen scenes, fairs, markets, dances, places of public amusement, mountebanks, camps, fleets, animals, flowers and fruits: whatever, in fine, strikes the eye, was spread upon the canvas. The brilliant coloring of the historical pictures of this school, had previously attracted the admiration of the world; but in these new works, a still more wonderful effect was produced by a more skilful management of light, and shade. They exhibited in perfection, the magic of the clair-obscure; the curious art of throwing light and shade, as well on particular objects as over the body of a picture, in such a manner, that upon a plane superficies, the eye alternately finds points of repose, or expatiates at a distance.

Every thing was employed to captivate the eye; groups or masses of light, the force of contrast produced by obscurity, mezzo-tints, reflections and refractions, varnish, &c. The transparent lights and the dark shadows were made to assist each other, and all the truth, brilliancy and freshness of nature was realized in the copy. A multitude of enchanting works, the offspring of the most exquisite sentiment, and of the most delicate pencil, issued from this school, and afforded an inexhaustible fund of delight to amateurs.-The Bechems, Potters, Teniers, Gerard-Dows, Van-Veldes, Wouvermans, and a host of others, filled Europe with their charming and diversified compositions.

If we now compare these three schools with each other, we may at once understand not only their distinguishing charac

teristics, but the causes of the differences by which they are marked. In Italy, a more rich and magnificent display of nature, a purer sky, the perfect development of the human form, to which the climate is highly favourable, and above all, the treasures of antiquity which are there deposited, naturally tended to give a particular elevation of sentiment to her painters, to inspire them with a finer gusto of design, to qualify them for greater beauty of composition and more nobleness of attitude, and expression.-Such, in fact, are the predominant qualities of this school, although it is certainly not destitute of able colorists. But it is material to remark, that the painters most celebrated for correctness of outline, are those who have most neglected coloring; while on the contrary, such as have devoted themselves to the latter, the Venetians for example, are without style, and by no means skilful in design. It would appear, indeed, as if these two branches of the art could not be practised in perfection at the same time, and that the one must lose, in proportion as the other gains.-Raphael himself sketches with less purity, in those of his pictures in which he has aimed at coloring.

The taste of the Flemish school is a mere imitation of nature without discrimination, or any attention to the models of antiquity. Brilliancy of coloring, an unison and harmony of effect truly magical, the utmost precision, and the most exquisite delicacy of touch,-such are the leading accomplishments of this school. Its drawing is generally heavy, is oftentimes incorrect, particularly in historical pieces, and totally devoid of dignity. The Flemish painters have carried their love of imitation so far, as to paint even the defects of nature.

It may be said that the French taste, more elevated than that of Flanders, less elegant than the Italian, holds a middle. rank between these two schools. The French painters were sensible that nature should not be copied with all her imperfections, but being at too great a distance from the remains of antiquity to fashion and improve her after these chaste and sublime models, they substituted in lieu of exact imitation, a formal, systematic design, which had nothing of real éclat, and soon destroyed the school. Le Brun, who, in his time, passed for the greatest painter of his country, contributed materially to the adoption of this false and tinsel manner. Le Sueur, who enjoyed much less celebrity, but who, in fact, was intitled to much more, had no imitators, and continued to stand alone in his devotion to the true principles of the art.

The Italian school, which suffered a regular and unremitting decline, from the end of the seventeenth century, was

totally extinguished in the course of the eighteenth.-Carlo Maratti, and Ricci were the last painters of any note. We should not, however, omit to mention Raphael Mengs, who came after them, and who, although a German by birth, pursued his studies, and acquired his fame in Italy. This painter, who was but a cold and jejune imitator of antiquity, and not among the most judicious of his class, experienced a fate somewhat different from that of the multitude of great genuises, who have been persecuted during their lives, and deified after their deaths. He enjoyed, while living, a brilliant reputation, and was compared to whatever is most renowned in the history of painting. Posterity has passed a different judgment on his merits, and degraded him to the humble station of an inferior artist.

The Flemish school which flourished so prosperously, while that of Italy was on the decline, expired, however, suddenly, about the same time with the latter. The Flemish masters left not a single disciple capable of sustaining the reputation of their school. Their successors were but servile imitators in all the processes of the art, and confined themselves exclusively to the task of copying the pictures of those great painters, who themselves copied only from nature.

The state of political misery and weakness into which Italy fell by regular degrees, accounts satisfactorily for the decline of her school. But another concurrent cause may be assigned, which, being less obvious, has not, perhaps, been hitherto remarked, and which was equally operative in the case of the Flemish school. We mean the abundance of chefs-d'œuvre produced by their great masters, whose genius was, for the most part, no less fertile than powerful. This prodigality of treasure created a certain fastidiqusness of taste; modern painters found the world of amateurs more difficult to please; they were exposed to severer criticism, and left to languish in neglect: and genius, thus unassisted either by encouragement or recompense, was suffered to expire before it could be cultivated or developed.

VOL. I.

3 B

The following letter which bears date in the year 1731, is published from an original in the handwriting of JAMES LOGAN, whose name is so conspicuous in the early annals of Pennsylvania, and who filled for a long time the highest offices of state, under the proprietary government. It was conveyed into our hands by his very respectable descendent now resident in the neighbourhood of this city, with a permission to lay it before the public, if we should think fit to do so. We readily avail ourselves of this license, because we consider the letter of his distinguished ancestor as an historical document well worthy of preservation, and as bearing in some passages, a curious analogy to the present circumstances of our country. We have made no alterations in the phraseology. It appears to have been addressed to some friend in England, but is without a superscription.

"DEAR FRIEND,

"In the close of my letter, covering this, I briefly touched on a subject, which I take to be of such vast importance to the whole kingdom of Great Britain, that in hopes it may fall in thy way to move it to some persons to whom it may properly belong to consider it, I shall here speak to it more fully; and I assure thee, the present dispute between the Sugar Islands and this continent is no part of my inducement, for both are equally affected in this. But it is solely owing to a long train of my own reflections, heightened exceedingly last summer, by the apprehensions there were in May last, of a rupture with France and Spain. It is, however, from the first of these alone that the danger is threatened."

"The French have ever since the peace of Utrecht, applied themselves, with the utmost care, and diligence to increase their strength in America, both in the West Indies, and on the continent. In the first of these by possessing themselves of the better part of Hispaniola, they have a much larger extent of ground, than the English; they are much more numerous in their white people (as distinguished from negroes;) they are more frugal, sober, and industrious, and incomparably better disciplined, nor do they less exceed in their fortifications, which they constantly keep in the same good order, as those are on their frontiers of Europe: this with their martial exercises, being generally the ambition of their government, as well as the principal of their instructions from court. While on the British side, in all these points they are directly the reverse. The planters finding white servants much more chargeable than the black, will scarce keep any but the latter, so that in Barbadoes (and in others it is too much the same) they have not one third of the number of whites on that Island, that they had even about the year 1660. Their forts are generally neglected, and in no condition of defence, their works, and walls ruinous, their guns dismounted, and as their governors come