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degrees of the Tropic, they came to the capital of the Boetzuanas, contain. ing about 1500 houfes, and 7000 inhabitants. The name of this city is Likitow. So vatt an affemblage of dwellings, exceeding the number of thofe in Cape Town, with a population equal, if not fuperior, excluding the flaves, makes it more than probable, that the inhabitants have not only attained a very confiderable pitch of civilization, but it implies alfo a more than ordinary degree of industry in the cultivation of the arts and the purfuits of agriculture.

labours of the prefent expedition." Befides a variety, or perhaps a new fpecies, of rhinoceros, no less than four animals of the antelope and bovine genus, hitherto undefcribed, have been difcovered, among which, one is stated to be allied to that fingular animal the Gnoo, and another in fome degree to the Hartebreeft; and the fine arts will be enriched by the pencil of the very able Artist who accompanies the Expedition..

"Notwithstanding the great diftance that the Boetzuanas are removed from the Cape, they complained grievously of certain perfons on the frontiers of the colony committing depredations on their cattle and ill-treating their people. They particularly mention a man of the name of Jan Blom, who, with his gang, had of late years very much infefted them; and they concluded, naturally enough, that all the Colonifts were like Jan Blom; and of course they were at firft guarded and distrustful of the prefent Commiffion; which, however, by a refidence nearly of a month, fufficiently convinced them that all Christians were not of the fame defcription as Jan Blom and his gang.

"Surrounded by a barren country, and bordering to the northward on other tribes of people, remaining in a fixed and fedentary life, and deriving little or no fupport from commerce, we are entirely at a lofs to conceive in what manner they contrive to fubfift fo great a multitude. The details of their political and domeftic economy muft furnith new and highly interefting matter to add to the history of favage nations. It would be equally unaccountable, that in the courfe of 160 years, no correct information of the Boetzuanas fhould have been obtained, if it did not occur to us, that no fingle discovery has been effected, nor any account of the Southern Angle of Africa been made public, except by occafional and foreign visitors. It may be further added, that the country within the limits of the colony has been better known, and more travelled by Europeans or fettlers within the last five years, than in the whole period of its colonization prior to the time we mention. At the capture of the co. lony, no part of the very extenfive diftrict of Graaff Reynet appeared in any of their charts, except Zwart Kop's Bay; nor were there then three men "The natural difpofition of the difin the whole Cape who could point ferent tribes of Hottentots is mild, out, with any degree of accuracy, peaceable, and cheerful; and, by genwhere it was fituated. This dreaded/tle ufage, might be moulded into any journey of a long month is now become familiar, and accomplished by a British Officer, with a couple or three horfes, in fix days.

"With regard to the Boetzuanas, their name, their numbers, their firuation, and resources, were all fallified in the accounts given by thofe who pretended to a knowledge of this na tion.

"The literary world will derive no fmall degree of gratification from the

VOL. XLIII. JAN. 1803.

"Humanity fhudders in contemplating the deplorable fituation to which the bulk of the native inhabitants and rightful owners of this coun try have been reduced, by the arts and machinations of fuch lawless mifcreants as thefe. To fuch are owing the numerous hordes of Bosjefmen, who, driven by imperious want to affail the habitations or the flocks of the colonifts, are hunted down by the latter with more eagerness, and destroyed with lefs remorfe (for their deftruction is the cause of triumph), than the vileft or moft obnoxious beaft of prey.

fhape. The habits of life in which they have been brought up naturally incline them to a fondness of liberty, and render them impatient of confinement and retraint; but they are perhaps, of all the people in the world who have been accustomed to a roving life, the easiest broken in to conftant labour, and reconciled to a fixed abode. As a proof of this, we need only refer to the exertions of the Miffionaries, whofe endeavours in this country have been

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crowned

crowned with better fuccefs than perhaps in any other. Degraded as this people have food in the page of hiftory, and reprefented as they have generally been at the foot of the fcale of rational animals, we are doubtful whe her any nation or tribe of men, falling under the ufual denomination

of Savage, are poffeffed with more natural endowments, or more apt to acquire thofe of art than the Hottentots. We could enumerate various inftances in fupport of this opinion, were it neceffary; but they are now fo well and fo generally known, that luch details are unneceffary."

CRAIGNIOGNOMY.

DIALOGUE ILLUSTRATIVE, BY LUCIAN, JUN.

BOOKSELLER defcends by a Flight of Stairs, and speaks to the SHOPMAN.

Bookfeller. WHAT the devil has been the matter? There was fuch a noife below ftairs, whilft I was at breakfast, that I found it impoffible to get through the first page of Dick Dry's laft political pamphlet. Hey day How came the upper tier of vols thrown from the fhelves, and the lower rows in fuch confufion? Have we had the Stockwell Ghost here? Or have the French and English authors declared war against each other? If fo, in fpite of the Definitive, we fhall have another battle of the books.

Shopman. The carpenters, Sir, repairing the next house, have shook them down. I am fure that ponderous Locke on Human Understanding has almost cracked my fkull.

Book. Then yours is not an Egypt ian cranium, as my worthy friend the Magiftrate obferves. Mercy on us! What a noife thefe fellows make! What a duft they raife! One ought to have the eyes of Little Eagle, the great Critic, to be able to tell one author from another.

Shopm. They have fo totally dif-' placed the books, that Homer now lies under Virgil..

Book Gad, that's the fituation in which fome of the Commentators feem to have wished to place him! What afe thofe vols at bottom? I fuppofe treatifes on the Bathos.

Shopm. No, Sir! They are Def cartes and Gaffendi,

Book. This is like Topfy-turvy, the poem that came out yesterday. I thought they would have mounted to their kindred ftars. Why, you block head, you are mingling Novels and Sermons, Pious Tracts and Plays,

Politics and Philofophy, Morality and Medicine, together, like the contents of a Magazine.

Shopm. Thefe folio vols of controverfy have fo lacerated the Practice of Piety and Whole Duty of Man that they will want binding.

Book So they will, as furely as if they had taken the pills of Dr. Laxative. Send to the fellows, and hid them stop. Put the fhelves in order: lay the papers on the counter. I expec the Loungers directly.

Enter an AUTHOR.

Author. Good morning, my little Decimo Sexto: Any news? Blefs me ! Why your fhop's as dufty as the Knightsbridge Road in fummer. I fee every author in it through the medium of a fog.

Book That's because you are a great Critic. However, my books have been a little deranged this morning. Abundance of works, which I thought nothing could have flirred, an accident has fet flying about my ears. I have been pelted with my own itock,

Author. Then you have felt that there is fome weight in learning.

Books Oh Lord! I have known that a great while I have fold many hundred reams of it by the pound.

Author. None of my works have been wafted?

Book No! I'll be fworn they have all been properly used.

Author. Yes! I think, while I have corrected, I have improved the age.

Book. You know the Critics faid, that you should have been improved in the fame way.

Author. Spiteful dogs! I'll be revenged of them and their works.

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Book Then you mean to praise the latter, I prefume.

Author. Praise their works! Yes! a likely matter! If I do, it fhall be as I do Mr. Laudanum's draughts, for their narcotic properties. Why the latt pamphlet you fent me was as dull as the Blagdon controverfy, which I have yawned through with greater difficulty than I once did the folio about the Brownifts and Muggletonians.

Books. One of our Chriftian Ob. fervers was obferving, that that contained fome pretty writing. I think, from the turn literature has lately taken, we are likely to fee all the wit and humour of the Scotifts and Thomifts, and a hundred other of thofe weighty authors, whofe works, or, as they are more emphatically ftyled, whofe labours, have frequently preffed the British prefs, revived. May the tree of knowledge, which has produced fruit fo large and pleasantly acrimonious, flourish, say I!

Author. I do not know what fruit your metaphorical tree has produced: all I can fay is, that it has had leaves in abundance; but we are as ftupid as if we had taken a nap under its fhade. I wonder where all your diurnal vifitors are this morning? Oh! I think I Spy one.

Book What! that little fellow on the other fide of the way!

Author. The fame.

Book. He's a bit of a wit; he generally paffes my fhop a dozen times every day, and calls it travelling in the Dilly.

Author. Good! But I think you have a customer at last.

Books. What that queer fellow that croffes the way, his pockets stuffed with papers like the poftman's letterbags. I'll be hanged if he's not an Author! Smoke his great coat. Author. Pardon me, it seems to have been pretty well fmoked already.

Books. Step into the back shop; you'll there find abundance of amufement; there's all the new works; and if you have any objection to their quality, I am fure, when you confider the price of paper, you'll praife the liberality of the proprietors with refpect to quantity.

Enter a SECOND AUTHOR.

2d Author. A good morning, dear Sir. I prefume you are Mr. Decimo Sexto?

Book. I am, Sir.

[Bowing.

ad Author. It's fortunate I have met with you, Sir, as I wanted to take your opinion with refpect to a work which is, as I may say, a maiden effufion.

Bookf Which you want married to the Prefs, put into fheets, &c.

2d Author. Though jocular, Mr. Decimo Sexto, you are certainly right ; but as, in the Athenian tyle, I expect a portion on the delivery of the bride

Books Blefs me, Sir! if the bride is fo near delivery, I'll have nothing to do with her.

2d Author. Very well indeed! you are quite a wag, Mr. Sexto: but to be ferious. I fhould be much obliged to you if you would read this work, which is moral, political, and philofophical. Book Moral, political, and philofophical?

2d Author. Yes. I want your opinion, and your terms: therefore, in order that you may form your judg ment, I'll leave it with you to read.

Book. To read! abfurd! that's the old-fashioned way! Perhaps Tonfon, Lintot, or even Johnny Barber, might have read a new work. I have a furer criterion to form my judgment. Take off your hat.

ad Author. My hat!
Books. Yes!

2d Author. I did not know it was neceffary to pay you this mark of refpect in a public fhop.

Book. Refpect! nonfenfe! I want to fee your skull.

2d Author. My skull! Books. Yes Whether it is depreffed or elevated. Is this wig from Cornhill or Bishopsgate ?

2d Auther. Sir,Do you mean to affront me; this is a Bond-treet natural.

Books Well! take it off, however; let me measure your cranium: It seems the futures have never been properly clofed. Gad, I'm afraid to have any thing to do with your work?

2d Author. Why?

Book. I am fearful that some of those volatile thoughts, thofe effusions of fancy, which we call flights, may have evaporated.

2d Author. Impoffible; because I always write in a double night-cap.

Book. Perhaps if your readers were to take the hint it would not be amifs. You know Swift fays, they should

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always, if poffible, place themselves in the fituation of the Author. Well! I fee no great objection to your work from any obfervations I can make upon your skull. Perhaps if the learned Dr. Gall were here, he would say it was too long.

2d Author. Is that an objection ?

Book. I think not: I had rather have a long-headed author than a round bead. I am afraid there are ftill too many of these in this country.

2d Author. Perhaps that's the reafon why you examine the cranium inftead

of the work?

Book Certainly I like to revert to first principles, to fathon the mine before I look at the ore, the type before the figure, the foil before its productions, the

2d Author. This is ingenious! Book. It is; and fo ufeful, that I intend to have all my Authors' heads caft in plaitter, or papier mâchée, or brafs, or models of them, when they are mere nobs, turned in wood, and fet them in the windows as they do the buts in the hair-dreffers' fhops, fo that every paffenger may become a

reviewer.

24 Author. A lucky thought! Book. I fhall carry it till further like Ship, my taylor, I fhall never ftir without a meafure in my pocket. I intend, as the High German Doctor has given the hint, not only to gage the capacity of my Authors' skulls, but the dimenfions of thofe of my cuftomers.

2d Author. But you may affront the latter if you make free with what Hogarth uled to call their idea boxes. Bock. Certainly I thall therefore go another way po work with them. 2d Author. How?

Book. I fhall apply to their hatters and peruke makers; this you know refers to either fex. By the depth of the crown or the caul, I fhall foon be able to judge of the depth of the wearers;

and, by obferving the expence which they beftow upon the outfide of their heads, I fhall not only be able to determine the value they fet upon them, but pretty accurately to conjecture, what kind of works they would deem neceflary to ornament their infide. Whether they delight in botanical writings, which may be deemed flowered paper, fome of which, by-the-bye, is as highly coloured as the fair readers; whether landscapes in black and white pleafes them; whether they would have them adorned with hiftory, maps, fea pieces, domeftic fcenes, love ftories, emblematical figures, reprefentations of the Mufes, the Arts, Scripture pieces, and a hundred other fubjects.

2d Author. Upon my word, Mr. Decimo Sexto, this is a fcience equally new and ingenious. You'll open the doors of your authors' and customers' craniums, and form a chart of the whirlpools, eddies, fhoals, and shallows of their minds.

Book. Yes! I hall foon be able to afcertain the place of every paffion; I fhall, as you obferve, open their fkulls, and fold them up as I do these papers.

2d Author. Blefs me! What are you about, Mr. Sexto? You'll tear my manufcript to tatters.

Book. Adfo! I beg ten thousand pardons; though it would, had it bẹcome a fragment, only have made it the more valuable. What shall I do with it? Put it to the prefs?

ad Author. Pay me for it, and put it where you please.

Book Pay you for it! though I like the structure of your skull, this demands confideration. If you'll call in a few days you shall have an answer: I'm like literature, going backward : You fee I am not one of your costive Critics. You'll excufe me. Good morning." [Exit AUTHOR one way, BookSELLER another.

EXHIBITION AT THE LOUVRE, 1802.

THE hafty prefumption of youthful talents every year fills the apartments with vaft, with gigantic productions, which attract the first notice of the curious, and influence their udgment, to the prejudice of the reft of the exhibition to that the merits

and graces of the fmaller pictures are fcarcely able to correct it.

This reproach attaches to the piece numbered in the catalogue 280 (the Death of Jocafta). The first object that ftrikes the fpectator is dipus standing, exhibiting only the bloody orbits

of

of his eyes that have just been pulled out, a woman with her bofom bathed in blood, a bloody dagger, &c.

:

Hiftorical painting thould elevate the foul, awaken fenfibility, and roufe the noble paffions if it is fometimes allowed to excite even terrific emotions, that fhould be the limit of its efforts; it should never produce horror. A defcription, however terrible it may be, never caufes the fame horror, be. caufe the imagination only fketches fuch an image of it as it can fupport, and this image is vague, and lafts but for a moment. But a picture, which is a physical truth to the eyes, which has a conftant existence, and is capable of renewing the fame fenfation every moment, becomes more infupportable even than the event itself. It is there. fore rendering a fervice to young artists to inform them, that by proceeding in this fallacious track they run the risk of lofing themselves; that this ftyle, which they think fevere, is juft fuch another as that against which they were warned upon entering the threshold of the new fchool; and that those whofe difciples they are, and whom they ftrive to imitate, are careful not to exhibit fuch favage productions. They hould be told, that in adopting the fevere ftyle, the fame feverity fhould enter into the defign of the figures and the compofition of their pictures; that the art is to conceal art; that if fometimes happy groups appear to be the effect of chance, it does not thence follow that figures without grace should be laid on without choice; and that this is not the way to appear fimple and artless. For instance: it is not becaufe Jocasta wants grandeur, and exhibits a hideous neck, which impreffes my mind with all the fatality of the involuntary crime of Edipus; it is not because the two daughters of that unfortunate mother are mere animated fkeletons that they can inspire me with pity; it is not becau. Hierophantes appears like a phantom ring from the tomb that he can excite the holy terror produced by the wrath of the Gods. Young painters fhould continually bear in mind that the enchanting illufion of the most amiable of all the arts is not deftined to create difguft.

The fame cenfure will not apply to M. Grandin (No. 119). The fubject of his piece is happy. Some fhepherds who are difputing the prize of finging have taken a young maiden as umpire.

The pofition of each figure is graceful, the fentiments pure and delicate. But how, with fuch talent, is it poflible not to imagine that colour, harmony, and effect, are likewife constituent parts of painting? How can that painter hope for pardon who not only neglects thofe parts, but appears purposely to neglect them?

What is this picture (No. 207)? Ulyffes commands Altyanax to be forced out of the arms of his mother Andromache. Such is its fubject. Is then David returned to the faloon? But no; here is not the correctness of his defign, the purity of his details, his ftudied compofition. Yet here is the colour of that matter, his touch, his attitudes, even in the very hair of the heads. It is fomething fuperior to imitation.

The Bolognefe fchool is recognized in that bold tyle; but Guido, Leonello Spada, Guercino, Albano, Dominicairo, who compofe, bear no refeinblance to each other, nor to their mafter Annibal Caracci; and thus each of them, independent of the others, was a great painter. The pupils of Baffan, on the contrary, intent only on imitating him, have at length established a manufactory in which Baffan's pieces only are produced. This is what Mad. Monges must be told if the wishes to be treated as an artist. If the steps forward as nothing more than an amiable amateur, we cannot find terms to express our rapture and to lavish our praifes. Nothing is actually more extraordinary than to see a youthful female come forward in the Saloon with a vaft and learned historical production. But the fhould be apprifed that a name, a durable reputation, is not to be acquired without original talent, pecuculiar expreffion and character. Mad. Monges will, I am confident, receive this hint with good humour; it comes from a more fincere admirer than those who overwhelm her with compliments.

It is by the practice of thefe precepts that M. Richard has fuddenly attained the foremost rank by his fingle finall picture (No. 243), Valentina of Milan bewailing her Confort, aflaffinated in 1407 by John Duke of Burgundy. She actually died of grief for his lols.

The unhappy widow is feen feated in a vaft Gothic apartment, facing a window of coloured glass which was in common ufe in thofe times. She has

one

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