a very powerful effect was given to the statue, which had been turned with its back to the spectator, and thus presented a vast mass of shadow, defined only by its grand outline and the strength of the light beyond it; the source of which was concealed by the pedestal. Its appearance being singularly striking, in the course of the evening, Mr. Fuseli was taken down to Sir Thomas Lawrence attended him, and for a few moments was disappointed by the silence of his friend; but on a servant bringing a light into the entrance-room, he perceived Fuseli excited even to tears, as he exclaimed with deep tremulous energy, "No man shall persuade me, that these emotions which I now feel are not immortal."

In farther corroboration of his opinions on this point, I may give the following conversation which I heard. Fuseli was maintaining the immortality of the soul; a gentleman present said, "I could make you or any man of sense disbelieve this in half an hour's conversation." Fuseli immediately answered, “That I am sure you could not, and I will take care you shan't."

Being pressed one day by his friend, the Reverend John Hewlett, upon his belief in the resurrection of Christ, that gentleman informs me, he answered, "I believe in a resur

rection; and the resurrection of Christ is as well authenticated as any other historical fact." Although he was averse to religious controversy, and seldom entered into it, yet, if his forbearance made others press the subject, he soon shewed that he was not ignorant of the respective merits of the polemics in the Christian Church, who have in all times broached and supported contrary opinions upon disputed points. He has more than once said to me, "There are now no real Christians, for the religion of Christ died with its great Author; for where do we witness in those who bear his name, the humility, self-abasement, and charity of their master, which qualities he not only taught, but practised ?"

A detection of parallel passages in authors, or of similar figures in the pictures of painters, was a favourite amusement of Fuseli's, and he would sometimes indulge in these to the gratification and instruction of the company by the hour together, for no man was more acute in discovering plagiarism. I have been indulged by the kindness of a lady of great literary attainments with the following letter, which will give some notion of his power in this respect, as far as literature is concerned.

"Norbury Park.

"SOME one, who had a right to write what he liked, even nonsense; -Tiberius, I believe, began a letter to the Roman senate thus: Conscript Fathers, you expect a letter from me; but may all the gods and goddesses confound me, if I know on what to write, how to begin, how to go on, or what to leave out :' his perplexity arose certainly from a cause very different from that which occasions mine, though the result appears to be nearly the same. Had I brought my eyes and mind with me, I might perhaps offer some tolerable observations on the charms that surround me, to one who is all eye and all mind; but she who is really possessed by one great object, is blind to all others; and though Milton could never have been the poet of 'Paradise Lost,' had he been born blind, blindness was of service to him when he composed it.

66

When I saw you last, you wished me to point out the passage in Tasso, which appeared to me copied from the Homeric description of the Cestus of Venus, in the Fourteenth Book of the Ilias; I have transcribed it from one which I found here in the library :--

"Teneri sdegni, e placide e tranquille
Repulse, cari vezzi, e liete paci,

Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille

Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci :
Fuse tai cose tutte, e poscia unille,

Ed al foco temprò di lente faci ;

E ne formò quel sì mirabil cinto,

Di ch' ella aveva il bel fianco succincto.'

"These ingredients have been tried, they have been tasted, they are the fruits of a lover's paradise; yet, here they are nothing but an empty catalogue; and if they have a charm, it lies in the melting genius of the language: compare them with the following lines from the Vision of Arthur, in Spenser.

"Caresses sweet, and lovely blandishment,

She to me made, and bade me love her dear,
For dearly sure her love to me was bent,
As when meet time approached, should appear;
But whether dreams delude, or true it were,
Was never heart so ravished with delight.

"When I awoke and found her place devoid,
And nought but pressed grass, where she had lyen,
I sorrowed as much as erst I joyed,

And washed all the place with watery eyn;
From that day forth I cast in careful mind,
To seek her out-

"Thus, as he spoke, his visage waxed pale.

Here is soul, action, passion.

"Adieu,

"HENRY FUSELI."

CHAPTER XV.

Character of Fuseli as an Artist. His early style. -His ardent pursuit of excellence in design. His neglect of mechanical means, particularly as regards Colours.-His professional independence, unmixed with obstinacy.-His preeminent faculty of invention, and success in the portraiture of the ideal.-His deficiencies as to correctness, and disinclination to laborious finish. - Causes of his limited popularity as a Painter.-His felicity in Likenesses. His colour and chiar' oscuro.-His qualities as a Teacher of the Fine Arts.-His ardent love of Art.-Arrangements as to the disposal of his Works, &c.-List of his Subjects exhibited at the Royal Academy, from 1774

to 1825.

It now remains to speak of Fuseli as an artist, and on this subject it is not necessary to be very diffuse, having been favoured with the able article, to be found in the Appendix, from the pen of William Young Ottley, Esq., a gentleman who was for many years the intimate friend of Fuseli, whose talents as an amateur artist, whose knowledge, taste, and judgment in the Fine Arts are so eminently conspicuous, and whose claims to distinction are so well known to the public by his various works.