“tiline's conspiracy.”—“ That is the vul

gar opinion," faid the other; " but the "statue was, in reality, done for a pea"fant, who discovered the plot into which "the two fons of Junius Brutus entered "for the restoration of Tarquin.” "afk pardon, Sir," faid the young man; "but although one may easily fee that "the figure liftens with the most exqui"fite expreffion of attention, yet I should "think it very difficult to delineate in the "features, whether the liftener heard a

confpiracy, or any thing else which "greatly interested him, and abfolutely "impoffible to mark, by any expreffion "of countenance, what particular con"fpiracy he is hearing." "Your obfer"vation, is just, young man," faid the antiquarian," when applied to modern "artifts, but entirely the reverse when applied to the ancient. Now, for my own part, I plainly perceive in that “man's countenance, and after you have "ftudied thofe matters as profoundly as I

"have done, you will fee the fame, that "it is the confpiracy for the restoration of

Tarquin, and no other plot whatever, "which he liftens to; as for Catiline's "confpiracy, it is not poffible he could "know any thing about it; for, good "God! people ought to reflect, that the man muft have been dead four hundred years before Catiline was born.'

As we are now in the famous octagonal room, called Tribuna, I ought, if I had any thing new to fay, to defcant a little on the diftinguishing excellencies of the Dancing Faun, the Wrestlers, the Venus Urania, the Venus Victrix; and I would moft willingly pay the poor tribute of my praise to that charming figure known by the name of Venus de Medicis. Yet, in the midst of all my admiration, I confefs I do not think her equal to her brother Apollo in the Vatican. In that fublime figure, to the moft perfect features and proportions, is joined an air which feems more than hu

man.

The Medicean Venus is unqueftionably a perfect model of female beauty; but while Apollo appears more than a man, the Venus feems precisely a beautiful wo

man.

In the fame room are many valuable curiofities, befides a collection of admirable pictures by the best mafters. I do not know whether any are more excellent of their kind, but I am convinced none are more attentively confidered than the two Venuses of Titian; one is faid to be a portrait of his wife, the other of his miftrefs. The firft is the finest portrait I ever faw, except the second; of this you have feen many copies: though none of them equals the beauty of the original, yet they will give a jufter idea of it than any defcription of mine could. On the back ground, two women feem searching for fomething in a trunk. This epifode is found much fault with; for my part, I fee no great harm the two poor women do:

none

none but thofe critics who fearch more eagerly after deformity than beauty, will take any notice of them.

Befides the Gallery and Tribuna, the hundredth part of whofe treasures I have not particularifed, there are other rooms, whofe contents are indicated by the names they bear; as, the Cabinet of Arts, of Astronomy, of Natural History, of Medals, of Porcelain, of Antiquities, and the Saloon of the Hermaphrodite, fo called from a ftatue which divides the admiration of the Amateurs with that in the Borghefe villa at Rome. The excellence of the execution is difgraced by the vileness of the fubject. We are furprised how the Greeks and Romans could take pleasure in fuch unnatural figures; in this particular, their tafte feems to have been as depraved, as in general it was elegant and refined. In this room there is a collection of drawings by fome of the greatest masters, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Bb3 Andrea

Andrea del Sarto, and others. There is, in particular, a sketch of the Last Judgment by the firft-named of thefe painters, different, and, in the opinion of fome, defigned with more judgment, than his famous picture on the fame fubject in Sixtus the Fourth's chapel in the Vatican.

The large room, called the Gallery of Portraits, is not the leaft curious in this vaft Mufæum. It contains the portraits, all executed by themfelves, of the most eminent painters who have flourished in Europe during the three laft centuries. They amount to above two hundred; those of Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrandt, and Guido, were formerly the most esteemed two have been added lately, which vie with the finest in this collection-those of Mengs and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The portrait of Raphael feems to have been done when he was young; it is not equal to any of the above. The Electress Dowager of Saxony has made a valuable

addition