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chants are resident in this capital, or
resort to it. These lanes, or passages,
for the security of their property, are
closed every night, at both ends, with
thick doors, plated with iron, and filled
with nails; so that though the town be
unfortined, it would prove a work of
soing difficulty to penetrate into its in-
terior parts.
From the upper stories of
many opposite houses, communications
are made by small bridges.

Benares is the principal mart for diaIt monds, on the eastern side of India. possesses also a manufactory of gold and silver tissue, atlass, silks, and gauzes, Leemcaub, mushroo, and gulbuddun.

Like other places of fanatic or superstitious enthusiasm, it is notorious for unrestricted gallantry, and licentious in trigue.

From hence to Dehly, the women above the vulgar class, are generally personable, many eminently beautiful, and few deformed. Neither France nor Italy can boast of courtezans more expertly skilled in the cosmetic art, or in decoying allurements to captivate, to influence, to fascinate, and to fleece, their para

mours.

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For the Monthly Magazine.
ANECDOTES of PAINTING.
ORACE Walpole, whose literary

painting, may have suggested to the
Abbe's Du Bos and Winkelmann their
absurd notion, that the influence of a
northern or cold climate is unpropi-
tious to the efforts of genius; an absur-
dity, which, both in his paintings and his
writings, has been ably refuted by the
late Professor Barry."

Previous to the formation of the Royal
Academy, there existed a society of
painters, who held their academy in St.
Martin's lane, and who were denomi-
nated "The Incorporated Society of
Artists." But as they had neither pa-
tent, exclusive privileges, nor the sanc-
tion of royal authority, they could be
considered, in fact, no better than a mere
club of painters. In this society, which
was rather numerous, there were some
good, and many inferior artists, a selec-
tion from whom, with the addition of
Bartolozzi, Cipriani, and some other
foreigners, formed the first body of Royal
Academicians and Associates of the
Royal Academy of Arts.

The institution of the Royal Academy, under the auspices of our present most gracious Sovereign, may be hailed as the dawn of that happy era, which brightens as it advances, and which, we may fairly predict, will sied à lasting lustre on our national character, and class the efforts of British artists with those rare pro

deservedly worn the civilized

has already given the world, "Anecdotes of Painting in England." This, however, should be no motive why the subject should not be taken up by another, particularly as Walpole may be said to have ended when the Fine Arts began to flourish in this country, namely, at the establishment of the Royal Aca.demy.

The reigns of the two first Georges, may be considered the Gothic night of the Arts in England; for those monarchs, whatever may have been their virtues, had no taste: and it was not till the auspicious period commencing with the present reign, that Painting may be said to have reared her head in the British

nation.

In former periods, the artists of any celebrity who resided amongst us, were generally foreigners: such were Torigiano, Anthony More, Hans Holbein, Rubens, Vandyke, Lely, Verrio, &c. &c. and except Dobson, Isaac Oliver, and Cooper, who gave some indications of genius, we had very little cause for exultation on the score of native talent. This dearth of excellence amongst us in

world.

I cannot introduce, in more appro
priate language, the commencement of
this brilliant period than by adopting a
couplet from Dr. Johnson's motto to
the Works of our immortal Bard:
"When Painting's triumph o'er her barbarous
foes

First rear'd the arts, immortal Reynolds

rose."

It was a fortunate circumstance for the arts, that the Royal Academy should have had for its first president a man of such classic taste, and consummate skill, as Sir Joshua Reynolds; a man, whose whole mind seemed devoted to the higher excellencies of his profession, and whose great ambition was to tread upon the Greek and Roman names, whose practical excellence, and theoretic know

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Jedge, went hand in hand, and whose zeal and patriotisin peculiarly calculated hing for, the high and honourable office to which he was elected. The endow. ments of Sir Joshua were such as fall to the lot of few individuals; and except in the single instance of Rubens, painting could never before perhaps boast of so accomplished a professor. He was profound scholar, a finished artist, and a polished gentleman.”

a

With such a man at its head, it was natural to expect that the Royal Academy of London would at least have kept pace with the other seminaries of painting then existing; but it did more: it soon surpassed them.

Hogarth, who was hostile to this institution, predicted, that the establishment of a school of painting, to which there was such easy access, would be winous to the profession; as painters would then be as numerous as mechanics, and print-shops as plenty as porterhouses. It is needless to inform the reader of the total failure of Hogarth's prediction, and that the arts, instead of being ruined, have risen to a degree of mportance, and the professors to a height of respectability, which, in their most sanguine moments, they could never have hoped to attain.

Although the advantages of the Royal Academy, may be sufficiently obvious; get it may not be amiss to inform the general reader, in what its superiority to all former institutions in this country more particularly consists. First then, the academic body is composed of sixty artists, who are chosen from among the annual exhibitors, most distinguished for their superior merit. These members are divided into two classes; Academicians, and Associates: the Academicians, of whom there are forty, form the higher class, and the Associates, of whom there are twenty, the inferior. The first advance to academic honors, is that of being elected an Associate; and the next, or higher, that of Royal Academician. The Associates, as before related, are selected from the mass of exhibitors; and when a vacancy occurs in the higher class, it is filled up by an election from the Associates. The government of the Royal Academy is wholly vested in the Academicians,

Leonardo da Vinci was certainly a very learned painter: but his theory surpassed his practice; his science was greater than his execution.

from whom eight members are chosen, who form a council, and who may be considered the executive government. The members of this council are annually elected, or rather come in by rotation, from the Academic body. The Associates derive neither advantage nor eclat from their immediate situation; save only their standing in that gradation, which is the next step to the rank of Royal Academician, and being coinplimented with a diploma, and a ticket for the dinner, or annual gala, given at Somerset Place, previous to the opening of the exhibition. But they have neither vote at its elections, voice in its councils, nor any influence whatever in the internal regulations of the Royal Academy.

The president, professors, and different officers of the Royal Academy, are chosen from among the Royal Academicians, who all, except the president, have salaries annexed to their appointments. The professors are those of painting, perspective, architecture, and anatomy, who each deliver six annual lectures in their several departments, to the students of the Royal Academy.

Besides those professors, there are other officers attached to this establishment, such as the "keepers or master of the drawing-school, the secretary, auditors, secretary for foreign correspondence, &c."

There are also a number of inferior officers, servants, porters, &c. on this grand national establishment; the whole expenses of which are defrayed out of those funds accumulated from the annual exhibitions. Those exhibitions of late years have been eminently productive; and instead of "gaining two thousand pounds 3-year from shillings," they often now net four thousand pounds.

Having gone thus far into the constitution of the Royal Academy, it may not be amiss to point out the various advantages which the students in painting derive from being admitted into this Temple of the Muses.

The first and most obvious advantage arising to the student of the Royal Academy, is the access to so extensive and grand a collection of Casts from the Antique, (many of which are no wise inferior to the originals,) which in any other than a national institution must be unattainable. He has also the advantage of studying from the living models; of lectures on painting, perspective, ana

Peter Pindar.

tomy,

tomy, and architecture; and of triennial discourses, delivered by the president; all of which lectures, discourses, &c. contain an ample and impressive theory of his profession. Besides all this, the student has free access, at stated periods, to a vast and luminous library, containing every thing that has been written on the art, of which he is at full liberty to avail himself; besides an extensive range of port-folios, filled with the choicest prints, In after the most celebrated masters. dependent of all this, the student who is so fortunate as to receive the gold me dal (which is given every three years) for the best historical composition, is sent to Rome for three years, at the expense of the Academy, with an allowance of a hundred pounds per annum.

When it is considered that the student of the Royal Academy has all the above advantages, free of expense, and that except in such an academy he could not possibly have those advantages, we vibrate between astonishment and contempt at Hogarth's presumption, in predicting, that the "establishment of the Royal Academy would be ruinous to the arts."

(To be continued.)

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

I

SIE,

INCLOSE to you an extract from the Travels of Peter della Valle, into the East Indies, by which it will appear that the method of instruction introduced by Dr. Bell, Madras, and some

to spend paper in vain,) with his finger
on the ground, the pavement being for
that purpose strewed all over with very
fine sand; after the first had writ what he
sung, all the rest sung and writ down the
same thing together. Then the first boy
sung and writ down another part of the
lesson, as for example: "Two by itself
make two," which all the rest repeated in
the same manner; and so forward in
order: when the pavement was full of
figures, they put them out with the hand;
and, if need were, strewed it with new
sand from a little heap which they had
before them, wherewith to write further:
and thus they did as long as the exercise
continued; in which manner likewise
they told me they learnt to read and
write without spoiling paper, pens, or iuk,
I asked
which certainly is a pretty way.
them, if they happened to forget, or be
mistaken in any part of the lesson, who
corrected and taught them, they being all
scholars without the assistance of any
master; they answered me, and said
true, that it was not possible for all four
of them to forget or mistake in the same
part, and that they thus exercised toge
ther to the end, that if one happened to
be out, the others might correct him:
indeed a pretty easy and secure way of
Your's, &c.
learning."

On

D. R.

For the Monthly Magazine. PERFECTING the SCALE of KEYED

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

LLOW me to request of your cor

times attributed as an iuris, on to Mr. A respondent, Capel Lofft, a cour

Lancaster, was in common practice two centuries ago, upon the coast of Malabar.

In a letter from Ikkerie, dated November 22, 1623, he says:

"In the mean time, while the burthens were getting in order, I entertained my self in the porch of the temple, (at Gavarada Naghar, not far from Onor,) beholding little boys learning arithmetic, after a strange manner, which I will here relate. They were four, and having all taken the same lesson from the master, to get that same by heart, and repeat likewise their former lessons, and not forget them, one of them singing musically with a certain continued tone, (which hath the force of making a deep impression in the memory,) recited part of the lesson, as for example, one by itself makes one; and whilst he was thus speaking he writ down the same number, not with any kind of pen, nor on paper, but, (not

3

plete development of his plan for in proving the tune of keyed instruments, such as the piano-forte, organ, &c.

From the incomplete account of it which he has given, in Number 191 of your valuable Magazine, it appears to consist, principally, in a new arrangement and division of the keys, or touches; for, by "semi-tones, a quarter of an inch shorter than at present," I suppose he means the keys of those instruments.

To the young student in harmony, it may be a useful caution, never to call a single sound a semi-tone: it would be as correct to call a mile a mile-stone: for a semi-tone is a certain small interval, or distance, between two sounds that differ in pitch.

Grassineau, in his Dictionary of Musick, (1740,) mentions, that a Mr. Baljouski had invented a new sort of keys, which could furnish "all the sounds in imaginary musick, and, by consequence, all the

128 On a Criticism of the Columbiad, in the Edinburgh Review. [March 1,

imaginary intervals and chords; whereas the common keys do but furnish some of them."

shifting the hammers under different wires. The finger-keys are exactly the same as those in general use. I have heard it, and have played on it myself, with great pleasure; and Mr. Loesch. man boasts that it has received the approbation of Dr. Burney, Dr. Crotch, Mr. Salomon, Mr. C. Wesley, and other

Mr. Maxwell, (Essay on Tune, 1781.) proposes that every finger-key should have the command of "never less than three, but oftener four degrees of tune;" p. 184. According to his calculations, instead of twelve degrees of tune in the common computation of the octave, there must be no less than forty-four furnished, to complete a system of twentyfour keys, tuned by the true intervals of the diatonic scale; or if both extremes of the octave be included, instead of thirteen, there must be no less than fortyfive."

In Rousseau's Dict. de Musique, plate I. fig. 3. exhibits an arrangement of the keys different from that in common use at present, and too widely different ever to be generally adopted. Under the head Clavier, he remarks, that, "for-eminent musicians. merly, the twelve keys in every septave answered to fourteen sounds; and that the two additional sounds were played by means of two divided keys, (touches brisées ;) but that these two have been retrenched, because our rules of modulation would require additional sounds to be put every where. Many years ago, instrument-makers divided all the short keys, and by that means seventeen sounds could be played in every septave; but this method of supplying in struments with more sounds, was laid aside on account of the difficulty of playing upon so many keys." However, it is not entirely laid aside, for the Temple organ has at present two additional sounds in every septave of the choir and full organs, except the lowest. The organ in the Foundling Hospital has four additional sounds, but they are managed by stops, or slides, and not by divided keys.

G. B. Doni (Trattato sopra l'instrumenti di tasti) mentions that the long keys of some instruments have been di vided as well as the short ones; and, to render some particular keys conspicuous, be recommends their being made round at the end, longer or shorter, and placed higher or lower than the others; or else to be of different colours. A curious arrangement of keys, for the use of the genera and tones, is represented on page 53, tom. 2. fol.

Perhaps Mr. Lofft is unacquainted with the recent attempts to improve piano-fortes. Claggett's piano-forte had pedals to alter the tension of the wires, when different sounds were wanted to the same finger-keys: as might have been easily foreseen, this instrument would never stand in tune. In Mr. Hawkes's organ, by means of one pedal, five sounds in every septave are changed at once for five others; so that the short keys are all sharps, or all flats: consequently, a sharp and a flat cannot be played together. Mr. Loeschman's grand harmonic piano-forte" is furnished with twenty-four sounds in every septave. It has six pedals to introduce the aditional sounds, when required, by

After all, whatever may be Mr. Lofft's improvement, I think the generality of performers will rest satisfied with the common imperfect scale. Cirencester, January, 1810.

Your's, &c.
A. MERRICK.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

SIR,

THE

HE observations in the last Edinburgh Review, intended as a cri. tique upon the admirable, though not absolutely faultless, poem, "The Colum biad," are conceived in a style at once so superstitiously illiberal, and unworthy the character of genuine criticism, that a candid and impartial survey of its claims to the approbation of the public, will, I trust, tend to obliterate those false impressions, which the animadversions of our northern literati are calculated, by their general diffusion, and the homage paid to their opinion, to produce on the minds of their readers.

And here, Sir, it may not be esteemed irrelevant to give some idea of the phra seology adopted by those gentlemen in their quarterly lucubrations. The following elegancies of expression, "this goodly firstling;" "they have all a little Latin whipped into them in their youth;” "before we proceed to lay before our readers," &c. are peculiarly felicitous: but I am fearful their beauty, however exquisitely it may be felt in their native regions, will not be acknowledged by the generality of their English friends.

It is indeed, Sir, difficult to conceive that the square and oblate cast of mind, inherent

inherent in our neighbours of the North, can by any aid derivable from the study of classic literature, or the perusal of our own immortal poets, assume that sublimity of intellect, which elevates the poet and his enraptured reader, to an associa tion with the glories and splendours of the empyrean:

"To rove the paths of Heaven, and strike the

lyre,

"Warm with the transports of celestial

fire."

verential regard for the purest principles of morality; that in these a mind of native strength, allied to a rich and inventive imagination, will discover materials wherewith to erect a poetical structure. of imperishable duration, and transmit to posterity a name, encircled with wreaths of brightest verdure, and glowing with the light and lustre of immortality.

The invocation to Freedom, in which the poet, disdaining the customary form of imploring the assistance of the muse, They may be erudite; they may become places the whole of his reliance on the ma arithmeticians, mathematicians; they may the establishment of universal concord jesty and interesting nature of his theme, be learned in the principles of mechanics, and amaze the world with their acquisi- and liberty, is delivered in a just and tions in the slow and painful march of highly-animated strain of confidence in abstract science; but they must not in the equality of his powers to the managevade the sacred regions of imaginationment of his subject: -of poetry, for the blight and the mildew are the inevitable attendants of their

progress: they display an instinctive jealousy of the rich and brilliant career of fancy (the wren and the buzzard cannot cope with the sunward flight and majes tic ascension of the eagle;) dazzled, blinded by the magic hues and orient splendours of poesy, they are callous to the Graces, the Elysian bloom,

"And all the dread sublimities of song:" and the name of criticism is prostituted to the detection of a word not strictly concordant with grammatical precision, or the dull censure of some novel or picturesque form of expression -sufficient for them that it is novel or picturesque.

But enough of these gentlemen-I shall proceed to the consideration of the merits of this beautiful production of "the infant Muse of America."

Almighty Freedom! give my venturous

The

'Tis

To

song

force, the charm, that to thy voice be

long ;

thine to shape my course, to light my

way,

serve my country with the patriot lay, To teach all men, where all their interest lies,

How rulers may be just and nations wise:
Strong in thy strength, I bend no suppliant
knee,

Invoke no miracle, no muse but thee.
Mr. Barlow then proceeds to the incar-
ceration of Columbus in the dungeons of
Valladolid; describes the miserable situa.
tion of the illustrious prisoner, and the
consequent dejection of his mind. Co-
lumbus soliloquizes on the base return
his services to the Spanish monarch
have met with; recurs to the perilous in-
cidents attendant upon his daring enter
prize; the final success with which it was
crowned; and closes with an impassioned
and indignant appeal to the memory of
his sovereign patroness, Isabella of Čas-
tille: imploring from death an immediate
release from the power of his oppressors.

The surrounding gloom is suddenly irradiated by the presence of Hesper, the guardian genius of the New World, who soothes his agitated spirits with a promised view of the important consequences resulting from his discoveries: the most prominent parts of his speech [ shall select, for the gratification of the reader:

In the Columbiad are united an unusual breadth and loftiness of language, with an immensity of conception, concordant with the vastness and originality of the subject; a continued splendour of genius, a justness and novelty of simile, and a general harmony and mellifluous arrangement of verse. It cannot, perhaps, completely establish a claim to the title of Epic; but the superior talents of its author have proved that a poem, not strictly in unison with the rules of the epopee, may yet possess distinctions of a superlative nature; and that in the richly-varied and vigorous description of such a continent as America, united to the truths of history, the records of tradition, and blended with the noblest precepts of universal philanthropy, the Far other wreaths thy virtuous temple judicious application of philosophical re

Awed into slaves, while groveling millions

groan,

And blood-stained steps lead upward to a throne;

twine,

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search, and the whole maintaining a re- Far nobler triumphs crown a life like thine; MONTHLY MAG. No. 196.

R

Thile

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