and the history of the female heart, (depicted, in the one case, by the pencil, in the other, by the pen) in the finest age of female accomplishment and devotion. Look at this portrait, breathing the beauty of virtue, and compare it with the "Beauties of Charles II.'s court, by Lely. They look just like what they were a set of kept-mistresses, painted, tawdry, showing off their theatrical or meretricious airs and graces, without one trace of real elegance or refinement, or one spark of sentiment to touch the heart. Lady Grammont is the handsomest of them; and though the most voluptuous in her attire and attitude, the most decent. The Duchess of Portsmouth, in her helmet and plumes, looks quite like a heroine of romance or modern Amazon; but for an air of easy assurance, staring invitation, and alarmed at nothing but being thought coy, commend us to my lady above, in the sky-blue drapery, thrown carelessly across her shoulders! As paintings, these celebrated portraits cannot rank very high. They have an affected ease, but a real hardness of manner and execution; and they have that contortion of attitude and setness of features which we afterwards find carried to so disgusting and insipid an excess in Kneller's portraits. Sir Peter Lely was, however, a better painter than Sir Godfrey Knellerthat is the highest praise that can be accorded to him. He had more spirit, more originality, and was the livelier coxcomb of the two! Both these painters possessed considerable mechanical dexterity, but it is not of a refined kind. Neither of them could be ranked among great painters, yet they were thought by their contemporaries and themselves superior to every one. At the distance of a hundred years we see the thing plainly enough. In the same room with the portrait of Lady Digby, there is one of Killigrew and Carew, by the same masterly hand. There is spirit and character in the profile of Carew, while the head of Killigrew is surprising from its composure and sedateness of aspect. He was one of the grave wits of the day, who made nonsense a profound study, and turned trifles into philosophy, and philosophy into a jest. The pale, sallow complexion of this head is in wonderful keeping. The beard and face seem nearly of the same colour. We often see this clear uniform colour of the skin in Titian's portraits. But then the dark eyes, beard, and eye-brows, gave relief and distinctness. The fair hair and complexions, that Vandyke usually painted, with the almost total absence of shade from his pictures, made the task more difficult; and, indeed, the prominence and effect he gives in this respect, without any of the usual means, are almost miraculous. There are several of his portraits, equestrian and others, of Charles I. in this collection, some of them good, none of them first-rate. Those of Henrietta (his Queen) are always delightful. The painter has made her the most lady-like of Queens, and of women. The family picture of the Children of Charles I. is certainly admirably painted and managed. The large mastiff-dog is inimitably fine and true to nature, and seems as if he was made to be pulled about by a parcel of royal infants from generation to generation. In general, it may be objected to Vandyke's dresschildren, that they look like little old men and women. His grownup people had too much stiffness and formality; and the same thing must quite overlay the playfulness of infancy. Yet what a difference between these young princes of the House of Stuart, and two of the princes of the reigning family with their mother, by Ramsay, which are evident likenesses to this hour! We have lost our count as to the order of the pictures and rooms in which they are placed, and must proceed promiscuously through the remainder of our Catalogue. One of the most noted pictures at Windsor is that of the Misers, by Quintin Matsys. Its name is greater than its merits, like many other pictures which have a lucky or intelligible subject, boldly executed. The conception is good, the colouring bad; the drawing firm, and the expression coarse and obvious. are sorry to speak at all disparagingly of Quintin Matsys; for the story goes, that he was originally bred a blacksmith, and turned painter to We gain his master's daughter, who would give her to no one but on that condition. Happy he who thus gained the object of his love, though posterity may differ about his merits as an artist! Yet it is certain, that any romantic incident of this kind, connected with a well-known work, inclines us to regard it with a favourable, instead of an unfavourable eye, by enhancing our pleasure in it; as the eccentric character, the wild subjects, and the sounding name of Salvator Rosa have tended to lift him into the highest rank of fame among painters. In the same room with the Misers, by the Blacksmith of Antwerp, is a very different picture, by Titian, of two figures also, viz. Himself and a Venetian Senator. It is one of the finest specimens of this master. His own portrait is not much it has spirit, but is hard, with somewhat of a vulgar, knowing look. But the head of the Senator is as fine as any thing that ever proceeded from the hand of man. The expression is a lambent flame, a soul of fire dimmed, not quenched by age. The flesh is flesh. If Rubens's pencil fed upon roses, his was carnivorous. The tone is betwixt a gold and silver hue. The texture and pencilling are marrowy. The dress is a rich crimson, which seems to have been growing deeper ever since it was painted. It is a front view. As far as attitude or action is concerned, it is mere still-life; but the look is of that kind that goes through you at a single glance. Let any one look well at this portrait, and if he then sees nothing in it, or in the portrait in general, let him give up virtù and criticism in despair. This room is rich in valuable gems, which might serve as a test of a real taste for the art, depending for their value on intrinsic qualities, and not on imposing subjects, or mechanical arrangement or quantity. As where "the still, small voice of reason" is wanting, we judge of actions by noisy success and popularity; so where there is no true moral sense in art, nothing goes down but pomp, and bustle, and pretension. The eye of taste looks to see if a work has nature's finest image and superscription upon it, and for no other title and passport to fame. There is MARCH, 1323. a Young Man's Head (we believe) in one corner of this room, by Holbein, in which we can read high and he roic thoughts and resolutions, better than in any Continence of Scipio we ever saw, or than in all the Battles of Alexander thrown into a lump. There is a portrait of Erasmus, by the same, and in the same or an adjoining room, in which we see into the mind of a scholar and of an amiable man, as through a window. There is a head by Parmegiano, lofty, triumphant, showing the spirit of another age and clime-one by Raphael, studious and self involved-another, said to be by Leonardo da Vinci (but more like Holbein) grown crabbed with age and thought-and a girl reading, by Correggio, intent on her subject, and not forgetting herself. are the materials of history; and if it is not made of them, it is a nickname or a mockery. All that does not lay open the fine net-work of the heart and brain of man, that does not make us see deeper into the soul, is but the apparatus and machinery of history painting, and no more to it than the frame is to the picture. These We noticed a little Mater Dolorosa in one of the rooms, by Carlo Dolci, which is a pale, pleasing, expressive head. There are two large figures of his, a Magdalen and another, which are in the very falsest style of colouring and expression; and Youth and Age, by Denner, which are in as perfectly bad a taste and style of execution as any thing we ever saw of this artist, who was an adept in that way. We are afraid we have forgotten one or two meritorious pictures we meant to notice. There is one we just recollect, a portrait of a Youth in black, by Parmegiano. It is in a singular style, but very bold, expressive, and natural. There is (in the same apartment of the palace) a fine picture of the Battle of Norlingen, by Rubens. The size and spirit of the horses in the foreground, and the obvious animation of their riders, are finely contrasted with the airy perspective and mechanical grouping of the armies at a distance; and so as to prevent that confusion and want of positive relief, which usually pervade Battle-pieces. In the same room (opposite) is Kneller's Chinese converted to Christianity-a portrait of which he was justly proud. It is a Y fine oil-picture, clear, tawny, without trick or affectation, and full of cha racter. One of Kneller's fine ladies or gentlemen, with their wigs and toupées, would have been mortally offended to have been so painted. The Chinese retains the same oily, sly look, after his conversion as before, and seems just as incapable of a change of religion as a piece of terra cotta. On each side of this performance are two Guidos, the Perseus and Andromeda, and Venus attired by the Graces. We give the preference to the former. The Andromeda is a fine, noble figure, in a striking and even daring position, with an impassioned and highlywrought expression of features; and the whole scene is in harmony with the subject. The Venus attired by the Graces (though full of beauties, particularly the colouring of the flesh in the frail Goddess) is formal and disjointed in the composition; and some of the actions are void of grace and even of decorum. We allude particularly to the Maid-in-waiting, who is combing her hair, and to the one tying on her sandals, with her arm crossing Venus's leg at right angles. The Cupid in the window. is as light and wanton as a butterfly flying out of it. He may be said to flutter and hover in his own delights. There are two capital engravings of these pictures by Strange. We shall break off here, and give some account of the Cartoons at Hampton-court in our next, as we do not like them to come in at the fag-end of an article. W. H. ARAGO'S NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD THIS Voyage, as many of our readers will doubtless recollect, was undertaken by order of the present King of France, soon after the re-establishment of the Bourbons. Its chief object was to investigate the figure of the earth, and the elements of terres trial magnetism. Several questions of meteorology were also suggested to the attention of the commander; but geography was merely a secondary consideration, and no professed naturalist was attached to the expedition. As the narrative now before us contains no scientific details, we shall briefly review the information conveyed in the report of the gentleman commissioned to investigate the different journals and accounts, both official and private. The Uranie sailed from Toulon Sept. 17, 1817, touched at Teneriffe, and reached Rio Janeiro December 6. Here the commander devoted two months to observations on the pendulum and compass. He then proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, where he remained nearly a month, to verify and repeat the observations of La Caille. From the Cape he steered to the Isle of France; and, after a stay of five weeks, continued his course to Coupang, capital of the Dutch settlements in the Isle of Timor. He afterwards visited the Portuguese settlement of Diely, on the north part of the island, and then prosecuted his voyage to the little island of Rawack, on the coast of New Guinea, nearly under the equator, where another interval of a month was employed in scientific observations. Thence to the Marianne and Sandwich islands, with the same objects in view; and subsequently to Port Jackson. He finally proceeded towards Terra del Fuego, but suffered shipwreck on one of the Malouine islands on the 13th of February, 1820. He embarked, with his crew, on board an American vessel, which they named the Physicienne, and, having touched at Monte Video and Rio Janeiro, terminated his voyage at Havre on the 30th of November, 1820. Notwithstanding the stress laid on the two leading objects of the voyage, the results, as given by the reporters, are far from distinct or satisfactory. We are only informed that the expe Narrative of a Voyage round the World, in the Uranie and Physicienne corvettes, commanded by Captain Freycinet, during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820, in a series of letters to a friend, by J. Arago, draftsman to the expedition. With twenty-six plates. 4to. Treuttell and Würtz. London, 1823. riments on the oscillations of the pendulum, at the Cape of Good Hope, did not confirm the consequences deduced from those of La Caille, as to the dissimilarity of the two hemispheres. The same caution is observed with respect to those made at the Isle of France, and from those at the Malouine or Falkland's islands: under the privations and disadvantages of a shipwreck, little could be expected. Indeed, there appears on this head to have been a want of care in those who superintended the equipment; for the instruments, with which the navigators were provided, were manifestly inadequate to the purpose. The apparatus for magnetical observations seems to have been equally defective, and the result, as communicated in the report, is as little satisfactory. One curious fact, which was first observed by Mr. Macdonald, at St. Helena, is not unworthy of notice. This is a certain periodical movement of the magnetic needle, independent of variation. At the Marianne and Sandwich Islands, the north point of the needle moves towards the west, from 8 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon, though the absolute variation is east. At Rawak and Port Jackson, this movement is eastward, while at Timor, though also south of the equator, it is west. The expedition is not intitled to the merit of as certaining many new geographical positions; and in hydrography, its pretensions are confined to the survey of a small portion of the West coast of New Holland, parts of the coast of Timor and some small adjacent islands, the strait between the Isle of Booroo and those of Amboyna and Feram, some islets south of Gilolo, dangerous archipelago north of the Isle of Rooib, part of the island of Waigooe, the islands of Manooran and Rawack, the Isle of Guam, and part of Tinian. a Some partial surveys were also made at the Sandwich Islands; and, in the passage from thence to Port Jackson, the positions of several islets, at a distance from the great masses of land, are said to have been ascertained. With respect to Meteorology, no new observations are given. In Zoology, the collections of the expedition amounted to 25 species of mammalia, 313 of birds, 45 of reptiles, and 164 of fishes, besides molusca, polypi, &c. Of these, 4 of mammalia are new, 45 of birds, 30 of reptiles, and about 120 of fishes. In Entomology, we find about 1300 species, of which 40 are said to be new, and some remarkable. In Botany, about 3000 species of dried plants, including 1200 said to be unknown. Much attention is stated to have been paid to the languages of the different tribes visited in the course of the voyage, but the vocabularies annexed to the narrative are by no means copious. From this sketch it will readily appear, that the work is barren of interest to the mere scientific reader;' but it abounds with lively descriptions of scenery, manners, and customs; and though these may sometimes want the zest of novelty, they are not deficient in attraction, even after the perusal of the narratives of Cook, Vancouver, and our own enterprising navigators. The epistolary form is adopted as much from necessity as choice, in consequence of the loss of materials, which the writer suffered in the wreck of the vessel. He commences with his departure from Toulon, describes Gibraltar with that feeling of wonder which it naturally excites in a stranger, details the few incidents on the voyage to Teneriffe, and records the usual ceremonies on crossing the Equinoctial Line. Arrived at Rio Janeiro, we find him expatiating with rapture on the beauties of that luxuriant climate. In visiting the celebrated aqueduct, he encounters a singular recluse and countryman. This was General Hogendorp, who, after filling a high military and confidential post under Napoleon, and exercising his command in both hemispheres, had fled from the hatred of men, the tumult of cities, and the intrigues of courts, to practise, in the wilds of the new world, the humble occupations of a husbandman and charcoal-burner. We afterwards find that the military hermit had been honoured with a visit from the Prince Royal of Portugal, who sought the benefit of his experience and advice. Our narrator mixed in general society at Rio Janeiro; but nothing could exceed the insipidity and formality which pervaded all intercourse at this period; from the jealousy reigning between the native Brazilians and the attendants of the emigrant court, and the restraints of a system of mutual espionnage and a rigorous police. The houses are described as neat, but tasteless: the streets as vieing in filth with those of Lisbon. There is a public library of 70,000 volumes, judiciously selected, but little read; professorships of natural philosophy, botany, and physiology established, but no pupils to be found; and an academy instituted, by drafts from other nations, particularly France, but no meeting of its members ever takes place. As the productions of these academicians, either in literature or art, are considered as belonging to the King, it is not likely that the new world will derive much benefit from their exertions. No college exists for the education of youth, and consequently the children of the rich are, as formerly, dispatched to Coimbra. The state of the slaves, who form five-sixths of the population, does not escape his notice. His remarks on the harsh and brutal treatment to which they are subjected do credit to his feelings. He justly observes, that with the Brasilians it is still problematical whether negroes are men or brutes: they are, however, employed as the former, but beaten as the latter. Commerce flourishes greatly, as might be expected in a country so rich in natural productions: but agriculture is still in its infancy. So simple a vehicle as a wheelbarrow is of late introduction, and still uncommon. The character of the people is strongly marked by indolence. Their whole life appears no better than a broken slumber. As a proof how little motion accords with their habits, he observes that no public road is yet formed between the two principal cities, Bahia and Rio. Their navy exists only in name. Twentytwo admirals are paid by the King, besides innumerable officers, while the ports contain scarcely three ships of war. From Rio we accompany him to the Cape of Good Hope, where he is struck with the neatness of Cape Town, and draws a favourable contrast between the character and manners of the people, and those of the Brasils. His stay, however, is too short, and his observations too limited, to enable him to form a correct judgment on the circumstances of the colony, even if he were disposed to regard it without a degree of national prejudice. He complains that trade, which flourished under the Dutch, is reduced almost to nothing by the administration of the English. One regulation, evidently of Dutch origin, is certainly not calculated for the improvement of traffic: every commodity, however trifling, pays an entrance duty when brought to the town, and is sold by public auction in the market. His next station, the Isle of France, receives a liberal portion of praise. The beauty and grace of the women, and the suavity and freedom which reign in social intercourse, are celebrated in glowing language. This little spot of land awakened peculiar interest, as identified with the charming romance of Paul and Virginia, of which it is the scene; but our voyager soon discovered that the fictions of the novelist are often built on the frailest foundation. Paul, the hero of the tale, is a mere creature of fancy; Madame de la Tour, the mother of the heroine, so far from dying in an agony of grief for the loss of her daughter, survived the catastrophe long enough to espouse three husbands in succession; and the pastor, who acts so fine a part in the novel, is transformed into a Chevalier de Bernage, son of an echevin at Paris, who, after serving in the mousquetaires, and killing an antagonist in a duel, had retired hither, and taken up his residence at the Riviere du Rempart, half a league from the spot where the St. Geran was wrecked. But to make amends for this diversity between the characters of real life and those of romance, the Isle of France is celebrated for the residence of others, whose adventures have partaken of all the extravagance of fiction. One of these was the daughterin-law of the Czar Peter, who, escaping from Russia, sought an obscure retreat at Paris. There she married a M. Moldac, serjeant-major of a regiment which was sent thither; and, in consideration of her rank, her husband is said to have been promoted to a majority, by order of the court. Another, was Madame de Puja, wife of a French colonel, and recently deceased. She was the celebrated Anastasia, the mistress of Count Benyowsky, who, after facilitating his escape froin Kamtschatka, accompanied him in his wanderings, and |