not be ostentatiously obtruded or needlessly multiplied; but a slight hint is often sufficient, and the more simple it is in itself, and the more subordinate to the general effect, the more valuable will it be to the true connoisseur. In pictures, as in the world at large, it is not always the prominent and brilliant part, which is in the truest keeping: an unnoticed and obscure touch may be the most exquisite in the whole piece. The introduction of figures into landscape is universally censured by some critics; I confess I am of a very different opinion-I speak not here of them as mere forms, in which respect they have sometimes an exquisite effect; but as delineations of life. In sketches, and slight drawings, which are mere memorandums of local scenery, or hints for composition, they may, perhaps, be dispensed with ; but the finished landscape-painter feels that they are absolutely necessary to characterize his scenes. So thought Salvator, with his banditti, and Claude, with his shepherds, and Wilson, with his classical actors. They may, indeed, be introduced in too great numbers, as was sometimes done by Claude; or unsuitably to the scene, as by Wilson; but in other cases, they produce an effect of truth and individuality, which gratifies the mind, by giving to its airy nothings a

local habitation and a name.

There are some con

ceivable scenes, whose majestic solitude would be insulted by the trace of a human footstep; but these are out of the province of painting; they belong to that high class of subjects, which forms the exclusive boast of poetry; and they do so, because words, the tools of that art, are, like themselves, boundless and undefinable. In the port of London, a painter can never be at a loss for appropriate incident. Characters and occupations are more various and contrasted there than even in the city. To all the classes of business (such as sailors foreign and native, lightermen, bargemen, wherrymen, coal-heavers, ship-carpenters, &c.), are to be added the multitudes, who are led thither for amusement, and jumbled together by chance or design, and form numberless odd groups and singular oppositions.

We were scarcely extricated from the long and irregular ranges of shipping, until we had passed Blackwall. So vast and extensive is this floating city always attached to the great commercial emporium of the world! But proceeding, as we did, leisurely, with a light breeze, along the circuitous course of the river, we were much amused on deck by the continually diversified scene.

It is no uninteresting speculation to view, the divers habits and forms of men collected together in the vessels to and from every quarter of the globe. With the least tractable or enlightened parts of the world, we are ourselves the factors; and here may be seen, how boldly, and how sagaciously we adventure in such undertakings; how numerous, large, and well-appointed are our ships which trade to India and the Chinese empire; how various in appearance and equipment are the Greenland whalers, and merchantmen from the Levant. Again, the other nations of the world, according to their different importance in the commercial scale, are here to be seen in different numbers: Americans, Hamburghers, Danes, Swedes, Russians, Italians, Portuguese, &c.; nations so many, and so various, as the ancient world never saw collected together in one place, or united by one spirit; most of them being then weak and insignificant, many barbarous, some not in existence.

The first sentiment of the mind is admiration of that wonderful principle, which has wrought so surprising a change in the moral and physical constitution of the globe. We seem inspired with

enthusiasm to fall down and worship the golden image of commerce; but reflection bids us pause, and consider whether this mighty engine may not be overworked; whether there is not some foundation for the complaints of our poets and moralists, who have deprecated the march of luxury, and dreaded the substitution of artificial wants for natural affections. Truth probably lies in the middle. Commerce is a great instrument in the hand of reason to connect and intermarry the wide-spread families of mankind; but let us not trust to reason alone-let us not wholly submit our feelings to our purses, and counters, and ledgers-let us never forget, that though the business of the head is calculation, the business of the heart is enjoyment. We may be very rich in products, and manufactures, and population, and very poor in the spirits and minds of men.

The great features of the landscape itself are not without an interest. The banks are low and marshy; but their insignificance is compensated by the placid majesty of the river. For purposes of utility straighter course would seem desirable; and with this view, a plan was presented by the late Mr. Reveley to a Committee of the House of Commons for the

improvement of the port of London. It was bold and original in its outline; and being alike founded on the natural properties of the river, and the commercial requisites of the port, tended to produce the most general and permanent amelioration to both. On such a question, however, propriety seemed to dictate that the suggestions of great commercial bodies should be followed, rather than the speculations (however ingenious) of a private individual. The plan was therefore laid aside, but not without receiving the praise of the Committee, nor probably without producing some effect on the public mind. One of its objects, the erection of an iron bridge instead of the present London bridge, has since been revived with certain modifications by other artists; and the subjection of a great river to a regular regimen, by alterations in its depth, breadth, and direction, though given up in the present instance, may, perhaps, afford very useful hints to other undertakings of a similar nature.

These vast, dragon-like windings, however inconvenient they may be to trade, are much more interesting to the contemplator of nature, than any thing which the operations of art could have produced. The strange mixture of land and water, of pasture