Gives us the classic scene, the sober gloom,
The learned tone of Archimedes' tomb; a
In warmer tints bids gayer scenes arise,
Bids fair Calypso charm in airy dyes, b
Or drives the terrible wild path along,
Sublime in grandeur, in expression strong.
Who can, unmoved, thy Regulus behold?
Who see that scene, and yet his praise withhold?
Where, nobly stern of soul, the Chieftain stands
Unmoved, 'midst weeping, supplicating bands;
Turns from the scenes that nursed his early years,
Though love and friendship court his stay with tears,
Though Carthage bids her fires of torture burn,
And on her shores Death waits for his return....
Still does the snarling wretch dispute thy claim
To excellence, to honour, praise, and fame?
Then show him where thy dying hero lies, c
Who beams expression, though from fading eyes,
Who calls on glory with his parting breath,
And grasps the laurel in the arms of death.
Yet, not to scenes of earth alone confined,
The fire and ardent temper of thy mind

a See Note 1, at the end of the poem.

b See Note 11.

c See Note 111.

Gives thee the secrets of the' abyss to spy
Upon the seraph wings of ecstasy.

To paint what he in Patmos, who heard cry
The warning voice that sounded from on high,
Saw in the' Apocalypse, when heaven revealed
Visions till then from mortal eyes concealed; a
When he, the conqueror, went forth, when to slay
Went forth the power that takes all peace away,
When Death rode on, and with him hell was poured
To kill with plagues, with famine, and the sword.
Thy pencil too has shown us how abode
On Ararat the man beloved of God;
Veiled in mysterious cloud, in mist, and dark,b
Beneath the arch of promise, stands the Ark:
The fountains of the deep are shut; the tide
Ebbs from the mountain top; the waves subside;
All pale and wan in death's own proper hue,
The victims of heaven's justice meet the view;
And he, the subtle one, man's foe of old,
Suspends his length in many a loosened fold,
Type of his doom to come; the waves above
Her silver pinions bear the spotless dove.

These all are thine; yet still so versatile,c
So strong thy powers, so prompt in every style,

a See Note IV.

c See Note VI.

b See Note v.

C

That every subject finds its proper tone,
And character exclusively its own.a

F. From you this candour! so much praise from you!

This panegyric strain is something new:

But will it last?

A. Last! 'Tis my chief delight.

Place objects worthy praise before my sight,
Then straight my fancy with its theme shall glow,
Then with spontaneous warmth my verse shall flow.
Reproof is painful, and the caustic song,

That pours its rage upon the guilty throng,
Gives trouble to its author, but the strain
That sings of Peace and Virtue's golden reign
Brings pleasure, brings complacency to all,

But those whose souls o'erflow with spleen and gall.
You name the arts, and I with gladness haste
To praise one artist blessed with strength and taste;
One more remains.....While others err by rule,
And regularly play the sober fool,

Ape the dull school of Mengs, and such as he,
Who draw their figures by geometry, b

a See Note VII.

b See the life prefixed to the Opere di Mengs, by D'Azarra.

Lo! where soars Fuseli, through realms of light
Darting with ardent glance his piercing sight;
On high he rides: terror around him flings,
And visits scenes that Milton only sings.
The Dragon in the tempest of his wrath a
He paints, and walks a visionary path;
Embodies thought, through fields of fancy flies,
And sports with forms unseen of mortal eyes;
Shows bright Titania's revels in her grove,
Or binds the cestus round the waist of Love; b

a Lear's caution to Kent: "Come not between the dragon and his wrath."

b And how applicable is Homer's description of the cestus of Venus to the voluptuous airs of some of Mr. Fuseli's female figures:

Ενθα δε δι θελκτηρια παντα τίτυκίο

Ενθ' ενι μεν φιλότης, εν δ' Ίμερος, εν
Παρφασις, ήτ' εκλεψε τον συκα περ φρονεοντών.

IL. XIV.

Notwithstanding Mr. Fuseli's acknowledged excellence in the intellectual department of the art, notwithstanding the energy which he pours into almost every subject, and that impassioned expression which is peculiar to his pencil, his method of treating the human figure may be deemed in some measure objectionable. Mr. F. has not confined his peculiarity of style to the extremities (parts in which the mannerist is most generally conspicuous); in an instant, at the first glance,

While these, and more than than these, whom

genius fires,

Whom purest zeal to raise the art inspires,
Whose ardent spirit o'er the vulgar towers,
To noblest subjects dedicate their powers;
Behind, a throng of luckless artists see,
Condemned to low and servile drudgery,

you recognize his hand, whether it is employed on a knee, clavicle, the pectoral muscles, the deltoides, the trapezius, or any of the anatomical parts particularly marked by the painter; nor do I think that a leg or an arm from one of his figures would unite with the works of any other master, ancient or modern. In his style he has great uniformity; it possesses theServetur ad imum qualis ab incepto processerit;" and the observance of that rule is so general in his paintings, that you recognize it in the most minute parts, from a ringlet that curls over the forehead of one of his figures, to the extreme point of a sandal or a slipper. I will not compare Mr. Fuseli's style with that of Tintoret, but I think that some of those terms at least, by which Vasari chose to designate the manner of the latter, are not very inapplicable to it: “Nelle cose della pittura capricioso presto e resoluto, et il piu terribile cervello, che habbia avuto mai la pittura, come si puo vedere in tutte le sue opere; e ne' componimenti delli storie, fantastische, e fatte da lui diversamente e fuori dell'uso degli altri pittori: anzi ha superato la stravaganza con le nuove, e capricciose inventioni, e strani ghiribizzi del suo intelletto che ha lavorato a caso, e senza disegno, quasi monstrando che quest' arte e una baia."