the

very clever picture. The still life breast-plate and shield in the foreground, &c. are worthy of Teniers; the draperies would not dishonour the Spanish school he has apparently had in his eye. If we are dissatisfied with any portion, it is with the countenance of the daughter, and with the right-hand of the old gentleman, which latter does not appear to us correctly drawn. An old Falconer, No 5, by the same artist, is fine in character, rich in combination of colour, and powerful in effect: the bird is beautifully painted.

MR. EDWIN LANDSEER has five subjects in the collection; one of them, the Interior of a Highlander's Cottage (and that, perhaps, one of the most artist-like of all his small pictures) has already been before the public. The others are, a Hawking group; the horses (particularly the grey one) as exquisitely finished as Wouvermans himself would have done; and a little boy-groom, whose attitude confirms him stable-born-a jockey from his cradle, the crib. The next is an " Auld Guid Wife," which seems the concentration of colour and finish. The third is a "Lassie herding Sheep;" the animals absolutely perfect as to delicacy of painting, variety and accuracy in the different hues of the wool, &c. and characteristic expression. The tone of the girl's flesh too equably suffused and brickdust-like, and her general air and manner not sufficiently rustic. She looks like a patrician in masquerade. The last picture, entitled “The Challenge," 326, represents a red deer in the grey mist of early morning, sounding his trump of defiance to a distant rival, who deigns not to look round, but signifies his acknowledgement by a slight elevation of head and puff of steamy breath from his nostrils. There is a marvellous charm in the tone and keeping of this little picture.

MR. LINNELL has many admirers of his Landscapes, and we congratulate him therefore; to our taste, however, he wants vigour and variety, both in colour and handling. His pictures have the look of worsted-work. His sheep and grass are of the same substance, and that like cotton fuz.

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66

An old retired Comedian," 11, by T. S. GOOD, is admirable in character; we do not, however, like the harsh and glazy tone of his lights; it is too much like making a puff of being able to achieve a certain effect. The flesh in Mn. J. WoOD'S 'Ophelia' is somewhat feeble and chalky. The character, too, is ineffective-she looks only disconsolate, not distracted. The sketches this young artist makes in the Academy are, to our taste, superior to his finished produc

tions.

No. 177, "Cupid captured by the Sea Nymphs," is more to our taste.

MR. ROBERTS's "Cathedral of St. Law

rence, Rotterdam," 22, is a charming little cabinet picture; a little too showy, perhaps, in the colouring.

Had his foreground been more accurately finished, MR. TOMKINS's "Old Buildings," 26, would have risen considerably in value; for there are power and truth in these few inches of canvass.

MR. F. W. WATTS'S "Wood Scene," 10, is a charming composition; the general tone of his foliage, however, appears to us too blue.

In The Lady of rank taking the Veil," 28, by S. A. HART (a young artist), we observe a manifest improvement. His composition is good; and though there is a tendency to gaudiness of colour, in this respect, as well as in the distribution of his light, we do not perceive so evident a straining after mere effect as heretofore.

MR. WEBSTER'S "Card-players," 29, is easy and natural. The man looking on is every inch a Teniers. "The Love Letter," No. 523, is another excellent picture. Mr. Webster is rapidly improving, and may reasonably anticipate the highest honours of his profession.

MR. VICKERS has a pretty little unpretending sketch of "An Old Monk reading in a Cloister," 34.

MR. LANCE'S "Fruit, Silver Vases," &c. are always good; and Nos. 38 and 82 will be found not to forfeit this character.

"The young Student," 41, by W. M'CALL, is a clever portrait. The linen round the neck somewhat indifferent.

"Saved from the Wreck," 47, and "Possession," 202, by C. HANCOCK, are a bald, palpable, and somewhat stiff imitation of EDWIN LANDSEER. The colouring is not faithful, and the penciling not delicate.

MR. COPLEY FIELDING is not free upon canvass (very few of the water-colour painters are); his "Eneas with Achates meeting Venus," 59, is, notwithstanding, a beautiful composition.

We may compliment MR. O'CONNOR upon his improvement in Landscape: 65 and 66 are cleverly finished in the foregrounds: his greens are more varied, with less of blue in them: his skies, however, we think, are too sombre and ponderous.

Like the compositions of the late MR. NASMYTH, we prefer MR. STARK'S Small pictures to his large ones; the former are very clever imitations of the Hobbima style of art.

The "Falstaff, Mrs. Quickly, and Pistol," of MR. CLINT, we can only consider a melancholy failure; not one of the characters comes up to our ideas of the originals.

MR. STANLEY's view of "Mantes on the Seine," 108, is another instance wherein we have to compliment the artist upon his progress; to which may be added our ap

probation of his success in subduing a too great affection for gaudiness of colour.

"Henrietta, a Study," 143, and "The Villager mourning," by R. ROTHWELL. The former is an interesting subject, but the colouring appears to us rather crude; the latter, with her head on tiptoe (Reader, we are native to Middlesex), as if she scented the wake from afar, is odd, but characteristic. We are admirers of Mr. Rothwell's style he is an artist of great capability; but it is unnecessary for us to tell him he has much to learn. When he has acquired this much-and that he will do so we have no doubt he will find few to rival him in his profession.

None of the foliage of any of our landscape-painters can, we think, compare with that of MR. F. R. LEE for integrity of character, with truth of colouring. Some fine specimens of this are to be seen in the present collection: in No. 185, "Timber-waggon crossing a Brook," a beautiful effect may be seen of light coming through the thick umbrage on the left.

MR. HILTON may yield to no one of the present day for precision of outline; if his colouring and expression could keep pace with the above qualification, he would be a painter of the very highest class; in both these desiderata, however, he will be found defective in his "Jacob parting with Benjamin," 178, which is coldly classical in composition, feeble in expression, and in colour somewhat reminding us of Nicholas Poussin. The Entrance to an Osteria," 205, by J. HOLLINS, is a pretty and natural group, nicely coloured.

MR.WOODWARD, a pupil of MR. COOPER, has successfully followed his master's style, in a little picture entitled Crossing the Ford," 206-let him avoid his master's ambition to paint loftier subjects, which he is incapable of understanding, much less of appreciating. There is truth of character and spirited finish in the horse, and two little boys on its back the water is defec

tive.

"Halt of a Waggon at Night," 218, by J. BURNETT, exhibits much of the Rembrandt feeling and 184, "Salmon Weir, on the Lum Devon," by the same artist, is a finely painted and highly effective picture.

The "Jessica and Launcelot Gobbo," by J. STEPHANOFF, is another instance of failure; neither character would interest us for a moment the originals have done for several.

MR. MIDDLETON'S "Musidora," 253, has too much of the grey tint in the flesh. Few can forbear presuming upon an accomplishment for which they have been praised. This artist has, we hear, been complimented upon his grey tints; the next thing, therefore, must be to make his flesh all but sooty.

"A

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose." In the present collection are two pieces of more than common merit; the one, Spanish Gentleman reading," (the artist's modesty would not call him the hero of Cervantes' novel) which is instinct with good feeling. The figure is every inch a "Gentleman;" and the whole picture displays admirable breadth of character, with beauty and propriety of colouring. The other is of a totally opposite description, and is entitled "The Recruit," 337. A country hawbuck is scarcely wavering between his military and conjugal ardour, for his countenance decides in favour of the latter duty. The story is told to perfection, and the two soldiers are the very models of militia kidnappers.

MR. JONES has two brilliant little sketches of the "Mole at Naples, and Portico of Octavia at Rome," 281 and 285.

Mr. UWINS exhibits some admirably painted bits of Italian scenery, and a fine picture of two children, No. 216, which he calls "A Study," but which is a richly coloured and highly-finished work. He has not spent his time idly in Italy, whence he is recently returned to assume a prominent station among British artists. His style has undergone considerable improvement; he has acquired greater boldness and freedom with experience, and in studying the best productions of Italian art, he has caught much of the spirit rarely to be found in any but the masters of that school.

No. 577, "The Sleeping Page," is an excellent picture by Mr. Mc CLISE, to whose name we had recently occasion to refer, in noticing the fact of his obtaining the gold medal of the Royal Academy.

MR. FARRIER'S "Philosopher in search of the Wind," 370, a little group cutting open a pair of bellows, verges upon caricature, but is full of humour and talent, as all this artist's pictures are.

We have a decided leaning to Mr. BoxALL's productions, because in them we detect the man of good tendencies, careful reading, an absence of all pretension, and a wellregulated taste. We could have wished that his "Cordelia receiving the account of her Father's sufferings," 382, had displayed a little more of the epic dignity and tragic grandeur of the original. Her character in the painting, it is true, is perfectly sweet and gentle, and evidently one that would endure much for those she loved, and it is something to conceive such a character; she does not, however, betray the mental energy requisite to endure such a storm of sorrow and calamity as beat upon the noble

citadel of her perfect prototype. It is, how ever, a fine and powerful picture, and the Exhibition presents few more honourable to British art. The figure of the old messenger is an excellent study; but, as usual, Mr. Boxall has been allotted a dark corner of the gallery; it is therefore impossible to

pass any comment on its details.

"Love the best Physician," by DETOUCHES, is a well-told story. The subject is not new, but two or three of the characters are well-imagined and expressed.

While MR. KIDD was painting his outrageous and stupid caricature of a "Scene from Rob Roy," it would have perhaps been as well to read the original; he would there have found that the Baillie does not seize a poker, but "a red-hot coulter of a plough, which had been employed in arranging the fire."

MR. PATTEN'S personification of "Famine," 506, is the portrait of a surly, gaunt old beggar; there is neither the wolfish fury, the madness, nor emaciation from hunger, developed in the idea.

micians, in the room of John Jackson and James Northcote, Esqrs. deceased.

FINE ARTS-PUBLICATIONS.

The Fall of Babylon. Drawn and engraved by John Martin.

Another splendid effort of Mr. Martin's genius, and a not unworthy accompaniment to the "Belshazzar's Feast!" If that be the highest class of art which interests and delights the greatest num. ber, Mr. Martin is undoubtedly its most successful professor. He is always understood, and will be always popular; and it is, after all, a laudable ambition to labour rather for the gratification of the many than the few. We know that artists object, and probably with justice, to Mr. Martin's style, as being formed more upon the principle of melodrama than in accordance with the settled and established rules of what is called true art: but we hold, that the primary object of a work is to please as universally as possible; and this ob

ject the published prints of Mr. Martin have, at Fall of Babylon" will be as well received as least, attained. We question, however, if "The those that have preceded it;-it too much resembles "The Fall of Nineveh" in its more prominent parts, and the engraving appears to us less clear and vigorous than it might be-it certainly wants the brilliancy and spirit of the others -it has lost by a comparison we have instituted

of Poussin.

We regret to find that but few, comparatively, of the exhibited works have been disposed of; but the universal depression under which trade and commerce of all kinds unhappily labour, cannot but have extended its influence to art-a luxury that people will manage to do without in these times when necessaries are not easily to be

obtained.

between it and them. Nevertheless it is a fine

and beautiful production, and one that cannot fail to bear out all we have said touching the power of the artist to afford universal delight. We pre

they may examine, or, what is wiser, purchase the print, to entering upon any explanation of its various details: and we may here observe, that as all the other publications of Mr. Martin were considerably raised in price soon after their ap. pearance, the probability is, that this cannot be procured too soon.

Illustrations of the Vaudois, in a series

of Views engraved by Edward Finden from drawings by Hugh Dyke Acland, Esq.

At a general assembly of the academicians of the Royal Academy of Arts, Gilbert Stuart Newton and Henry Perronet Briggs, Esqrs. were duly elected Royal Acade

This work contains a republication of the illustrations to Mr. Acland's volume, "The glorious Recovery by the Vaudois of their Valleys." They are interesting as works of art, and engraved in a manner highly creditable to Mr. Finden; but their chief value is that they transport us to scenes rendered holy by the unexampled struggles and

of their valleys by the Vaudois was indeed a glo. rious example of what a handful of resolute and determined men may successfully achieve against

thousands, when freedom marshals the ranks that are opposed to bigotry and intolerance. The abridged descriptions of the author merit a passing compliment.

LONDON PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Mr. Sedgwick read a paper on the phrenological developement of the organs of the late celebrated Dr. Parr, a man whose character was well known, but which would not perhaps be either so perfectly understood or appreciated without the aid of phrenology. On examination of the head of Dr. Parr, appeared to have greatly exceeded the average size, arising from the extraordinary length from the meatus auditorius to the lower part of individuality, and the large developement of the superior and middle portions of the posterior part. His vast power of learning, and remembering facts, for which he was so remarkable, depended on the great length of the anterior lobes; his intellectual character originated in the length of the lower portion of the forehead, for his reflecting faculties by no means equalled those of many other men, whose casts were in the Society's collection, such as Bacon, Newton, Gall, &c., in fact, when contrasted with the breadth of forehead exhibited in the before-mentioned casts, that of Dr. Parr appeared comparatively narrow. The whole of Dr. Parr's actions might be traced to the great developement of the organs of self-esteem, love of approbation, destructiveness, combativeness, and attachment, being all extremely large; his firmness was also large; hope, conscientiousness, and the whole of the coronal surface excellent; secretiveness, large; acquisitiveness, moderate; benevolence, full; ideality and imitation, moderate; wonder, constructiveness, and number, small; order, moderate. Mr. Sedgwick then illustrated the truth of his position, by relating a number of interesting anecdotes of Dr. Parr, collected from the writings of his friends and biographers; one of whom, in speaking of his earlier years, has truly said, he was "puer animi ad præcepta rapacis," and was fully entitled to be placed among those who "ante annos, mentemque gerunt, animumque virilem."

those awakened feelings, and the perceptive faculties furnish images in correspondence with them; in such cases objects and events are represented which excite wonder, rage, dread, love, pity, &c. The more organs there are in activity at the same time, the more complicated would be the action of the dream, and its rationality or irrationality would depend on the correspondence or not between the mental perceptions and the normal state of the intellectual and affective faculties. Several philosophers have asserted that dreams only consist of the repetition of ideas which have already passed through the mind, though they may exist under new combinations; this is an error, and has been refuted by Gall. Man can exercise the faculties of invention as well during sleep as awake; for the internal sources of his thoughts and feelings are the same whether he slept or was awake. It has been related of Dr. Franklin, that he had on several occasions, in his dreams, been informed of the issue of affairs in which be was engaged, and his vigorous mind, otherwise free from prejudice, could not quite protect him from a superstitious notion in respect to these premonitions; it had not entered into his consideration that the profound prudence and rare sagacity which directed him when awake, still influenced the action of his brain during sleep. Condillac, whilst writing his "Cours d'Etudes," was frequently obliged to leave a chapter incomplete in order to sleep, which he found on awaking finished in his head-Voltaire and Augustus Lafontaine on several occasions made verses in their sleep which they remembered when awake-Alexander formed the plan of a battle when asleep-Tartini composed his famous Devil's Sonata from the inspiration of a dream; and a fragment called Kubla Khan, given in the works of Mr. Coleridge, was the emanation of a dream. These, amongst many other facts, sufficiently proved the truth of the position before advanced, that men can exercise the faculties of invention as well during sleep as awake. The author then took an extensive view of the different notions that had prevailed respecting dreams, somnambulism, and somniloquism, &c. and concluded by remarking that dreaming, &c. was only a partial awakening and involuntary activity of the cerebral organs whilst others reposed, and that the different phenomena it exhibited gave an additional proof to the numerous ones phrenologists already possessed of the plurality of the intellectual and moral faculties, and that certain organs, or even certain senses, might be separately in activity, whilst others were completely inactive or asleep.

Feb. 6. A paper was read on dreaming, somnambulism, and other partial states of the activity of the cerebral faculties. The author, after pointing out the difference of function in vegetable and animal life, went on to observe, that those of animal life were in fact the functions of the brain; that during sleep the brain alone was in a state of rest, all the other organs remaining in activity. It was wrong, therefore, to say that the body rested in sleep, for then the cerebral functions would be mistaken, as is too frequently the case, for those of the whole organised system. When the organs of any one or more feelings are in a state of activity during sleep, the dream takes its form from

March.-VOL. XXXVI. NO. CXXXV.

Q

KING'S COLLEge. Professor Rennie, in a recent lecture, gave an elaborate account of the far-famed Phoenix. The earliest account of the Phoenix is given by Herodotus, the father of history; and this has been copied, with additions (a story seldom loses in its transmission), by Pliny, Tacitus, Pomponius Mela, Horapollo, Mariana, and other writers. Among the rest, our old English writer, Bartholomew Glantville, as translated by Trevisor, and printed in black-letter by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1498, says—

"St. Ambrose, in Exameron, sayth of the humoure or ashes of fenix ariseth a newe byrde, and wexeth, and, in space of tyme, he is clothed with feathers and wyngis, and restored into the kind of a byrde, and is the most fairest byrde that is-most like to the pecocke in fethers, and loveth wilderness, and gadreth his meate of cleane greenes and fruites. Alanus speketh of this byrde, and saith, that whan the hyghest byshop Onyas hadde buylded a temple in the citie of Helyopolys in Egypt, to the lykenes of the temple of Jherusalem, and the fyrste daye of Easter, whanne he hadde gathered moche sweete smellynge woode, and sette it on fyre uppon the altar to offer sacrifyce, to all mennes syghte suche a byrde came sodaynely, and fell into the myddel of the fyre and was brent anone to ashes in the fyre of the sacrifyce; and the ashes abode there, and was besely kepte and saved by the commandemente of the preeste; and within three dayes, of these ashes was bred a lyttel worme, that took the shape of a byrde atte the laste, and flewe into the wyldernesse."

"This account," Mr. Rennie remarked, "of a worm being generated out of the ashes of a sacrifice, and afterwards becoming a bird, is precisely of a piece with the methods given by Virgil and Columella for the generation of bees from dead carcases, which originated in an imperfect knowledge of the natural history of insects, as I have explained at length in "Insect Transformations;" while the appearance of a bird alighting on the altar must have obviously arisen from some eagle or vulture pouncing upon the carcase of the animal sacrificed a circumstance, I should imagine, of occasional occurrence when altars were situated in the open air, and which in Greece or Rome, instead of the bird's being considered a Phoenix, would have been hailed as an avatar (if I may borrow the Brahminical term) of Jupiter himself. That such were the circumstances, which in process of time were worked up into the fabulous and fanciful stories of the Phoenix, I have not a doubt; and it appears to me that this is the only plausible and rational explanation which can be given, though a vast deal of

learning, and no little ingenuity, has been expendeJ in other views."

This account is strongly corroborated by an anecdote given by Bruce the traveller, of an eagle (gypaëtus barbatus, Storr), in the very country where the Phoenix was said to appear, darting down while his party were dining in the open air, and carrying off a part of their dinner. It is farther remarkable, that Bruce says of this genuine Phonix, as we may call it, that the feathers of the belly and breast were of a gold colour," which might almost pass for a translation of Pliny's description of the ancient Phoenix. Mr. Rennie exhibited a specimen of this bird to his numerous auditors.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

A communication from Mr. Barrow, giving an account of Alexander's Cave, near Tabriz, in Persia, by Sir Henry Willocks, has been read at a recent meeting of this Society. The Cave of Iscendereea, about twenty miles from Tabriz, is supposed to be under the influence of a magic spell, contrived by Aristotle for the security of treasure which Alexander the Great left in this place while he proceeded to conquer Persia and Judea. The tradition is generally believed among modern Persians, who regard Alexander as a necromancer. In the vicinity of the cave is a considerable village, which takes its name from it. The enchanted spot is situated in an elevated position, near a quarry, from which mill-stones are cut. The natural arch which forms the entrance to the cave, is high and imposing; the approach is rather inviting than otherwise; vegetation flourishes; flowers, wild-rose bushes, long grass, grow even near its mouth; and there is nothing in the exterior to indicate the existence of pestilential vapours, nor would the general formation of the cave warrant such a supposition. As the visitor enters it, his presence disturbs the wild pigeons from nooks in the vault where they have taken up their abode, secure from molestation. The arch of the cave is about eighty feet high, and the whole extent of it is about one hundred yards. The guide conducts the visitor along the high sides of the interior of the cave, and having placed him in safety, proceeds cautiously to the lower ground, occasionally stooping down his head to ascertain the limits of life and death. The visitor, watching with intense interest the progress of the guide, discovers immediately the presence of pestiferous vapour; the sudden jerk of the head, and equally sudden halt, denotes the presence of danger. The guide now flings forward a fowl which he carries, with a string fastened to it; a convulsive gasp, and one or two flaps of the wings, bespeak ap