action, prevents him from ever doing an indiscreet one. He bows to all the world, and all the world returns the compliment; he gladly affociates with every body; and every body gladly affociates with him; -but furely his univerfally good reception needs not to be envied by an ingenuous and liberal fpirit; for it is obtained by having no character at all.' Perhaps Mr. Stockdale himfelf, when he reconfiders the latter part of the following fentence, will wish it had been fomewhat otherwife expreffed: Several of the Apostles were fishermen; Paul, the enlightened, the learned, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, was a tent-maker, and worked at his trade; and Chrift himself, the Son of God, and God the Son, (hear it ye proud, and be humble if ye can!) Chrift himself was a carpenter.' But our eccentric Author does not confine himself to dull divinity. To manifeft his attachment to the prefent miniftry, the following compliment to Mr. Pitt is introduced in the firft Sermon: What poffible prodigies of greatnefs, and fuccefs, are not to be expected from a political hero, who, in the bloom and vivacity of youth, is impaffive to intemperance and diffipation, and indefatigably applies himself to objects of the greatest importance ;-who, at that early term of life, poffeffes a furprizing variety and folidity of knowledge; all the flexibility, and ardour, and force of eloquence;-who has conquered a formidable faction; and whose filial remembrance must be, every day, fired with a great, preceding example?' He declares himself a great advocate for reason, and admirer of the church fervice, and thinks that many of our clergy ought to be ashamed of themfelves, for the drawling and lounging manner in which they read it over.' He is violent against Methodistic preachers, and yet would not hurt a hair of their heads. Moft heartily do we fubfcribe to the doctrine inculcated in the following extract: All our religious belief, and all our worship of the Deity, are only calculated, and intended to make us lead good lives, to ftimulate us to the practice of thofe difinterested and beneficent virtues, which give peace, and fatisfaction, to the individual who performs them, and which promote the happiness of mankind. When we ufe the expreffion of ferving God in his houfe, or of the public fervice of the church, we fhould only to thofe expreffions affix the ideas of paying to Him, that honour and gratitude which are due from dependent beings to a great and good Creator: we are not rafhly and abfurdly to imagine, that by the celebration of religious rites, we do any real fervice, we bring any real advantage to our Maker. Of his exiltence and his happinets nothing can deprive Him; they cannot by any thing be diminished: they now neceffarily, uninterrupt edly, and equally from himfelf. Our best actions cannot augment, Our worst cannot injure his enjoyment of fupreme blifs. Therefore the the public offices of religion were only inftituted, and are only repeated, for our own fakes; to keep alive in our minds thofe good fentiments and motions, which, without fuch monitors and remon ftrances, are apt to be weakened by the trifles, and pleasures, and bufinefs of the world;-in fhort, thofe inftitutions were only meant as aids (and in that view they are most important and respectable) to that good and generous conduct, which is our reafonable fervice. This paffage, with many others, is a proof that Mr. Stockdale can write well; and, perfuaded of this, we have undertaken to point out fome defects in his Sermons, not from any enmity to the Author, but from a wifh that he may improve his theological compofitions. ART. XV. Rules for drawing Caricaturas; with an Effay on Comic Painting. 8vo. 2s. fewed. Hooper. 1788. OILEAU fays, "Il faut toujours chercher le beau." The art of painting is called a polite art; but fome good judges are of opinion, that it is only commendable in proportion to the worth of the fubjects chofen for imitation; where it invites us to the contemplation of praife-worthy actions, or characters, and infpires us with a defire to imitate them. The objects then reprefented, at the fame time that they give pleasure to the eye, produce a moral effect;-they excite our refpect and admiration, and the fhafts of ridicule can never reach them.-The fame critics have contended, that delineations in caricatura neither elevate our ideas, nor improve our underftanding; and that it muft be a fordid difpofition which can take pleafure in feeing human nature degraded, and in triumphing over irregularities of fhape or countenance, which, though oppofite to the beautiful or the agreeable, are the inflictions of Providence; for which, furely, a man not being accountable, ought not therefore to be reproached. As to Lord Shaftesbury's notion, that ridicule is the teft of truth, we must allow that it has been fufficiently refuted. Nothing is properly ridiculous, unlefs two contrarieties are joined by an ill-judged affociation, by affectation, or where supposed worth is employed to cover inanity, folly, or vice. The Author of the tract now before us juftly praifes Coypel and Hogarth. The latter, indeed, was excellent in his walk. He has, in an animated manner, ridiculed folly, and satirized vice; but he had not the powers, either from the knowlege of his art, or of the modes of life (his acquaintance with the latter having been chiefly confined to the purlieus of Covent Garden), to form a juft notion of beauty. His Analyfis of Beauty may be confidered as the Analysis of Deformity. The province of the comic pencil is to ridicule folly and affectation; but Hogarth has expofed fcenes that are very indelicate, and fome that may be thought of vicious tendency: fuch are not the proper fubjects of mirths but objects of indignation, and of punishment.-But to our Author. We are informed, that this tract is the work of the ingenious and humourous Captain Grofe; and indeed it bears one peculiar mark of his pen, for fometimes we are rather at a lofs to determine whether he is in jeft or in earnest. In a few inftances he reminds us of his own pleasant Inftructions for Officers in the Army; and in others, of Swift's ironical Directions to Servants. He is aware, that the art of drawing caricaturas is generally confidered as a dangerous acquifition, tending to make the poffeffor rather feared than efteemed; but he juftly remarks, that it is unfair to urge the abufe to which an art is liable, as an argument against the art itself. In order to do juftice to this art, he obferves, that it is one of the elements of fatirical painting, which, like poetry of the fame denomination, may be moft efficaciously employed in the cause of virtue and decorum, by holding up to public notice many offenders against both, who are not amenable to any other tribunal; and who, though they contemptuoufly defy all ferious reproof, tremble at the thoughts of feeing their vices of follies attacked by the keen fhafts of ridicule.' After thefe introductory obfervations, he proceeds to instruct the ftudent who wishes to become a proficient in this art; and in a note, p. 7. he gives the following neceffary caution: Caricaturifts fhould be careful not to overcharge the peculiarities of their fubjects, as they would thereby become hideous inftead of ridiculous, and inftead of laughter excite horror: it is therefore always best to keep within the bounds of probability. For want of the artifl's attention to this excellent rule, we have frequently feen their productions lofe their intended effect. By not doing too much, they would have done more. Mr. Grofe has given a number of engraved fketches, to elucidate his principles; and thefe feem to have been drawn with fo much truth and correctness, that they ought, as he obferves, to be confidered in the light of mathematical diagrams. To the Rules and Inftructions, are added an Effay on Comic Painting. This piece abounds with fo many witty, fenfible, and appofite remarks, that we cannot help lamenting the want of room for a few extracts from it, for the entertainment of our Readers; whom we must therefore refer to the pamphlet for further gratification. A group of droll faces is prefixed; by way of frontis piece. ART. ART. XVI. Memoirs of the celebrated Dwarf, JOSEPH BORUWLASKI, a Polif Gentleman; containing a faithful and curious Account of his Birth, Education, Marriage, Travels, and Voyages. Written by Himself. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Boards. Becket, &c. 1788. [To be bad likewife of the Author, N° 162, Strand. ] WE E fhall extract, from the book, fome account of this gentleman; for fuch he evidently appears to be, both from his birth, education, and accomplishments: I was born in the environs of Chaliez, the capital of Pekucia, in Polish Ruffia, in November 1739. My parents were of the middle fize; they had five fons and one daughter; and by one of those freaks of nature, which it is impoffible to account for, or perhaps to find another inftance of in the annals of the human fpecies, three of thefe children grew to above the middle ftature, whilst the two others, like myfelf, reached only that of children in general at the age of four or five years. I am the third of this aftonishing family. My eldest brother, who at this time is about fixty, is near three inches taller than I am; he has conftantly enjoyed a robuft conftitution, and has ftill ftrength and vigour much above his fize and age; he has lived a long time with the Caftelane Inowlofka, who honours him with her esteem and bounty; and finding in him ability, and fenfe enough, has entrusted him with the ftewardship and management of her affairs. My fecond brother was of a weak and delicate frame; he died at twenty-fix, being at that time five feet ten inches high. Thofe who came into the world after me, were alternately tall and fhort: among them was a female who died of the fmall-pox at the age of twenty-two. She was at that time only two feet two inches high, and to a lovely figure united an admirably well proportioned thape. It was eafy to judge from the very inftant of my birth, that I fhould be extremely fhort, being at that time only eight inches; yet notwithstanding this diminutive proportion, I was neither weak nor pany on the contrary, my mother, who fuckled me, has often declared that none of her children gave her lefs trouble. I walked, and was able to speak, at about the age common to other infants, and my growth was progrefiively as follows: At one year I was 11 inches high, English measure. At three I foot 2 inches. At twenty 2 feet 4 3 3 inches. This is the fize at which I remained fixed, without having afterwards increased half a quarter of an inch; by which the affertion of some naturalifts proves falfe, viz. that Dwarfs grow during all their lifetime. If this inftance were infufficient, I could cite that of my brother, who, like me, grew till thirty; and like me, at that age, ceafed to grow taller.' The hiftory and adventures of this extraordinary perfonage are almost as uncommon as his figure and diminutive ftature. His family having been ruined, and he being a fprightly, fenfible, and and pleafing little mortal, was taken into the protection of fome perfons of the first rank in his own country; but whofe favour he unfortunately loft, at about the age of twenty, by falling in love with, and marrying, a young lady of beauty and merit; by whom he has had two children. For fome years after his marriage, he was chiefly fupported by prefents from his illuftrious friends and patrons, together with an annuity given him by the King of Poland. He alfo received confiderable emolument from the concerts which were fet on foot, for his benefit, at feveral courts in Germany, &c.; but these resources proving rather precarious, he liftened to the joint advice of Sir R. Murray Keith, then and now British ambassador at Vienna, the Prince de Kaunitz, and the Baron de Breteuil, to pay a vifit to England, where they affured him he was likely to meet with the most generous reception; and he was promifed letters of recommendation to the greatest perfonages at the British court. Accordingly he and his family arrived in London, by the way of France, &c. in March 1782. Among his recommendatory letters, thofe directed to the Duke and Duchefs of Devonshire procured him their very kind and powerful patronage. He was likewife introduced to the Royal Family, from whom he received feveral diftinguifhed favours. Prefents and benefactions, however, being no certain provifion for the permanent and comfortable maintenance of a family, Mr. B. very naturally grew anxious, and the most humiliating fentiments took fuch poffeffion of his mind, that he at length followed the advice of those who propofed his exhibiting himfelf, firft at one guinea, then at five fhillings, and then at half a crown. Thus has our little hero been decently fupported, as he very properly expreffes it, during the fix years that he has lived in England; but we fear, from his account, that, by this time, the edge of curiofity being blunted, his income has fuffered a confiderable diminution. Among other unfortunate events, a difhoneft fervant eloped with trinkets and valuables to a large amount; and, which proved ftill worfe, a false report of his accumulating a fortune in this country having reached the ears of the King of Poland, he difcontinued Mr. B.'s penfion. This well-written narrative is concluded by the following 'painful reflections,' and pathetic addrefs to England: Such is the picture of what is paft: it is eafy to fee how pains are mingled with pleafures, fears with hopes; but what is the fate I am to expect? Am I doomed to be for ever the fport of neceffity, the flave of the moment?-Though I should submit to this humiliating idea, would it lead to the hope of fecuring, in future, a decent maintenance for my wife and children? I have but a weak conftitution; the weight of years grows every day more preffing; fhould I be fnatched away from my family, what will become of them? Whofe |