entirely at their ease, and inclined them to listen to the sweet low tones in which he began to discourse on some lofty theme. They were charmed into a consciousness similar to that ascribed by one poet to the hearers of another Thus moving in his own enchanted sphere, The stimulus of society became as necessary a condition to the full exposition of his mental stores, as that of opium to the morbid demands of his nervous system: give him his hushed expectant circle, and he would pour forth, in ceaseless profusion, the spolia opima of his long career in the ranks of poesy and philosophy. Few will dissent from the observation of one who knew him well, that there was a noble prodigality in these outpourings, a generous disdain of self, an earnest desire to scatter abroad the seeds of wisdom and beauty, to take root wherever they might fall, and spring up without bearing his name or impress. His sentences were modulated to an "unheard melody," relieved by "richest pauses, evermore drawn from each other mellow-deep." On the ears of the assessors they fell as with the sound of a soft inland murmur. But surely we have quoted and rambled to the end of our tether; and by this time we have as little disposition to attempt, as the reader to peruse, a balance-sheet of all the pros and cous we have cited in rê Coleridge the table-talker. If the witnesses summoned into court have given discrepant evidence, we can but leave the testimony on record, and advise the jury-not being a packed one-to forbear intemperate recrimination against the ultras of either side, the Hares and Sterlings, or the Hazlitts and Carlyles; and, in short, to ruminate the sometimes wholesome maxim which bids us agree to differ. Life of Charles Lamb. † Goethe (Swanwick's translation). STOTHARD. THE life of every great artist is a page in the general history of art. This is true of all who by their genius have illustrated that wide and noble field, but it is eminently so of one who, like Thomas Stothard, achieved from such small beginnings a fame so assured as that which he has bequeathed. His life, moreover, is traced more distinctly in his works than is usually the case with men of the class to which he belonged; for of the generality we find, that their earliest efforts, those mere indications of future fame, are more traditional than extant, and that accident or intention have placed them beyond the reach of examination. But in the instance of Stothard this is far from being the case. The first attempts which he made are accessible to all-the drawings which attracted the attention of his first patron still exist; and were they not to be found on the shelves of our libraries, the agreeable volume which Mrs. Bray has written would amply afford them, so abundantly do her pages teem with fac-simile engravings from the original designs. As a written biography of Stothard, the present "Life" is less complete. This is not the fault of Mrs. Bray, but is attributable to the want of the necessary materials for compiling a consecutive and detailed account of the distinguished painter, with whom Mrs. Bray was connected no less by sentiments of affection than by the ties of domestic relation. Of the scantiness of her resources Mrs. Bray complains, telling us how little was attainable for her purpose beyond the generally-known facts of her fatherin-law's history; his private letters, which are chiefly addressed to his wife, being so few, and for the most part confined to subjects of only domestic and passing interest, and his personal memoranda so imperfect, rarely bearing a date, and seldom more than fragmentary. From personal intercourse, it seems, little biographical information was to be gleaned, owing to Stothard's natural reserve, and the modesty which prevented him from talking of himself. Mrs. Bray has, however, derived assistance from the anecdotes communicated by contemporaneous artists and literary men; Mr. Leslie, R.A., and Mr. Peter Cunningham having aided her in this respect; and on the whole a very pleasant, if not a very perfect biography has been the result. Thomas Stothard was born in London, on the 17th of August, 1755. His father, though descended from a good family, was an instance of the mutations of "the whirling wheel" of Fortune, and occupied no higher station than that of an innkeeper, first at Stutton, near Tadcaster, in Yorkshire, and afterwards in the metropolis, whither he removed a few years before the future great painter was born, and carried on his business in Long Acre. At five years of age, being of delicate health, Stothard was sent to live with his uncle, at Acomb, near York, and was placed under the care of Mrs. Stainburn, "a good woman and a staunch Presbyterian," who kept a day-school in the village, and was, doubtless, the original, whom the painter had in his memory when, in after years, he illustrated "The Schoolmistress" of the poet Shenstone. Under the care of his re * Life of Thomas Stothard, R.A. With Personal Reminiscences. By Mrs. Bray. London: Murray, 1851. It lations, Stothard grew stronger; and with his strength was developed a love of art which formed the marked feature of his whole existence. originated, Stothard himself says, after this fashion: "The old lady had two sons in the Temple, London, who sent her a present of some of the heads of Houbraken, framed and glazed; likewise an engraving of the "Blind Belisarius," by Strange; and some religious pictures by the same artist. I looked often and earnestly at those productions; for the old lady seemed pleased with my admiration of them. I gazed till a love of art grew within me, and a desire to imitate what was on her walls. I got bits of paper and pencils, and made many attempts. I could see that my hand was improving, and I had sketched some things not amiss, when, at eight years old, I was removed to Stutton, the birthplace of my father. Before this I should have mentioned that my father, pleased with my attempts, had sent me boxes of colours, which I knew so little how to use, that I applied to a house-painter for some mixed paint, which he gave me in an oyster-shell, and the first man I painted was in black. I had no examples: you know how necessary they are literature may be taught by words, art must come through signs. When eight years old Stothard was withdrawn from Mrs. Stainburn's care, and sent to school at Tadcaster, where he remained till he was thirteen; he then left Yorkshire altogether, and was placed at "a genteel boarding-school" at Ilford, in Essex, where, amongst other outward signs of gentility, he learned to dance, his preceptor being no other than Grimaldi, the celebrated clown; though it does not appear that Stothard ever turned the accomplishment he thus acquired to any notable account. When Stothard was fourteen he lost his father, who left him the sum of 12007., and for a year afterwards he resided with his mother in a small house at Stepney Green; but his fondness for drawing becoming every day more manifest, he was then apprenticed to a draftsman of patterns for brocaded silks, where, if he learnt nothing else, he must have acquired freedom of hand and something of a flowing style. But this description of art did not content him, and in his leisure evening hours he occupied himself in making designs, chiefly from the "Iliad" and the "Faery Queen;" and his master indulged him, by allowing him to paint in oil from these compositions. Though a kind man, it was well for Stothard that his master died before the term of his apprenticeship had expired; for though he continued with the widow, who carried on the business, an incident happened through her instrumentality which determined his future career. At her request the young painter gave her one or two of his sketches to ornament her parlour, and these were accidentally seen by Mr. Harrison, the editor of the Novelists' Magazine, as he called one evening with a friend, who went to give the widow a business commission. Mr. Harrison, struck with Stothard's skill, took a novel from his pocket, desiring him to read it, and when he met with a subject that struck his fancy, to make a design from it. The young man did so, and produced three sketches, of which Mr. Harrison approved so much that he gave him half a guinea; "and," says Mrs. Bray, "Stothard's future lot was decided." When about twenty years of age, Stothard formed an intimacy with Shelly, the miniature-painter; Darcey, an artist; and a clever amateur draughtsman named Scarlett, a clerk in the Bank of England; all of whom studied together, and in whose society he made considerable progress. At the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1777, we find him living with his mother at Bethnal Green, "studious of the art of painting, and adding a little to my narrow income, by now and then painting some small family portraits amongst my acquaintances." In the following year he paid a visit to Portsmouth, where his friend Darcey had begun a successful professional career, and on his return took lodgings in the Strand, in company with his other friend Shelly, and lived on the interest of his 12007. and his small gains, derived chiefly from the works he illustrated for Mr. Harrison, on whose Novelists' Magazine, and other books of that kind, he was engaged until 1783. By these early drawings -exquisite as they were, and for which collectors now give any price, his "gains" were 66 small" indeed. Stothard states, in some old memoranda of accounts found in his own handwriting, that he made 148 designs for the Novelists' Magazine, at one guinea each; that for twenty-six designs for the Poetical Magazine, he had the same rate of payment; that for twenty theatrical frontispieces (and these were always portraits of the chief actors and actresses of the day) he received seven shillings each; and that for every separate border or vignette his remuneration was six shillings. The beauty of these illustrations is here made evident to the reader of Mrs. Bray's "Life," by a full-length portrait of Mrs. Jordan in the character of Priscilla Tomboy, and scattered all through the volume are similar evidences of the genius which was condemned to illustrate such ephemeral productions as the "magazines" of that day, the pocketbooks, and even the "ladies' fashions," in which latter many a sweet face has rendered the caprice of costume immortal. Soon after Stothard joined Shelly, he was admitted a student at Maiden-lane, where (before the establishment of the Royal Academy at Somerset House) the artists held their meetings, and the young men drew from the living model and the antique: he had, also, the advantage of being frequently admitted to the house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, by whose advice and criticism he greatly benefited. We have a notice here of the manner in which he studied, which may safely be commended to general attention. His practice was to sketch his subjects in pen and ink, on a scale of about five inches, for the purpose of impressing them on his mind at once, and of familiarising him with proportions; he would then change the aspect, and, before he had finished, make seven or eight drawings of the same figure. During the holidays of the Academy, he used to make excursions into Wales to study scenery; and the sketches with which he filled his portfolio were those on which he afterwards founded the backgrounds introduced into his illustrations of "Robinson Crusoe," the "Fête Champêtre," and the "Decameron." An adventure occurred to him about this time, which the experience of many living artists-to say nothing of that of Hogarth, so admirably rendered last year by Ward-can parallel. While out on a sketching expedition up the Medway, himself and his companions, Ogleby and Blake, the eccentric artist, were made prisoners by an over-vigilant sentry, who took them for French spies; nor were they released from the terrors of the capturing bayonet till responsible friends appeared to vouch for their loyalty and British citizenship. The date is not given, but it appears to have been shortly after this temporary thraldom that Stothard willingly devoted himself to one of a more permanent nature, from which he never attempted to set himself free. He fell in love with a fair Anabaptist, Miss Rebecca Watkins, whom he afterwards married, though not without a protracted courtship. Perhaps he thought he had taken trouble enough in his suit, or it might have been the "serenity" which, Mrs. Bray says, 66 was a marked feature in his character," that caused him so quietly to abandon his bride on her wedding-day; but that he left her very much to herself on that eventful occasion, we have the following proof: After he had led his beloved to the altar, not to lose an hour from his studies, even on his wedding-day, he conducted home his bride, and then very quietly walked down to the Academy, to draw from the antique till three o'clock, the hour at which it then closed. There he sat, by the side of a fellow-student named Scott, with whom he was intimate, and after drawing the usual time, at length said to his friend, "I am now going home to meet a family party. Do come and dine with me, for I have this day taken to myself a wife." It is said that when the late Sir Charles Wetherell was married he showed himself equally attached to his profession, to the neglect of her to whom his troth had just been plighted; for the learned knight went further than the painter-he disappeared altogether, and when sought for, as a dernier ressort, in his chambers, was discovered amidst a heap of papers, endeavouring to solve questions of practice nearly as intricate as the duty of a husband towards a newly-married wife. The consequences of marriage, however, rapidly and regularly presented themselves; for, within as many years, Stothard found himself the father of eleven children; and this increasing family compelled him to accept commissions that were too trifling, and of too minute an order, for a painter such as he was. We have already alluded to the character of those works, and if, for Stothard's sake, we regret that he was occupied on sketches of royal balls and hunts, of ladies' head-dresses, and theatrical celebrities, for the sake of that style of art of which he was the founder, our regret is very greatly diminished. But, though obliged to devote himself to the illustration of court amusements, he received, we are sorry to say, none of the patronage of the court; nor were his merits recognised by that universal patron, Sir George Beaumont; and while he toiled for the bookseller, his labours often wrung from him regrets which Mrs. Bray has thus embodied : He used, with regret, to compare the condition of an English historical painter with one of the old Italian school. The latter, were he really skilled in painting, was certain to have ample time and opportunity afforded him to execute a great picture. Whilst it was in progress he was supported by his prince, or by one of the nobility, who would take him into his palace, give him spacious apartments, and cause him to be treated with all honour. He had not one worldly care to distract him, or take off his attention from his work, or to compel him to hasten over it, or to bestow on it one hour less than he desired. But the English painter, left solely to his own unassisted and precarious exertions, is often obliged to hasten through one subject to secure employment upon another for bread, and lives by the number of the works he executes, instead of by their individual excellence as works of art. But in spite of the want of encouragement, which a more generous appreciation of his genius in high quarters would have removed, Stothard made his way steadily in the path of public approbation; and in the year 1792, when in his thirty-seventh year, was elected an associate of the |