ON account of an accident which occurred in the printing of two of the Cartoons, ciz. the "Charge to Peter," and the "Sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas,” we are prevented from including them in the Supplement, according to our promise.—Our Subscribers, however, may rest assured, that they will be presented gratis in the next Number of the Magazine; which will likewise contain an outline of the "Death of General Wolfe;" all being in addition to the usual decorations.

EXPLANATION OF THE PRINTS.

ALL THE CARTOONS OF RAPHAEL,

NOW IN HAMPTON COURT.

figure is Peter.-He stands erect and firm, with a full confidence in his divine office, and the power to punish guilt in HIM who sent him-His mantle is thrown around him with surprising simplicity and dignity. -He stretches forth his hand, and points with his finger towards the falling Ananias, denouncing the terrible judgment of God, and the awful example which was required in this early state of the church, to repel every approach of corruption and fraud.A kind of divine austerity pervades the group around him; and, in the whole works of Raphael, there is nothing, perhaps, which more evidently marks the sublimity of his genius than the composition of this single group. The accuracy with which he has conceived the several characters; the propriety with which he has brought them forward in their due stations and respective dignities; the expression which he has given them, at once so majestically

the noble simplicity with which the whole is crowned, are points of excellence which the pencil of Raphael has never carried farther.

THE moment of time which Raphael has chosen in this Composition, is that in which the apostle Peter, by the divine inspiration of the holy ghost, detects the fraud of Ananias, and upbraids him in the above language of scripture.-Struck with the consciousness of his guilt, he replies not.-Smitten by the immediate hand of death, his fall is sudden and terrible.-severe, so serenely firm; and, above all, The figures, on each side of him, are evidently impressed with a consciousness that the judgment of heaven has overtaken him. -The characters which form the other groups, as yet ignorant of this awful event, In the disposition of this group, we see are employed in presenting their first alms the unaspiring, the incorrupt, the simple, and offerings, their goods and their money, and unpatronized state of the early church; to the fathers of the primitive church.-On ||a few sails, and a common scaffold newly one side, the apostles are receiving the contributions of the pious; on the other, they are distributing them amongst the poor; whilst Peter, and his brethren in the centre, appear from their thought and action, more immediately connected with the awfui scene before them.

In this composition Raphael has employed no more figures than were necessary to bring home the subject with its due character and force, and to shew the state of the church at the first dawn of christianity. -The composition is divided into three leading groups-The centre is composed of the apostles, amongst whom the principal

put together, separate the Christian fathers from the surrounding groups. From this simple platform they are delivering the word of truth, and dispensing the punishment of heaven upon the guilty-So cor- rect, so simple, so deeply unded in nature and truth were the taste and judgment of Raphael.

The composition of this group, together with the falling Ananias, who is so finely || connected with the figures in the centre by the action of Peter, forms what Raphae intended should be the climax of thi subject, and that which should distinguis]; it from all others.

No. II.

PAUL PREACHING AT ATHENS.

Vide-Acts of the Apostles, Chap. 17.

THE moment of time which Raphael has chosen in this composition, is that in which Paul rises in the midst of Mount Mars-He is surrounded by the different sects of Philosophers which then divided Athens, and all the heads of the various schools in which science and wisdom were taught in that illustrious seat of learning. We here see the Epicurean, and the Stoic Philosopher; the Peripatetic, and the disciple of Epictetus; the Cynic, and the Areopagite.

must have been his feelings, what the ener-
gies of his mind at this moment?-There
is a sufficient answer to the question in the
figure which Raphael has given us of Paul
in the present composition.-We see him
placed firmly and immovably upon both
feet, like a column under that new fabric
he was about to raise.-Both arms are lifted
up; his action is at once simple and full,
of almost colossal strength; his countenance
is firm, steadfast, and replete with expres-
sion: and each attitude and motion carry
the stamp
and reflect the qualities of that
divine faith which he was now promulgat-
ing in all its first pureness and simplicity
-This figure, as a work of art, leaves us
nothing to wish or expect beyond it.

When we consider what must have been Let us now turn to the characters of his the feelings of Paul at this moment; what audience.-How wonderful has been the must have been the energies of his mind variety and discrimination of Raphael in in order to meet the situation in which he this part of his composition.-The leading was thrown, when he beholds himself in figure in this group is that of the Philosothe most cultivated city of the ancient pher who stands forward in the centre of world, and in the midst of the most polish- the Picture.-Not his counterance and ed people, a people justly proud of their action only, but even his drapery bespeaks pre-eminence in every branch of Philoso-his character and his feelings-tie is eviphy and Art; when we consider that he dently occupied in full thought, in tranquil was promulgating, for the first time, the reasoning and the contemplation of obobscure and unknown doctrines of Chris-jects now first starting upon his mind.— tianity, of which it was one of its principal The serene and thinking mind is well triumphs that it set at nought all the marked by the grand flow and broad folds efforts of human learning, and placed the of the drapery, and the placidity of his virtues of the man against every talent of aspect denotes the soul of the Philosopher the scholar; when we consider that this This figure is finely contrasted with the chosen Apostle of the Gentiles was now group disputing amongst themselves-The entering, for the first time, upon the great turbulence of controversy is well shewn in objects of his mission, that of confounding the confused folds of the drapery; and the idolatry and crushing paganism wherever scoffers and the hearers are characterized he went; when we consider likewise, that with equal skill and choice-The half he was attacking it in its chosen citadel and yielding convert, leaning on his crutch, is school, where it reigned in all its triumph nobly expressive of a wavering faith, and of pomp and magnificence, surrounded and the countenances of Damaris and Diony defended by philosophy and science, and sius leave us no doubt of their conviction. Supported and decorated with all the splen- It is by reasoning upon these principles of lour and glory that could be derived from science which governed the choice of Rathe art and genius of man, when we rephael in this composition, that we are led Tect, we say, upon this glorious, but no less to a conviction, that as a work of art, in the rying situation, in which Paul was cast, higher qualities of design, expression, and o combat with all human learning in de-composition, it has never been excelled by ence of its own prejudice and in aid of its the pencil of man. >wn power, we are naturally led to ask what