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fee with their eyes, when he was to copy nature himfelf. One wonders that he could comment their works fo well, and imitate them fo little.-He died fuddenly at his house in Queen Square, May 28, 1745, when he had paffed the eightieth year of his age. He left a fon and four daughters, one of whom was married to his difciple Mr. Hudfon, and another to Mr. Grigfon, an attorney. The tafte and learning of the fon, and the harmony in which he lived with his father, are vifible in the joint works they compofed. The father, in 1719, published two Difcourfes; 1. An Effay on the whole Art of Criticifm as it relates to Painting; 2. An Argument in Behalf of the Science of a Connoiffeur; bound in one volume octavo. In 1722, came forth An Account of fome of the Statues, Bas-reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures, in Italy, &c. with Remarks by Meff. Richardson, Sen. and Jun. The fon made the journey; and from his notes, letters, and obfervations, they both, at his return, compiled this valuable work. As the father was a formal man, with a flow, but loud and fonorous voice, and, in truth, with fome affectation in his manner; and as there is much fingularity in his ftyle and expreffion, thofe peculiarities, for they were scarce foibles, ftruck fuperficial readers, and between the laughers and the envious, the book was much ridiculed. Yet both this and the former are full of matter, good fenfe, and inftruction and the very quaintnefs of fome expreffions, and their laboured novelty, fhew the difficulty the Author had to convey mere vifible ideas through the medium of language. Those works remind one of Cibber's inimitable Treatife on the Stage. When an author writes on his own profeffion, feels it profoundly, and is fenfible his readers do not, he is not only excufable, but meritorious, for illuminating the fubject by new metaphors or bolder figures than ordinary. He is the coxcomb that fneers, not he that inftructs in appropriated diction.

If these Authors were cenfured, when converfant within their own circle, it was not to be expected that they would be treated with milder indulgence, when they ventured into a fifter region. In 1734, they publifhed a very thick octavo, containing explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradife Loft, with the Life of the Author, and a Difcourfe on the Poem. Again were the good fenfe, the judicious criticisms, and the fentiments that broke forth in this work, forgotten in the fingularities that diftinguifh it. The father having faid in apology for being little converfant in claffic literature, that he had looked into them through his fon; Hogarth, whom a quibble could furnish with wit, drew the father peeping through the nether end of a telescope, with which his fon was perforated, at a Virgil aloft on a shelf. Yet how forcibly Richardfon entered into the fpirit of his author, appears from his comprehenfive expref

fion, that Milton was an ancient born two thousand years after his time. Richardfon, however, was as incapable of reaching the fublime or harmonious in poetry as he was in painting, though fo capable of illuftrating both. Some fpecimens of verfe, that he has given us here and there in his works, excite no curiofity for more; though he informs us in his Milton, that if painting was his wife, poetry had been his fecret concubine. It is remarkable, that another commentator of Milton has made the fame confeffion;

funt et mihi carmina, me quoque dicunt Vatem paftores

fays Dr. Bentley. Neither the Doctor nor the Painter add, fed non ego credulus illis, though all their readers are ready to fupply

it for both.

Befides his pictures and commentaries, we have a few etchings by his hand, particularly two or three of Milton, and his own head.

• The fale of his collection of drawings, in February 1747, lafted eighteen days, and produced about 2060 l.; his pictures about 700. Hudfon, his fon-in-law, bought many of the drawings.'

There is little more in the first chapter of our Author's fourth volume that can afford much entertainment to our Readers, excepting the fhort account of Peter Van Black, who came into England in 1723, and was reckoned a good painter of portraits,

There is a fine mezzotinto, done in the following reign, from a picture which he painted of thofe excellent comedians, Johnfon and Griffin, in the characters of Ananias and Tribulation, in the Alchymift. I have mentioned Johnfon in this work before, as the most natural actor I ever faw. Griffin's eye and tone were a little too comic, and betrayed his inward mirth, though his muscles were ftrictly fteady. Mr. Wefton is not inferior to Johnfon in the firmness of his countenance, though lefs univerfal, as Johnfon was equally great in fome tragic characters. In Bishop Gardiner, he fupported the infolent dignity of a perfecutor; and, completely a prieft, fhifted it in an inftant to the fawning infincerity of a flave, as foon as Henry frowned. This was indeed hiftory, when Shakespeare wrote it, and Johnson reprefented it. When we read it in fictitious harangues and wordy declamation, it is a tale told by a pedant to à fchool-boy.'

[To be concluded in our next.]

AR

ART. XVI. 4 View of Society and Manners in Italy: with Anec dotes relating to fome eminent Characters. By John Moore, M. D. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12 s. Boards. Cadell. 1781.

IN

N our Review for June, 1779, we gave our Readers an account of A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany, written by the Author of the prefent publication, which is to be confidered as a continuation of the former work; as the obfervations it contains occurred in the fame Tour.

With respect to the abilities of the very ingenious Writer, we have, in the article above referred to, given our opinion; and, after perufing the volumes now before us, we fee no reafon to think lefs favourably of his talents; which are here difplayed in a manner redounding no lefs to his credit than in his former work. We here obferve the fame interesting observations on the arts, commerce, government, antiquities, &c. of the countries defcribed; the fame judgment and tafte in drawing, marking, and difcriminating national characters and manners; the fame happy vein of pleasantry in the relation of anecdotes, in the description of places, in the details of journies,—and in the various interfperfion of incidents and remarks with which an intelligent traveller judiciously fills up his journal,-for the refreshment of his own memory, and, peradventure, as in the prefent inftance, for the information and amufement of others.

If in any circumftance we think this prefent publication inferior to the former volumes, it is in refpect to the comparative scantinefs of his travelled obfervations;-of which, in one or two inftances, he feems, himself, to have been fo fenfible, that he appears to have had recourse to the bookmaker's art and industry, in order to fill up the full measure of his materials. To this caufe fome Readers, it is poffible, will be apt to afcribe his infertion of an hiftorical account (extended to above 200 pages) of the rife, progress, and prefent ftate of the republic of Venice, and of a long differtation on the pulmonary confumption. The latter, indeed, may anfwer a peculiar view to the Author: it may ferve to announce to the Public a new PHYSICIAN. His numerous and ample quotations from the poets, &c. feem not unfrequently to come in, very seasonably, to ftop the mouth of many a craving page.

From books of this entertaining as well as inftructive caft, our Readers will always expect fome extracts; we have, accordingly, felected a few paffages, which, we believe, will not be

It must be obferved, however, that this account, though long, is much enlivened by many interesting, and fome very affecting bijiories, and judicious obfervations.

confidered

confidered as the leaft agreeable part of our Collection for the prefent month.

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The public hath frequently heard of the adventures of that ftrange genius, Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu*, who, many years ago, took it into his head to ramble about the eastern parts of the globe, in the dress of an Hermit or Dervish; and who lately died at Venice; in which city this extraordinary perfon refided, at the time when our travellers + were there; and our Author gives us the following account of their vifit to him: Hearing that Mr. Montagu refided at Venice, the D- of has had the curiofity to wait on that extraordinary man. He met his Grace at the stair-head, and led us through fome apartments, furnished in the Venetian manner, into an inner room in quite a different ftyle. There were no chairs, but he defired us to feat ourselves on a fopha, whilft he placed himself on a cushion on the floor, with his legs croffed in the Turkish fashion. A young black flave fat by him, and a venerable old man, with a long beard, served us with coffee.

H.

After this collation fome aromatic gums were brought, and burnt in a little filver veffel. Mr. Montagu held his nofe over the fteam for fome minutes, and fnuffed up the perfume with peculiar fatisfaction; he afterwards endeavoured to collect the fmoke with his hands, spreading and rubbing it carefully along his beard, which hung in hoary ringlets to his girdle. This manner of perfuming the beard feems more cleanly, and rather an improvement upon that used by the Jews in ancient times, as defcribed in the pfalms tranflated by Sternhold and Hopkins:

'Tis like the precious ointment, that

Was pour'd on Aaron's head,

Which from the beard down to the skirts
Of his rich garments spread.

Or, as the Scotch translation has it:

Like precious ointment on the head
That down the beard did flow;

Even Aaron's beard, and to the skirts
Did of his garments go.

"Which of these versions is preferable, I leave to the critics in Hebrew and English poesy to determine. I hope, for the fake of David's reputation as a poet, that neither have retained all the fpirit of the

*He was fon to the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and brother to the prefent Countess of Bute. This gentleman, like his celebrated mother, has been diftinguished by feveral literary publications, particularly an octavo volume, entitled, Reflections on the Rife and Fall of Ancient Republics: See Review, vol. xx. p. 419.

We fay travellers, because our Author, in this tour, accompanied the young Duke of H; who must be confidered as the principal perfon of the party and who, in fact, makes a refpectable figure in Pr. Mocre's narratives.

original.

original. We had a great deal of converfation with this venerable looking perfon, who is, to the laft degree, acute, communicative, and entertaining, and in whofe difcourfe and manners are blended the vivacity of a Frenchman with the gravity of a Turk. We found him, however, wonderfully prejudiced in favour of the Turkish characters and manners, which he thinks infinitely preferable to the European, or those of any other nation.

He defcribes the Turks in general as a people of great fenfe and integrity, the moft hofpitable, generous, and the happieft of mankind. He talks of returning, as foon as poffible, to Egypt, which he paints as a perfect paradife; and thinks that, had it not been otherwise ordered for wife purposes, of which it does not become us to judge, the children of Ifrael would certainly have chosen to remain where they were, and have endeavoured to drive the Egyptians to the land of Canaan.

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Though Mr. Montagu hardly ever ftirs abroad, he returned the D's vifit; and as we were not provided with cushions, he fat, while he ftaid, upon a fopha, with his legs under him, as he had done at his own houfe. This pofture, by long habit, is now become the most agreeable to him, and he infifts on its being by far the most natural and convenient; but, indeed, he feems to cherish the fame opinion with regard to all the customs which prevail among the Turks. I could not help mentioning one, which I fufpected would be thought both unnatural and inconvenient by at least one half of the human race; that of the men being allowed to engross as many wo men as they can maintain, and confining them to the most infipid of all lives, within their harams. "No doubt," replied he, "the wo men are all enemies to polygamy and concubinage; and there is rea fon to imagine, that this averfion of theirs, joined to the great inAuence they have in all Chriftian countries, has prevented Mahometanifm from making any progrefs in Europe. The Turkish men, on the other hand," continued he, "have an averfion to Chriftianity, equal to that which the Chriftian women have to the religion of Mahomet: auricular confeflion is perfectly horrible to their imagination. No Turk, of any delicacy, would ever allow his wife, particularly if he had but one, to hold private conference with a man, on any pretext whatever."

I took notice, that this averfion to auricular confeffion, could not be a reafon for the Turk's diflike to the Proteftant religion." That is true," faid he, "but you have other tenets in common with the Catholics, which render your religion as odious as their's. You for¬ bid polygamy and concubinage, which, in the eyes of the Turks, who obey the dictates of the religion they embrace, is confidered as an intolerable hardship. Befides, the idea which your religion gives of heaven, is by no means to their tafte. If they believed your ac count, they would think it the most tiresome and comfortless place in the univerfe, and not one Turk among a thousand would go to the Christian heaven if he had it in his choice. Laftly, the Chriftian religion confiders women, as creatures upon a level with men, and equally entitled to every enjoyment, both here and hereafter. When the Turks are told this," added he, they are not furprised at being informed also, that women, in general, are better Chriftians than

men;

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