article, the extracts from the journal of madame Brulart's travels with her difciples, through various parts of France. She defcribes, in a very agreeable manner, many objects unvifted by the generality of travellers. The molt complete accounts are thofe of the monaftery of La Trappe, a villa called Navarre near Conches, Maupertuis, Cayeu, Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, &c. Of Navarre our governefs obferves, I believe that the gardens here are beyond all comparifon the moft beautiful and agreeable in France: they appear to me in finitely superior to thofe of Chantilly they are immenfe, and united to a vaft foreft. The pieces of water are admirable; a beautiful and large natural river pafles through the gardens, and forms ftreams and cafcades which play night and day, and in all feafons. The wonderful beauty of the woods and wa ters, that majeftic foreft which furrounds the gardens, the profufion of flowers, the great quantity of rare trees and fhrubs, the magnificence of the buildings, the variety of the ground, the good tafle and greatnefs which rule in general the diftribution and the plan, the vast extent of the gardens, all confpire to render this place truly worthy to excite the curio fiey of our amateurs and of foreigners. In the French divifion the temple of Hebe is the most remarkable; it is delicious from its cafcades, its flowers, and the points of view which embellish it. In the English part, the most charming fabric is the temple of Love, in the ifle of the fame name. On the outfide it represents a beautiful temple in ruins, ornamented with antique baffo relievos. The infide is magic; an elegant round faloon, clothed with white marble, and fupported by columns of cryftal, of an exquifite violet colour, through the tranfparency of which the day glimmers. Many tripods en riched with gilt bronzes, and upon which perfumes burn, are placed between the columns. In different receffes are placed canopies. This faloon is lighted from the cupola, and by the mild light which penetrates through the columns. The furni ture, which is of white fatin embroidered, does not correspond with the reft: it ought to be of violet fatin with gold fringe; and I fhould alfo with that the cupola were glazed with vio let-coloured glafs, to agree with the pillars.'

The following defcription presents a ftrong contraft. 'We went this afternoon to fee a very fingular village, called Cayeu. It is on the fea-fhore, and confifts of about 800 houses. The fhore is there very high, and is compofed of fand thrown up by the wind, which fometimes carries the fand all over the village; fo that in walking through that melancholy place one is up to the ancle in fand, and for a great extent there grows neither tree nor buth, nor a pile of grafs. One would believe

one's

one's-felf transported into the deserts of Africa; and when the wind is violent, which is common on the coast, the fand rises in whirls, and entirely covers this unfortunate village. But fishing, and a confequent fecurity of fubfiftende, retains the wretched inhabitants, in spite of fo much mifery, and in spite. of the deprivation of verdure, fruits, herbs, fweet water, and, of all that nature every where else offers to the poor.'

We cannot conclude without recommending madame Bru lart's obfervations on the gymnastic part of education to public attention; for this important province, though gradually ac quiring notice, is not yet regarded in the effential point of view which it demands.

Storia della Pittura, e la Scultura, da i Tempi pin Antichi The Hiftory of Painting and Sculpture from the earliest At counts. Vol. I: 4to. Calcutta. 1788.

THIS fingular work is written in Italian and English, correfponding page for page. The author, Mr. Hickey, informs us in his Preface, that the idea of fuch a work had ngaged his cafua: reflection for fome confiderable time; but re had not an opportunity of pursuing his defign, until the leifure of a flow India voyage fuggefted the means.

From the limited number of books which formed his little collection during the paffage, and from the fmall hopes which be entertained of procuring here fuch as were neceffary for his purpose, and for a variety of other reasons on his arrival in Calcutta, he determined to referve for fome future leisure, fuch as a returning voyage might afford, the employment of refuming the fubject.

But the intense heat which for a certain portion of a year, almost fufpends every occupation, but that of writing, at which time other circumstances unite to cause a ceffation of his pro feffional employment, and have concurred to revive the thought, and, at length prompted to a diligent enquiry after fuch aids as might here be obtained as to books.

'From the polite and liberal accefs afforded to him by thofe gentlemen here, who hold the moft diftinguished rank in their learned profeffions, he procured fuch an unexpected supply from their valuable libraries as greatly encouraged him to per fevere; and, in the end enabled him to prefent this little pe cimen of his labours to the public infpection.'

To the Preface fucceeds an Introduction, the first paragraph of which is chofen, as an impartial fpecimen of Mr. Hickey's prolix language, and uncommon phrafeology. Mm å *The

The works of great artists, as far as relates to the arts, form the most inftructive hiftory of their lives; and, where any further knowledge, that may develope the means by which they brought their operations to effect, can by any research or industry be attained, in cannot fail to advance the progrefs of the arts, and ftrengthen the force of thofe examples. Men of fingular talents, and accomplished powers, in profeflions whofe original merits lye in the intellect itfelf, are, in their characters and manners alfo, fubjects concerning whom our curiofity is naturally excited; and often, from a contemplation of thefe, leffons of inftruction may be derived, of further indulgence to the enquiry: and, though the effential uses that are to be drawn from the lives of the artifts, more immediately relate to the arts themselves, yet, from the influence which their encouragement and fuperior progrefs in a ftate has upon its wealth and political confequence, it is a fubject which, in fome measure, cannot but be interefting to the community at large, but more especially to the felect and enlightened representations of it.'

In the fame style is the reft of the work; which is, in ge neral, illiterate, erroneous, and languid, in no inferior degree It is almost entirely derived from the productions of Adrian? Carlo Dati, and other Italian writers, whofe fentences fupply much of the Italian text. The original writers, Mr. Hickey feems rarely to have confulted; and we cannot find that Ju nius de Pictura Veterum is even known to him by name. We fhall only further remark on the Introduction that Appelles and Felebien, are fpecimens of mere orthography; and that the authors of the lives of the painters, at the end of Dryden's tranflation of Fresnoy, unknown to Mr. H. was one Graham.

In the work, as our author informs us, the paffages not marked with inverted commas, are from Adriani, &c. and the reft of the work must be laid to the author's charge; who, as we judge from the conclufion of the Introduction, is a portrait painter. Not to fpeak of the abfurdity of putting marks of quotation to his own paragraphs, and omitting them before the paffages really quoted, we muft fay that the verbosity and ungrammatical Italian may be fairly charged to the author, but little of the fenfe or information is his own.

Mr. Hickey has a particular ill fortune in ftumbling on the threshold: his work begins with the following curious fentence:

The remote antiquity to which the arts are indebted for their origin, lies fo far beyond the investigation of their refearches, that even our imagination is fruftrated in the attempt to alight upon the period of their outfet.'

The

The origin and early progrefs of painting is traced, in a vague and inauthenticated manner, from Egypt to Greece. Many are the digrerlions on Homer and Herodotus, and other trivial themes; but as a more favourable fpecimen of this work, we fhall felect the following extract. After mentioning the fuppofed invention of painting by the Corinthian maid, and the progrefs of Cleanthes of Corinth, who drew portraits without the aid of the lamp and fhadow, Mr. H. proceeds.

The imitative powers, thus roufed into action, communicated their influence from Cleanthes to Ardices of Corinth and Telephanes of Sicyon; who both carried the art a step farther, boldly venturing to mark the inward portions of the figure; and, by means of lines fcattered throughout, attempted to fhadow it, without, however, the affiftance of any colour. At this stage of the art it was the custom to write, under each performance, the name of the person or thing which was intended to be reprefented.

To give to this laft improvement of fhadowing, by lines and scratches, the addition of colour, fell to the invention of Cleophantes of Corinth.

To him, fuccecded Hygienon, Dinias, and Charmas; who advanced the art fo far as to diftinguifh, in his pictures, a man from a woman, without the affistance of writing at the bottom.

Eumarus, the Athenian, ventured to attempt drawing a variety of figures, and

"Cimon, the Cieonian, improved upon him, fo far as to draw objects out of their direct and horizontal pofitions, and boldly venture at forefhortenings, and also to turn the face into different directions, to mark the articulation at the joints. of his figures, diftinguish the veins, and bend his drapery into fome folds.

This effort, therefore, of Cymon, muft appear to have been no inconfiderable ftride towards improvement.

'However, to this ftage of the art we can easily conceive that its attempts might have arrived at a very early progrefs of cultivated fociety, not only amongst the Greeks, but in the infancy of any other nation; and it is, perhaps, the very mode of proceeding which, in every country, the art would adopt, independent of communications with more enlightened people. Hence, amongst thofe of Greece, who afterwards be. came the moft illuftrious in the arts, we may ascribe that progrefs, as far as the time of Cymon, to the remote ages of their antiquities; in which proceeding we are feconded by the ancient writers, to whom no memorial had been tranfmitted refpecting the period in which those artists lived.

M m 3

In

In this place there fucceeds an interval of great extent from which not a ray of information proceeds, to aflift our enquiries, in the hiftory of Grecian artists, until the time of Candaules, king of Lydia, who died about 690 years before the birth of our Saviour; and of whom it is recorded, that a picture, in which Bularchus had painted a battle of the Magnefians, afforded him fo much pleasure, that he rewarded BuJarchus for the picture with its weight in gold. In fuch a degree of eftimation was painting held at that period.

From the teftimony of Pliny it is alfo affirmed, that in his time there were evident proofs that painting had been introduced, even in Italy, before the time of Romulus; for, that in the ancient city of Ardea, there exifted pictures of that antiquity, and that had been fo well preferved as to appear of recent date,

At Lanuvium alfo, and by the hand of the fame artift, he fays, that there was an Atalanta and a Helen of fuch excellent performance, that Pontius, the lieutenant of the emperor Cajus, withed fo much to have them, particularly the Ata lanta, that he would have preferved them from the ruins of the temple, and taken them away, if the vaulted shape of the ceiling, where they were painted, had permitted him to remove them,

By what steps the art had advanced to that point, reached by Bularchus, about the 20th olympiad, lies, as we have ob ferved, wholly concealed from our knowledge; but, from what has been laid down, it must appear evident, that the pro grefs was not made by thofe flow degrees which, without the intercourfe of other nations where the arts had already arrived at a flourishing ftate, the Greeks of themfelves would have advanced it. The arts were at once transplanted to Greece with the colonies from Egypt.

That the records of painting, prior to the 20th olympiad, fhould not have reached us, does not appear a matter of furprize; but that from that period a fpace of two hundred years Thould have elapfed, without furnithing us with any memorials concerning them, cannot but excite our wonder; efpecially as that space comprizes, in the Grecian history, a ca talogue of names, which either as heroes, philofophers, hifto rians, or poets, gave the brighteft luftre to their annals. We, hence, have no inconfiderable cause to lament the filence. under which the art, during that period, continued its ope

rations.'

Upon this paufe our author paffes to the origin of ancient fculpture. After which we find the life of Phidias, followed by a chronological table of the progrefs of ancient painting and fculpture. Mr. Hickey then returns to the history of