till he go and witness the sublime original. We are informed in the catalogue, "That the general effect proposed to be excited in this picture, is the terrible sublime, and its various modifications, until lost in the opposite extremes of pity and horror. That Mr. West was of opinion that to delineate a physical form, which in its moral impression would approximate to that of the visionary Death of Milton, it was necessary to endow it with the appearance of superhuman energy; he has therefore exerted the utmost force of his pencil on the central figure.He has depicted the King of Terrors, with the physiognomy of the dead in a charnel house, but animated almost to ignition with rage; placed on his head the kingly crown, and clothed the length of his limbs with a robe of funereal sable. His uplifted right hand holds no sceptre, but is entwined with the serpent which first. brought death into the world, and he launches his darts from both hands in all directions with a merciless impartiality. His horse rushes forward with the wildness. of a tempestuous element, breathing livid pestilence, rearing and trampling with unbridled fury. Behind him is seen an insidious Demon, bearing the torch of discord, with a monstrous progeny of the reptile world, the ministers of hell, who had power given them over the fourth part of the earth. The three other horses, E * and their riders, mentioned in the 6th chapter of Revelations, form the other departments of the picture. "A domestic group in the foreground, represents a family immediately under the hoofs of the rearing forefeet of the pale horse. It is here that the painter contrasts the surrounding horrors with images of tenderness and beauty. The mother has expired in the act of embracing her children, and sudden death is emphatically expressed in the infant that has fallen from her breast. The husband deprecates the wrath of the hideous spectre that advances over them, while a surviving girl catches hold of her dead mother, sensible only of the loss she has sustained. "In the other groups, which form the right hand division in the picture, the artist has shown the anarchy of the combats of men with the beasts of the earth.The chief of the human figures in this division, is one in the act of launching his javelin at a lion, which has seized and brought down a man and his horse. In the character with the javelin, Mr. West has endeavoured to delineate that species of courageous muscular strength which enables some men to face, with an undaunted countenance, the rage of the most ferocious animals. The sedate bravery of his look affords a fine contrast to the terror of the person who is seized by the lion, which he had wounded with his spear. Below them is a youth, combat, and received who has broken his lance in the a fatal blow on the head; behind them a horseman comes forward with an uplifted sword, in the act of striking at a lioness that is springing up. In this portion of the picture the firmament is rent by lightning, and a distant group is seen startled by the death of a young man who has been struck, and whose friends support him in their arms. The principle of destruction is exemplified through every part of the subject." On the whole, the "Death on the pale horse," and the Christ rejected," are two exalted efforts in the art of painting, and worthy of high honour. But who can execute any performance that will equal that awful portraiture that already exists in the mind, touching the scenes of the last times, as recorded in the Apocalypse? Our own Death on the pale horse is far more dreadful than any thing that can be detained on canvas. And although the form of the Saviour in the Christ Rejected is most holy and beautiful, yet who can pourtray the lineaments of Emmanuel? Indeed, the mind which ponders deeply the glorious personality of God manifested in the flesh, is likely to be swallowed up by the contemplation of the spiritual meaning of this astonishing mystery of love, rather than be confined to a definition of the more outward aspect of the blessed Redeemer. But I desist from observations that look a little like criticism, of which, on this occasion, I would regret to be guilty. April 25. I dare say that my reader is now becoming impatient to cross the channel. I shall not detain him, but pass down to Dover, with the following remarks, in the style of a travelling common-place book. Started from Holborn, in the Dover coach, at halfpast 7 a. m., unbreakfasted. Mem. to make it a rule to enquire at the office whether the coach breakfasts on the road. A sea captain and his wife. Blackheath, Shutershill, Dartford, all milk-and-water places, as usual, without a distinctive mark. The Thames, a tame concern. Remembrances of the Frith of Forth. Breakfasted on a glass of ale. Stupid all day. Coun try about Feversham, like an hop poles, yet unclothed. immense garden. Bare Disappointed with Canter bury, where the country is quite unadorned-not like the favoured spot which the cunning Church would have selected for her first domicile and cradle. The ride thence to Dover is variegated; large sloping hills; where it is wooded there is underwood; a thing little known in England. "Fair Scotland's vallies rarely vaunt The oak majestical, whose aged boughs Darken a rood-breadth; yet no where is seen More beauteously profuse, wild underwood. The hawthorn there, With moss and lichen grey, dies of old age."-Grahame. Dover Castle, town and cliff, all very good; but it is inconceivable that such a puny eminence as this could have suggested the following picture : "Come on, Sir: here's the place :-stand still :-how fearful And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low! The crows and choughs that wing the mid-way air, The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, A comfortable Englishman in the coach, hearing that I was going to France, looked grave, and said it was very proper for a man to take his opportunity of seeing foreign nations; but in France, continued he, you must make up your mind to submit to many privations. I was no ways appalled at this caution; for, in very early years, I had from my native lowlands perambulated, on foot, the rough bounds of Lochaber, upon nearly the same pittance that Captain Cochrane took to go from somewhere to Tobolsk but the English laugh at the poverty of the Scots; while we, on the contrary, are |