of that name near Breda.

He was admitted to the

,

academy at Antwerp in the year 1551, and was for a considerable time engaged chiefly in painting for a merchant named Frankhert. It was in his company that he made it his practice to haunt the village fairs and festivals, or kermesses as they are called, and to introduce himself generally in disguise, to the marriages and revelries, of every description, that took place among the rustic part of the population. These were the scenes which he afterwards worked up so skilfully with his pencil. He noted them just as his master, P. Koeck, did the manners and habits of the Turks, selecting such characteristic marks as he thought were best suited to the canvass; and shewing that a sagacious mind will often discover, even in the circle of its own neighbourhood, as much food for curiosity and inquiry as half the world will do from the most extensive foreign travel.”

On the art of painting on glass, Mr. James has the following passage:

"Of the profession of glass painters frequent mention has been already made, and it appears to have been an art that was carried to greater perfection by the inhabitants of the low countries than those of any other. Many indeed of their best artists were engaged in furnishing designs for this purpose: and some names of those on whom contemporary writers are lavish in their praise, have no other works handed down to our times except their productions in this line. The art of painting on glass had, been for many ages practiced both at Venice and Florence; at the latter place even Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello were found sometimes to have engaged in the

employment. But it was not till the beginning of the sixteenth century that the staining glass with enamel colours (called by the French apprest) was discovered; an art which alone could give any promise of durability to their labours. The merit of the invention has been sometimes claimed for the Flemings; but it appears most probable, from various testimonies, (though there is still some uncertainty on the subject,) that it was originally practised by one Gulielmo de Marcilla, or William of Marseilles, a Frenchman, who passed his life in Italy, and whose works may yet be seen in existence at Arezzo and at other places in that country."

We must now take our leave of Mr. James's work with a hearty recommendation of it, not only to the painter and the lover of painting, but to the general reader. Whilst we say this, our critical duty compels us also to observe, that the style in which this history is written does not always display that elegance which the fine arts demand; and, should the work arrive at a second edition, which we dare say it will, the Rev. author must retouch some of his sketches; they are vigorous enough in outline, but they want the delicacy of finish.

Table Talk, or Original Essays; by WILLIAM HAZLITT. Vol. II. pp. 402.

ALTHOUGH this volume does not, as a whole, come within the range of that criticism to which we have in general confined ourselves, some of these Essays are of too much importance to the arts to be passed over. The

tact of Mr. Hazlitt as an essayist is too well known to stand in need of our commendation, and therefore in passing our opinion on the second volume of the Table Talk, it may be sufficient to say, that it is no disgrace to that which has preceded it. There are, however, two Essays in particular, among the seventeen of which this work consists, to which we desire to direct the attention of our readers. The first is, On a Landscape of Nicholas Poussin. In this the painter will find much mental gratification and many elucidations of his art deserving his best attention.

6

"A life," says Mr. Hazlitt, "passed among pictures, in the study and love of art, is a happy noiseless dream; or, rather, it is to dream and to be awake at the same time; for it has all the sober certainty of waking bliss' with the romantic voluptuousness of a visionary and abstracted being. They are the bright consummate essences of things, and he who knows of these delights to taste and interpose them oft is not unwise."

The sixteenth Essay is, On the Picturesque and Ideal, which is also well worthy of the painter's attention.

We cannot close this brief notice of a work of merit, without recommending to the general reader the fifth Essay, On the Aristocracy of Letters: Mr. Hazlitt's views are here in complete unison with our own.

Polytechnic and Scientific Entelligence.

GREAT BRITAIN.

Royal Society of Literature.

WE observe, by an advertisement in the Literary Gazette, that this Society is in a state of vegetation; most certainly not of animation. By this advertisement, we learn that Dissertations on Homer, Essays on the Greek Language, and Poems on the Fall of Constantinople, have been referred to a committee; that the decision of the several prizes is postponed until the 23d of March, 1823; and that the competition is still open to candidates for the premiums, which are as follow:

I. The King's premium of one hundred guineas for the best Dissertation on the Age of Homer, his Writings and Genius; and on the State of Religion, Society, Learning, and the Arts, during that Period, collected from the Writings of Homer.

II. The Society's Premium of Fifty Guineas for the best Essay on the History of the Greek Language; comprehending the present Language of Greece, especially the Ionian Islands; and the Differences between Ancient and Modern Greek.

III. The Society's Premium of Fifty Guineas for the best Poem on the Fall of Constantinople in the Fifteenth Century.

Surrey Institution.

A select committee of gentlemen has been for some time sedulously engaged in remodelling this Institution, whose funds have been gradually exhausting; the present establishment closing in March, 1823. A Prospectus

has just been issued by this committee of a New Surrey Institution, avoiding the errors of the old one, and which, if supported with the spirit such an Institution deserves, will obtain a permanence to which it is every way entitled. This literary academy has already done much towards the creation of a taste for science and the arts in that part of the metropolis to which it is more immediately contiguous; and we hope that the New Surrey Institution will contribute, by its better and more effectual arrangements, still more to the diffusion of useful science and the useful arts, as well as to the general advancement of universal literature: for it is undeniably true that even the arts, without literature for their handmaid, are very slowly progressive. Whether a School of Arts, similar to those lately established at Glasgow and Edinburgh might not be a suitable appendage to this Institution is for the consideration of gentlemen more immediately connected with it.

Royal Society.

THE following papers have been read at this Society since our last report.

June 6. On the Binomial Theorem; by JOHN WALSH, Esq.

A paper by Dr. DAVY was also read, entitled Observations on Corrosive Sublimate. It is known that the liquor hydrargyri oxymuriatis of the London Pharmacopoeia, on exposure to light, slowly undergoes decomposition; and it has been asserted that light has a similar effect on corrosive sublimate itself. Dr. Davy relates a number of experiments made to investigate these points, He finds that corrosive sublimate remains unaltered on