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most distinguished works which Sir Thomas has left behind him, are now collected and exhibited in the British Gallery. One room alone, is filled with portraits which were painted for His Majesty, to whose sound taste and munificent patronage, the arts in this country are more indebted, than to all his royal predecessors put together.

Newton has only three paintings in the exhibition. The "Abbot Boniface" is the least admirable of the three; but (No. 144,) Shylock and Jessica, and (No. 218,) Yorick and the Grisette, will, we think, be enumerated among his first rate works. He has a way of telling a comic story which is widely different from Wilkie's; it is pointed and humorous, and reminds us much of Addison's amusing papers in the Spectator. The determination of Jessica to make the best use of the keys for her own purposes, is seen almost laughing out through her eyes; the arch demureness of her pretty Jewish face is irresistible. But the other picture, Yorick and the Grisette, is better even than this. To be understood, it must be seen; for there is no describing the French girl's consciousness of being under the gaze of her customer while she is selecting the gloves for him, her natural desire to look more pretty even than she is, and the sort of keen, philosophic admiration which beams upon her from his glance. He seems resolved to remain trying on the gloves for ever, and the Grisette has evidently no objection.

There is a very pretty picture, painted by a French artist, Mr. Massot, entitled "Le Bon Conseil." A handsome monk, after confessing a charming rustic brunette, is giving her advice upou religious subjects. The artist has made it manifest that the monk is sensible of the beauty of his penitent, and lengthens his admonitions, partly for the purpose of detaining her, partly from an interest in her preservation from the dangers to which her attractions are likely to expose her. The girl blushes to hear her pretensions thus dwelt upon by so handsome a man, and listens with unfeigned attention. There is no comedy in the picture; the story is told in a fervent and interesting manner.

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Some of our critics have bestowed unqualified praise upon Mr. Etty's immense painting of Judith. "And anon, after she went forth; and she gave Holofernes' head to her maid, and she put it in her bag of meat." It is stated in the catalogue to have been painted by order of the Scottish Academy of Fine Arts in Edinburgh." It is seldom that pictures painted "to order" are perfectly successful. There is something in the very idea which seems to restrain the inventive faculty of the artist, and gives a stiffness and a pedantry to his execution. If Mr. Etty had been directed to select his subject from the Book of Judith, he might surely have found a more engaging passage for his pencil than that which he has represented. The head even of a monster, such as Holofernes was, separated from its trunk, is a most disgusting object. It is placed in the hands of the maid, the hair clotted,

the face distorted and coloured with an unearthly paleness, and as if to fill up the measure of our disgust, near it is the meat bag, having a most rancid appearance. The head of the maid herself is as pallid as that of the tyrant, and we hardly know what kind of expression it wears, whether of terror or joy, whether of anxiety to display or to conceal the foul deposit entrusted to her. The countenance of Judith is, perhaps, properly turned away from the spectator, but the attitude destroys much of the interest which her radiant beauty would otherwise have given to the picture. Her figure looks gigantic. The colouring of her drapery is said to be worthy of Titian. It may be so, but all the power of execution, even of that great master, could never reconcile us to the subject as it is here represented. The best part of the picture, in our opinion, is the dim view which is given of the sleeping guards.

G. Cruikshank, Clint, Pickersgill, Stothard, Chalon, Stanfield, Landseer, Mulready, Hurlstone, Varley, Phillips, Havell, and a great number of established, or rising artists, have contributed a variety of paintings and statues, which we have not room to notice, either in the way of praise or censure. Those which we have particularly mentioned, will afford a just notion of the general character of the exhibition; and we must say in conclusion, that with all its faults, it shews beyond all question, that the Academy has worked miracles for the arts in England. We have little doubt, that under the presidency of Mr. Shee, whose election to his present station reflects great honour on his associates, the growing talent of the country, devoted to the vineyard which he has himself so well cultivated, will meet with all the kind encouragement which genius, taste, a sound head, and a good heart, can bestow.

ART. VIII.-Lectures on the Apocalypse. By William Jones, M. A. Author of the History of the Waldenses. 8vo. London: Holdsworth and Ball. 1830.

THE ancients, we are told, used to intoxicate their helots, in order to shew to their children the degradation of intemperance. On a similar principle, we beg to recommend this as a most exemplary production. Vowing vengeance against every form of ecclesiastical government now subsisting; clamorous in his denunciations against Bishops and Priests of all kinds; utterly protesting against tythes and fees, and indeed contributions of any sort for the support of religious institutions, which are not freely and voluntarily given,-Mr. Jones, after all, is as narrowminded a partizan, as besotted in his prejudices, as jealous, as arrogant and exclusive as any priest of them all.

First and foremost, he cannot be said to be a very diffident man, whatever be his merits, who undertakes the fearful task

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task of expounding the Apocalypse. We have been sometimes, to be sure, reconciled to the audacity of such an enterprize, by the striking superiority of mind or acquirement which has been brought to it. Still, even with these advantages, the great men who commanded them, did little more at last than leave in their speculations on the Apocalypse, a memento of their alliance with poor impotent humanity. They walked, however, in humility, through the mysterious wilderness, and when they did venture to give shape to the dim shadows which the Sacred Prophet cast upon their path, it was with the reverence and reserve of men who were conscious that it was easy for them to err. An expounder of rather a different character now claims our attention. Acknowledging no want of qualification for his task, he finds no difficulty in the execution of it: he is exceedingly penetrating in his own opinion, and is very complacent that he is so. Other men found quagmires, and impassable currents, and insuperable heights, in these revelations; but the Nimrod of Aldermanbury clears them all at a leap. Some of the wisest and brightest of mankind have paused in dismay in the same career: Newton has recoiled before some difficulties in the Apocalypse, veiling his eyes in dread, and confessing his weakness.

But fools rush in where angels fear to tread,

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and the temerity with which Mr. Jones tenders himself as a general expounder of the Apocalypse, may be taken perhaps as the best criterion of his fitness for the office.

There are two classes of commentators on the Revelations of St. John. The first comprehends that body of sober and modest inquirers, who enter upon the study of those writings with the most dispassionate mind, seeking only with impartial vigilance a fair solution of their mysterious contents. In the other class is to be found that multitude, each of whom, possessed of some theory of his own, appeals to the Saint of Patmos for no other purpose than to turn the authority of the prophet in his favour. In this latter class Mr. Jones holds an eminent rank, and his troublesome hobby is an utter abhorrence of all constituted churches, from the Tropical church of Rome to the Arctic Regions of the church of Scotland. The church of England, however, is just as bad as the church of Rome, and the church of Rome, of course, is no better than she should be. Though the former, as the mother, ought to be the greater sinner, still Mr. Jones seems to think that there is no great difference between them. cannot ironically address the younger harlot-O Matre pulchrâ, filia pulchrior; but her proficiency in crime has been so rapid, that Mr. Jones promises her a good moiety at least, of the punishment which is to fall upon the guilty family. In truth, on every topic but this one, Mr. Jones is comparatively reasonable and

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O daughter, more beautiful than thy beautiful mother.

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pacific. This is the case with him during about three fourths of each chapter: when he has arrived at that critical stage, the lucid interval terminates; the colour forsakes his cheek, the eye rolls, the lips quiver, and, from the struggling articulation, we collect, that it is the bare thought of the church of England that exercises such malignant influence upon the man. The church is the burden of every lecture from cover to cover of this book; we expect it as periodically as the derry down chorus of the old song. May Heaven, we pray, deliver all our tribe from the Ecclesi-phobia!

Now, as there is no law more just to try a man by than that which he himself lays down, we shall take the opportunity of giving Mr. Jones the full benefit of his own legislation. The crime which our expositor charges most fiercely in the Church of Rome, is that of assuming that salvation is not to be had out of her pale. The Church of England, too, sins nearly as much, by employing the hand of civil power to enforce her ordinances. In short, Mr. Jones thinks it a very anti-christian and wicked thing that these two churches should act on the opinion that their creeds respectively are right, and that all other creeds are wrong. This is Mr. Jones's complaint; and yet, what does he do himself? Why, he only goes a little further than either one or other of the churches; for, not satisfied with merely dealing damnation round the land, and consigning to perdition every man that has not the good fortune to shelter himself in that dear Goshen, the Baptist Church of Aldermanbury, Mr. Jones gives them to understand that the Battle of Armaggedon is in store for them, with every variety of temporal affliction. This is the upshot of his book. But, before we go farther, let us hear him in person.

Speaking of the seven Asiatic Churches, which he says represented Christ's kingdom on earth, he observes:

'Let us beware of confounding this kingdom with national establishments of Christianity, all of which, even in the purest forms in which they ever have existed, are ANTICHRISTIAN.'-p. 124.

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In allusion to the late Dr. Samuel Clarke is the following:

That the national establishment of religion, in the service of which spent his days, has much of this evil lying at its door-I mean, in corrupting the doctrine, changing the laws, and persecuting the friends of the kingdom of Christ—is either true, or I have laboured under a gross delusion for half a century.'-p. 160.

Mr. Jones becomes less reserved as he goes on :

The church of England professes to be the reformed church, and so she is, in a measure; but her constitution is just as antichristian as that of the Church of Rome; for, if the latter be the mother of harlots, the former is one of her unchaste daughters, and will assuredly fall in the general wreck which awaits all national establishments of religion, and every system of man's device. What says the Church of England with all her boast of reformation? Why, that she has power to decree rites and ceremonies, and settle controversies in matter of faith." Here is the worm

at the core-the germ of all antichristianity; and see what fruits have issued from this root of bitterness.'-p. 184.

In the next passage, the learned gentleman putteth a grave question :

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See then what they are doing, who are spending their strength in supporting the alliance between Church and State; the throne and the altar they are labouring to uphold that which Christ came to abolish; and is there no evil, think you, in this?' pp. 266, 267.

They must be very ignorant of the world, who do not know that much may be conveyed by an interrogatory. But lest there should be any misunderstanding of the matter, Mr. Jones chuses to speak

out:

'I cannot forbear remarking to you, my brethren, a consideration which the bare reading of these verses is calculated to impress upon all our minds, namely, that it is no trifling concern for any of the human race to be found following in the train of the beast, or dwelling in the camp of those who worship his image, or even to receive his mark, either in the hand or forehead! Thoughtless mortals may trifle with these matters in this the day of their merciful visitation, and say, as thousands are saying daily, "What does it matter whether we belong to the church of Rome, or to the church of England, or to the kirk of Scotland, or to any dissenting church? If we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, it is all that he requires of us, without perplexing ourselves about rites or cereinonies, or forms and modes of worship; these are only the anise, mint, and cummin which are tithed for the use of the priesthood!" Now, if there be any meaning in such an harangue as this, what, I ask, does it amount to? Is it not this, that all the terrible denunciations which the word of God contains against the corrupters of the gospel, against those who secularize the kingdom of Christ, is idle rhodomontade, unworthy the attention of a man of sense? My brethren, be not deceived! God is not mocked; neither does he mock any of his creatures with idle threats. There is such a thing as the beast and his image there is such a thing as worshipping this beast and his image-and there is such a thing as receiving their mark in the hand or forehead; and you see what is here said concerning such.'-pp. 452, 453.

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Hear him further in this strain :-

The accomplishment of the various predictions concerning this antichristian power, which are to be found in the prophecies of Daniel, and in the writings of the apostle Paul, together with the application of all that is said concerning mystical Babylon in the Apocalypse, can be found only in the anti-christian system which has been drawn over the nations of Europe, marked in its leading features by blasphemy, deceit, superstition, idolatry, and spiritual tyranny; a constitution of things established in the name of Christ, whose kingdom is not of this world, and yet supported by the secular arm, by acts of parliament, by the sword of the civil magistrate, by worldly power and glory. And, at once, to mark its opposition to the heavenly kingdom which Christ came to promote, and which consists in "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit," its character is written in blood." I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and

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