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order that he might be enabled to add the other figures, and to complete his painting of the impressive description of the Italian poet. This picture, when finished, was bought by the late Duke of Dorset for 400 guineas."

It was lent to the Old Masters in 1873 - just a hundred years after its first appearance-by Lord Buckhurst, and is still, it is believed, at Knole.

Gainsborough's supreme good sense, his perfect consciousness of the direction in which his powers lay, is nowhere better shown than in his complete abstention from a branch of art, which had, during the latter half of the century-in England, at any rate-no real existence.

This year, 1773, was in every respect one of Sir Joshua's busiest and most successful, both from an artistic and a social point of view. In July he visited Oxford to receive from the university the honorary degree of D.C.L.— another of those distinctions which he so dearly loved, and so well graced, and one, too, which stood him in good stead in the subsequent official portraits which he painted of himself for the Painters' Gallery in the Uffizi, for Plympton, and for the Royal Academy itself.

The honours of the occasion were for Sir Joshua, and for Dr Beattie, the author of an Essay on Truth, and one of the lions of the moment. The painter's admiration. for the Scotch professor and his work found expression in a curious allegorical portrait, memorable because it was the cause of the only disagreement which ever cast a momentary cloud over the affectionate friendship existing between the former and Goldsmith. Dr Beattie is presented with his essay under his arm, while, overshadowing him, the Angel of Truth tramples under foot the demons of unbelief,-Infidelity, Sophistry, and False

hood or rather, as Beattie himself appears to have christened them, Prejudice, Scepticism and Folly. Scepticism or Sophistry was avowedly Voltaire, while the other demons were supposed to bear a resemblance to Gibbon and Hume respectively. On this point Sir

Joshua himself wrote to Beattie :

"There is only a figure covering his face with his hands, which they may call Hume or anybody else; it is true it has a tolerably broad back. As for Voltaire, I intended he should be one of the group."

One's sympathies must be entirely with Goldsmith, when we find him saying to his much-loved friend and mentor:

"How could you degrade so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer as Beattie? The existence of Dr Beattie and his book together will be forgotten in the space of ten years, but your allegorical picture and the fame of Voltaire will live for ever, to your disgrace as a flatterer."

Bold, manly words these of Goldsmith's, if he really uttered them as they are quoted; for they show him assuming for once the character, to which he was so fully entitled, of a man of letters of the highest rank, qualified to speak plainly on such a point as this. One cannot help suspecting here—though there is no direct authority for the statement-that the influence of Johnson, an avowed enemy of Voltaire, with an unsatisfied grudge against him, may have been brought to bear to induce Sir Joshua for once to play the high-moral satirist. And then the picture itself, though fine as a portrait of the prosaic Scotch professor, is in other respects an absurdity, so

Allegorical Portrait of Dr Beattie

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grotesque is the incongruity between the realistic and the allegorical elements in the work. The demons are. flabby and unconvincing to the last degree, and the victory of Truth over such invertebrate opponents nothing to boast of. This is but one more proof that Sir Joshua's genius did not lie in the direction of imaginative art; that he had the imagination which enabled him intuitively to divine the workings of the human soul, but not that other kind which would bear him on its wings into realms where observation and experience, guided by sympathy, are no longer sufficient, unless they be combined with a genuine power of invention. We are inevitably led to compare the "Dr Beattie" with Ingres's well-known portrait of "Cherubini crowned by a Muse," in which the vain attempt to combine incongruous elements which will not coalesce a white-robed immortal and a realistically habited, nineteenth-century old gentleman of surly aspect -make a work possessing many fine qualities as a whole absolutely ridiculous.

It was in September that Reynolds, already, we have seen, an Alderman, was elected Mayor of Plympton, and thereupon paid a visit of thanks to his native town. His honest pride in the distinction conferred is placed beyond question by that portion of the inscription, on the back of the portrait in the Painters' Gallery at the Uffizi, which runs: "Necnon oppidi natalis, dicti Plimpton, comitatu Devon: præfectus, justiciarius, morumque censor."

The following anecdote, given by Leslie and Taylor (Vol. II. p. 33), gives further proof of the glow of satisfaction which our master experienced at his election. Were it not that irony so little entered into the ingenuous simplicity and openness of his nature, one might fancy that a touch of it coloured his answer to the compliments of the King on the occasion:

"Just before his visit to Devonshire, after dining one day with some friends at his house at Richmond, he walked with his party in the gardens there, where he unexpectedly met the King with some of the Royal Family. The King called Sir Joshua to him, and said that he was informed of the office he was soon to be invested withthat of Mayor of his native town. Sir Joshua, surprised that the circumstance should be known so quickly to the King, assured His Majesty of its truth, and said it was an honour which gave him more pleasure than any other he had ever received in his life; but, recollecting himself, he immediately added: 'Except that which Your Majesty was graciously pleased to confer upon me'-alluding to his knighthood."

It was on this occasion that Sir Joshua presented to the Corporation his portrait painted by himself, in his doctor's robes, and similar in treatment to that in the Painters' Gallery at Florence. A duplicate of the picture, presented by the master to Northcote, passed from the Vernon Collection into the National Gallery. This, in its present condition, appears a superficial and inferior performance, which cannot well be entirely from the hand of Reynolds.

CHAPTER VI.

Proposals to decorate St Paul's-Opposition of the Bishop of London— "Lady Cockburn and her Children"-Signed Pictures of Sir Joshua "Three Ladies decorating a Term of Hymen "-The Streatham Gallery of Portraits-The Dean of Derry and Dr Johnson-Society of Arts- Barry and Burke-Battle of Epitaphs between Garrick and Goldsmith-" Retaliation "-Death of Goldsmith-Exhibition of 1774 -Sir Joshua's Contributions to it-Gainsborough established in London-Comparison and Contrast between Reynolds and Gainsborough The Sheridans-" Mrs Sheridan as St Cecilia "-Nathaniel Hone's "Pictorial Conjurer "-Satirises Sir Joshua and Angelica Kauffmann-Horace Walpole as a Critic-Exhibition of 1775—“ Miss Bowles"-Sir Joshua's Children-Romney established in LondonHis Previous Career-Northcote leaves Sir Joshua-Last Portrait of Garrick-Enumeration of the Streatham Sir Joshuas.

AT the general meeting of the Academy, held in the month of August of this year, Sir Joshua proposed that an attempt should be made to decorate St Paul's Cathedral with pictures-executed not in fresco, but in oils. The suggestion being received with acclamation, he was empowered to apply to the Dean and Chapter for their approval of the undertaking, which was readily obtained. Sir Joshua himself was to have painted "The Nativity," West, "Moses with the Tables of the Law;" and the Academy selected with them, to take part in the undertaking, Barry, Dance, Cipriani, and Angelica Kauffmann, four other artists being added by the Society of Arts,