adds, "The painter has no other means of giving an idea of the
mind but by that external appearance which grandeur of thought does
generally, though not always, impress on the countenance, and by that
correspondence of figure to sentiment and situation which all men wish,
but cannot command." As I cannot defend the mean appearance of the
disciples, neither shall I exculpate our great artist from blame in
introducing a dog into so grand a subject; we can only excuse him on
the plea of following the practice of his predecessors. Titian, in his
celebrated picture, has not only introduced a dog, but a cat also, which
is quarrelling with the former for a bone under the table. To this love
for the introduction of animals into their compositions, for the sake of
picturesque variety, many of the greatest painters must plead guilty;
and though the incongruity has been pointed out over and over again by
the writers on art, it is still clung to as means of contrast with the
human figure. In one of the sketches by the late Sir D. Wilkie for his
picture of "Finding the Body of Tippoo Saib," he had introduced two
dogs, and only obliterated them when informed that dogs were considered
unclean by the people of the east, and therefore it was an impossibility
for them to be in the palace of Seringapatam. While I am upon this
subject, it may not be amiss to refer to one of the authorities who
censures this practice. Fresnoy says, in his poem on the "Art of
Painting,"

"Nec quod inane, nihil facit ad rem sive videtur
Improprium minimeque urgens potiora tenebit
Ornamenta operis."

"Nor paint conspicuous on the foremost plain,
Whate'er is false, impertinent, or vain."

MASON.

[Illustration: CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES AT EMMAUS]

On this rule, Reynolds remarks--"This precept, so obvious to common
sense, appears superfluous till we recollect that some of the greatest
painters have been guilty of a breach of it; for--not to mention Paul
Veronese or Rubens, whose principles as ornamental painters would allow
great latitude in introducing animals, or whatever they might think
necessary to contrast or make the composition more picturesque--we can
no longer wonder why the poet has thought it worth setting a guard
against this impropriety, when we find that such men as Raffaelle and
the Caracci, in their greatest and most serious works, have introduced
on the foreground mean and frivolous circumstances. Such improprieties,
t