gentleman coloured and hung his head, and soon after began a
conversation with his neighbour on another topic. "The late auction of
engravings," said the picture-dealer, "has not turned out so productive
by a great deal as the owner anticipated." "That is frequently the case
with auctions," said the daughter, briskly throwing in her word; "no
man therefore ought to meddle with them who is not driven to it by
extreme necessity."

Dietrich was yet too inexperienced to perceive the connexion of this
dialogue; he declaimed sincerely and warmly on the barbarism of
auctions, in which the most precious rarities are often overlooked,
many works damaged by the gapers and understrappers, and the reputation
of great masters, as well as the feelings of their genuine admirers,
receive painful shocks. By this he won the good opinion of the father,
who brightened up and gave him a gracious assent. Sophia, afraid
perhaps that a new proposal was to be brought forward under cover of
enthusiasm for the arts, hastily asked the young painter whether he
should soon have finished his picture of the Virgin, or whether he
meant first to complete his Descent from the Cross.

"You too then paint subjects of this pathetic kind?" asked the
stranger, casting across at the young man a somewhat oblique glance
from beneath half-closed eyelids. "I can never overcome my surprise
that men in their best and most cheerful years can waste their time and
imagination on such subjects. We have I should think Holy Families
enough in our galleries, it is a field in which there is no room for a
new invention; and those corpses and distortions of agony are so wholly
repugnant to all grace and enjoyment of sense, that I can never help
turning my eyes away from them. It is the business of the arts to
heighten and cheer our existence, to make all its wants and all the
wretchedness of the world vanish at their approach, and not to vex and
rack our fancy with their productions. The sensible world ought to play
in a fresh cheerful light, and with its gentle attraction soothe, and
in that way elevate us. Beauty is joy, life, vigour. The man who seeks
night and gloomy feelings has acquired yet small knowledge of himself.
But you perhaps are one of those who, at the sight of pictures of this
sort, force their religious faith into raptures, and require a species
of devotion to be kindled in us, that we may understand the subject and
appreciate it with christian feelings?"