gures are probably portraits, and all his forms have a national
peculiarity of air, habit, and countenance; and although he often adopts a
beautiful expression of nature, there is generally a peasant-like
simplicity in his ideas. He gives occasional instances of great sublimity
of expression, but it is a sublimity which neither forces nor enlarges
nature: truth and simplicity are never out of sight. It is what the
painter sees, not what he conceives, which is presented to you. Herein he
is distinguished from his preceptor VELASQUEZ. That great master, by his
courtly habits of intercourse, contracted a more proud and swelling
character, to which the simple and chaste pencil of MURILLO never sought
to aspire. A plain and pensive cast, sweetly attempered by humility and
benevolence, marks his canvass; and on other occasions, where he is
necessarily impassioned or inflamed, it is the zeal of devotion, the
influx of pious inspiration, and never the guilty passions which he
exhibits. In short, from what he sees, he separates from what he feels,
and has within himself the counter-types of almost every object he
describes.'

If it be true, (says his biographer, BERMUDEZ,) that painters put their
own portraits in their works, that is to say, that they exhibit their own
genius, their propensities, affections, and the dispositions of their
minds in them, the pictures of MURILLO bear a great analogy to his
virtues, and the gentleness of his character. He was distinguished above
all others of his profession by the mildness with which he instructed his
pupils; by the urbanity with which he treated his rivals; by the humility
with which he excused himself from becoming the painter of the Camara to
CHARLES the Second, which was offered to him by the court; and for the
charity with which he distributed the most liberal alms to the poor, who
afterward deplored his death. But those who were most affected by it were
his beloved scholars, who, overwhelmed with grief and anguish, could find
no consolation for the loss of a father who loved them most dearly; of a
master who instructed them with the utmost kindness, and of a protector
who encouraged them by giving to each such portions of employment as
enabled them to maintain themselves. This affectionate tribute to the
character of MURILLO, must recall to the minds of our readers that
beautiful passage in the letter of BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE to his brother,
which is said to express the feelin