finish with more
perfection, while his inventions were enriched by the elevated thoughts
and erudition of Agostino. Yet a circumstance which happened in the
academy betrays the mordacity and envy of Annibalo at the superior
accomplishments of his more learned brother. While Agostino was
describing with great eloquence the beauties of the Laocoon, Annibale
approached the wall, and snatching up the crayons, drew the marvellous
figure with such perfection, that the spectators gazed on it in
astonishment. Alluding to his brother's lecture, the proud artist
disdainfully observed, "Poets paint with words, but painters only with
their pencils."[272]

The brothers could neither live together nor endure absence. Many years
their life was one continued struggle and mortification; and Agostino
often sacrificed his genius to pacify the jealousy of Annibale, by
relinquishing his palette to resume those exquisite engravings, in which
he corrected the faulty outlines of the masters whom he copied, so that
his engravings are more perfect than their originals. To this unhappy
circumstance, observes Lanzi, we must attribute the loss of so many
noble compositions which otherwise Agostino, equal in genius to the
other Caracci, had left us. The jealousy of Annibale at length for ever
tore them asunder. Lodovico happened not to be with them when they were
engaged in painting together the Farnesian gallery at Rome. A rumour
spread that in their present combined labour the engraver had excelled
the painter. This Annibale could not forgive; he raved at the bite of
the serpent: words could not mollify, nor kindness any longer appease,
that perturbed spirit; neither the humiliating forbearance of Agostino,
the counsels of the wise, nor the mediation of the great. They separated
for ever! a separation in which they both languished, till Agostino,
broken-hearted, sunk into an early grave, and Annibale, now brotherless,
lost half his genius; his great invention no longer accompanied him--for
Agostino was not by his side![273] After suffering many vexations, and
preyed on by his evil temper, Annibale was deprived of his senses.

AN ENGLISH ACADEMY OF LITERATURE.[274]

We have Royal Societies for philosophers, for antiquaries, and for
artists--none for men of letters! The lovers of philological studies
have regretted the want of an asylum since the days of Anne, when the
establishment of an English Academy of Literature was designed; but
po