ontrary, and large
pieces of figures, have a painful, fixed, staring look, which must jar
upon the mind in many of its moods. Fancy living in a room with David's
sans-culotte Leonidas staring perpetually in your face!

There is a little Watteau here, and a rare piece of fantastical
brightness and gayety it is. What a delightful affectation about yonder
ladies flirting their fans, and trailing about in their long brocades!
What splendid dandies are those, ever-smirking, turning out their toes,
with broad blue ribbons to tie up their crooks and their pigtails, and
wonderful gorgeous crimson satin breeches! Yonder, in the midst of a
golden atmosphere, rises a bevy of little round Cupids, bubbling up in
clusters as out of a champagne-bottle, and melting away in air. There
is, to be sure, a hidden analogy between liquors and pictures: the eye
is deliciously tickled by these frisky Watteaus, and yields itself up to
a light, smiling, gentlemanlike intoxication. Thus, were we inclined to
pursue further this mighty subject, yonder landscape of Claude,--calm,
fresh, delicate, yet full of flavor,--should be likened to a bottle of
Chateau Margaux. And what is the Poussin before spoken of but Romanee
Gelee?--heavy, sluggish,--the luscious odor almost sickens you; a sultry
sort of drink; your limbs sink under it; you feel as if you had been
drinking hot blood.

An ordinary man would be whirled away in a fever, or would hobble off
this mortal stage in a premature gout-fit, if he too early or too often
indulged in such tremendous drink. I think in my heart I am fonder of
pretty third-rate pictures than of your great thundering first-rates.
Confess how many times you have read Beranger, and how many Milton?
If you go to the "Star and Garter," don't you grow sick of that vast,
luscious landscape, and long for the sight of a couple of cows, or a
donkey, and a few yards of common? Donkeys, my dear MacGilp, since we
have come to this subject, say not so; Richmond Hill for them. Milton
they never grow tired of; and are as familiar with Raphael as Bottom
with exquisite Titania. Let us thank heaven, my dear sir, for according
to us the power to taste and appreciate the pleasures of mediocrity. I
have never heard that we were great geniuses. Earthy are we, and of
the earth; glimpses of the sublime are but rare to us; leave we them to
great geniuses, and to the donkeys; and if it nothing profit us aerias
tentasse domos along with them, let us t