has just struck the rock, and
stands in a simple and dignified attitude. In the complete contentment
of his countenance there may be traced a mingled expression of pity and
gratitude, as he looks on the scene which follows his action. The artist
has given proof of consummate talent in the choice and treatment of his
subject; which afforded him a variety of grouping, of expression, and of
attitude, of which few were capable of taking better advantage.

This picture is a specimen of his natural style, and its success is
considered, and I think justly, superior to that of any other of his
works. The imitation of material nature is here carried to as great
perfection as in many of his paintings; while at the same time nothing
can surpass the poetry of the composition, nor the exquisitely
harmonious grouping of the men and animals. In this last quality,
Murillo is certainly unequalled. He seems also in this instance, to have
reached the utmost limits of art in the expression of the countenances,
throughout the different groups, whether employed in offering silent
thanksgivings, or entirely absorbed in the eager effort to obtain for
their parched lips a draught of the bright liquid. In the feeling
displayed in these instances, and so well represented, there is, it is
true, nothing elevated, but still it is feeling; and its materiality is
amply made amends for, by the chief personage of the scene, in whose
countenance nothing but the sublime can be traced.

Had Murillo not painted this picture and the Saint Elizabeth of Hungary,
Spanish art must have contented itself with the second rank, and Raphael
would have continued without a rival. These pictures occasion regret
that such genius should have employed itself during a long period, on
works of a different sort. The San Antonio and a few others, were no
doubt productions worthy of the painter of the Aguas, and a hundred or
two others are magnificent paintings; but the time employed on some of
these, and on a still greater number of less prominent merit, would have
been more profitably devoted to the production of two or three which
might have ranked with these giant creations of his talent.

In viewing either of these compositions, the other speedily becomes
present to the imagination, and forces you to draw a comparison between
them. They have a sort of affinity in their subject as well as in their
style. The sufferers of the St. Elizabeth, occupied with their torments
an