rise to-morrow by break of day, and see. I protest, la, if I had as much
money as an alderman, I would scatter some on't i' the streets for poor
ladies to find when their knights were laid up. And now I remember my
song of the Golden Shower, why may not I have such a fortune? I'll sing
it, and try what luck I shall have after it.'--Act V. Scene i.'

VOLUME II

ESSAY I. ON A LANDSCAPE OF NICOLAS POUSSIN

And blind Orion hungry for the morn.

Orion, the subject of this landscape, was the classical Nimrod; and is
called by Homer, 'a hunter of shadows, himself a shade.' He was the son
of Neptune; and having lost an eve in some affray between the Gods
and men, was told that if he would go to meet the rising sun he would
recover his sight. He is represented setting out on his journey, with
men on his shoulders to guide him, a bow in his hand, and Diana in the
clouds greeting him. He stalks along, a giant upon earth, and reels and
falters in his gait, as if just awakened out of sleep, or uncertain of
his way;--you see his blindness, though his back is turned. Mists rise
around him, and veil the sides of the green forests; earth is dank and
fresh with dews, the 'gray dawn and the Pleiades before him dance,' and
in the distance are seen the blue hills and sullen ocean. Nothing
was ever more finely conceived or done. It breathes the spirit of the
morning; its moisture, its repose, its obscurity, waiting the miracle of
light to kindle it into smiles; the whole is, like the principal figure
in it, 'a forerunner of the dawn.' The same atmosphere tinges and imbues
every object, the same dull light 'shadowy sets off' the face of nature:
one feeling of vastness, of strangeness, and of primeval forms pervades
the painter's canvas, and we are thrown back upon the first integrity of
things. This great and learned man might be said to see nature through
the glass of time; he alone has a right to be considered as the painter
of classical antiquity. Sir Joshua has done him justice in this respect.
He could give to the scenery of his heroic fables that unimpaired look
of original nature, full, solid, large, luxuriant, teeming with life and
power; or deck it with all the pomp of art, with tempyles and towers,
and mythologic groves. His pictures 'denote a foregone conclusion.' He
applies Nature to his purposes, works out her images according to
the standard of his thoughts, embodies high fictions; and the first
conception bei