put the eggs preponderated very confiderably; on the fifth more, and more, during the increase of the maggots, and till all the flesh was destroyed, which was in about eight or nine days. This thews that animals poffefs a power of attracting fomething from the air, and that they increafe, or give more to the earth, than they take away from it; that is, they convert fome species of air, perhaps azotic, into a folid carthy fubftance. On colle&ing and weighing the maggo's, their weight amounted to as much as the forth meat on which they lived, while on the other hand, the piece of meat on which no eggs were placed had left one quarter of its weight by evaporation, or d.compolition by incipient puticfictica taking place. By thefe Experiments it evidently appears that animals as well as plants draw fomething from the air, which by fome unknown power they tonvert into a folid mafs; and that not above one half of the water which they abforb is converted into a vegetable or animal fubitance; but that the water operates as a ftimulus, exciting their organized particles into action. This was evidently the cafe in the lait Experiment, for the maggots were three days in hatching, during which time a confiderable evaporation took place from the furface of the meat, yet netwithflanding this, they were found equal in weight to the criginal fubftance on which they had been fed. It therefore appears, that water CHARACTER OF RUBENS, BY THE LATE SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. [TAKEN FROM HIS WORKS, LATELY PUBLISHED BY MR. MALONE.] THE works of Men of Genius alone, where great faults are united with great beauties, afford proper matter for crivicifm. Genius is always eccentric, bold, and daring; which, at the fame time that it commands attention, is fure to provoke criticism. It is the regular, cold, and timid compofer who elcapes cenfure, and deferves no praile. The elevated fituation on which Rubens ftands in the efteem of the world, is alone a fufficient reafon for fome examination of his pretentiors. His fame is extended over a great part of the Continent, without a rival; and it may be justly faid, that he has enred his Country, not in a figurative fence only, by the great examples of Art VOL. XXXIII. Jan. 1793. which he left, but by what fome would think a more folid advantage, the wealth arising from the concourte of strangers whom his works continually invite to Antwerp, which would otherwife have little to reward the vifit of a Connoiffeur. To the City of Dusfeldorp he has been an equal benefactor. The Gallery of that City is confidered as containing one of the greated Collection of Pictures in the World; but if the works of Rubens were taken from it, i will venture to affert, that this great Repofitory would be reduced to at least half its value. To extend his glory fill farther, he gives to Paris one of its molt ftriking features, the Luxembourg Gallery; and E if if to thefe we add the many Towns, Churches, and private Cabinets, where a fingle Picture of Rubens confers eminence, we cannot hesitate to place him in the first rank of illuftrious Painters. Though I till entertain the fame general opinion both in regard to his excellencies and his defects, yet having now feen his greatest compofitions, where he had more means of difplaying thofe parts of his art in which he particularly excelled, my estimation of his genius is of courfe raifed. It is only in large compofitions that his powers seem to have room to expand themselves. They really increase in proportion to the fize of the canvas on which they are to be difplayed. His fuperiority is not feen in catel pictures, nor even in detached parts of his greater works, which are foldem eminently beautiful. It does not lie in an attitude, or in any peculiar expreffion, but in the general effect-in the genius which pervades and illuminates the whole. I remember to have obferved, in a Picture of Diatreci, which I faw in a private Cabinet at Bruffels, the contrary effect. In that performance there appeared to be a total abfence of this pervading genius; though every individual figure was correctly drawn, and to the , action of each as careful an attention was paid, as if it were a fet Academy figure. Here feemed to be nothing left to chance; all the nymphs (the fubject was the Bath of Diana) were what the ladies call in attitudes; yet, without being able to cenfure it for incorrectnefs, or any other defect, I thought it one of the coldest and most infipid Pictures I ever beheld. The works of Rubens have that peculiar property always attendant on Genius, to attract attention, and enforce admiration, in fpite of all their faults. It is owing to this fafcinating power, that the performances of thofe Painters with, which he is furrounded, though they have perhaps fewer defects, yet appear spiritleís, tame, and infipid; fuch as the altar-pieces of Crayer, Schutz, Segers, Heyfens, Tyfens, Van Bulen, and the reft. They are done by men whofe hands, and indeed all their faculties, appear to have been cramped and confined; and it is evident, that every thing they did was the effect of great labour and pains. The productions of Rubens, on the contrary, feem to flow with a freedom and prodigality, as if they cost him nothing; and to the ge neral animation of the compeition, there is always a correfpondent spirit in the execution of the work. The ftriking brilliancy of his colours, and their lively oppofition to each other, the flowing liberty and freedom of his outline, the animated pencil with which every object is touched, all contribute to awaken and keep alive the attention of the spectator; awaken in him, in fome meature, correfpondent fenfations, and make him feel a degree of that enthufiafm with which the Painter was carried away. To this we may add the complete uniformity in all the parts of the work, fo that the whole feems to be conducted, and grow out of one mind; every thing is of a piece, and fits its place. Even his tale of drawing, and of form, appears to correfpond better with his colouring and compofition, than if he had adopted any other manner, though that manner, fimply confidered, might be better: it is here as in perfonal attractions; there is frequently found a certain agreement and correspondence in the whole together, which is often more captivating than mere regular beauty. Rubens appears to have had that confidence in himfelf, which it is neceffary for every Artist to affume, when he has finished his ftudies, and may venture in fome meafure to throw alide the fetters of authority; to conlider the rules as fubject to his controul, and not himself fubject to the rules; to risk and to dare extraordinary attempts without a guide, abandoning himself to his own fenfations, and depending upon them. To this confidence must be imputed that originality of manner by which he may be truly faid to have extended the limits of the art.After Rubens had made up his manner, he never looked out of himself for affitt. ance; there is confequently very little in his works that appears to be taken from other Matters. If he has borrowed any thing, he has had the addreis to change and adapt it fo well to the rest of his work, that the theft is not dif coverable. Befide the excellency of Rubens in thefe general powers, he poffefled the true art of imitating.-He faw the objects of Nature with a Painter's eye; he faw at once the predominant feature by which every object is known and diftinguished; and as foon as feen, it was executed with a facility that is aftonishing: and let me add, this facility is to a Painter, when he clofely examines a picture, a fource of great pleafure,-How far this excellence may be perceived or felt by those who are not Painters, I know not : to them certainly it is not enough that objects be truly reprefented; they muit likewife be reprefented with grace; which means here, that the work is done with facility, and without effort. Rubens was, perhaps, the greatest Matter in the mechanical part of the Art, the beft workınan with his tools that ever exercited a pencil. This part of the Art, though it does not hold a rank with the powers of invention, of giving character and expreflion, has yet in it what may be called genius. It is certainly femething that cannot be taught by words, though it may be learned by a frequent examination of thofe pictures which poffefs this excellence. It is felt by very few Painters, a. it is as rare at this time among the living Painters, as any of the higher excellencies of the Art. This power, which Rubens poffeffed in the highest degree, enabled him to reprefent whatever he undertook better than any other Painter. His animals, particularly lions and hores, are fò admirable, that it may be faid they were Lever properly reprefented but by him. His Portraits rank with the belt works the Painters who have made that branch of the Art the fole bufinets of their lives; and of thofe he has left a great variety of fpecimens. The fame may be laid of his landfcapes; and though Claude Lorrain finished more minutely, as becomes a Profeffor in any particular branch, yet there is fuch an aineis and facility in the landicapes of Rubens, that a Painter would as foon with to be the author of them, as thofe of Claude, or any other Artilt whatever. The Pictures of Rubens have this effect on the spectator, that he feels himfelf in no wife difpofed to pick out and dwell on his defects. The criticilins which are made on him are, indeed, often unrealonable. His tyle ought no more to be blamed for not having the fubLimity of Michael Angelo, than Ovid fhould be cenfured becaule he is not like Virgil. However, it must be acknowledged that he wanted many excellencies, which would have perfectly united with his ftyle. Among thole we may reckon beauty in is.female characters: fometimes indeed they make approaches to it; they are altay and comely women, but teidsm, at ever, potlets any degree of elegance: the fame may be faid of his young men and children: his old men have that fort of dignity which a bufhy beard will con- fentations of the higheft characters in The incorrectness of Rubens, in regard to his outline, oftener proceeds from hafte and careleffncfs, than from inability: there are, in his great works, to which he feems to have paid more particular attention, naked figures, as eminent for their drawing as for their colouring. He appears to have entertained a great abhorrence of the meagre dry manner of his predeceffors, the old German and Flemith Painters; to avoid which, he kept his outline large and flowing this, carried to an extreme, produced that heavinefs which is to fiequently found in his figures. Another defect of this great Painter is, his inattention to the foldings of his drapery, efpecially that of his women: it is fcarcely ever calt with any choice or ikill. Carlo Maratti and Rubens are, in this refpect, in oppofite extremes; one difcovers too much art in the difpofitions of drapery, and the other too little. Rubens's drapery, befides, is not properly hiftorical; the quality of the ituf of which it is compold, is too accurately diftinguished; refembling the manner of Paul Veronefe. This drapery is lets offendive in Rubens than it would be in many other Painters, as it partly contributes to that richness which is the peculiar character of his ftyle, which we do not pretend to fet forth as of the mot fimple and tublime kind. The difference of the manner of Rubens from that of any other Painter before him, is in nothing more diftinguilhable than in his colouring, which is totally different from that of Titian, Corregio, or any of the great colourifts. The effect of his Pictures may be not improperly compared to clusters of flowers; all his colours appear as clear and as beatitiful: at the lame time he has avoided that tawdry effect which one would expect fuch gay colours to pro. duce in this respect refembling Barocci more than any other Painter. What was £ 2 faid . faid of an ancient Painter may be applied to thofe two Artits-that their figures look as if they fed upon roles. It would be a curious and a profitable ftudy for a Painter, to examine the difference, and the caufe of that difference of effect in the works of Corregio and Rubens, both excellent in different ways. The preference probably would be given according to the difcrent habits of the Connoifleur: thote who had received their first impreffions from the works of Rubens, would cenfine Corregio as heavy; and the admirers of Corregio would fay Rubens wanted folidity of effect. There is lightness, airinefs, ard facility in Rubens, his advocates will urge, and comparatively a laborious heavine's in Corregio; whofe admirers will complain of Rubens's manner being careics and unfinilhed, whilft the works of Corregio are wrought to the highest degree of delicacy, and what may be advanced in favour of Corregio's breadth of light, will, by his centurers, be called affected and pedantic. It must be obferved, that we are fpeaking folly of the manner, the effect of the picture; and we may conclude, according to the cultom in Paftoral Poetry, by bestowing on each of thefe illuftrious Painters a garland, without attributing fuperiority to either. To conclude, I will venture to repeat in favour of Rubens, what I have before faid in regard to the Dutch School—that thofe who cannot fee the extraordinary merit of this great Painter, either have a narrow conception of the variety of Art, or are led away by the ani *tation of approving nothing but what conas from the Italian School. THE LONDON REVIEW AND LITERARY JOURNAL, FOR JANUARY 1798. QUID SIT PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, QUID UTILE, QUID NON. Proofs of a Confpiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe carried on in the fecret Meetings of Fice Matons, Illuminati, and Reading So cieties. Collected from good Acdaities. By John Robifon, M. A. Proid.or of Natural Philophy, and Secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Svo. Cadell and Davies. about by the worft means, and by the worst agents. The rite and progrefs of Free Maforry in England are firit detalied, with the various additions made to it by deligning or uniulpicious perions at different times, its views and designs, and the manner in which political difcutions firit were introduced. The fchiims which have ariten in the fociety; the alterations and additions made to it in France, and the total change and perverfion of its principles by a fet of profligates under the name of Illuminati, an Order four ded in 17759 1775, by Dr. Adam Weishaupt, Profeffor of Canon Law in the Univerfity of Ingolstadt, and abolished in 1786 by the Elector of Bavaria, but revived immediately after under the name of the Union, and in a different form all over Germany. This affeciation appears to have been formed for the exprefs purpote of rooting out all the religious eftablishments, and overturning all the existing governments ct Europe. The tenets and fecret manoeuvres of this Society, fome of which are not yet difcovered, form the greatest part of the prefent Volume. There is however fufficient known, to call forth the indignation of every perion who profeffes to be a friend to religion or virtue, and to put every one on their guard who knows and rejects the rights of private property, and of good government. prefent conftitution of things, faulty as it may be, merely in the endeavour to establifh another, which the vices of mankind may fubvert again in a twelvemonth. They muft fee, that in order to gain their point, the propofers have found it necefiary to defroy the grounds of morality, by permitting the most wicked means for accomplishing any end that our fancy, warped by paffion or intereft, may reprefent to us as of great importance. They fee, that inflead of morality, vice mult prevail, and that therefore there is no fecurity for the continuance of this Utopian felicity; and, in the mean time, defolation and inifery mut lay the world waite during the fruggle, and half of thofe for whom we are ftriving will be fwept from the face of the earth. We have but to look to France, where in eight years there have been more executions and fpoliations and diftrelles of every kind by the pouvoir revolutionnaire, than can be found in the long records of that defpotic monarchy. We fhall not follow our Author through the various difgufting fchemes engendered in the wicked minds of the new philctophers. It is fufficient to obferve, that "The Order was faid to "There is nothing in the whole conftiabjure Christianity, and to refute ad- tution of the Illuminati that ftrikes me miflion into the higher degrees to all with more horror than the propofals of who adhered to any of the three Con- Hercules and Mincs *, to enlift the teflions. Sentual plenfures were reftored women in this hocking warfare with all to the rank they held in the Epicurean that is good, and pure, and lovely, and philofophy. Self-raider was juftified of good repert.' They could not have on Stoical prisciples. In the Lodges, fallen on any expedient that will be me Death was dechied an eternal Sicep; effectual and fatal. If any of my counPatriotifin and Loyalty were called nar- trywomen fhall honour thefe pages with row minded prejudices, and incompatible a leading, I would call on them, in the with univerial benevolence; continual moft earnest manner, to comider this as declamations were made on Liberty and an affair of the utmost importance to Equality as the unalienable Rights of them clves. I would conjure them by Man. The bancul influence of accu. the regard they have for their own digmulated property was declared an intar-nity, and for their rank in fociety, to mountable obrticle to the happincis of any nation, wh techief laws were tramed for its protection and incitate. Nothing was to frequent dicoured of as the propriety of employing for a good purpie, the means which the wicked 'empleted for evil papers; and it was taught, that the repondcracy of good in the ultimate acuit comecrated every mean employed; and that wildom and virtue corated in properly determining this balance.” Thete principles were dead, but the proofs which are here Finced are forciently strong to claim tile alent of every con', derate leader. Our Author, among other excellent ob.ervations, fays, "All goed men, ail lovers of place and of juibce, will obhor and reject the thought of everturning the join againit thefe enemies of human nature and profligate degraders of the fex and I would atture them that the prefent ftate of things almoft puts it in their power to be the laviours of the world. But if they are remi's, and yield to the fedustion, they will tall from that high flate to which they have arifen in Chriftian Europe, and again ink into that infignit.cancy or lavery in which the fex is found in all ages and countries out of the hearing of Chittianity. "I hope that my country women will conider this folemn address to them as a proot of the high esteem in which I hold them. They will not be offended then if, in this lealon of alarm and anxiety, when I with to imprefs their minds with a farious truch, I fhall waive ceremony, * Names affumed by two of this Ord.r.-EDITOR. which |