taking one phial for another, he gave her laudanum. The mistake being immediately discovered by examining the other phial, efficacious antidotes were applied; and the lady, after undergoing much torture from the conflicting operation, to the inexpressible terror and horror of her husband, at length recovered.

Burke lost, in his eminent friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, almost the last of the literary and convivial associates of his early years. Sir Joshua had always regarded Burke as the first of men, and was in turn loved, esteemed, and respected by his illustrious friend. He had assisted him when embarrassed, and, by his will, after cancelling a bond for 20001. be→ queathed him 20001. more. The orator and painter were so often together, and the fulness of Burke's mind ran in such abundance, force, and clearness, that Sir Joshua must have remembered many of his ideas, and even expressions. At the opening of the Royal Academy, Jan. 2, 1769, Sir Joshua, the Pre

sident, delivered a discourse on the object of the institution and the principles of painting. At the annual distribution of prizes, he also thereafter delivered an oration on similar subjects. The ingenuity of the reflections, the extent of the knowledge, and the elegance of the composition, made them supposed by some to be the productions of genius more exclusively devoted to literary efforts than Sir Joshua's. They were, at one time, imputed to Dr. Johnson. Admitting the just and philosophical view exhibited by Mr. Courtenay of the influence of that great man's intellectual exertions on literary composition, readers had no evidence that he actually assisted the painter in composing his essays. From his intercourse with Johnson it was probable that he derived knowledge and principles which may have been transfused into his discourses. But neither testimony, nor the internal evidence of the works themselves, are in favour of the supposition that they were written by Johnson. Mr. M'Cormick thinks they must have been written by Burke; and internal evidence is

certainly much more in favour of his hypothesis than of the former.. Burke was much more conversant in the fine arts than his friend Johnson. But there is the testimony of Mr. Malone, who had every opportunity, as the constant companion of Sir Joshua, to be informed of the truth during Sir Joshua's life; and as his executor, from the perusal of papers after his death, who had the best means (if any one could have them) of not being deceived himself, and could have no motive to deceive others, positively asserts that they were the composition of Sir Joshua himself. Agreeing, therefore, in the probability, a priori, of Mr. M'Cormick's supposition, I think it overturned in fact by the evidence of Mr. Malone. Burke was one of the chief mourners at his friend's funeral. An account of the procession was drawn up by Mr. Burke and Mr. Malone. The following sketch of his oharacter, composed by Burke, was also published. His illness was long, but borne with a mild and cheerful fortitude, without the least mixture of any thing irritable or querulous, agreeably to the placid

and even tenor of his whole life. He had, from the beginning of his malady, a distinct view of his dissolution; and he contemplated it with that entire composure, which nothing but the innocence, integrity, and usefulness of his life, and an unaffected submission to the will of Providence, could bestow. In this situation he had every consolation from family tenderness, which his own kindness had, indeed, well deserved.

• SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS was, indeed, on very many accounts, one of the most memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the great masters of the renowned ages. In portrait he went far beyond them; for he communicated to that description of the art, in which English artists are the most engaged, a variety, a fancy, and a dignity, derived from the higher branches, which even those, who pro

fessed them in a superior manner, did not always preserve, when they delineated individual nature. His portraits remind the spectator of the invention of History, and the amenity of Landscape. In painting portraits, he appeared not to be raised upon that platform, but to descend to it from a higher sphere. His paintings illustrate his lessons, and his lessons seem to be derived from his paintings.

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He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his art. To be such a painter, he was a profound and penetrating philosopher.

"In full assurance of foreign and domestic fame, admired by the expert in art and the leared in science, courted by the great, caressed by sovereign powers, and celebrated by distinguished poets, his native humility, modesty, and candour never forsook him, even on surprise or provocation; nor was the least degree of arrogance or assumption

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