terest which an historical subject presents, by magical truth, perfect illusion, and precious finish of execution. Imitating the fresh and various tints which nature wears with them, they have attained a colouring which is beyond all eulogium. Their design has become the more correct, because, painting only from the real objects with which they were surrounded, it has been easy for them to procure models; while it may be said in favour of the subjects they have chosen, that they have been such as the manners, the usages, and the customs of their country demanded. The reformed religion and the natural character of the Dutchman render him simple and austere in his manners, and in dress, the enemy of show and outward display, and of boisterous scenes and frivolous ostentation. Altogether occupied with business, his utmost ambition is the possession of a character without stain, orderly accounts, and a tranquil conscience. When in town, he seeks only the true enjoyments to be found among his family and friends. In the country, he relaxes in the contemplation of nature, and in rural amusements. he then avoid liking pictures, in which he finds represented himself, and all that is agreeable and dear to him? Can he do otherwise than prefer such to historical subjects, which, without truth of execution, without effect, and without illusion, have no merit but that of the design and composition, and in which he in vain seeks for the nature that he is familiar with, and for the objects of his Can affections? Those who cry up theatrical fictions, and reproach the painters of this school with lowness in the choice of their subject, ought to recollect that nothing is low or contemptible in nature; that the peasantry, whom they call maggots, are their fellow-men; much more interesting than they, because of their usefulness, although clothed in simple garb; and more respectable in the eyes of every considerate observer, inasmuch as they present mankind in a state less corrupted, less disguised, and nearer to nature. The nature of the soil, a point that has been favourable to the Dutch and Flemish painters, has, on the contrary, been very disadvantageous, so far as regards colouring, to the French; for the city of Paris, the seat of their school, stands upon a plain of gypsum which extends far around it, and which, in the form of plaster, is employed in the construction of the houses. These are, therefore, generally of a white or grey colour, while the chalky dust continually raised by the confluence of people and of carriages, destroys for a great distance round Paris the colours of nature, covering them all with a greyish monotonous tint, and seeming as it were to devour the verdure of vegetation. We need not then be astonished at the feebleness of colouring that is objected to this school; the pupils of which cannot avoid beholding every thing grey, seeing that the air itself, charged with this chalky dust, does not with them appear of the colour of nature. If the taste of the nation for the productions of |