walls, will not disdain to display his excellencies, and to revive his example. There are some to whom such an observation does not apply; but there are more to whom it may, with peculiar propriety, be addressed. The British School is young in fame; but the period of youth, if carefully watched and educated, may lead to a vigorous manhood, and venerable old age. We can write as well as Winkleman and Mengs, and paint mucli better than the latter artist: there is no fatality in the climate to prevent the expansion of genius; and as long as Reynolds and Gainsborough, Wilson and Romney, Barry and OPIE shall be remembered, so long may we be convinced of the powers and reputation of our countrymen.

The Patronage of THIS INSTITUTION has never been withheld; exclusively of its having been the channel of the sale of pictures to the amount of £4000 (in one season only,) it holds out other incentives to exertion and to excellence-as the following Resolution will evince.

THE Directors of the British Institu tion have announced to those artists who ⚫ attended as students in the British Gallery last summer, that, with a view to encourage their efforts in original com⚫ position, they propose to select three or more pictures from those which shall next summer be lent to the British Gallery; and to give a premium of £100 for the best original picture, proper in point of subject and manner to be a companion to either of such pictures; and to give a premium of £60 for such • next best original picture as aforesaid; Land a premium of £40 for the third in point of merit, of such original pictures as before mentioned: the comparative 'merit to be adjudged by a select com'mittee, to be appointed by the Directors: And also that any picture painted for such premium may (if otherwise worthy) be exhibited for sale in the Gallery.next winter, for the respective benefit of the " artist.' ɔ two ebi ⠀

Printed by William Savage, Bedford Bury.

AN eminent modern Philosopher, the late Mr. Walter Shandy, has observed that there is a certain mien and motion of body and its parts, both in acting and speaking, which displays to the discerning eye what is passing within, and serves as an index to the mind. "I am not therefore, he adds, at all surprised that

Gregory of Nazianzum, upon observing the hasty and untoward gestures of JuLIAN, should foretell that he would one day become an apostate; or that St. Ambrose should turn his amanuensis out of doors, because of an indecent motion of his head, which went backwards and forwards like a flail. There are indeed (continues he) a thousand unnoticed openings, which let a penetrating mind at once into the soul."

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THUS far this great man.—He did not however perceive, how far the principle may be carried, and how correctly the many unnoticed openings" of stile, may supply to a penetrating mind a minute and infallible knowledge of the character, conduct, and situation of the writer. I repeat his emphatic word "unnoticed," because if we attempt to discover an author by his obvious character, we judge by those marks which it is in his power to vary, or erase. While authors use their own conceptions and expressions, and deal only in articles of their own

manufacture, it is easy enough to distinguish them by the images they refer to, and the arguments they employ. But when they adorn or disguise themselves with the feathers of others of their tribe; when they imitate the stile or jargon, and adopt the sense or nonsense, of their brethren, the most sagacious decypherer may be baffled and deluded in his conjecture.

A man's writings may be considered as his universal and perpetual representatives; displaying his character and peculiarities, his powers and his weakness, in whatever quarter of the globe, and in whatever age of the world, they may attract attention: and these will furnish an unfailing index of the writer's character, whenever the marks by which we distinguish, are such as are unnoticed by the party himself. While he remains unconscious of them, he has no means of varying, much less of entirely avoiding them. Indeed it would be quite unnatural for him to seek for information on