Fig. 5. As the merits of this composition have been descanted on by every critic, being a subject well suited for a display of the powers of eloquence, I shall merely offer one or two practical remarks. Raffaelle has made the principal figure of the lower group (an interesting young female) detach itself from the ground by a strong warm light cutting against the shadow, and by a dark blue mantle coming in contact with the light; by her addressing the Apostles, and pointing to the demoniac, the two sides are united, and the figures are so linked together that the eye is carried round until we arrive at the most projecting points, the hands and feet of the Apostle with the book. The Disciples express their inability to perform the cure; and, by two of them pointing to the mount, refer the people to Christ, who has retired thither to pray. This is the arrangement, but it was not alone by the expression or arrangement of his figures that Raffaelle holds his rank in the art; it was also by the bold and original conception of his subject. He has here displayed the vision of the Transfiguration in the most sublime manner, and by raising his figures from the ground (one of those movements of the mind which are above restraint) has stamped them with the strong feature of immortal beings. Mr. Fuseli luminously describes them rising like "a flame"; if not too metaphorical, he might have said, "like a bright flame issuing as if from a sacrifice, and ascending unto God."

PLATE VII.—It is not only necessary that a group should have hollows for the reception of shadow, but also projections for the light to rest upon; it not only ought to possess a good general form in the outline which defines it, but the figures must also be linked together in such a way as to lead the spectator in among them. They must appear to have room to stand upon, and every figure must keep his place in its relative distance from the eye; hence a form composed of a concave and convex line has been often adopted as the simplest and best, and possessing the greatest variety of advantages. That it is so generally used will cease to surprise us, when we find it applicable both to the regularity of Raffaelle and the irregularity of Rembrandt.

PLATE VIII-Fig. 1.-In this design, "The Landing of Charles II," West has placed the principal figure in the middle of the picture. Commencing his composition at the nighest point, he carries on his group until it ends in the distance. Neither in the situation of the hero, nor in the form of the group, does he seem solicitous to hide the science. He has brought the nigh point in contact with the shadow, and strengthened it by the female whom the boy accompanies, being dressed in strong dark; when this is brought sharp off the ground, as is the case also in Fig. 2, it enables us to keep the other figures in their places better than by diminishing the firmness of their shadows or colors.

Fig. 2.-"Cattle Returning Home in a Shower." In this composition the principal light falls on the convex part of the group, and the depth of the shadow is assisted by the local color of the objects placed in it. The

goat in the foreground is connected to the rest by some white flowers of an elder bush, which cannot be expressed in an outline. As this is from a design of my late brother's I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing the great loss I feel in not having his assistance, not only in these notes, but in everything connected with the art; though practicing painting but for a short time of a short life, his strength of mind, his fine eye for color, and a taste for the beauties of pastoral painting, convince me the English School has lost one that would have been an ornament to that department of the science.

Fig. 3.-Is a repetition of the same form.

PLATE IX. This plate consists of Wilkie's admirable composition of "The Blind Fiddler," "The Salutation of the Virgin" by Rembrandt, and "A Dance" by Ostade. I shall leave it to the student's own judgment to investigate the various forms on which these compositions depend.

By making the principal heads depend upon one mode of arrangement, the general appearance of the group on a different mode, the background on a third, and so on with the minor points (provided they all tend to the assistance of one another), his composition will not only have intricacy without confusion, but that variety which is so characteristic in Nature. A beautiful combination in Nature will often appear to evade every rule by her being perfect in every mode of examination. All her varieties emanate from a straight line and a curve. A judicious arrangement of objects possessing these various forms gives the strongest natural appearance to a picture; nor ought the artist to leave out rashly what he may conceive to be void of beauty. In coloring, harsh tints are admitted to produce harmony in the other colors; and the most picturesque arrangements often depend on the presence of what might be otherwise considered ugly forms.

As I have made use of the terms "beautiful and agreeable arrangements," it is proper to give an explanation of the sense in which they are applied. By a beautiful arrangement I mean a proper adaptation of those principles that arrest a common observer, and give a pleasureable sensation, which to a cultivated mind increases (not diminishes) by the investigation of the cause which produces it. For example, a beautiful appearance in Nature affects the savage and the philosopher from their sensations merely as men; but a painter, whose life is spent in a constant competition with Nature in producing the same effects, receives a tenfold gratification in following her through those assemblages which to the world beside are, as it were, "a fountain setled and a book shut up." Hence, in art, a beautiful arrangement must be a selection of those forms, lights and colors that produce a similar result; and the taste of an artist is shown in heightening their effect by the absence of those circumstances which are found by experience to produce the contrary. Did an investigation of the means pursued by the great masters tend to abridge an artist's pleasurable sensations, instead of being the most favored, he would be rendered the