no superior of its kind. The cause of this fault in so great a man is obvious. In the time of Quentin Matsys, the sculptures of Greece and Rome were unknown, or unstudied, in the schools of the European artists. They never drew from the antique, they knew nothing of its poetic inspiration, and they tied themselves down to copying nature in her meanest formsthe forms of men and women, accustomed from infancy to the dresses of a less genial climate than the ancients; and not, like them, having their muscles brought into play by the exercise of athletic games, by slight clothing, constant exposure to the air, and the friction and polish of the baths, a system that altogether produced a beauty and perfection of form totally unknown to men of modern times. There cannot, I think, be a doubt but that this beauty of the human form so constantly before the eyes of the old Grecian sculptors, gave birth to that poetry and feeling in their works which has rendered them models for all successive ages. But this letter has extended to great length; I will therefore only add, from Mr. Bray's

notes, his observations on these most interesting collections.

"In the Hôtel de Ville, which was the first place we visited, are some most interesting pictures, I believe six in number, containing portraits, in groups, of those worthies whose counsels and achievements saved their city from the threatened tyranny of the Spaniards. Had they been placed in one great picture, they would have appeared but a mass of heads; and some action would have been necessary, implying unity of design, which, though it existed, could not have been represented by painting; for it consisted in their bold and perilous resolution to open the sluices and inundate the whole of the country.

"It is not only highly to the credit of these worthy burghers to perpetuate the deeds of their ancestors, that they may keep alive a spirit of emulation among themselves, but it likewise gives them a respectability and even dignity in the eyes of foreigners, who cannot but look at the council table of men like these with far other feelings than can Englishmen at least look at that

of the civic corporations of their own country. Some of the pictures being in another room, I was not a little surprised and pleased to find on entering that it was the tribunal or court of justice. The judge or president, who seemed to have an assessor on either side, was dressed in a black gown, but without either wig or cap. Two, whom I took for barristers or advocates, had on their heads square black caps; not, however, like those of our Universities, having somewhat the form of a trencher placed upon a skull, but with the four sides curved inward, not unlike a blacksmith's anvil. I confess I prefer this costume to our own. We next visited the two most splendid collections of anatomy and natural history. In the compartment of comparative anatomy, the skulls of different nations were indicated in writing on the forehead, which, though accustomed from Scripture to the idea of a mark being placed on it, I did not expect to meet with. They have also a long line of skulls of thieves and murderers, together with those of maniacs and suicides. There are plaster casts of the countenances of two of the most noted among the former.

"We had not time to come to any definite conclusion, in regard to this branch of comparative anatomy, but I think that an acute observer might soon do so. My general impression is, that, except in hydrocephalous cases where the skull is preternaturally enlarged, the depression of the forehead and elongation or enlargement of the jaw approximates the man towards the brute, in indicating that the intellectual are subservient to the sensual faculties. In the casts of the two murderers, I observed a great elongation between the nose and the mouth; and this is a characteristic among the ape species. By the bye, I think that not a few of our English travellers would learn something from studying this part of the collection. They then perhaps, in imitating foreigners, would not rival the bearded ape, ape, which has a kind of black brush extending from ear to ear under the chin. Satyrus, Beelzebul, and, I believe, Satanas, which are names applied to different species of the genus Simia, would be enough, one would think, to deter them from such imitation. But man has been defined to be an imitative animal;

and when I see Englishmen imitating the costume of German apprentices, who beg upon the road, I should not be surprised were they in their style of dress to follow the fashion of another species of ape, which I think our guide called le singe habillé; having a kind of black skull-cap on his head, dark-coloured vest and breeches, white stockings, and what perhaps one might call black shoes and gloves. In regard to the monkey tribe, Nature, in one of her freaks, seems to have caricatured man both in his form and dress; and man, as if to outdo Nature, seems fond of caricaturing himself. A traveller, perhaps, is tempted to this more than any other; and to him, therefore, who yields. to it, may be fully justified the appellation of the monkey that has seen the world.""

Having given you these notes from my husband's journal, I will but add that I am, My dear Brother,

Very affectionately yours,

ANNA ELIZA BRAY.