room where his brother artists were assembled. They rose up to a man, and saluted him 'President.' He was affected by the compliment, but declined the honor till he had talked with Johnson and Burke; he went, consulted his friends, and having considered the consequences carefully, then consented. He expressed his belief at the same time that their scheme was a mere delusion: the King, he said, would not patronize nor even acknowledge them, as his majesty was well known to be the friend of another body-The Incorporated Society of Artists."

The truth is, the Royal Academy was planned at the suggestion of the King himself. He had learned, through West, the causes of the indecent bickerings in the Society of Artists, and declared to him that he was ready to patronize any institution founded on principles calculated to advance the interests of art. West communicated the King's declaration to some of the dissenters, who drew up a plan which the king corrected with his own hand. See Spooner's Dictionary of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects, article West.

REYNOLDS AND DR. JOHNSON.

In the year 1754, Reynolds accidentally made the acquaintance of Dr. Samuel Johnson, which ripened into a mutual and warm friendship, that continued through life. Of the fruit which he derived from this intercourse, Reynolds thus speaks, in one of his Discourses on Art:

"Whatever merit these Discourses may have, must be imputed in a great measure to the educa. tion which I may be said to have had under Dr. Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it certainly would be to the credit of these Discourses if I could say it with truth, that he contributed even a single sentiment to them; but he qualified my mind to think justly. No man had, like him, the art of teaching inferior minds the art of thinking. Perhaps other men might have equal knowledge, but few were so communicative. His great pleasure was to talk to those who looked up to him. It was here he exhibited his wonderful powers. The observations which he made on poetry, on life, and on everything about us, I applied to one art-with what success, others must judge."

DR. JOHNSON'S FRIENDSHIP FOR REYNOLDS.

In 1764, Reynolds was attacked by a sudden and dangerous illness. He was cheered by the sympathy of many friends, and by the solicitude of Johnson, who thus wrote him from Northamptonshire :

"I did not hear of your sickness till I heard likewise of your recovery, and therefore escaped that part of your pain which every man must feel to whom you are known as you are known to me. If the amusement of my company can exhilarate the languor of a slow recovery, I will not delay a day to come to you; for I know not how I can so effectually promote my own pleasure as by pleasing you,

or my own interest as by preserving you; in whom, if I should lose you, I should lose almost the only man whom I can call a friend." He to whom Johnson could thus write, must have possessed many noble qualities; for no one could estimate human nature more truly than that illustrious man.

JOHNSON'S APOLOGY FOR PORTRAIT PAINTING.*...

Johnson showed his kindly feelings for Sir Joshua Reynolds, by writing the following apology for portrait painting. Had the same friendship induced him to compliment West, he doubtless would have written in a very different strain :

"Genius," said he, "is chiefly exerted in historical pictures, and the art of the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of the subject. But it is in painting as in life; what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and goddesses, to empty splendor and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in renewing tenderness, in quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead. Every man is always present to himself, and has, therefore, little need of his own resemblance; nor can desire it, but for the sake of those whom he loves, and by whom he hopes to be remembered. This use of the art is a natural and reasonable consequence of affection : and though, like all other human actions, it is often complicated with pride, yet even such pride is more

laudable than that by which palaces are covered with pictures, which however excellent, neither imply the owner's virtue, nor excite it."

THE LITERARY CLUB.

The Literary Club was founded by Dr. Johnson in 1764, and among many men of eminence and talent, it numbered Reynolds. His modesty would not permit him to assume to himself the distinction which literature bestows, but his friends knew too well the value of his presence, to lose it by a fastidious observance of the title of the club. Poets, painters, and sculptors are all brothers; and had Reynolds been less eminent in art, his sound sense, varied information, and pleasing manners would have made him an acceptable companion in the most intellectual society.

JOHNSON'S PORTRAIT.

In 1775, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his famous portrait of Dr. Johnson, in which he represented him as reading, and near-sighted. This latter circumstance was very displeasing to the "Giant of Literature," who reproved Reynolds, saying, "It is not friendly to hand down to posterity the imperfections of any man." But Reynolds, on the contrary, considered it a natural peculiarity which gave additional value to the portrait. Johnson complained of the caricature to Mrs. Thrale, who to console him, said that he would not be known to posterity

by his defects only, and that Reynolds had painted for her his own portrait, with the ear-trumpet. He replied, "He may paint himself as deaf as he chooses, but he shall not paint me as blinking Sam.”

JOHNSON'S DEATH.

"Amidst the applause," says Cunningham, "which these works obtained for him, the President met with a loss which the world could not repair-Samuel Johnson died on the 13th of December, 1784, full of years and honors. A long, a warm, and a beneficial friendship had subsisted between them. The house and the purse of Reynolds were ever open to Johnson, and the word and the pen of Johnson were equally ready for Reynolds. It was pleasing to contemplate this affectionate brotherhood, and it was sorrowful to see it dissevered. 'I have three requests to make,' said Johnson, the day before his death, and I beg that you will attend to them, Sir Joshua. Forgive me thirty pounds, which I borrowed from you-read the Scriptures-and abstain from using your pencil on the Sabbath-day.' Reynolds promised, and-what is better-remembered his promise."

REYNOLDS AND GOLDSMITH.

We hear much about "poetic inspiration," and ▾ the "poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling." Reynolds use to tell an anecdote of goldsmith calculated to abate our notions about the ardor of composition.