For the Monthly Magazine. London, and acquired there a perfect knowledge of the English print and picMOTICES relative to the FINE ARTS in ture-trade, had a confiderable collection of GERMANY:-Written at the CONCLU SION of the LEIPZIG-FAIR, 1802. A Great number and variety of paintings, engravings, and other works of art, were exhibited at the laft Leip. zig Eafter-fair: but the fale of them was very trifling in proportion. The new fashionable architectonic decorations of rooms and paper-hangings occupy the places that ufed to be allotted to pictures; and the number of amateurs, who might wish to fill their port-folios, decreases every year, owing, in a great meafure, to the political fituation of a part of Germany. The fine arts themselves feem to be there on the decline; as many of the most ingenions artists are forced, by the imperious law of neceffity, to degrade themselves into mere labourers, to execute the de. signs, and to please the vitiated taste, of ignorant men of wealth. Indeed, if a stranger happened to step into the auctionroom at the Leipzig-fair, and heard the very high prices bid for a middling Flemith piece, or for a copy from a copy of fome celebrated Italian master (as, for instance, 200 ducats for a pretended production of Andrea del Sarto), he would naturally have concluded, that there was a very great demand for pictures, and that a : confiderable number of rich virtuosi were present. But in Leipzig, as well as in London, many unwarrantable tricks are used to deceive the unwary; and these feemingly high prices were offered only by the puffers employed by the fellers. Bartolozzi and Colnaghi, and other English dealers, had large affortments of English prints, aqua-tinta, plain and coloured impreffions, battle-pieces, costumes, and a variety of splendid things in the sentimen. tal toilette-taste; which were eagerly bought by the Germans, in preference to many better productions of their own artilts. Smirke's Seven Ages, from Shakespeare, were fold for five guineas: but this price was not well calculated for the pockets of the continental amateurs. So far are the Germans from emulating the Englith in honouring their best poets, that, while in this country the Shakespeare Gallery met with diftinguished encouragement, Frauenholz is not able to continue his se ries of plates from Wieland's Oberon, and no publisher can be found, who would undertake the engraving of Fuger's celebrated drawings to Klopstock's Meffiah. Chr. Preftel, from Frankfort on the Mayne, who had been formerly settled in MONTHLY MAG. No. 95. : 1 the productions of English artists, and likewise some excellent works of his own. His Ruyidaeles, from the Brabeck Galle. ry in Söderwerden, cannot fail to give fatisfaction. Of his newly-invented method of colouring engravings with oil-colours, fo that they refemble the original pictures, several excellent specimens were exhibited at the fair, and completely removed every doubt that had been expreffed of its answering the intended purpose. Mr. Preftel's method is entirely different from that invented by Mr. J. R. Smith, engraver to the Prince of Wales. It Several French dealers had likewise come from Paris with the newest productions of the French artists. The best assortinents were to be feen at Ofterwald's, fen, from Paris. The Picturesque Tour through Syria and Dalmatia, by Caffas, the painter, is executed in a manner that does honour to the French engravers. would be difficult to find publishers and artists in Germany to undertake and execute fuch a Voyage Pittoresque. Of the flight sketches of architectural plans and decorations, which feem to be at present the favourite subjects of the French artifts, a variety of specimens and patternbooks were shewn. The three first numbers of the Grand Prix d' Architecture Cou ronnés par l'Institute National, deservedly attracted most notice. From thefe and from Landon's Annals, in which the outlines of the best pieces of Ilabey, Guerin, and other eminent painters are given in miniature, we are enabled to form fome idea of the manner, &c. of the prefent French fchool. Nor had the Chalcographic Institute of the Piranefi, which is patronised by Bonaparte, neglected to fend fome of their productions; the newest and best of which were the coloured engravings of thirteen frefco paintings in the Villa Altoviti in Rome. But the chef d'œuvre of the French school was certainly the Psyche of Gerard, engraved by Godefroy (the fame artist, whose "Girl teaching her Dog to read"-L'Education de Carlin), is so great a favourite in the fashionable world in Paris. It is rarely that we find so tasteful a union of different styles of engraving. Agreeably to his promife, Mr. L. Varifco came from Italy with an afforement of pictures and prints. But that country yielded but little to reward the trouble of the gleaner: the minds of every class of men had been fo occupied with politics, that 3 that, amidst the din of arms and the uproar of civil contests, the pencil and the graver lay idle till the return of peace and tranquillity. The Forum of Bonaparte that was to have been erected at Milan, and the Triumphal Column in honour of Generai Kray, projected by Lord Bristol, are merely political ephemeræ. Cunego, the best engraver of Italy, is at present in Spain, where he is engraving some of the pictures in the King's Gallery According to the latest accounts, however, the arts begin to revive, especially in Lower Italy. the Even the North furnished fome artistical contributions: for Colonel Miöldebrand's Voyage Pittoresque en Cap Nord, of the first number of which the learned Swedish bookfeller Von Silberstope brought feveral copies to Leipzig-fair, certainly deferves to rank high among the most diftinguished productions of the kind, whe. ther we confider the novelty of the objects, or the striking fidelity with which they are reprefented. On viewing these excellent engravings, we almost imagine ourselves transported into the antarctic regions of ice and snow. From Petersburg too, now no longer shut up from an intercourse with the rest of the literary world, the bookfeller Klaftermann fent to one of his Leipzig correfpondents large views of the Imperial Pleasure-houses Gatschika, and Paulowik, and of the Michaelowitz Palace, which had been all engraved under the reign of Paul, but were not permitted to be exported as long as that capricious monarch lived. A characteristic difference was here too observable between the French and Englith printfellers. The latter, when he does not deem it beneath his dignity to deal in other articles befides points, generally provides his customers with stationary wares, pencils, colours, and other things which have fome connection with writing and drawing. The Frenchman, on the contrary, would be able to furnish a fair lady, who could neither read nor write, with affortments of the newest fashionable ribbands, fans, and a hundred bonbonwiers and (weetmeats, which are strangely lociated in his fhop with productions of the pencil and the burin. It has like wife been customary for the French printfeilers to bring to the Leipzig-fair affortments of China ware. In Rofti's grand commiffion-magazine, in the AuerbachHot, a coalition, as it were, feemed to have been formed between the two rival nations. Here we found Mionet's incomparable imitations of ancient coms and medals, Wedgwood's, Taffie's, and Mer chant's pastes, and the beautiful Derby spar vafes, the prices of which, however, were so high as to deter most of the German amateurs from becoming purchasers. : The two principal branches of the Ger man print-trade, that attend the Leipzig. fair, are the Chalcographical Institute in Deffau, and the house of Frauenholze in Nürnberg. The former of these, owing to the high price of the greater part of their productions, and, in many inftances, the injudicious choice of fubjects, have been able to fell fo few of their prints, that their gains cannot have been fufficienz to cover their expences. For this reason they had not at this fair a fingle new article, but only coloured impreffions of those published before for Matthifon's excellent portrait, engraved in the dotted manner by Arndt in Dessau, from a pic. ture by Tischbein, was only fold by commiffion for the artist. The only new undertaking of the Institute is an engraving from a charming picture by Angelica Kaufmann, representing Psyche fainting on opening of the fatal box, and fupported by Cupid. This print is to be published by subscription, and, from the known abilities of the engraver, fomething very fatisfactory may be expected. This institution, however, does not meet with the gratitude and fupport it deferves from the German public, as its endeavours are directed towards the encouragement of native artists, in opposition to the prevailing taste for English productions, and the gaudy wares of the print-hawkers. Still, however, notwith anding the perhaps too expensive plan of the establishment, it is hoped, that it will be able to fupport it. self, as Ruffia, Denmark, Sweden, Eng. land, and North America, ftill present a confiderable market, and the charming aqua-tinta plates of a Haldenwang, Schlotterbeck, and Ostermeyer, must every where meet with approvers and purchasers. Many circumstance contribute to give Frauenholz, of Nürnberg, confiderable advantages over the Chalcographic Institute of Deflau: he is fole uncontrouled mafter and director, refides in Nürnberg, a place excellently fituated for trade, being one of the principal mediums of commercial intercourse between the North and South of Germany, and does not confine his dealings to his own publications. From the proportionably small number of articles, which even he brought to the fair, it would appear that fome unfortunate circumtances hinder the progress of the arts. The only addition to his large le res ries of portraits of literati and statesmen, was that of Dr. Hufeland, painted by Tischbein, and engraved by Müller, jun. of Stuttgardt, in a ftyle worthy of his fa ther. Two excellent pictures by Nahl (one of them the Birth of the Rofe), engraved in the dotted manner, by Durmer and Neidi; and a Parmegiano and Pouffin, etched by Geiger and Dallinger, were the principal new articles lately publithed by Frauenholz, to which we may add, a good drawing-book of horses, by Rugendas (the celebrated painter of battle-pieces), and engraved by Adam Batsch. Such a publication was very much wanted in Germany, as very few were able to purchase the costly figures by. Pforn, and other fimilar prints, as, for instance, Hess's Riding-fchool) are upon too fmall a scale, The Italian houses of Teffari and Artaria, in Vienna (a branch of the latter of which is likewise settled at Mannheim) are diftinguished among their competitors by the number of articles they fell, and by their watchful attention to the reigning tafte, They draw large fums from Germany by means of numerous troops of Piedmontese and Milanese pedlars, who traverse the country in every direction, and hawk their wares from door to door. These pedlars are not fupplied directly from the fountain-head: but, through the medium of agents in the principal towns, who are accountable for whatever they entrust upon credit to the emiffaries in their employment. Artaria and Co. are the publishers of a number of picturesque tours on the Rhine, Neckar, and Danube, which do not contribute to give foreigners a very high idea of the taste of the Germans for land scape painting. In this branch of the art, the Dreiden-school continues to produce some excellent pieces. In Vienna great expectations are formed from the spirited undertakings of M. M. Holex and Schreyvogel, who have engaged the most eminent engravers in that city: Wrenk, Kininger, and Durmer, for figures; Piringer, Haldenwang, Duttenhofer, &c. for landscape; Adam Batsch and Dorfmeister for animals. Several large feries of prints have already been begun, such as views in the Auftrian dominions, and the cof tumes of Tirol; and, from the spirit and large capital of the publishers, we may confidently hope, that the whole will be completed without interruption. They likewife purpose to deferve well of their country, by engraving the matter-pieces of a Füger, and other celebrated painters in Vienna. In the capital of the North of Germany Berlin, the profpect is not so cheering. The principal printsellers in that city are Schiavonetti, who has a good affortment of English prints; Weiffe, in Leipzigstreet, and a Jew of the name of Leffer. But very few of the articles they fell are the productions of Pruffian artists. In the scenes from the Hiftory of Frederic the Great, where they feem to have united their forces, there is much to defiderate both in the design and execution. Eighteen plates of this series have already appeared, drawn by Schadow, Wolf, Hampe, Jury, &c. and engraved by Ringk, Meno, Haas, and fome young artists. Berger and a few others of long-established reputation, seem to have retired, content with the laurels they have already acquired. The school, however, formed by Meil and Chodowiecki continues to produce excellent vignettes, and small characteriftical pictures to decorate novels and romances, and other fashionable publications: in this department of the art, Bott, Jury, and Catel, have particularly diftinguished themselves, the two former as engravers, and the latter as a tasteful designer. Bott fold, at the last Leipzig Eafter fair, fome etchings, which displayed a rich vein of wit and fatire. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. T SIR, HE author of an Hiftorical Memoir on Italian Tragedy fays (App. p. 1.): Though "Thomfon, in the elegant little Preface to his Sophenisba, does not acknowledge any obligations to the Soponisba of Triffino, yet I am much inclined to think he has many." These he then proceeds to point out. If it had fallen within that gentleman's plan, he might also have observed, that Thomson is also filent in regard to his obligations to Efchylus and Seneca; yet, in his Agamemnon, he is abundantly indebted to both, particularly to the latter, whom he has in many instances fervilely copied. Egysthus is as fatiguingly tedious as the Egyithus of Seneca; but the ravings of his Caffandra do not exhibit any of those marks of divine inspiration, which, in the noble tragedy of Eichylus, occafionally raise the lovely propnetets above humanity. Instead of the fine, but irrelevant, defcription of a storm in Seneca's tragety, Thomson has given us a defcription equally beautiful, but equally miiplaced, of a defert ifland. Is it then to be won३९ dered His T SIR, HE following testimony of the liberal character of Captain George Clarke, of his Majesty's ship Braakel, now in the Mediterranean, is copied from the Feuilleson du Journal des Defenseurs de la Pa trie. In the 7th year of the republic, Citizen Dubue, a fuperior officer of the French navy, was in the Ifle of France, and put on board a Danish ship, bound to India, the fum of 24,000 livres (about a thoufand pounds sterling) to be conveyed to his family, which, in his abfence, was destitute of every resource. The ship happened to be met and ftopped by Mr. Clarke, Captain of a ship in the En. glish navy, who found, in the papers of the Danes the most incontestable proofs of the fum belonging to Citizen Dubue, and confequently of its becoming the lawful prize of the conquerors. The gallant and Ipectable Englith officer, being informed of the distress which the events of the war had occationed to the family of the C. Dubue, requested of his crew their confent to forward the captured fum to this unforTunate family. Having obtained their Outlines of a Plan for promoting the Art. Painting in Ireland, with a Lift of Subject for Painters, drawn from the romantic and genuine Hiftories of Ireland. "When the Dublin Society was yet in its infancy, and supported by private fubscription, it befriended the art of defign. So early as the year 1744, this useful body employed Mr. Weft (father of the present ingenious painter of that name) to instruct twelve boys in drawing at his house, in George's-lane. Soon after, taking a houfe in Shaw's-court, Dame-street, they built a school-room for Mr. West; to this room he removed his pupils. In 1753, Mr. Mannin came to Ireland, and was immediately engaged by the Society to inftruct eight boys in ornamental and landícape drawing. This number was foon in creased to twelve. Previous to this, th. Society was incorporated, and their funde augmented by the bounty of Parliaments Annual falaries were now fettled on Mefirs. West and Mannin, and apartments given them in the Society's house, in Shaw's-court; and they engaged, on their part, to receive as many pupils as the So ciety should recommend. And Mannin, in a confideration of further allowance, agreed to open a school for the inftruction of girls in his department of ornamental drawing. On the removal of the Society to their present house in Grafton-ftreet, the school for girls was discontinued, and the masters no longer allowed the benefit of apartments; but their falaries were continued, and they were appointed to preside over a school opened in a building content, he actually wrote a very polite adjoining their house. To the profeffors Better to Madame Dubue, and defired to accept the tum, as a mark of the esteem and gratitude, which was due to her hufband for the fignal services he had, on many oce fions, rendered to the English prifoners; fubjoining, that the money belonged to her by too refpectable a title, not to induce all perfons under his command to convey it to her. General Dabue himself has communicated this honourable fact to the French journalist. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, S the History of Academies feems to fall within your plan, I shall fur of figure and ornamental drawing was now added a profeffor of architecture; and out of the annual grant of 5000l. to the Dublin Society, the fum of 300l. was appropriated to the fupport of this fchool." This school has, I am informed, lately undergone several alterations, of which fome of your Correfpondents will perhaps be able to furnish you with an account. A. B. I am, &c. For the Monthly Magazine. IS BERKELEY'S DEFENCE OF IDEALISM A with Poorishte Dount of the Origin METAPHYSICIANS have difputed and of OF DUBLIN, from a fcarce little pamphlet afcribed to Mr. Walker, the hiftorian of the Irish Bards and Halian Tragedy, intitled original stance or primary material of the universe. Some maintain, with Berkeley, that there is but one fubftance, and that, fpirit. Some Some maintain, with Thomas Cooper, that there is but one substance, and that, matter. Some maintain, with Price, that there are two substances, spirit and mat ter. Among the continental speculators the system of Berkeley finds many advocates, and is espoufed under the name Idealism by writers of reputation in Germany. This name is well-chofen; for the characteriftic tenet of the system is that the mind having acceís only to ideas, can have no evidence of the existence of any thing else. It is next maintained, that there is no fubtratum of those ideas, that nothing exifts but what is ideal, and even that the very notion of matter, or corporeal fubstance, involves a contradiction in it. For the proof of these dogntas, it is ufual to appeal to that disquifition of Berkeley's, intitled " The Principles of Human Knowledge." Of this work, the nine first paragraphs comprehend all the fundamental propofitions, and the hundred and forty-feven remaining paragraphs contain the application, or illuftration in detail, of the doc. trine. An examination then of these nine paragraphs will fuffice to afcertain, whether, in the present state of metaphyfical dialectic, the idealists can claim the rank of a rational and confistent fect. This may best be done by tranfcribing exactly the paragraphs in question, and accompanying each with critical animadverfion. I. It is evident to any one, who takes a furvey of the objects of human knowledge, that they are either ideas actually imprinted on the fenfes, or elfe fuch as are perceived by attending to the paffions and operations of the mind, or, lastly, ideas formed by help of memory and imagination, either compounding, dividing, or barely representing those originally perceived in the aforesaid ways. By fight I have the ideas of light and colours, with their several degrees and variations. By touch I perceive, for example, hard and foft, heat and cold, motion and refiftance, and of all these more or less, either as to quantity or degree. Smelling furnithes me with odours; the palate with taftes, and hearing conveys founds to the mind in all their variety of tone and composition. And, as feveral of these are obferved to accompany each other, they come to be marked by one name, and so to be reputed as one thing. Thus, for example, a certain colour, taste, finell, figure, and confiftence, having been observed to go together, are accounted one diftinct thing, fignified by the name apple. Other collections of ideas conftitute a stone, a tree, a book, and the like sensible things; which, as they are pleasing or difagreeable, excite the paffions of love, hatred, joy, grief, and fo forth. I. The objekts of buman knowledge are either ideas. Human knowledge may be faid to confift of ideas; but that the objects of human knowledge are ideas, and not things, is the very point in difpute. It must not be smuggled into an axiom or a definition. Ideas atually Imprinted on the fenfes. How can ideas be imprinted on the senses ? I shut my eyes, and call up the idea of a funshiny landscape; but I do not thereby excite the sensation of light or verdure. I do not hear the tune I think of. It is a characteriftic difference between ideas and sensations; that, whereas fenfations can imprint ideas, ideas cannot imprint sensations. The perceptions which in dreams we mistake for fenfations, are ideas. Ideas imprinted on the fenfes, or perceived by attending to the passions, or formed by belp of me mory. What difference can there be in kind between these claffes? Ideas of fenfible objects may be affociated with paffionate movements, and distant time or place: fuch ideas, a tyrannicide may ferve for example, would be of all three claffes at once. Ideas may differ in vividness and in complexity. Terms or words may differ, in that fome characterise objects of fenfe, fome characterise paffions and operations of mind, fome characterise the re liques of memory, or the combinations of imagination, and in many other respects; but fuch fub-divifion is neither difcretive nor exhaustive. The imprecision of this language arises from Berkeley's not having investigated what ideas are. Let us enquire. The organs of fenfe appear to confiit of bundles of tubulated fibres, of which one extremity communicates with external furfaces, and the other with the feat of the mind. A fenfation is a motion at the external extremity, an idea, a motion at the internal extre * The antients, instead of confidering ideas as perceptions of an interior organ, mere sensations of the common fenforium, feem to have supposed, that, as wind eludes the fight, warmth the hearing, and light the taste, so there are substances which elude all the fentes; and that among these objects beyond fenfe, these metaphyfical things, were to be fought the caufes of all being, the elemental thapes of objects, the embryo of the universe. Such imaginary germs of things they called ideas, and talk of archetypal ideas or forms, in correfpondence with, or by the evolution of which, they suppose the world to have been made, or to have grown forth. To this strange notion of idea Berkeley, from his claffical reading, was familiarifed; and hence the confusion of his mind on the fubject. ty |