iSo EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



youthful hand," but the description of Mr. Day's por- 

 trait cannot be omitted. 



"In the course of the year 1770, Mr. Day stood 

 for a full-length picture to Mr. Wright, of Derby. 

 A strong likeness and a dignified portrait were the 

 result. Drawn in the open air, the surrounding sky is 

 tempestuous, lurid, dark. He stands leaning his left 

 arm against a column inscribed to Hambden (sic). Mr. 

 Day looks upwards, as enthusiastically meditating on 

 the contents of a book held in his dropped right hand. 

 The open leaf is the oration of that virtuous patriot 

 in the senate, against the grant of ship money, de- 

 manded by King Charles I. A flash of lightning plays 

 in Mr. Day's hair, and illuminates the contents of the 

 volume. The poetic fancy and what were then the 

 politics of the original, appear in the choice of subject 

 and attitude. Dr. Darwin sat to Mr. Wright about the 

 same period. Tliat was a simply contemplative portrait, 

 of the most perfect resemblance." * 



****** 



"In the year 1768, Dr. Darwin met with an accident 

 of irretrievable injury to the human frame. His pro- 

 pensity to mechanics had unfortunately led him to con- 

 struct a very singular carriage. It was a platform with 

 a seat fixed upon a very higfo pair of wheels, and sup- 

 ported in the front upon the back of the horse, by 

 means of a kind of proboscis which, forming an arch, 

 reached over the hind-quarters of the horse, and passed 

 through a ring, placed on an upright piece of iron, 

 which worked in a socket fixed in the saddle. The 

 * * Memoirs,' &c., p. 21. 



