1832.] Review of Music. 483 



from the Messiah, it is evident that such hallowed ground was not for him to 

 tread. The rest of the book is made up of " God save the King," PleyeFs 

 German Hymn, and other equally thread-bare and common-place pieces, which 

 the most unlearned amateur would turn from in disappointment. Had Mr. 

 Nightingale's object been to enable beginners to amuse themselves innocently on 

 Sunday evenings, by stringing together a number of common-place airs, we 

 might have applauded his undertaking, but we find in this volumn such songs 

 as " Had I JubaPs Lyre," " Angels are bright and fair," and other songs which 

 require the abilities of professors to give effect to, and consequently the work has 

 no design. Although Mr. Nightingale has failed in his undertaking, we think 

 that a well selected work upon this subject would meet with great patronage 

 from the public. 



FINE ARTS' EXHIBITION. 



SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS. 



As the private view of this exhibition did not take place till the 23rd, which, 

 as most of our readers must be aware, is a late " Magazine day," we have to 

 apologize for not being able to get up a single Greek or even Latin quotation for 

 the occasion, like the illustrious pictorial critic of the Chronicle, who, in imita- 

 tion of Pope's quadruped : 



" And ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost," 



seems utterly unable to tell green from yellow, or fore-shortening from chinro 

 'scuro, until he has disburthened himself of his last six months' gleanings from 

 Macdonnel's dictionary of quotations. 



With this apology, therefore, for our want of learned lore, and trusting to our 

 good-natured reader to repeat the first twenty lines of " Propria quae maribus," 

 before he proceeds any further, we venture at once (in answer to the call of the 

 devil) to dash in medias res, which, according to the catalogue, is 



No. 13. Ruins, composition. D. ROBERTS. And, Heaven save the mark, 

 here we get a quotation ready made to our hands, which we venture to set up 

 in opposition to the four next bits of learning that shall emanate from that very 

 small painter but very large critic, who struts so brilliantly in the columns of the 

 Chronicle. This is what Mr. Roberts (Mrs. Hemans loquente) tells us about 

 his own picture : 



" There have been bright and glorious pageants here, 

 Where now grey stones and moss-grown columns lie ; 



There have been words, which earth grew pale to hear, 

 Breath'd from the cavern's misty chambers nigh : 

 There have been voices through the sunny sky, 



And the pine woods, their choral hymn-notes sending, 

 And reeds and Lyres, their Dorian melody, 



With incense clouds around the temple blending, 

 And throngs, with laurel boughs, before the altar bending." 



We. wish we could as .easily lay before our friends the poetry that is painted in 

 the picture, as we have that which is printed in the catalogue ; for it is long 

 since we have looked on any canvas " by a modern hand," so chastily designed, 

 and so purely coloured ; even where the tone is warmest, it seems so tenderly 

 inclined to glide away into sobriety, that the eye dwells with pleasure on the 

 scene without fear of being taken by assault by a sally of gamboge, or a charge 

 of the (aqua) marine. 



45. The Widow. E. PRENTIS. There are no " bright and glorious pageants" 

 here, but a tale of the heart instead. It is right pleasant to see a picture 

 handled with the sincerity of feeling which Mr. Prentis has here displayed. 

 There is something ominous in the title of " The Widow," at least we thought so, 

 till we transferred our gaze from the catalogue to the painting itself ; for till 

 that moment we had never, under the head of " Widows," become acquainted 



