452 Notes of the Month on A PHIL, 



idea of a demi-gothic cottage, for the study of Henry the Fifth, did 

 credit to the actor's taste ; and the association between the gallantry of 

 the warrior, and the cusps and mullions of the building in which his 

 spirit was to be raised again, was in the best style. However, 

 Kean failed in the experiment, and we are sorry for it. He is a man 

 of ability, and, as such, his failure ought to be a matter of regret ; un- 

 less it should have been through that negligence which so often mars 

 the fame of genius ; or that contempt for his audience, which, however 

 it may sometimes be so natural to feel, it must always be so impolitic to 

 display. But there is power in Kean still ; and if he would but assume 

 the manliness to throw off some of those habits, private and public, which 

 have sunk his reputation, it might not, even now, be too late for him to 

 recover his popularity. 



Sir Thomas Lawrence's will is a curious document. We hate that 

 perpetual affectation of sanctified language which makes one of the most 

 disgusting characteristics of our canting day. But there is, after all, a 

 certain decorum to be observed, unless we would set at defiance the cus- 

 toms of society, and, what is of a much higher value, the opinions of all 

 wise and right-minded men. In the will of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 

 which, we must take it for granted, has been given word for word to the 

 public, we cannot discover a syllable that might not have been written 

 by a man who believed, that when the breath was out of his body, there 

 was an end of him here and hereafter. Yet, men as remote from super- 

 stition, or unmanly fear, as the most daring infidel alive, have generally 

 taken occasion of a document, which so seriously reminds man of his 

 precarious tenure here, to commence their wills with some testimony to 

 their acknowledgment of a religious belief. The bequeathing of pro- 

 perty has been generally preceded by some solemn and natural recom- 

 mendation of that only possession which remains alike to rich and poor 

 the immortal part of our nature to the great Source from which it 

 came, and to which it hopes to reascend. But, in the will of this 

 celebrated man, there is, unhappily, not a syllable that can sustain the 

 idea of his having supposed himself to be above the plant, or the pebble 

 at his feet. 



We speak of this, not as actually doubting of his belief, nor as desir- 

 ing to fasten upon the memory of a man of genius, and general know- 

 ledge of life and literature, a charge not less fatally hostile to his character 

 for common understanding and common morality, than to the loftier 

 hopes that belong to things beyond the grave ; but with regret, as a 

 negligence, as a wasted opportunity for clearing his name, and as, per- 

 haps, an encouragement to weak and empty minds to sanction their 

 own insults to the general wisdom of the pure and the virtuous, under 

 the shadow of his genius. 



In a professional point of view, the abstract of his will gives an inter- 

 esting statement of his collection and its intended disposal : 



" The will has been proved in Doctors' Commons, by his sole execu- 

 tor, Mr. Knightly, and probate granted for personal property, under 

 forty-jive thousand pounds. Sir Thomas states that his collection of 

 drawings by the old masters, are, he confidently believes, the finest in 

 Europe, and worth twenty thousand pounds ; but he directs them to be 

 offered to ' his Most Gracious Majesty for eighteen thousand pounds.' 

 In case of his declining to take them, they are to be offered to the Bri- 



