114 CORRESPONDENCE. 



duce Bishop Hfeber and Mrs. Fry, had they been extant, — however 

 well-drawn or well-coloured, — as unconcerned and unconscious 

 spectators of the Bacchanalian orgies which he was depicting ; defy- 

 ing the critic's objections as inconsiderate — ^because " nature has not 

 withheld bishops from England," and because pious and benevo- 

 lent " females are frequent in that island."* 



Let the censor, then, look on the work of art before him as a real 

 scene, and discuss it accordingly, and the chance is, that he will 

 give a correct appreciation of its merits. Those whose minds are 

 open to the perception, generally, of beauty and fitness, — who look 

 with the eyes of common sense and observation upon the works of 

 the old masters, — will be led to the remark — at least such has been 

 iny impression — that their great characteristics as to form and com- 

 position, are their perfect simplicity and matter-of-fact-ness ; and the 

 result is, that quiet, impressive, speaking truthfulness, which distin- 

 guishes the works of these kings, these emperors, of elder art. 



But supposing the unknown critic to be completely in error, 'Slv. 

 Carey is not at all the more correct. Admitting the Irish character 

 to be utterly reckless ; — assuming that the " young and lovely fe- 

 males which are so frequent in the island" are so far habituated to 

 the spectacle of riot and intemperance that their presence in such a 

 scene is a matter of course — that their pursuing their pastimes 

 within the four walls where are congregated maddening hate, wild 

 fury, naked swords, and gory corpses, may be termed '^ engaging in 

 the act according to their characters and temperaments" — still no 

 poetical or painter's licence is claimed by the artist who illustrates 

 such an incident ; for if the apparent anomalies be, in truth, facts 

 and nationalities, it is as facts that they are represented, and the 

 scene, though physically a fiction, is a moral verity, and the " pour- 

 ing-out" is the presentation of the " abundance and variety,'^ not of 

 ''daring inventions," but of actual characteristics, which careful 

 observation has furnished. S. 



• Analyst, p. 242. 



