380 
Moliere’s Fartuffe. In the other parts of Eu- 
rope, all is apparent lethargy, except, indeed, 
that France, in her new province, Spain, 
seems actively employed in making Cadiz 
an efficient counterbalance against Eng- 
land’s rocky hold, Gibraltar. 
In every part of the AMERICAN CONTI- 
NENT almost every thing seems to be as- 
suming the settled order, which the friends 
of liberty and humanity could desire. And 
the direct intelligence from Greece, ex- 
tracted from the official journal, published 
at Hydra, is of a cheering nature; not so 
much for any details of military prowess, as 
for the evidence it affords of that more 
arduous consummation—the triumph of the 
Obituary of the Month. 
(May }, 
law, in an infant state, over the spirit of 
discord and insurrection. CoLcorRont, the 
four DreLisans, the two NoTARorouLis and 
others were shipped off from Napoh, in the 
open day, for Hydra, without a murmur 
from the people; but with every apparent 
mark of public joy. A letter from Egypt, 
describes the PacHa to have been through- 
out the whole of his late expensive and un- 
fortunate campaigns, the dupe of Turkish 
artifice and flatterers in Turkish pay, who 
pronounced him the Napoleon of Africa. A 
French general, of the name of Boyer, has 
recently joined the Pacua, and obtained a 
chief-command oyer his troops. 
OBITUARY OF THE MONTH. 
HENRY FUSELI, ESQ., R.A. 
This distinguished artist and accom- 
plished Scholar, died on Saturday morning, 
the 16th inst., at the house of the Countess 
of Guilford, at Putney Hill. 
He attained the great age of 87, in per- 
fect possession of his faculties, his mind 
remaining as completely vigorous and firm, 
as at any previous period of his life. Mr. 
Fuseli was a native of Zurich, and came to 
England at an early age, more with the 
intention of making literature his study, 
than art. Indeed he published a few works ; 
but while he was yet undetermined, and 
speculating, as he said, on the great resolve 
of life, he took ‘some of his drawings to 
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and asked his can- 
did opinion whether he thought he had any 
chance of success as anartist. The President 
was so much struck with the conception 
and power displayed in them, that, after 
viewing them attentively, he said, “ Young 
man, were I the author of these drawings, 
and offered ten thousand a year’not to prac- 
tise as an artist, I would reject it with con- 
tempt.” This decided him; but_it was 
not until the opening of the Milton Gallery, 
about the year 1798, that the extent of his 
intellectual acquirements, his lofty but 
somewhat extravagant imagination, his fer- 
tile and eccentric fancy were fully appre- 
ciated. None who witnessed it can ever 
forget the effect, produced on them by that 
exhibition. The pictures he painted for 
the Shakspeare Gallery must also be re- 
membered, though not always with critical 
applause, with feelings of high admira- 
tion. His “ Ghost of Hamlet,” in point 
of conception at least, was unquestionably 
the grandest work in the collection ; it can 
never be forgotten while the art exists. Yet 
it must not be disguised, that, even in this, 
as in similar instances, an extravagance of 
outline betrays something like an overs/rain- 
ing for the sublime ; that the imagination 
of Mr. Fuseli was more eccentrically vigo- 
yous than classically correct ; that a scarcely 
. practicable curve was sometimes mistaken 
for the beau-ideal of grace, and distorted 
attitude for the action of energetic pas- 
sion ; that even his female features, and their 
proportions also, had frequently too much 
detail for genuine beauty ; and that elabora- 
tion sometimes supplied the place of expres- 
sion. His parade of anatomical science led him 
also, occasionally, into a species of caricature. 
His. naked forms looked as if a transparent 
pellicle had been drawn over the anatomised 
figure, to show the situation and action of 
the muscles; and, even in the cloathed, the 
outline of the limb was shewn dis- 
tinctly through the drapery ;—nay, the very 
exertion of the muscles. In one of his 
pictures of Milton’s daughter, reading to 
the sightless bard, we remember to have 
been favoured with a sight of the femoral 
artery through the petticoats. If this be 
not the pedantry of the art, we are sure, 
at least, that it is not the good taste of it ; 
and, though we are far from thinking that 
the artist’s knowledge of anatomy can pos- 
sibly be carried too far, or that even the 
most gorgeous drapery can be properly dis- 
posed without an anatomical familiarity 
with the human figure; yet, we would 
recommend to every artist, among other 
accomplishments of science which he 
is called upon to acquire, not to forget 
the knowledge of how much of that ac- 
quisition it is necessary for him to con- 
ceal. Notwithstanding all this, far be it 
from us to call into question the vigour, 
the fertility, the exuberance of Fuseli’s 
imagination; or, to deny that British art 
has essential obligations to his exertions. 
But even a funeral memoir should not be 
all indiscriminating panegyric. We would 
separate the genius from the mannerism,; 
and, while we stimulate the incipient 
artist to catch the fire of emulation from 
the former, would warn him to shun the 
contagion of the latter; which, unfortu- 
nately, is all that the mere imitator can 
ever catch. 
Mr. Fuseli enjoyed the friendship of 
many of the most distinguished literati of 
the 
