4 CARNIVOROUS QUADRUPEDS. 



No. III. 



Two COUCHANT LIONS, AFTER RUBENS, taken from his celebrated picture before alluded 

 to, of the Prophet Daniel incarcerated in the den. The Lions are here supposed to be miraculously 

 held in a state of tranquillity. Here, too, is not much Expression, but an extraordinary grandeur 

 of Character, suited to the greatness of an occasion where the Deity himself especially interferes 

 to seal up the voracious energies of the most terrible of his creatures, in calm submission. There 

 is a character of royal dignity mingled with this submission, which is very impressive, and even 

 sublime. 



The writer esteems this to be a successful restoration of the Nature that was wanting in the 

 prints of this subject, (which has often been engraved by PICART and others,) after RUBENS. The 

 original picture it has been our ill-fortune never to have seen. The shaggy manes, and the latent 

 terror that sits gloomily enthroned in the open eyes of the superior Lion suited to the darkness of 

 the den, and the nature of this animal's sense of vision, are as well thought of, as they are 

 executed ; and are varied with much address from the closed eyes of the couching Lion beyond, 

 of which also the character is most happily marked. A powerful and divine spell possesses 

 them both. 



No. IV. 



THE TIGER WHICH MARCHES IN OUR PROCESSION, without an object before him to call 

 forth emotion, possesses a calm character, combined with the resistless strength of that dreadful 

 quadruped j whose very tranquillity, in his leisure sauntering, when no excitement is acting on his 

 nerves, has an appalling effect. His brow is clouded, though his claws are sheathed. There is a 

 possibility of a dreadful storm which may not be far distant, and that is enough to stamp the 

 Tiger's character. None shall dare to arouse his energies, nor to encounter them when aroused. 



No. V. 



THIS GROUP OF PLAYFUL LEOPARDS, AFTER RUBENS, must be supposed to belong to the 

 jocund train of Bacchus, since they are luxuriating at their ease, among grapes and vine branches. 

 These Leopards are doubtless intended to have a degree of playful expression induced perhaps by 

 the exhilarating juice of the grape : and we should "guess" (as Jonathan says) that this group 

 was studied from a litter of half-grown kittens. Few, however, except the sailors who were 

 accustomed to gambol with the Tiger-cub on board the Pitt East-Indiaman, would like to venture 

 to frolic with them. 



