272 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V. 



The Eev. Sydney Smith began his second course of 

 lectures on March 23. 



He thus wrote in April to Francis Jefferey, Esq. : 



Doughty Street, April 1805. 



My lectures are just now at such an absurd pitch of 

 celebrity that I must lose a good deal of reputation before 

 the public settles into a just equilibrium respecting them. 

 I am most heartily ashamed of my own fame, because I am 

 conscious I do not deserve it, and that the moment men of 

 sense are provoked by the clamour to look into my claims 

 it will be at an end. 



Mr. Landseer gave three lectures on Engraving. 

 From some personal allusions the managers resolved 

 * that it is their earnest wish that no allusion of a 

 personal nature be ever offered on any account at the 

 lectures of the Institution.' The next year Mr. Land- 

 seer was engaged to give six lectures on Engraving, 

 including the substance of those already given, on the 

 same terms as those of the preceding year. In the 

 announcement of the engagement it was said, c He will 

 endeavour to add a few lectures of a more general 

 nature on the Philosophy of Art.' The lectures were 

 given early in 1806, and on March 17, after the fourth 

 lecture, the minutes of the managers .state that Mr. 

 Landseer was called in and informed that the managers 

 understood that his two last lectures, particulary the 

 last, were exceptionable from the personal allusions they 

 contained, and, he having admitted that they were 

 intended as personal allusions, although introduced 

 with a view to vindicate and support the art, and it 

 airoearing that Mr. Landseer had before introduced 



