158 



temporary Portraits. A copy is also prefixed to the edition 

 of his works, in 4 vols. 8vo. 1811, published by Mr. Cadell. 

 His portrait was also taken by Vaslet, and engraved by Car- 

 ter, 1771. It is a large metz etching. He translated Du 

 Fresnoy's Art of Painting, to which Sir Joshua added some 

 notes. Mr. Mason has prefixed an Epistle to Sir Joshua, 

 which thus concludes : 



And oh ! if ought thy poet can pretend 

 Beyond his favourite wish, to call thee friend : 

 Be it that here his tuneful toil has dress'd 

 The muse of Fresnoy in a modern vest ; 

 And, with what skill his fancy could bestow, 

 Taught the close folds to take an easier flow ; 

 Be it that here, thy partial smile approv'd 

 The pains he lavish'd on the art he lov'd. 



Mr. Mason's attachment to painting was an early one, 

 is conspicuous in many of his writings, and in his English 

 Garden, is visible throughout : 



feel ye there 



What Reynolds felt, when first the Vatican 

 Unbarr'd her gates, and to his raptur'd eye 

 Gave all the god-like energy that flow'd 

 From Michael's pencil ; feel what Garrick felt, 

 When first he breath'd the soul oiShakspeare's page. 



Sir Joshua, in his will, bequeaths his then supposed por- 

 trait of Milton to Mr. Mason. 



Mr. Gray thus observes of Mason, when at Cambridge : 

 " So ignorant of the world and its ways, that this does not 

 hurt him in one's opinion ; so sincere and so undisguised, 

 that no mind with a spark of generosity would ever think of 

 hurting him, he lies so open to injury ; but so indolent, that 

 if he cannot overcome this habit, all his good qualities will 

 signify nothing at all." 



