xlvi AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



which they entered this elegant retreat of 

 plenty, peace, and piety. 



The church of the convent is worthy of the 

 name in every point of view T ; and its marble 

 altar, originally from Rome, is a master-piece 

 of ornamental architecture, On the wall over 

 the grate in the audience room for visiters, 

 there hangs a picture of a boy laughing at his 

 own performance on the fiddle. So true is this 

 to nature, that you can never keep your eyes 

 from gazing on it whilst you are sitting there. 

 Were thieving innocent, and the act injurious 

 to none, I would set my brains at work how to 

 purloin this fascinating picture ; and then if I 

 succeeded in adding to it the representation of 

 a dead bittern suspended by the leg in the 

 Academy of Arts, I would consider myself owner 

 of two paintings, at which you might gaze and 

 gaze again, and come again and gaze, and 

 never feel fatigued with gazing at them. 



At the fatal period of the suppression of 

 monasteries in Belgium, when Joseph II. had 

 plundered their treasures and dispersed the 

 monks ; his government was so fearful of public 

 execration and of the consequences arising 

 from a proceeding so unjust, that it actually 



