313 



the occasion called for it, I must attribute 

 this total absence of all brilliancy and vari- 

 ety, to great judgment and reflection/' 



ff You have, perhaps unknowingly/' said 

 Mr. Howard, " been paying a compliment 

 to yourself, in shewing so much admiration 

 of Poussin ; for he has been called " Le 

 " peintre des gens desprit" 



" It was indeed unknowingly," replied 

 Mr. Seymour ; " but whatever interpreta- 

 tion you may put on it, I cannot help 

 saying, that he seems to deserve his title : 

 but I must tell you, Howard, that one 

 thing strikes me, in consequence of the 

 extreme contrast that I have remarked 

 between many of the pictures ; and the rest 

 of them will probably furnish more ex- 

 amples. You say, that between the two 

 extremes of monotony and harshness, lyes 

 the grateful medium of grateful irritation, 

 which is called beauty, or picturesque 

 beauty : now, I must say, that this is a 

 most extensive medium; for, among the 

 pictures that we have been looking at, there 

 are some as near as possible to absolute 



