The National Register.
London, England, 1812-05-31 00:00:00

TliF, NATIONAL. REGISTER.

Cbe

No. XLIV.

Zeside the bed where parting life was latd,
And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismay'd,
The Rev'rtnd champion stood. At his controul,
Despuir and anguish fled the struggling soul:
Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise,
And his last fault'ring accents wniper'd
Goldsmith's Deserted Tillage.

In the preceding numbers, we have, as much as our feeble talents
tould do within the narrow limits of a Newspaper, expatiated upon the
dignity and importance of the station which the Divi N E hclds between
the Almighty and his people ; we have glanced at some of the most es-
sential duties which he has to perform, and found him every where, the
mediator, the consoler, the physician of the soul. We have considered
him, with an admiring eye, soaring above his congregation, and, from
the sacred Pulpit, expounding the law, which, at first, was delivered
to man from the thundering tops of Sinai, and was, in course of time,
confirmed and completed by God himself, under the mild and lovely
aipearance of mane. There his office has attracted, not only our ve-
neration, but also our unfeigned gratitude. Like the bright star, that
led the wandering Sages of the East to the humble cradle of HIM who
had spontaneously assumed the 64 form of a slave," to make us free; the
garments of poverty, to make us rich; and the coverings of mortality, to
sender us immortal ;—the DlviNt z emits from the Pulpit, an unfading
blase of instruction, purpoaedly to lead us, with safety, through the
mazes and difficulties of Christian life, to the very bosom of God, there
to enjoy an eternal and unchanging state of bliss, a tenfold compensa-
tion for the galling privations in this world, and the reward of our eta-
Cons towards the fulfilling of the law.
But it is not only there that the ministry of the Clergyman is entitled
to our warmest acknowledgment of sincere respect, and well-earned
gratitude. Let him descend from the hallowed ground upon which he
stands, when delivering, with his suitable eloquence, the blissful tenets
of the Gospel ; let us follow him in his parochial visits !—Oh ! that we
were empowered with the eminent talent of descriptive style ; that we
eonid represent him, in uhf attered but lively colours, stealing, un-
perceived, to the cottage of the poor, to " break the bread" of instruc-
'vim, of consolation, of encouragement, and patience ; climbing the stei:
s
Ot the needy garret, where the disabled parent lies on the bed of sick-
• su:rounded by the children of poverty, and a family writhing
under all the torments of nearly an irremediable penury ! his appear-
an.e.e there shines like alit of an angel from heaven, and his charitable
evtortAtions, acconi,aniest with proportionable gifts, have, though small,
utore ct tin:en if he had turned the golden streams of Pactolus
into the place, in order to flow around the sleepless straw-bed of suffer-
lug indigence.
Let us consider him in another view of his ministerial duties, like the
Magistrate Df conscience, settling petty feuds, and re-opening the house-
door to good understanding, peace, and happiness, which had been
long exiled from the distressed abode of matrimony ; reconciling disaf-
fected friends, and restoring that blessed harmony, which is a particu-
lar appendage and exclusive prerogative of christian brotherhood and
fellowship ; and then let us exclaim :•••••
44 0 fortunati nimium sua si bona norint
Agricola."
Happy—million of times happy, the labourers in the vineyard of the
Lord, if they knew and did all the good they can do. Free from en
slaved bigotry, from a blinding and exclusive predilection for.fashionable
sects, we cannot think of a worthy divine in general, without eethusi-
asin ; see him individually, without the utmost respect; and write
about him without an impassioned style of unbounded admi:ation.
Pursuing our obsernat.ons we meet with a scene of still deeper im-
portance, which opens to the eye of the religious observer; and, here,
the Free-thinder, and even the Atheist, if such anomaly exist amidst
the classes of rational beings, must join with us in candid applause.
When the icy hand of tyrant Death has struck down our fellow-creature ;
when fluttering life is on the point to depart; when, surrounded by his
desolated relations, his sympathising friends, and feeling internally that
'his last hour is come, man holds up his feeble hands for help in the dis-
tressful niomeot of dissolivion, is there any one who can frek;lit bit

M_AYIII

trembling soul with the necessary .comforts for the dark a • • justly.
dread:d voyage ? Is titre one, who, like a favourable breeze, can waft
him gently over to that " bourne from whence no traveller return,.
and lay the storm of the mind ?—Yes ! he is here :it hand, here he
brings the sacramental I,lcdge of saltmtion, the token of redemption, the
unfailing biscuit (if we may be allowed the allegory) which will sup-
port the fearful traveller through his awful passage to eternity.—Not
unlike the perfume, which flowed in odoriferous esstnce, front ttie Lead
of the. high priest AARON, Ws words, every one of hts words, breathes
the welcome hope of another life, soothes the convoLsive pulse of the
dyins body, assuages the agonising pains of instant departure, and
fledges the spurring soul to Ace from this couttiortaible world to a
" world without end."
• See how Mr. West has repesented hint in his fatuous picture now
at the British Gallery, Pall-mall. " The loveliest of all die sons of

man," ,

FINE ARTS.

MR. WILKIE'S PICTURES.
No. '7. The Cu! Firmer, painted in 1809.---For high finishing this piece
claims the first rank among the pictures which adorn the room : and
for expression—but it is indescribable-e-it must be seen. The obstinate
child, who, although under the greatest agony of pain, refuses to sure
render the instrument and cause of the distressing misfortune and of
the mi ery he suffers; the steadiness of the old woman, who seems to
he familiar witfi such accidents ; the attendants upon the unfortunate
little s!lip-wright, or boat-builder, whose half-finished fleet is a float in
the dock of a pudding-pan ; the chips, the tools, the chimney-place, the
fowl hanging half-picked against the wall, every part is full of nature,
and proves the wonderful powers of Mr. WILKIE'S hal:d. Fault has been
found, (and where is the work of man without fault ?*) with the face of
the child; hut every body knows that the prettiest child, even under
the plastic hand of ROUISILLIAC or nareierso, ceases to be pretty as
soon as he sheds tears. The elegant poet of a modern aed mud; ad-
mired anacreontic song has found, by chance, the smile and the tear upoti
the same face, but surely it was not upon the face of a wounddd child.
No. 8. The Sick Lady, painted in 1808. There is a tone of stilleess
and melancholy, that pervades the whole of this interesting perform-
ance, and which is so appropriate and so sweet, that it is impossible to
consider it a few minutes without finding yourself transported on the
very spot, in the very bed-chamber, where an amiable young woman,
seems, by her situation, to cast a gloom around her. The hand of the
master is seen every where, in the attitude, the expressive countenances
of the figures, and the accessaries.
No. 9. The Village Holliday, painted in 1311 —After having atten-
tively considered the hest performances of "l'eN LER S and Os-re -DV, those
curious pieces in whish they seemed to have been positively inspired by
the Muse of Mirth and the rosy God of jokes and fun ; that we should
stand, before this, dumb with astonishment at the successful effect of a
happy combinaticv of groups, figures and other objects, clad in harmo-
nious tints, and finished with freedom and truth, is most assuredly a
Iproof of its intrinsic merit; we might apply, in this circumstance, to.
Mr. WILIEIE, what Du :Wallets says in his short, but elegant poem on
the chromatic art : 41
With Cate.o-r some will court the comic muse
Excite your mirth and ne'rr fail to amuse;
Various the themes in which their fancy glows;
The village &nice, the fair with gaudy shows.
And, indeed, it h abno-t impossible, not to laugh at the divers and ins
tere,ting episodes which this little painted poem presente to the view ;
but the principal and center group is certainly the triumph of this nige-
ni us academician's talents. P. VERO N ESE, PobssiN and several others,
assuming a loftier and severer tone, have depicted the wavering plight
of the human mind, when drawn on either side by contending passions,
and oscillates painfully in a violent and distracting state of indecision ;tve
have here the same idea exemplified in an humble scene, but which,
being oftener submitted to the eye, seems more natural, and therefore
more impressive. We do not see the subject through the variegated
prism of Allegoty—it is the fact itself.