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suring such illiberality. But the fact is not so. We know of no good pictures left unsold."

In reply to this, I will ask the reviewer how long the splendid picture of Elijah in the Desert, by Allston, one of his most original and sublime conceptions, was submitted to the judgement of the public in his vicinity, and solicited a purchaser in vain? Was is not at least six years? Was it appreciated during this time? Was it not on the contrary unpopular, and was it before, or only since the distinguished foreign traveller saw it, and purchased it, and carried it to England, that its merit has been acknowledged and unavailing regrets at its loss expressed. The reviewer will say, perhaps, this is a solitary instance, and he probably alludes to this when he says, "We know of but one native production of great merit being lost to the country because its value was not understood." Be it so; the same blindness may still exist to the merits of other works of genius in the country, and may require, to satisfy the fastidious taste of some, the same proof of merit before they will see or acknowledge it. 

Does not the Reviewer himself exemplify in his own case the effect naturally produced on the encouragement of modern art by this exclusive passion for old pictures, and merely because they are old too. 

"The love of the arts," he observes, "is moreover, greatly dependent on remote associations.—For ourselves at least, we confess, that we should feel comparatively little enthusiasm for sculpture and painting if we had seen none but their modern productions. They would lose much of their poetical influence which they exert over our minds. We attribute this not so much to their inferiority in modern times as to their associations with the history of the past. All painting and sculpture remind us in some way of those older works of which we can never think without delight, &c."

I have no doubt the reviewer here speaks from the heart; modern pictures to him cannot possibly possess much interest, for while the artist is alive, his works, of course, can never be