as it were, and distinctly before him, neglecting nothing that contributed to keep his faculties alive, and deriving hints from every sort of combination." It is not, indeed, generally, the highest genius which is least inclined to avail itself of such assistance in its labours as study and painstaking may procure.

Another of the most distinguished names in the list of British artists of the last century is that of JAMES BARRY. Barry was born at Cork in 1741. His father appears to have been a somewhat unsettled character, or at least to have shifted from one pursuit to another, probably without obtaining much success in any. It is commonly said that he was originally a mason; some authorities state that he had been also a victualler. At the time of Barry's birth he was the master of a small coasting vessel, in which he traded between England and Ireland.

Barry is understood to have received a good education in the ordinary branches of scholarship. At an early age, however, his father took him with him to sea, and made him do duty as a ship-boy. This occupation

he detested. The love of painting had already taken possession of him, and his greatest pleasure was to cover the deck with sketches of objects made with chalk or ochre. His father, at last, finding all his efforts to make him a sailor of no avail, allowed him to remain at home, and to pursue his studies in literature and art. He now returned to school, and distinguished himself by an ardour and diligence which left all his classfellows behind him. Even his play-hours were generally given to hard study. Instead of associating with the other boys in their amusements, his practice was to retire to his room, and there to employ himself in

reading or painting. Whatever money he got, he spent in purchasing books, or candles to enable him to read during the night. His enthusiasm was at this time (and indeed throughout his life) partly sustained also by certain notions of the virtue of ascetic observances, which he had derived from his mother, who was a Catholic, and had great influence over him. In conformity with these opinions he was wont to sleep, when he did take rest, upon the hardest bed, and to wear the coarsest clothes he could procure. These theological prejudices were not calculated to have a salutary effect upon the growth of a character like that of Barry, whose morose and atrabilious temperament rather required an education calculated to bring the gentler affections of his nature more into play.

His ardour in study, however, both during this and every other part of his life was admirable. He had as yet but few books of his own, but he borrowed from all who had any to lend, and sometimes learned the passages which he liked by heart (a practice of which he soon found the advantage in the growing strength of his memory), and sometimes transcribed them. It is said, that transcripts of several entire volumes, which he had made at this period, were found after his death among his papers. Among the works which he especially delighted to study, it is recorded, were many on controversial divinity-unfortunately not the most wholesome sustenance for an intellectual and moral organization like his.

He was in his seventeenth year when he first attempted to paint in oil; and for some years he wrought with no one to encourage or to notice him. Among the first performances which he produced, were compositions on the escape of Æneas from Troy, the story of Susannah and the Elders, and that of Daniel in the Lion's Den. These pictures he hung up on the walls of his father's house, and there they remained long after the painter's fame had spread over Europe. At last, in his twentieth or twenty-first year, he produced a work which appeared to himself such as he might exhibit in a more public place. This was a picture on the fine subject of the baptism by St. Patrick of one of the kings of Cashel, who stands unmoved while the ceremony is performed, amidst a circle of wondering and horror-struck spectators, although the saint, in setting down his crozier, has, without perceiving it, stuck its iron point through the royal foot. With this work he set out for Dublin, and placed it in the exhibition room of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. It was universally adınired. But no one knew the artist, or was aware that he was a native of the country; and when Barry, who used frequently to come to the room to observe the impression it made, dressed in the same coarse attire which he wore in the country one day, overcome by emotions which he could no longer conceal, announced himself the painter of the picture, his avowal was received with an incredulous

laugh. He burst into tears and left the room. The patriotic enthusiasm of his countrymen, however, amply recompensed him for this when they found that he, an Irishman, was really the person who had produced this admired performance. The young ascetic soon found himself the favourite of the gayest society of his native metropolis. But perceiving that this new course of life interrupted his studies, and seduced him occasionally into worse follies, he became alarmed, and determined to withdraw himself from it before it should have become a habit. These feelings came over him with so much force one night when he was returning from a tavern, where he had spent the evening with a bacchanalian party, that he actually threw what money he had in his pocket into the river, cursing it as having betrayed him into the excesses of which he had been guilty, and from that day returned to his books and his easel.

Meantime, however, he had also acquired some worthier friends; and, among others, had been introduced to the illustrious Edmund Burke, then commencing his splendid political career as assistant to the secretary of the Lord Lieutenant. A story has been told respecting Barry's first interview with Burke, which would be interesting if it could