culiar charms. His presence was capable of taking from the social circle and the festive board their wonted sensibility to the movements of time.

But other occurrences in the history of Mr. Shippen of a tenderer and more endearing character, are yet to be mentioned. Nor, though altogether of a domestic nature, is any apology deemed necessary to the mind of sensibility, for introducing them into the present memoir. Early in life it was his good fortune to contract an affection for, and afterwards to marry, a daughter of Tench Francis, Esq. his preceptor in law, one of the most amiable and accomplished young ladies of the province. By this marriage he became at once the father and the idol of one of the worthiest and most promising of families-a family possessing every thing calculated to conciliate his affections, rivet his esteem, and even to awaken his paternal pride. But as several members of that family are still living, an ornament to society in this and a neighbouring city, a dread of doing violence to the delicacy of cultivated minds, restrains us from paying the tribute that is due.

In the bosom of that family, on the 16th of April 1806, sunk suddenly but gently into the embraces of death, their venerable father, at the patriarchal age of seventy-seven years and two months.

C.

THE FINE ARTS. FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ORIGINAL LETTER FROM SIR BENJAMIN WEST TO CHARLES W. PEALE, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

London, Newman-street, Sept. 19th, 1809.

I EMBRACE the opportunity by the return of Mr. to Philadelphia, to acknowledge the receipt of your friendly letters at various times.

Mr. has presented me with the first number of the natural history of the birds of the United States, the production of that ingenious gentleman Mr. Alexander Wilson of your city; it is a work highly creditable to the abilities of that artist; and the world are greatly indebted to Messrs. Bradford and Inskeep for laying it before them.

The information which Mr. has given me respecting the academy established in Philadelphia, for cultivating the art of delineation, is highly honourable to those gentlemen who are its promoters, and benefactors; and is gratifying to my feelings as a native of the state of Pennsylvania. Had such an establishment taken place half a century past, when my youthful mind first became enamoured with the beauties of the fine arts, it would have at once enriched my fancy, and matured my judgment at that period of life, when the imagination requires to be stimulated, and directed by examples of excellent models of imitation; and I am persuaded there will be many a latent spark of genius kindled into enthusiasm by such an establishment, which, without such aid, would, like the flower in the wilderness" blush unseen, and waste its sweets in the desert."

When I was in Italy in the year 1760, the stupendous production in the fine arts which are in that country, rushed on my feelings with their impetuous novelty, and grandeur; and their progress through the world from the earliest period, arrested my attention; when I discovered they had accompanied empire, as shade does the body when it is

most illuminated, and that they had declined both in Greece and Italy, as the ancient splendor of those countries passed away. Reflecting thus on their stations when in prosperity, and their movements in decline, it led me to reflect on the civil and religious rights which the several charters had given to the then existing people of North America; and from those circumstances it appeared to me, that country was more likely to possess both empire and the fine arts. What I then anticipated has since been realized in one respect, and is about to be accomplished in the other, by the establishment of the academy at Philadelphia.

When that wise and excellent man, William Penn, planned his infant city of Philadelphia, he established public libraries for the use of the people: the opportunity of reading became habitual to them; this opportunity matured into a habit, gave a philosophical turn to their mind, and a passion which soon distinguished them from other citizens on that continent; and I am of opinion, that those mental endowments in the people will, in time, render that city the seat of refinement in all accomplishments, and make her as the Athens of the western empire; the seed is sown the soil is fertile and I am persuaded their growth to excellence will be the result. In this opinion I became more confirmed when I saw the fine arts were degraded in Italy, as well as in France, owing to the decline of that dignified patronage which had raised them to splendor in the two preceding centuries in both countries.

In England I found the fine arts as connected with painting and sculpture, had not taken root; but that there were great exertions making by the artists to prepare the soil, and sow the seeds. It was those artists who invited me to appear among them, with a few essays of my historical compositions in their annual exhibitions of painting, sculpture and architecture. Those exhibitions became an object of attraction to men of taste in the fine arts; the young sovereign was interested in their prosperity; and the artists were by his royal charter raised into the dignity, the independence, and, VOL. III.

as it were, the municipal permanency of a body corporate; in which body I found myself a member, and a director; but party and jealousy in two or three years interrupted the harmony and finally dissolved that society. At this period his majesty was graciously pleased to signify his commands to four artists, to form a plan for a royal academy, in which number I had the honour to be included. His majesty was graciously pleased to approve the plan, and commanded it to be carried into effect. Thus commenced the institution of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. An institution of proud importance to the sovereign; and to this, as a manufacturing country, of more real and solid advantage than would have been the discovery of gold and silver mines within her earth; as it taught delineation to her ingenious men, by which they were instructed to give taste to every species of manufactories, to polish rudeness into elegance, and soften massiveness into grace; and which raised the demand for them to an eminence unknown before in all the markets of civilized nations throughout the world.

At that time the breast of every professional man glowed with the warmth and energy of genius, at the establishment of the royal academy; and at the pleasing prospect it held out in the higher department of art-historical painting. The experiment was then to be made, whether there was genius in the country for that department of art, and patronage to nourish and stimulate it. The sovereign, the artist, and a few gentlemen of distinguished taste were solicitous for its success. With respect to genius, I have to speak from observation, that the distinguished youths who have passed in review before me since the establishment of the academy, in the three departments of art which constitute its views, would have been found equal to attain unrivalled eminence in them: and I know of no people since the Greeks so likely to attain excellence in the arts as the people of England; if the same spirit and love for them were diffused and cherished among them, as it was among the subjects in the Grecian

states.

Reflecting on patronage-his majesty, by his regard for the arts, gave a dignity to them unknown before in the country, many of the dignitaries of the church were friendly to them by patronage; the nobility viewed them with a supercilious air of indifference as to patronage; the law showed them no respect; and the monied men saw no charms in any thing but loans and subsidies. In the commercial part of this wealthy nation, the halls of the several companies were places capable of receiving works of art, and massed funds to reward them; however, they felt no complacency to the arts, but as they might bend to commercial views. The navy and the army being made up of the younger branches of established families, are from their infancy compelled to fight their way to elevation, and to fortune; while the general mass of society is engrossed by buying and selling; and the views of the landed interest are too remote from the fine arts, to become acquainted with them. The government has rendered them no aid by patronage-the bitterness of political contention left no room for the more tranquil and domestic pursuits of an enlightened legislation; and thus in the midst of profusion, and in the mouth of those very channels through which the exuberance of national wealth was daily circulating, the arts were slighted and discountenanced, and not suffered to gather up the crumbs of the public board; if the liberality of the government had cooperated with the patronage of his majesty and the professional gentlemen's efforts to maintain the dignity of the arts for the last forty years, England would have by this time yielded her preeminence in the arts, to no nation since their revival in modern Italy. But the experiment has been made-genius has not been wanting, and except some unforeseen change should take place in the minds of the various classes of men in this country which make the aggregate of the nation in favour of the arts, it requires no extraordinary sagacity to predict, that the arts have attained their zenith in the reign of his present majesty.