MEMOIR OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. T HE children of genius have been often distinguished by remarkable eccentricities of character, and some of them, indeed, have been so little qualified to live in this world, as society is constituted, that nature appears to have dropped them by mistake into a sphere that was never intended for them. At the same time, we have daily opportunities of observing that aberration of mind and constitutional or affected enthusiasm, habitual taciturnity, artfully accompanied by a well-practised air of superior sagacity, repulsive and unsocial habits, dictatorial manner, contempt of propriety, and other peculiarities equally frivolous, are often thought to be indicative of latent talent in persons of very ordinary calibre; while the quiet unassuming demeanour of many, who are really possessed of true genius, will occasionally be found to throw a veil over qualities which entitle them to the highest consideration. It may, consequently, be difficult, in seeking to form an estimate of character, where no decided proofs of undoubted ability have been given by which we might regulate our opinion, to distinguish between the genuine effusions of genius, and the singularity of manner, or extravagance of conduct and sentiment, which may chance to be peculiar to the individual of whom we wish to judge. But the works of a man of talent will speak for themselves; and in these we cannot well be deceived. It is by his works that posterity will judge him, and it is to them that he should look for his fame, and the world for a proper criterion of his abilities. : Sir Joshua Reynolds had no real or affected peculiarities, which distinguished him from the plain English gentleman he was subject to no fits of hysteric enthusiasm, asserted no undue pretensions, and thought nothing beneath his consideration which the rank that he held in society appeared to require at his hands. The history of his life will afford but little scope to those who look for romance as inseparable from genius, and think it unbecoming, in men of lofty minds, to climb to fame by a path which might be trodden by others. The course of Reynolds was not through the whirlwind or the torrent; no mystery attended his advance to superior excellence; it was planned on obvious but well-digested principles, and conducted with the steady perseverance of one who keeps his object always in view, and is determined eventually to reach it. His success in the art which he professed may be considered as the triumph of reason; for it was chiefly effected by observation and judgment; and though nature appears to have endowed him with an elegant and discriminative mind, yet it is probable that even for this he was greatly indebted to the habit of thinking with propriety, and of rejecting such ideas as he considered to be inconsistent with a dignified and comprehensive view of nature and things. The records of art have not hitherto furnished us with so striking an example of what it is possible to effect by a judicious use of other men's ideas, united with diligence and labour, as the history of the progress of Reynolds from the commencement to the close of his professional career. It will be found to afford a most instructive and encouraging lesson to the juvenile student in painting; and may contribute, perhaps, even more than the study of his works, to illustrate the means by which Sir Joshua employed to dignify the art of his country, and to raise the proud structure on which he has based his well-merited claim to immortality. Joshua Reynolds was a native of Devonshire, and was born at Plympton, July 16, 1723.* He was the son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and Theophila Potter his wife, and was the tenth of eleven children, five of whom died in their infancy.† It appears that * This county has produced many other painters of note. Hudson, Hayman, Cosway, Humphry, Northcote, Haydon, Prout, were natives of Devonshire; and other names well known to the public might be added to the list. It is, however, remarkable, that the county which has been so prolific in artists, should have afforded, till very lately, fewer good collections of pictures than any other of equal dimensions in England. "His father had a notion," observes Malone, on the authority of Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, "that it might at some future period of life be an advantage to a child to bear an uncommon Christian name; which might recommend him to the attention and kindness of some person bearing the same name, who, if he should happen to have no natural object of his care, might be led even from so slight a circumstance to become a benefactor. Hence our author derived the scriptural name of Joshua, which, though not very uncommon, occurs less frequently than many others." But another biographer has suggested, with more appearance of reason, that it was probably given to him because an uncle, who was one of his godfathers, bore the same name, and it frequently happens that a child is christened after one of its sponsors." It is certain,” observes Northcote, who had seen the statements in Reynolds's handwriting, "that Sir Joshua had an uncle whose Christian name was Joshua, and dwelt at Exeter, and who was his godfather; but not being present at the baptism of his nephew, was represented by Mr. Aldwin." In the Register of Plympton, how he was on every side connected with the church; for both his father and grandfather were in holy orders, his mother was the daughter of a clergyman, and his maternal grandmother the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Baker, an eminent mathematician noticed in the " Biographia Britannica;" his father's elder brother was also in the church, and was a fellow of Eton College, and a canon of St. Peter's, Exeter. His Mr. Samuel Reynolds is said to have been eminent for his learning; and united, with exemplary moral character, great innocence of heart and simplicity of manners he appears to have been also a very absent man, and remarkable for habitual taciturnity. mental powers, on Sir Joshua's authority, were considerably weakened, notwithstanding his advantages of education, from the circumstance of their not having been sufficiently confined to some determinate object; and were wasted in acquiring a general kind of knowledge, of little or no practical use to its possessor. The profits which he derived from the living of Plympton, and from the grammar-school of that place, which he conducted, were barely sufficient for the maintenance of his remaining six children; and as he was but ill calculated for the management of a school, the number of his scholars gradually diminished till one only remained on the establishment. This mortification appears to have been borne with good temper, and without any dejection of spirits, and he continued to enjoy the respect and esteem which the variety of his talents and the goodness of ever, we find the name entered as Joseph; which inaccuracy we may conclude, with Malone, to have been occasioned by its having been written originally in an abbreviated form-Jos. son of Samuel Reynolds-and at a subsequent period entered erroneously by the clergyman or clerk of the parish his disposition had obtained for him from his friends and parishioners. : Young Reynolds is supposed to have been instructed in the Classics by his father, who is said to have been very assiduous in cultivating the minds of his children but the attainments of Sir Joshua, in later years, do not seem to indicate that he profited much from instruction of a classical nature; and we may also conclude, that the mass of general knowledge by which he is allowed to have been distinguished, was chiefly acquired from long-continued intercourse with the most celebrated literary characters of his day, whom he loved to assemble around him. It has been erroneously stated, that his father intended him for the church; but it appears, on the authority of his own statement, that he was originally destined for the study of medicine: and he is known to have declared, at a more advanced period of life, that, if such had been the event, he should have felt the same determination to become the most eminent physician, as he then felt to be the first painter of his age and country." It seems, indeed, to have been his constant and decided opinion, that "the superiority attainable in any pursuit whatever, does not originate in an innate propensity of the mind for that pursuit in particular, but depends on the general strength of the intellect, and on the intense and constant application of that strength to a specific purpose." He regarded ambition as the cause of eminence, but accident as pointing out the means.' Whatever may be the truth of these observations, they have certainly the authority of Johnson in support of them; and Reynolds himself was not in the habit of thinking superficially on subjects of any kind. But though it may be difficult to point out the limits of genius, and to say what a great |