the want of taste with ideal finery, and there is something of affectation in the airs of his heads, and in the capricious arrangement of his habiliments. It must, however, be allowed, that his female portraits are sometimes more beautiful than those of Vandyck; but in those of men he is every way his inferior.

Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, aged sixty-three, and was buried in Covent Garden, where there is a monument, with his bust, by Gibbon, and a Latin epitaph by Thomas Flaxman.

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES.
(Painted by David.)

HISTORY presents us with few names of equal celebrity with that of Socrates, the Athenian, the son of Sophroniscus. Neither the mediocrity of his fortune, the perverseness of his wife, nor the odious accusations of Aristophanes, who, with much effrontery, exposed him to the laughter of the populace, by exhibiting him on the stage, could ruffle his temper, or disturb the serenity of his mind. Beloved for his virtues, and admired for his talents, by a few illustrious disciples, such as Alcibiades, Plato, Xenophon, &c., whom he greatly esteemed, he enjoyed a degree of happiness which nothing appeared able to destroy. But having confounded the vanity of the Sophists, and the fallacy of their doctrines, he was accused of corrupting the Athenian youth, and of ridiculing the many gods whom the Grecians worshipped; and such was the envy, or the ignorance of his judges, that they condemned him to drink hemlock.

He was scarcely buried, when the Athenians repented of the punishment they had inflicted, and put his accusers to death; but this tradition, which would, in some sort, cover their disgrace, is combatted by many plausible arguments, which would be foreign to our purpose to discuss.

Of the several pictures of M. David, this is to be considered as having the most contributed to the reputation which he enjoys among French critics. It is conspicuous for those striking features of the art which characterize the talent of that distinguished painter. Noble and simple in composition, pure and correct in design, combining the majesty of the antique with the accuracy of nature, while it exhibits figures profoundly imagined, and expressions of the greatest interest. But, though its various beauties attracted general notice, during its exhibition in Paris, in 1787, it was particularly admired for the masterly stroke of genius displayed in the principal figure. Socrates, having spoken to his disciples of the immortality of the soul, while absorbed in reflections so consolatory and sublime, extends his hand towards the bowl, as in complete distraction of mind, without touching it. The figure of the person who is ordered to see this iniquitous judgment performed, is no less ably drawn. Penetrated with the ascendancy of virtue, he can only fulfil the dreadful mandate, by withdrawing his eyes from the glorious victim. And so correspondent is the execution with the grandeur of the subject, that we cannot convey to our readers a more incontestible proof of the merit of M. David, than by saying, that in this branch of the art the death of Socrates may vie with the happiest efforts of his pencil.