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The Dance of Death.

It were almost to be wished that this perplexing evidenceagainst Holbein's title to the invention of the work beforeus had never existed, and that he had consequently beenleft in the quiet possession of what so well accords with hisexquisite pencil and extraordinary talents. Thus it is, thatthe person to whom we owe this stubborn testimony, hasmanifested a much more intimate acquaintance with themode of conveying his pious ejaculations to the LadyAbbess in the quaintest language that could possibly havebeen chosen, than with the art of giving an accurateaccount of the prints in question. Yet it seems scarcelypossible, that he should have used the word imagined,which undoubtedly expresses originality of invention, andnot the mere act of copying, if he had referred to anengraver on wood, whom he would not have dignified withthe appellation of a painter on whom he was bestowing thehighest possible eulogium. There would also have beenmuch less occasion for the author's hyperbolical fears onthe part of Death in the case of an engraver, than in thatof a painter. He has stated that the rainbow subject,meaning probably that of the Last Judgment, was leftunfinished; but it appears among the engravings in hisedition. He must, therefore, have referred to a painting,with which likewise the expression "bold shadows andperspective," seem better to accord than with a slightengraving on wood. He had also seen the subject of thewagon with the wine casks in its unfinished state, and inthis case we may almost with certainty pronounce it to havebeen a painting, as the cut of it does not appear in the firstedition, furnishing, at the same time, an argument againstHolbein's claim \ nor may it be unimportant to add thatthe dedicator, a religious person, and probably a man otsome eminence, was much more likely to have beenacquainted with the painter than with the engraver. Thededicator also stamps the work as originating at Lyons;and Frellon, its printer, in a complaint against a Venetianbookseller, who pirated his edition, emphatically describesit as exclusively belonging to France.

Again, it is improbable that the dedicator, whoever hewas, should have preferred complimenting the engraver ofthe cuts, who, with all his consummate skill, must, in point