church•-place.Cathe-tful.

THE

DANCE OF DEATH

THE celebrity of a subject which has beendistinguished by the labours of such artists asHolbein and Hollar, seems necessarily to de-rnand some investigation of its origin*.

In the dark ages of monkish bigotry and su-perstition, the deluded people, terrified into abelief that the fear of death was acceptable tothe great Author of their existence, had placed

* It would be a piece of injustice not to mention, that thishas already been done in a very able manner, by a respectedfriend of the compiler of the present essay, in a little work,intitled u Emblems of Mortality," ornamented with copies inwood, of the Dance of Death, by J. Bewick, the brother ofthe admirable artist who executed the cuts to a history ofquadrupeds, lately published. The work was printed forT.Hodgson, Clerkenwell, in 1789, 12mo. The editor of itwill immediately perceive that no rivality is here intended ;that in the pursuit of a subject of this nature many of thesame authorities must have naturally presented themselves,and in order to connect it properly, must again be of courseadopted. Independently of these, the rest of this slight per-formance is only designed as supplemental.