Wesley Corpus

It struck me more than any thing of the kind I have seen in England; more than Blenheim House itself. One great difference is, every thing there appears designedly grand and splendid; here every thing is quite, as it were, natural, and one thinks it cannot be other wise. If the expression may be allowed, there is a kind of stiffness runs through the one, and an easiness through the other. Of pictures I do not pretend to be a judge; but there is one, by Paul Rubens, which particularly struck me, both with the design and the execution of it. It is Zacharias and Elizabeth, with John the Baptist, two or three years old, coming to visit Mary, and our Lord sitting upon her knee. The passions are surprisingly expressed, even in the children; but I could not see either the decency or common sense of painting them stark naked: Nothing can defend or excuse Feb. 1772.] JOURNAL. 453 this: It is shockingly absurd, even an Indian being the judge. I allow, a man who paints thus may have a good hand, but certainly cerebrum non habet.* Sun. 9.--I buried the remains of Heller Tanner. About thirty years he has adorned the Gospel: Diligent, patient, loving to every man, and zealous of good works. Mon. 10.-Ingoing to Dorking, I read Mr. Jones’s ingenious tract, upon Clean and Unclean Beasts. He really seems to prove his point, to make it reasonably plain, that there is a deeper design in that part of the Levitical Law, than is commonly understood: That God had a view throughout, to the moral, rather than natural, qualities of the creatures which he pronounced unclean; and intended it as a standing warning to his people, against the fierceness, greediness, and other ill properties, which so eminently belonged to those beasts or birds that they were forbidden to eat or touch. Tues. 11.--I casually took a volume of what is called, “A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy.” Sentimental / what is that? It is not English: He might as well say, Continental. It is not sense. It conveys no determinate idea; yet one fool makes many. And this nonsensical word (who would believe it?) is become a fashionable one ! However, the book agrees full well with the title; for one is as queer as the other.