Perhaps too by ordering its publication he was saying indirectly what he had already expressed in many of his writings, for example in _Rambler_ No. 23: "the publick, which is never corrupted, nor often deceived, is to pass the last sentence upon literary claims." If this is so, a series like the Augustan Reprints necessarily deals with literary failures. And yet Morrison's ode is well worth reading today as a pleasing example of what I somewhat fearsomely term the baroque, of what the cultured gentleman of that time regarded as a token of good taste. Long dormant, it is here given new life. Who knows but that the prophecy made by Morrison at the end of the poem may after all be fulfilled: In the long course of rolling years, When all thy labour disappears, Yet shall this verse descend from age to age, And, breaking from oblivion's shade, Go on, to flourish while thy paintings fade. Frederick W. Hilles Yale University Postscript Mr. Kirkwood has sent me information, too late to be incorporated in the preface, which adds to, and in an important way corrects, what I have written. In the Print Room of the British Museum there is an engraving by James Watson "From an Original Picture by Vandevelde, in the Possession of Mr. Reynolds." Every detail in the engraving tallies with Morrison's word-painting of the Vandevelde. Furthermore the description of a landscape by Claude (a View near Castle Gondolfo) in the sale of Sir Joshua's collection of paintings in 1795 suggests that this was the Claude Morrison had in mind when writing his ode. In other words, it is probable that all the paintings discussed in the poem had been seen by Morrison in Reynolds's house. As to matters of fact, the ode, it turns out, was not unnoticed in its day. It was commented upon in both the _Critical_ and the _Monthly_--not in 1767 but in 1768. The reviewer in the _Critical_ (vol. 25, p. 393, in the monthly catalogue for May) wrote: "This is an elegant and ingenious descriptive poem. The author supposes himself viewing several pieces of historic, landskip, and portrait painting; and from thence takes occasion to represent the figures, prospects, and passions, which the artist has exhibited. As the poet has touched upon various topics, he has very properly used many different kinds of metre." The review in the _Monthly_ (vol. 39, p. 316, in the monthly catalogue for October), written by John Langhorne, as Professor Nangle's _Index_ shows, was less favorable. "There is great variety in the numbers of this ode; but, in our opinion, they are not combined in such a manner as to produce a natural or agreeable harmony. There is sometimes, too, a falling off, not far removed from the Bathos. Thus, when the Author says his poetical ideas Resistless on the rous'd imagination pour, And paint themselves as lively as before;