APPENDIX. On the character of Fuseli as an Artist, by W. Y. Ottley, Esq.--Verses to Fuseli on his series of Pictures from the Poetical Works of Milton, by W. Roscoe, Esq.--Ode to Fuseli on seeing Engravings from his Designs, by H. K. White, Esq.--"A Vision,"--verses in which Fuseli's principal productions are briefly noticed 419 THE LIFE OF HENRY FUSELI, M.A. R.A. CHAPTER I. Fuseli's birth and family.--Passion for drawing manifested in his childhood.--His destination for the Church.--Singular cause of _ambidexterity_.--Fuseli's early fondness for entomology.--He enters the Collegium Carolinum at Zurich.--His associates there: Lavater, Usteri, Tomman, Jacob and Felix Hess.--Professors Bodmer and Breitinger.--His partiality for Shakspeare, &c.--His turn for satire called forth at the College.--He courts the poetic Muse.--Enters into holy orders at the same time with Lavater.--State of pulpit oratory in Zurich.--Fuseli and Lavater become champions of the public cause against a magistrate of Zurich.--Quits Zurich. As there is a natural wish in mankind to be made acquainted with the history of those men who have distinguished themselves by any extraordinary exertion of talent, so we always experience regret when we look to the biography of a celebrated man, if we find the details scanty, or the particulars respecting him resting for their accuracy upon the uncertainty of oral communication, made after a lapse of several years. Although the mind of an author may, at a remote period, be appreciated by a perusal of his works, and the capacity and talents of an artist be judged of by the powers of invention which he has displayed,--by the harmony of his colour and the style and correctness of his lines; yet these do not completely satisfy; we wish the more to see him in his closet, to pursue him into familiar life, and to be made acquainted with the paths which he trod and the mode of study which he adopted to arrive at eminence. Who does not feel this impulse when he peruses the meagre accounts we have received of Shakspeare or Correggio? although the utmost efforts of industry have been employed to collect facts relating to these extraordinary men. It is with such feelings that I attempt to give some particulars of the life and professional career of Henry Fuseli, while they are fresh on the memory; for if the biography of any particular man be not written during his lifetime, or shortly after his decease, we recollect perhaps only a few circumstances, and fill up the record by guessing at the rest.