ey should have been dim, full
of mystery, letters to the mind rather than the eye.--Rembrandt has
painted only Belshazzar and a courtier or two (taking a part of the
banquet for the whole) not fribbled out a mob of fine folks. Then every
thing is so distinct, to the very necklaces, and that foolish little
prophet. What _one_ point is there of interest? The ideal of such a
subject is, that you the spectator should see nothing but what at the
time you would have seen, the _hand_--and the _King_--not to be at
leisure to make taylor-remarks on the dresses, or Doctor Kitchener-like
to examine the good things at table.

Just such a confusd piece is his Joshua, fritterd into 1000 fragments,
little armies here, little armies there--you should see only the _Sun_
and _Joshua_; if I remember, he has not left out that luminary entirely,
but for Joshua, I was ten minutes a finding him out.

Still he is showy in all that is not the human figure or the
preternatural interest: but the first are below a drawing school girl's
attainment, and the last is a phantasmagoric trick, "Now you shall see
what you shall see, dare is Balshazar and dare is Daniel." You have my
thoughts of M. and so adieu C. LAMB.

[Lamb had sent Barton the picture that is reproduced in Vol. V. of my
large edition. Later Lamb had sent the following lines:--

When last you left your Woodbridge pretty,
To stare at sights, and see the City,
If I your meaning understood,
You wish'd a Picture, cheap, but good;
The colouring? decent; clear, not muddy;
To suit a Poet's quiet study,
Where Books and Prints for delectation
Hang, rather than vain ostentation.
The subject? what I pleased, if comely;
But something scriptural and homely:
A sober Piece, not gay or wanton,
For winter fire-sides to descant on;
The theme so scrupulously handled,
A Quaker might look on unscandal'd;
Such as might satisfy Ann Knight,
And classic Mitford just not fright.
Just such a one I've found, and send it;
If liked, I give--if not, but lend it.
The moral? nothing can be sounder.
The fable? 'tis its own expounder--
A Mother teaching to her Chit
Some good book, and explaining it.
He, silly urchin, tired of lesson,
His learning seems to lay small stress on,
But seems to hea