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caught the suggestion with eagerness, and the father's permission was again earnestly sought, for visiting the foreign treasures of painting and sculpture, which were then known to the English only through the communications of such of our gentlemen and nobility as travelled on the continent for the purposes of polite accomplishment. William Hoare was the first English painter who visited Rome for professional study.

At the time of his departure from London he had formed a friendship with Scheemackers, the celebrated Flemish sculptor, and with Delvaux, his pupil, who were both on their way to Rome, and on his arrival at that city he hastened to rejoin them, and lodged in the same house with 'them. His next care was to place himself in the school of Francesco Imperiale, the disciple of Carlo Maratti, and the most eminent master then living. In this school he was a fellow-student with Pompeo Battoni, with whom he maintained through life a cordial friendship, and with others of the same profession. Here he acquired a thorough knowledge of all that could be taught in his art, and a perfect acquaintance with the system and method of study adopted in the Roman school ever since the time of Raffaelle; to which method he at all times adhered in the execution of historical works.

Under the direction of Imperiale, Mr. Hoare made many copies from the most celebrated works of the great painters in the Roman palaces; a circumstance which became of great utility to him in a very different manner from that which was intended; for the circumstances of his family having been unfortunately impaired by the explosion of the South Sea adventure, he now found it necessary to turn the skill he had gained to a provision for his own maintenance. This was no difficult task, and he continued his studies at Rome for the term of nine years, when he finally returned to London, bringing with him the few copies of the finest works which he had been able to preserve for himself, and the most enthusiastic feelings in regard of his art.

In London the young painter looked around in vain for the encouragement which he had hoped to find in the historical department of his profession; and the impoverished state of his family not allowing him any alternative, he immediately resorted to portrait-painting, in which, from his superior talents, he was sure to find an unfailing re

· source.

In this situation of his circumstances he formed a matrimonial engagement with a young lady of the name of Barker, between whose relations and his own there had long subsisted the most cordial intimacy, arising from mutual respect. Among the connexions of Miss Barker's family were some who were established at Bath, and Mr. Hoare soon received an invitation to settle at that city, where, as there was no person of any eminence in his profession, he might reasonably look to the highest prospects of success. He accordingly accepted the invitation, and fully realized the expectations of his friends in every point. His painting-room was the resort of all that could boast the attractions either of beauty or fashion; and the number of his sitters was for a long time so great, as scarcely to allow him a momentary interval of relaxation, much less sufficient leisure for such an attention to the higher performances of his art as formed the constant object of his wishes.

His eminent success in his portraits brought to his gallery all the distinguished characters of the time, who occasionally visited Bath for health or pleasure; among whom were Mr. Pitt, the Duke of Newcastle, Mr. Legge, Mr. Grenville, Lord Chesterfield, &c. &c. and his acquaintance with them was improved into friendship on their part, by the variety of his learning, the amenity of his manners, the ingenuousness of his mind, and the high respectability of his domestic establishment. To the list of his friends and patrons were soon added the virtuous Allen, and his learned nephew-in-law, Warburton; and Mr. Allen's house, where he was always a welcome visitor, gave him also an introduction to Pope, and other distinguished inmates of Prior-park.

In the midst of such society and such success, life might have been passed with sufficient enjoyment and ease; but the indulgences attendant on so prosperous a career did not diminish his ardour for higher excellence in his art: he made a voluntary offer of an altar-piece to the church of St. Michael, and his offer being accepted, he painted for it a figure larger than life, of our Saviour holding a cross, which now occupies one side of the wall of the chancel.

On the building of the octagon chapel, he received an application from the proprietors to paint a large altar-piece for their church, leaving the subject entirely to his own

decision. He chose the appropriate subject of the Pool of Bethesda, and found in it the long wished-for opportunity of displaying his knowledge of historical composition and character. The picture forms one of the principal ornaments of the chapel.

It should be noticed, that in an early part of his successful practice at Bath, finding a general desire prevailing for pictures in crayons, he sent an order to Rosalba, the celebrated Venetian paintress, for two heads of fancy painted in that manner, and he received from that eminent mistress of her art two of her most studied performances; the one "Apollo with his lyre," the other "A Nymph crowned with vernal flowers." These beautiful works became the models of the Bath painter in his first efforts in crayons, in which mode of painting he afterwards carried the practice of the art to so high a degree as to be scarcely excelled by Rosalba herself. On the formation of the Royal Academy in London, his long-established reputation secured him an election among its original members, and he was a constant exhibitor for many years.

During this long course of professional industry, he had shewn himself a no less diligent guardian of a numerous family. At an early period of its increase he maintained a regular correspondence on the subject of "parental duties" with Mr. Chandler, a brother of the dissenting minister of that name, and distinguished among his friends for the integrity of his mind and conduct. Many of these letters and replies still exist. He extended to all his children the most unwearied attention, and bestowed on them every advantage of education which Bath could supply. He expended on them all that his long life of diligence had amassed, and left them, at his death, which happened in 1792, scarcely any other possessions than the remembrance of his virtues and his useful labours.

He retained the vigour of health and the strength of his mind till a few years previous to his dissolution. There is a copy of Guido's "Aurora," painted by him (the figures nearly as large as life) when he was upwards of seventy years of age. The picture is finished with great firmness and precision of pencil.'

HOBBES, or HOBBS (THOMAS), an eminent English philosopher and miscellaneous writer, was born at Malms, bury in Wiltshire, April 5, 1538, his father being minister

1 From information obligingly communicated by his son, Prince Hoare, esq. foreign secretary to the Royal Academy.

of that town. The Spanish Armada was then upon the coast of England; and his mother is said to have been so alarmed on that occasion, that she was brought to bed of him before her time. After having made a considerable progress in the learned languages at school, he was sent, in 1603, to Magdalen-hall, Oxford; and, in 1608, by the recommendation of the principal, taken into the family of the right honourable William Cavendish lord Hardwicke, soon after created earl of Devonshire, as tutor to his son William lord Cavendish. Hobbes ingratiated himself so effectually with this young nobleman, and with the peer his father, that he was sent abroad with him on his travels in 1610, and made the tour of France and Italy. Upon his return with lord Cavendish, he became known to persons of the highest rank, and eminently distinguished for their abilities and learning. The chancellor Bacon admitted him to a great degree of familiarity, and is said to have made use of his pen for translating some of his works into Latin. He was likewise much in favour with lord Herbert of Cherbury; and the celebrated Ben Jonson had such an esteen for him, that he revised the first work which he published, viz. his "English Translation of the History of Thucydides." This Hobbes undertook, as he tells us himself, "with an honest view of preventing, if possible, those disturbances in which he was apprehensive his country would be involved, by shewing, in the history of the Peloponnesian war, the fatal consequences of intestine troubles." This has always been esteemed one of the best translations that we have of any Greek writer, and the author himself superintended the maps and indexes. But while he meditated this design, his patron, the earl of Devonshire, died in 1626; and in 1628, the year his work was published, his son died also. This loss affected him to such a degree, that he very willingly accepted an offer of going abroad a second time with the son of sir Gervase Clifton, whom he accordingly accompanied into France, and staid there some time. But while he continued there he was solicited to return to England, and to resume his concern for the hopes of that family, to which he had attached himself so early, and owed many and great obligations.

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In 1631, the countess dowager of Devonshire was desirous of placing the young earl under his care, who was then about the age of thirteen; a trust very suitable to his

inclinations, and which he discharged with great fidelity and diligence. In 1634 he republished his translation of Thucydides, and prefixed to it a dedication to that young nobleman, in which he gives a high character of his father, and represents in the strongest terms his obligations to that illustrious family. The same year he accompanied his noble pupil to Paris, where he applied his vacant hours to natural philosophy, especially mechanism, and the causes of animal motion. He had frequent conversations upon these subjects with father Mersenne, a man deservedly famous, who kept up a correspondence with almost all the learned in Europe. From Paris he attended his pupil into Italy, and at Pisa became known to Galileo, who communicated to him his notions very freely. After having seen all that was remarkable in that country, he returned in 1637 with the earl of Devonshire into England. The troubles in Scotland now grew high, and began to spread themselves southward, and to threaten disturbance throughout the kingdom. Hobbes, seeing this, thought he might do good service by composing something by way of antidote to the pestilential opinions which then prevailed. This engaged him to commit to paper certain principles, observations, and remarks, out of which he composed his book "De Cive," and which grew up afterwards into that system which he called his "Leviathan."

Not long after the meeting of the long parliament, Nov. 3, 1640, when all things fell into confusion, he withdrew, for the sake of living in quiet, to Paris; where he associated himself with those learned men, who, under the protection of Cardinal Richelieu, sought, by conferring their notions together, to promote every kind of useful knowledge. He had not been long there, when by the good offices of his friend Mersenne, he became known to Des Cartes, and afterwards held a correspondence with him upon mathematical subjects, as appears from the letters of Hobbes published in the works of Des Cartes. But when that philosopher printed afterwards his "Meditations," in which he attempted to establish points of the highest consequence from innate ideas, Hobbes took the liberty of dissenting from him; as did also Gassendi, with whom Hobbes contracted a very close friendship, which was not interrupted till the death of the former. In 1642, he printed a few copies of his book "De Cive," which raised him many adversaries, by whom he was charged with in

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