other end, I think the best of all his works, as for useful and deep satire that on the Methodists is the most sublime. The scenes of Bedlam and the Gaming-House are inimitable representations of our serious follies, or unavoidable woes; and the concern shewn by the lord mayor when the companion of his childhood is brought before him, is a touching picture, big with humane admonition and reflection. is full of humour; The March to Finchley, of nature; The Enraged Musician tends to farce. The Four Parts of the Day, except the last, are inferior to few of his works. The Sleepy Congregation, The Lecture on the Vacuum, The Laughing Audience, and The Cockpit, are perfect in their several kinds. The prints of Industry and Idleness have more merit in their intention than execution. Towards his latter end he now and then repeated himself, but seldom more than most great authors who executed so much. It may appear singular, that of an author whom I call comic, and who is so celebrated for his humour, I should speak in general in so serious a style: but it would be suppressing the merits of his heart to consider him only as a promoter of laughter; I think I have shewn, that his views were more generous and extensive. Mirth co Another instance of this author's genius is, his not condescending to explain his moral lessons by the trite poverty of allegory. If he had an emblematic thought, he expressed it with wit, rather than by a symbol. Such is that of the prostitute's setting fire to the world, in The Rake's Progress. Once, indeed, he condescended to use an allegorical personage, and was not happy in it. In one of his election prints, Britannia's chariot breaks down, while the footman and coach-loured his pictures, but Benevoman are playing at cards on the box. Sometimes too, to please his vulgar customers, he stooped to low images and national satire, as in the two prints of France and England, and that of The Gates of Calais, The last, indeed, has great merit, though the caricature is carried to excess. In all these the painter's purpose was, to make his countrymen observe the ease and affluence of a free government, op-pected encounter, and illustrate posed to the wants and woes of slaves. In Beer-Street, the English butcher tossing a Frenchman in the air with one hand, is absolute hyperbole, and, what is worse, was an after-thought, not being in the first edition. The Gin- Alley is much superior; horridly fine, but disgusting. His Bartholomew Fair" the characters of the persons to lence designed them. He smiled, like Socrates, that men might not be offended at his lectures, and might learn to laugh at their own follies. When his topics were harmless, all his touches were marked with pleasantry and fun. He never laughed, like Rabelais, at nonsense that he imposed for wit; but, like Swift, combined incidents that divert one from their unex the tale that he meant to tell. Such were the hens roosting on the upright waves in the scene of the Strollers, and the Devils drinking porter on the altar, The manners and costume are more than observed in every one of his works. The very furniture of his rooms describe whom they belong a lesson that might be of use to comic authors. It was reserved to Hogarth to write a scene of furniture: the Rake's levee-room, the Nobleman's dining-room, the apartments of the Husband and Wife in Marriage àla-Mode, the Alderman's, parlour, the Poet's bed-chamber, and many others, are the history of the manners of the age. Thus far Walpole. Miss Eve. He has made some trifling mistakes in titles. There is no Gin Alley or Bartholomew Fair by Hogarth: these are Gin Lane and Southwark Fair. When the Idle Apprentice is brought before his industrious companion, the latter is not lord mayor, but alderman; he has not attained the highest civic honour till the last print: but these are trifles. Miss K. In this book is a curious print by Hogarth, published when he was 28 years of age, in 1726. This is the frontispiece as well as title to "Terra Filius, or the Secret History of the University of Oxford, in several Essays; to which is added Remarks on a late book entitled, University Education, by R. Newton, D. D. Principal of Hart Hall:" after which is written-" He is departed, but his ghost still hovers about the ground, haunts the place of his wonted abode, disturbs the several apartments with unseasonable visits and strange noises, and scares those who never expected his return to this region any more." NEWTON'S University Education. Here is a strange description from the British Magazine for May 1749:-We have an account of a surprising phenomenon that was seen near Hertford during a violent storm of thunder and lightning, on Thursday the 18th, by one John Mitchell. As he was travelling on the road, he was met by a man of gigantic stature; his face shone like the sun; on his head was something resembling a crown with stars; he had wings on his shoulders; his body seemed of transparent fire, but suddenly disappeared in the form of several balls of light, attended with an explosion like that of a number of cannon. Miss Eve. This was somewhat like a phantasmagoria. Miss K. At the general illumination for the peace between this country and France, April 29, 1802, the Phantasmagoria amused the people by a specimen of its art. At the place where it was exhibited at Exeter Change, was a transparency representing Peace charming away the dæmon of War, which continually kept vanishing in fire and smoke, and again returning. Miss Eve. I think it highly probable that we are perceived by beings of whom we know nothing; but I do not imagine that it is in nature for us ever to perceive them, while our spirits are inclosed in this body.-Which in your opinion is the best poetical description of a spirit? Miss K. I think Mallet's Mar London, printed for R. Franck-garet's Ghost as good as any. lin, under Tom's Coffee-House, Russell - street, Covent Garden, Miss Eve. Will you repeat it? Miss K. I will sing it in the 1726." Under the frontispiece is same dismal tone as my Susan does. inscribed, "W. Hogarth fecit." WILLIAM AND MARGARET. Her face was like an April morn So shall the fairest face appear When youth and years are flown, Such the last robe that kings must wear When death has reft their crown. Her bloom was like the springing flow'r That sips the silver dew; The rose was budded in her cheek, Just opening to the view. But love had, like a canker-worm, Consumed her early prime, The rose grew pale and left her check, Awake, she cried, thy true love calls, Come from her midnight grave; This is the dumb and dreary hour Bethink thee, William, of thy 'fault, Thy pledge and broken oath, And give me back my virgin vow, And give me back my troth. Why did you say my face was fair, And yet that face forsake? Why did you promise love to me, And not that promise keep? Yet leave those eyes to weep? How could you swear my lips were sweet, Believe thy flattering tale? But now no more my face is fair, Those lips no longer red, Dark are my eyes now closed in death, The hangry worm my sister is, This winding-sheet I wear, And cold and weary is our night, Till the last morn appear. But, hark! the cock has warned me hence, Come see, false man, how low she lies The lark sung out, the morning smiled Pale William shook in every limb, He hied him to the fatal place Where Margaret's body lay, And stretch'd him on the green grass turf That wrapt her breathless clay. And thrice he call'd on Margaret's name, Then laid his cheek on her cold grave, Miss K. He is said to have been born in Scotland, of the family of the Macgregors, who, above a century ago, under Robin Roy, became so infamous for violence and robbery, that they were obliged to change their name. David Mallet's father called himself Malloch, which this celebrated genius changed to Mallet. He died April 20, 1765. Besides the ballad of William and Margaret, which was his first production, he wrote the following dramatic pieces: -- Eurydice, a tragedy, acted at Drury-lane, 1733; Mustapha, trag. 1739; Appius, trag.; Amyntor and Theodore, or the Hermit Alfred, a masque, written in conjunction with his countryman Thomson; Britannia, a masque, 1755; Elvira, trag. 1763. He was also the author of the Ercursion, published in 1728; a Poem on Verbal Criticism, in 1733; Life of Bacon, 1740. His daughter, whose name after her marriage was Mrs. Celesia, wrote Almida, a tragedy, also Indolence, a poem, composed in praise of philosophic indolence. Miss Eve. I anticipate with de- || deeds without a name; putting crooked pins in waxen effigies to torment the originals; then, as Shakspeare says, melting like breath into the wind. light, my dear Miss K. that you and I shall spend much of our time in the pleasures of this praiseworthy indolence. Miss K. You, no doubt, believe but little in ghosts, apparitions, or spirits? Miss Eve. No, nor in witches or the predictions of fortune-tellers, any more than I do in griffins, sphynxes, dragons, centaurs, mermaids, syrens, fairies, &c. ; yet there is a fancy in these descriptions that is often amusing. You are a witch. in one sense; you have charms of the most bewitching kind, and you are attended by a familiar, your Romeo, who is now looking so lovingly towards you from that tree. Miss K. It is curious to observe, even at this time, how superstitious many of the country-people are in obscure villages, with the horseshoes nailed at the doors to keep out witches; that is, some poor old women, who, labouring under old age and poverty, could not, one would suppose, excite any other sentiments than commiseration and charity, instead of being branded with this evil name. Miss K. Here is a description of some witches by Ben Jonson, in what he calls THE WITCHES' SONG. I have been all night looking after And soon as she turn'd her back to the south, I have been gathering wolves' hairs, I last night lay all alone O'the ground, to hear the mandrake groan, ́ 4th Witch. And I ha' been chusing out this scull Under a cradle I did creep. By day, and when the child was asleep, 6th Witch. I had a dagger-what did I with that?" I bade him again blow wind i' the tail. 7th Witch. Miss Eve. As I was observing, there is something romantically fanciful in some of the descriptions of witches dancing to the tunes of their feet about an old mill; meeting on a common at midnight, in company with a little black man, a few cats, and a creature whose shape can scarcely be discerned; their raising storms that unroof the villagers' houses and barns; sailing to Norway in sieves; riding on the wind mounted on brooms; The screech owl's eggs and the feathers black, The blood of a frog and the bone in his back, eclipsing the moon, that sickens at I have been getting, and made of his skin the sight while they are doing "A purse to keep Sir Cranion in. A murderer yonder was hung in chains, I bit off a sinew, I clipped his hair, I brought off the rags that danced i' the air. ̧ 8th Witch. PL. 8.-DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT ERECTED IN THE GUILDHALL OF THE CITY OF LONDON, TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT. THE massy substance on which || the usual emblem of naval power; the figures in this composition are and her right grasps a thunderplaced, is intended to represent bolt, which she is prepared to hurl the Island of Great Britain and the at the enemies of her country. surrounding waves. On an elevation, in the center of the island, Mr. Pitt appears in his robes, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the attitude of a public orator. Below him, on an intermediate foreground, two statues characterize his abilities; while, with the national Energy, which is embodied, and riding on a symbol of the Ocean in the lower center, they assist to describe allusively the effects of his administration. Apollo stands on his right, impersonating Eloquence and Learning. Mercury is introduced on his left, as the representative of Commerce and the patron of Policy. To describe the unprecedented splendour of success which crowned the British navy while Mr. Pitt was minister, the lower part of the monument is occupied by a statue of Britannia, seated triumphantly on a sea-horse; in her left hand is INSCRIPTION. WILLIAM PITT, Son of WILLIAM PITT, Earl of Chatham, Inheriting the genius and formed by the precepts of his father, Devoted himself from his early years to the service of the state. Called to the chief conduct of the admi nistration, after the close of a disastrous war, He repaired the exhausted revenues, he revived and invigorated the commerce and prosperity of the country; And he had re-established the public credit on deep and sure foundations, When a new war was kindled in Europe, more formidable than any preceding war from the peculiar character of its dangers. To resist the arms of France, which were directed against the independence of To animate other nations by the example every government and people; of Great Britain; To check the contagion of opinions which tended to dissolve the frame of civil society; |