bad: it has a drunken appearance; and drunkenness is not the vice of a gaming table.--The principal figure is _ill-drawn_. The _perspective_ is formal; and the _execution_ but indifferent: in heightening his expression, _Hogarth_ has lost his spirit. "The seventh plate, which gives us the view of a jail, has very little in it. Many of the circumstances, which may well be supposed to increase the misery of a confined debtor, are well contrived; but the fruitful genius of _Hogarth_, I should think, might have treated the subject in a more copious manner. The episode of the fainting woman might have given way to many circumstances more proper to the occasion. This is the same woman, whom the rake discards in the first print; by whom he is rescued in the fourth; who is present at his marriage; who follows him into jail; and, lastly, to _Bedlam_. The thought is rather unnatural, and the moral certainly culpable.--The _composition_ is bad. The group of the woman fainting is a round heavy mass: and the other group is very ill-shaped. The _light_ could not be worse managed, and, as the groups are contrived, can hardly be improved.--In the principal figure there is great _expression_; and the fainting scene is well described. A scheme to pay off the national debt, by a man who cannot pay his own; and the attempt of a silly rake, to retrieve his affairs by a work of genius; are admirable strokes of humour. "The eighth plate brings the fortune of our hero to a conclusion. It is a very expressive representation of the most horrid scene which human nature can exhibit.--The _composition_ is not bad. The group, in which the lunatic is chained, is well managed; and if it had been carried a little further towards the middle of the picture, and the two women (who seem very oddly introduced) had been removed, both the composition, and the distribution of light, had been good.--The _drawing_ of the principal figure is a more accurate piece of anatomy than we commonly find in the works of this master. The _expression_ of the figure is rather unmeaning; and very inferior to the strong characters of all the other lunatics. The fertile genius of the artist has introduced as many of the causes of madness, as he could well have collected; but there is some tautology. There are two religionists, and two astronomers. Yet there is variety in each; and strong _expression_ in all the characters. The self-satisfaction, and conviction, of him who has discovered the longitude; the mock majesty of the monarch; the moody melancholy of the lover; and the superstitious horror of the popish devotee; are all admirable.--The _perspective_ is simple and proper. "I should add, that these remarks are made upon the first edition of this work. When the plates were much worn, they were altered in many parts. They have gained by the alterations, in point of _design_; but have lost in point of _expression_." [A] The _architect_. Mr. _Gilpin_ means--the _gardener_.