2. The Sleeping Congregation. The preacher was designed as the representative of Dr. _Desaguliers_. This print was first published in 1736. It was afterwards retouched and _improved_[1] by the author in 1762, and is found in three different states. In the first, _Dieu & Mon Droit_ is wanting under the King's Arms; the angel with one wing and two pair of thighs, that supports this motto, is smoking a pipe; and the lion has not his present magnificent genitals. In the second, the words already mentioned are added; the angel's pipe is obliterated; the insignia of the lion's sex rendered ostentatiously conspicuous; and the lines of the triangle under the angel are doubled. The other distinctions are chiefly such as a reiteration of engraving would naturally produce, by adding strength to the fainter parts of the composition. Changes of this slender kind are numberless in all the repaired prints of our artist. There is also a pirated copy of this plate. It is not ill executed, but in size is somewhat shorter than its predecessor, and has no price annexed. In the original picture, in the collection of Sir _Edward Walpole_, the clerk's head is admirably well painted, and with great force; but he is dozing, and not leering at the young woman near him, as in the print. [1] I wish, for the sake of some future edition of the present work, these _improvements_ could be ascertained. To me they are invisible, like those in the re-published _March to Finchley_. 3. The Distressed Poet.[1] In a back ground, a picture of _Pope_ threshing _Curll_. Over the head of _Pope_ we read, _Pope's Letters_; out of his mouth comes _Veni, vidi, vici_; and under _Curll_ lies a letter, directed--_to Curll_. The distressed bard is composing _Poverty_, a poem. At the bottom of the plate are the following lines from _The Dunciad_, I. iii. Studious he sate, with all his books around, Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profund! Plung'd for his sense, but found no bottom there; Then writ, and flounder'd on in mere despair. In the subsequent impressions, dated _December_ 15, 1740, the triumphs of _Pope_ are changed to a view of the gold mines of _Peru_; and our hero of the garret is employed in celebrating the praise of _Riches_. The lines already quoted are effaced. The original painting is at lord _Grosvenor's_ house at _Milbank, Westminster_.