"The curtain, however," says he, "was now drawn aside, and his genius stood displayed in its full lustre. From time to time our artist continued to give those works that would be immortal, if the nature of his art will allow it. Even the receipts for his subscriptions had wit in them. Many of his plates he engraved himself, and often expunged faces etched by his assistants, when they had not done justice to his ideas. Not content with shining in a path untrodden before, he was ambitious of distinguishing himself as a painter of history; and in 1736 presented to the hospital of _St. Bartholomew_, of which he had been appointed a governor,[33] a painting of the _Pool of Bethesda_, and another of the _Good Samaritan_. But the genius that had entered so feelingly into the calamities and crimes of familiar life, deserted him in a walk that called for dignity and grace. The burlesque turn of his mind mixed itself with the most serious subjects. In the _Pool of Bethesda_, a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man that sought the same celestial remedy; and in his _Danae_ [for which the Duke of _Ancaster_ paid 60 guineas] the old nurse tries a coin of the golden shower with her teeth, to see if it is true gold. Both circumstances are justly thought, but rather too ludicrous. It is a much more capital fault that _Danae_ herself is a mere nymph of _Drury_. He seems to have conceived no higher degree of beauty." Dr. _Parsons_ also, in his Lectures on Physiognomy, 410. p. 58, says, "Thus yielded _Danae_ to the Golden Shower, and thus was her passion painted by the ingenious Mr. _Hogarth_." The novelty and excellence of _Hogarth's_ performances soon tempted the needy artist and print-dealer to avail themselves of his designs,[34] and rob him of the advantages which he was entitled to derive from them. This was particularly the case with the "Midnight Conversation," the "Harlot's" and "Rake's" Progresses,[35] and the rest of his early works. To put a stop to depredations like these on the property of himself and others, and to secure the emoluments resulting from his own labours, as Mr. _Walpole_ observes, he applied to the legislature, and obtained an act of parliament, 8 _George_ II. chap. 3°, to vest an exclusive right in designers and engravers, and to restrain the multiplying of copies of their works without the consent of the artist.[36]