"What Merit could from native Genius boast, To civilize the age, and please us most, In lasting images each scene to grace, And all the soul to gather in the face, In one small sheet a volume to conceal, Yet all the story finely to reveal, Was once the glory of our _Hogarth's_ name; But see, the short-liv'd eminence of fame Now dwindles like the exit of a flame, From which when once the unctuous juice is fled, A stinking vapour rises in its stead: So drops our Painter in his later day, His former virtue worn, alas! away, What busy dæmon, for thy cursed design'd, Could thus induce the rancour of thy mind To strike so boldly, with an impious hand, Against the blessings of thy native land? Open and unabash'd thy fury flies, And all regard for liberty denies. "When _Catiline_, with more than human hate, Resolv'd the ruin of the _Roman_ state, In secret he pursu'd the hellish plan, Nor did his wickedness survive the man. His cruel arts are all by others shown, And thou the brave assertor of thy own: Nay, thy grim sheets thy principles will show, When _Charon_ wafts thee to the realms below, Where all like thee shall unlamented go." And also what the writer called, "_A_ SLAP _at_ BOTH SIDES." "Whilst _Bruin_ and _Pug_ contend for the prize Of merit in scandal, would parties be wise, And with honest derision contemn the dispute, The _Bear_ would not roar, and the _Dog_ would be mute: For they equally both their patrons betray, No sense of Conviction their reasons convey; So neither may hope one convert to gain, For the Rhime makes me sick, and the Print gives me pain."[2] This plate, however, originally contained our artist's own portrait (see p. 295). To shew the contempt in which he held the "Poetical Epistle to _Hogarth_",[3] he makes the pug-dog water on it, but in a manner by no means natural to his species. Perhaps there is the same error relative to the Monkey in the print of the _Strollers_. This kind of _evacuation_, however, appears to have been regarded by _Hogarth_ as a never-failing _joke_. On the palette he exhibits the _North Britons_, and a begging-box to collect subscriptions for them. _Designed and engraved by W. Hogarth._ In the first impression of this print three of the upper knots on the club or ragged staff (viz. 1. 3. 5.) are left white. In the second impression they are completely shaded; the ruffle on the hand that clasps the pot of porter is likewise hatched over, and the shoulder of the animal made rounder. Minute differences occur in the other knots, &c. The inscription, instead of _Russian_, reads _Modern_ Hercules.