I have been assured by the friend[69] who first carried and read the invective of _Churchill_ to _Hogarth_, that he seemed quite insensible to the most sarcastical parts of it. He was so thoroughly wounded before by the _North Briton_, especially with regard to what related to domestic happiness, that he lay no where open to a fresh stroke. Some readers, however, may entertain a doubt on this subject. A man feels most exquisitely when the merit of which he is proudest is denied him; and it might be urged, that _Hogarth_ was more solicitous to maintain the character of a good painter, than of a tender husband. One quotation, however, from _Churchill's_ Epistle the warmest admirers of our matchless artist must be pleased with: "In walks of humour, in that cast of style, Which, probing to the quick, yet makes us smile; In Comedy, his natural road to fame, Nor let me call it by a meaner name, Where a beginning, middle, and an end, Are aptly join'd; where parts on parts depend, Each made for each, as bodies for their soul, So as to form one true and perfect whole, Where a plain story to the eye is told, Which we conceive the moment we behold;[70] _Hogarth_ unrival'd stands, and shall engage Unrival'd praise to the most distant age." _Hogarth_ having been said to be in his dotage when, he produced his print of the Bear, it should seem as if he had been provoked to make the following additions to this print, in order to give a further specimen of his still existing genius. In the form of a framed picture on the painter's palette, he has represented an _Egyptian_ pyramid, on the side of which is a _Cheshire_ cheese,[71] and round it 3000 _l. per annum_; and at the foot a _Roman_ Veteran in a reclining posture, designed as an allusion to Mr. _Pitt's_ resignation. The cheese is meant to allude to a former speech of his, wherein he said that he would rather subsist a week on a _Cheshire_ cheese and a shoulder of mutton, than submit to the implacable enemies of his country.