I scarcely know a more profligate principle, than the indiscriminately sacrificing every thing, however great or good, to the dangerous talent of ridicule; and a man, whose sole object is _dummodo risum excutiat_, ought to be avoided as the worst pest of society, as the _enemy_ most to be feared, I mean a treacherous _friend_. Such a man will go all lengths to raise a laugh at your expence, and your whole life will be made miserable from his ambition of diverting the company for half an hour. "I love to trace the ideas of a Genius, and to mark the progress of every art. Mr. _Hogarth_ has heard much of the _cobwebs_ of the law, and the _spinning fine spider-webs_, &c. This is thrown on paper, and the idea carefully treasured. Lord _Hardwicke_ being at the head of the law, and deservedly in as high esteem with his countrymen as any man who ever held the seals, unspotted in life, and equally revered by prince and people, becomes an excellent subject for the satirical pencil of a malevolent painter. He is accordingly emblematically represented by Mr. _Hogarth_ as a great spider in a large, thick web, with myriads of the carcases of _flies, clients_ I suppose, sucked to death by the gloomy tyrant. Mr. _Hogarth_ had heard of Mr. _Pitt's_ being _above_ all his fellow-citizens, and of his superior virtue having _raised_ him to an envied and dangerous _height_ of grandeur. Now this he has taken literally, and, with the kind aid of _Callot_, has put Mr. _Pitt_ on stilts, and made the people _look up_ to him; which, after all this insipid ridicule, they will continue to do, as a kind of tutelar deity, from whom they expect that security and those blessings they despair of from others. As to the conceit of the _bellows_, to signify, I suppose, Mr. _Pitt's_ endeavours to blow up the flames of war and discord, it is at once very poor and very false. His whole conduct the last session in parliament, and out of the house ever since, has demonstrated the contrary: _neque vero hoc_ oratione _solum, sed multo magis_ vitâ _et_ moribus _comprobavit._ Cic. de Fin. "Lord _Temple_ is a nobleman of fine parts and unsullied honour, who has shewn a thorough disinterestedness, a great love of liberty, and a steady attachment to the public, in every part of his conduct through life. It was impossible such a character could be missed by the poisonous shafts of envy, which we see pointed at all superior virtue.... Mr. _Hogarth's_ wit on this noble lord is confined to the wretched conceits of the _Temple Coffee-house_, and a _squirt_ to signify the _playing on_ the ministry. I really believe this wit is all Mr. _Hogarth's_ own.