utterances; while another, on "Charity," contains a forcible exposition of the inexpediency, as well as inhumanity, of imprisonment for debt. References to contemporaries, the inevitable Cibber excepted, are few, and these seem mostly from the pen of Ralph. The following, from that of Fielding, is notable as being one of the earliest authoritative testimonies to the merits of Hogarth: "I esteem (says he) the ingenious _Mr. Hogarth_ as one of the most useful Satyrists any Age hath produced. In his excellent Works you see the delusive Scene exposed with all the Force of Humour, and, on casting your Eyes on another Picture, you behold the dreadful and fatal Consequence. I almost dare affirm that those two Works of his, which he calls the _Rake's_ and the _Harlot's Progress_, are calculated more to serve the Cause of Virtue, and for the Preservation of Mankind, than all the _Folio's_ of Morality which have been ever written; and a sober Family should no more be without them, than without the _Whole Duty of Man_ in their House." He returned to the same theme in the Preface to _Joseph Andrews_ with a still apter phrase of appreciation:--"It hath been thought a vast Commendation of a Painter, to say his Figures seem to breathe; but surely, it is a much greater and nobler Applause, that they appear to think." [Footnote: Fielding occasionally refers to Hogarth for the pictorial types of his characters. Bridget Allworthy, he tells us, resembled the starched prude in _Morning_; and Mrs. Partridge and Parson Thwackum have their originals in the _Harlot's Progress_. It was Fielding, too, who said that the _Enraged Musician_ was "enough to make a man deaf to look at" (_Voyage to Lisbon_, 1755, p. 50).]