"DEAR SIR,--I was this day informed by a friend of mine in the city that seventy-five pounds only was bid for your pictures of 'Marriage à la Mode;' and this I hope will excuse my bidding you so small a sum as one hundred and twenty pounds for them; so much are they worth of my money; with a promise never to sell them to any picture-trader or connoisseur-monger so long as you or I shall live. "If in this foolish and grossly-imposed on generation there should not be found one man wiser than myself, I must insist on having this bidding deposited in your cabinet.--I am, dear Sir, your most obedient servant, CAR. PERRY. "_May 15, 1751._" [Illustration: (end of section floral icon)] CHAPTER IV. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH HOGARTH WAS INDUCED TO PUBLISH HIS ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY; THE ABUSE IT DREW UPON HIM, AND HIS VINDICATION OF HIMSELF AND THE VOLUME. HE IS ELECTED A MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY AT AUGSBURG, AND APPOINTED SERJEANT PAINTER TO THE KING. Hogarth finding his prints were become sufficiently numerous to form a handsome volume, in the year 1745[50] engraved his own portrait as a frontispiece. In one corner of the plate he introduced a painter's palette, on which was a waving line inscribed "The Line of Beauty." This created much curious speculation, and, as he himself expresses it, "The bait soon took, and no Egyptian hieroglyphic ever amused more than it did for a time. Painters and sculptors came to me to know the meaning of it, being as much puzzled with it as other people, till it came to have some explanation; then, indeed, but not till then, some found it out to be an old acquaintance of theirs,[51] though the account they could give of its properties was very near as satisfactory as that which a day-labourer, who constantly uses the lever, could give of that machine as a mechanical power." "They knew it as Falstaff did Prince Henry--by instinct!" This crooked line drew upon him a numerous band of opponents, and involved him in so many disputes, that he at length determined to write a book, explain his system, and silence his adversaries. When his intentions were known, those who acknowledged his claim to superiority as an artist were apprehensive that, by thus wandering out of his sphere and commencing author, he would lessen his reputation. Those who ridiculed his system presumed that he would thus overturn it; and the few who envied and hated the man, rejoiced in sure and certain hope that he would write himself into disgrace. All this he laughed at, and in the following little epigram whimsically enough describes his own feelings:-- "What! a book, and by Hogarth! then twenty to ten, All he's gained by the pencil he'll lose by the pen. Perhaps it may be so; howe'er, miss or hit, He will publish,--here goes,--it's double or quit."