Another plate was engraved by Mills of the size of the original, and published separately by Ireland {86} in 1795. The date of the original plate is given in the British Museum Catalogue as 1739, but how that date is arrived at I am at a loss to understand. It will be noticed that there are upon the margin of our reproduction some curious _remarques_ inscribed “the windmill,” “the scales,” and others. These were drawn in pen-and-ink by Hogarth on the margins of the two original impressions. They also appear engraved in facsimile on the second state of Mills’s full-sized plate. It will therefore be well for owners of this last not to jump to the hasty conclusion that they are the fortunate possessors of one of the two impressions mentioned above! It should be added that the MS. inscription on the British Museum copy differs considerably from that engraved by Mills. The method by which the suppression of this plate came about is exceedingly curious. It is probable that, after the design was completed, Hogarth came to the conclusion that the intention of the satire might be mistaken, and that, instead of bringing ridicule upon “the superstitious absurdities of popery and ridiculous {87} personification delineated by ancient painters,” it might be considered that his objective was religion itself. If this were so, the episode redounds greatly to the artist’s credit, and throws an effective light upon a little-known side of his character. It was an act of great nobleness to suppress what was the result of long toil, nay, more than that, what was perhaps his highest mental, though by no means his highest artistic, achievement, from what some might consider hyper-conscientious motives. It must be remembered that Hogarth lived in a gross and irreligious age, and that what appears to us exceedingly profane was largely the result of the outspokenness of the times. Ireland says that he altered and altered this plate piecemeal until its final suppression. This, however, I venture to doubt, for reasons given below. At all events, in the end he had beaten out and re-engraved every figure save one, and changed, as Mr. Dobson says, what “was a compact satire” into “a desultory work—a work of genius for a lesser man, but scarcely worthy of Hogarth.” The final design was entitled {88} “Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism: a Medley,” and was published in March 1762. Let us now compare the two designs. Hogarth’s general purpose in the first was, in his own words, to give “a lineal representation of the strange effects of literal and low conceptions of Sacred Beings, as also of the idolatrous tendency of Pictures in Churches and Prints in Religious Books.” In the second his text was, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world.”