132 Fine Arts. [Chap. X. 



familiarised by strokes of nature, and heightened 

 by wit, and the wliole animated by proper and just 

 expressions of the passions, be comedy, Hogaith 

 composed comedies as much as Moliere. He is 

 more true to character than Congrcve ; each per- 

 sonage is distinct from the rest, acts in his sphere, 

 and cannot be confounded with any other of the 

 dramatis personce, Hogarth had no model to fol- 

 low and improve upon. lie created his art, and 

 used colours instead of language. He resembles 

 Butler; but his subjects are more universal; and, 

 amidst all his pleasantry, he observes the true end 

 of comedy, reformation. There is always a moral 

 to his pictures *." It is remarkable, however, and 

 deserves to be mentioned as an instructive fact, 

 that while his mind was so richly stored yAx\\ ma- 

 terials for exhibiting the common scenes of life ; 

 while he possessed such unrivalled powers in dis- 

 playing the ridiculous, he could not rise to the 

 great historical style of painting, and whenever he 

 attempted it egregiously failed f . 



It is worthy of remark, that, since the time of 

 Hogarth, a taste for caricalura, and for comic 

 painting in general, has evidently increased, es- 

 pecially in Great Britain, to a degree beyond all 

 former example. Notwithstanding the phlegmatic 

 character usually ascribed to the British, it is a 

 curious fact, that, in no country on earth has the 

 taste for this species of painting been so fashion- 

 able, or carried to so high a degree of perfection. 

 Ill a particular part of comic i)ainting Mr. Henry 



* Lord Orford's (Horace Walpolc's) Works, vol. iii, p. 4.53, &:c. 

 t Sir Joshua Reynolds's Works , vol. ii, p. 10'3. 



