392 
WILLIAM JIOGARTH. 
was completely finislied. Hogarth had been often reproached for his 
inability to impart grace and dignity to his heroines. “The Bride” was 
therefore meant to vindicate his pencil from so degrading an imputa- 
tion. The effort, however, was unsuccessful. The girl was certainly 
pretty; but her features, if we may use the term, vvere uneducated. 
She might have attracted notice as a chambermaid, but would have 
failed to extort applause as a woman of fashion, The clergyman and 
his culinary associates were more laboured than any other parts of 
the picture. It is natural for us to dwell longest on that division of 
a subject which is more congenial to our private feelings. The 
painter sat dowm with a resolution to delineate beauty improved by 
art; but he seems, as usual, to have deviated into meanness, or he 
could not help neglecting his original purpose, to luxuriate in such 
ideas as his situation in early life had fitted himself to express. He 
found himself, in short, out of his element in the parlour, and there- 
fore hastened, in quest of ease and amusement, to the kitchen-fire. 
Churchill, with more Force than delicacy, once observed of him, that 
he only painted the uneomeliness of Nature. It must be allowed, that 
such an artist, however excellent in his walk, was better qualified 
to represent the low-born parent than the royal preserver of a 
foundling. 
Soon after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he went over to France, 
and was taken into custody at Calais, while drawing the Gates of that 
towm, a circumstance which he has recorded in his picture entitled 
“ Oh ! the Pvoast Beef of Old England !” published March 26, 1749. 
He was actually carried before the governor as a spy, and, after a 
very strict examination, committed a prisoner to Gransire his landlord, 
on his promise that Hogarth should not go out of his house till he 
W'as embarked for England. . 
Soon after this period he purchased a small house at Chiswick, 
where he usuaily passed the greater part of the summer season, yet not 
without occasional visits to his house in Leicester-fields. In 1753 he 
appeared to the world in the character of an author, and published 
a fourth volume, entitled “ The Analysis of Beauty,” written with a 
view to correct fluctuating ideas of taste. In this performance he 
shews, by a variety of examples, that a curve is a line of beauty, and 
that round swelling figures are pleasing to the eye ; and the truth of 
his opinion has been countenanced by subsequent writers om the 
subject. In this work, the leading idea of which was hieroglyphically 
thrown out in a frontispiece to his work in 1745, he acknowledges 
himself indebted to his friends for assistance, and particularly to one 
gentleman, for his correction and amendment of at least a third part 
of the wording. This friend was Dr. Benjamin Hoadley the physician, 
who carried on the w'ork to about the third part, chap, ix., and then, 
through indisposition, declined the friendly office with regret. Mr. 
Hogarth applied to his neighbour, Mr. Ralph; but it was impossible 
for two such persons to agree, both alike vain and positive. He 
proceeded no further than about a sheet, and they then parted friends, 
and seem to have continued such. The kind office of finishing the work, 
and superintending publication, was lastly taken up by Dr. Morrell, who 
went through the remainder of the book. The preface was in like manner 
