Part 14 (1/2)

PLATE 4.

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE A FAVOURITE, AND ENTRUSTED BY HIS MASTER.]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.

PLATE V.

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE TURNED AWAY AND SENT TO SEA.

”A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” Proverbs, chap. x.

verse 1.

Corrupted by sloth and contaminated by evil company, the idle apprentice, having tired the patience of his master, is sent to sea, in the hope that the being removed from the vices of the town, and the influence of his wicked companions, joined with the hards.h.i.+ps and perils of a seafaring life, might effect that reformation of which his friends despaired while he continued on sh.o.r.e. See him then in the s.h.i.+p's boat, accompanied by his afflicted mother, making towards the vessel in which he is to embark. The disposition of the different figures in the boat, and the expression of their countenances, tell us plainly, that his evil pursuits and incorrigible wickedness are the subjects of their discourse. The waterman significantly directs his attention to a figure on a gibbet, as emblematical of his future fate, should he not turn from the evil of his ways; and the boy shows him a cat-o'-nine-tails, expressive of the discipline that awaits him on board of s.h.i.+p; these admonitions, however, he notices only by the application of his fingers to his forehead, in the form of horns, jestingly telling them to look at Cuckold's Point, which they have just pa.s.sed; he then throws his indentures into the water with an air of contempt, that proves how little he is affected by his present condition, and how little he regards the persuasions and tears of a fond mother, whose heart seems ready to burst with grief at the fate of her darling son, and perhaps her only stay; for her dress seems to intimate that she is a widow. Well then might Solomon say, that ”a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother;” for we here behold her who had often rejoiced in the prospect of her child being a prop to her in the decline of life, lamenting his depravity, and antic.i.p.ating with horror the termination of his evil course. One would naturally imagine, from the common course of things, that this scene would have awakened his reflection, and been the means of softening the ruggedness of his disposition,--that some tender ideas would have crossed his mind and melted the obduracy of his heart; but he continues hardened and callous to every admonition.

The group of figures composing this print has been copied by the ingenious Lavater; with whose appropriate remarks we conclude our present description. ”Observe,” says this great a.n.a.lyst of the human countenance, ”in the annexed group, that unnatural wretch, with the infernal visage, insulting his supplicating mother; the predominant character on the three other villain-faces, though all disfigured by effrontery, is cunning and ironical malignity. Every face is a seal with this truth engraved on it: 'Nothing makes a man so ugly as vice; nothing renders the countenance so hideous as villainy.'”

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.

PLATE 5.

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE TURNED AWAY AND SENT TO SEA.]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.

PLATE VI.

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE OUT OF HIS TIME, AND MARRIED TO HIS MASTER'S DAUGHTER.

”The virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.” Proverbs, chap.

xiii. verse 4.

The reward of industry is success. Our prudent and attentive youth is now become partner with his master, and married to his daughter. The sign, by which this circ.u.mstance is intimated, was at first inscribed GOODCHILD and WEST. Some of Mr. Hogarth's city friends informing him that it was usual for the senior partner's name to precede, it was altered.

To show that plenty reigns in this mansion, a servant distributes the remains of the table to a poor woman, and the bridegroom pays one of the drummers, who, according to ancient custom, attend with their thundering gratulations the day after a wedding. A performer on the ba.s.s viol, and a herd of butchers armed with marrow-bones and cleavers, form an English concert. (Madame Pompadour, in her remarks on the English taste for music, says, they are invariably fond of every thing that is full in the mouth.) A cripple with the ballad of Jesse, or the Happy Pair, represents a man known by the name of Philip in the Tub, who had visited Ireland and the United Provinces; and, in the memory of some persons now living, was a general attendant at weddings. From those votaries of Hymen who were honoured with his epithalamiums, he received a small reward. To show that Messrs. West and Goodchild's habitation is near the monument, the base of that stately column appears in the back-ground.

The inscription which until lately graced this structure, used to remind every reader of Pope's lines,

Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully, rears its head, and lies, &c.

The duke of Buckingham's epigram on this magnificent pillar is not so generally known:

Here stand I, The Lord knows why; But if I fall-- Have at ye all!