Part 3 (1/2)

Addison would have classed her areens of the sex

It has been observed, that ”the church is too small, and the wooden post, which seereeably” This cannot be denied: but it appears to be meant as an accurate representation of the place, and the artist delineated what he saw

The grouping is good, and the principal figure has the air of a gentleht is well distributed, and the scene most characteristically represented

The coive the hint to a lady's reply, on being told that thieves had the preceding night broken into the church, and stolen the communion-plate, and the ten commandments ”I suppose,” added the informant, ”that they may melt and sell the plate; but can you divine for what possible purpose they could steal the commandments?”--”To _break_ them, to be sure,” replied she;--”to _break_ them”

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS

PLATE 5

MARRIES AN OLD MAID]

PLATE VI

SCENE IN A GAMING HOUSE

”_Gold_, thou bright son of Phoebus, source Of universal intercourse; Of weeping Virtue soft redress: And blessing those who live to bless: Yet oft behold this sacred trust, The tool of avaricious lust; No longer bond of human kind, But bane of every virtuous mind

What chaos such misuse attends, Friendshi+p stoops to prey on friends; Health, that gives relish to delight, Is wasted with the wasting night; Doubt and mistrust is thrown on _Heaven_, And all its power to chance is given

Sad purchase of repentant tears, } Of needless quarrels, endless fears, } Of hopes of s of years! } Sad purchase of a tortured h now, from the infatuated folly of his antiquated wife, in possession of a fortune, he is still the slave of that baneful vice, which, while it enslaves the mind, poisons the enjoyments, and sweeps away the possessions of its deluded votaries Destructive as the earthquake which convulses nature, it overwhelulfs the labours of the architect

Newmarket and the cockpit were the scenes of his early aa-table, where all is lost! His countenance distorted with agony, and his soul agitated aleance upon his own head

”In heartfelt bitter anguish he appears, And froush purpled tears!

He beats his broith rage and horror fraught; His brow half bursts with agony of thought!”

That he should be deprived of all he possessed in such a society as surround him, is not to be wondered at One of the most conspicuous characters appears, by the pistol in his pocket, to be a highwayman: from the profound stupor of his countenance, we are certain he also is a losing gamester; and so absorbed in reflection, that neither the boy who brings hilass of water, nor the watchman's cry of ”Fire!” can arouse him from his reverie Another of the party is marked for one of those well-dressed continental adventurers, who, being unable to live in their own country, annually pour into this, and with no other requisites than a quick eye, an adroit hand, and an undaunted forehead, are adood_ corasps his hat, and hides his face, in the agony of repentance, not having, as we infer froacy of which he is now plundered more than ”a little month” On the opposite side is another, on whouish of his soul The fifth completes the climax; he is frantic; and with a draord endeavours to destroy a _pauvre miserable_ whom he supposes to have cheated hiering votaries of Bacchus who are to be found in every co, like the rod of Moses, so far ss up every other passion, that the actors, engrossed by greater objects, willingly leave their wine to the audience

In the back-ground are two collusive associates, eagerly dividing the profits of the evening

A noble his note to an usurer The lean and hungry appearance of this cent per cent worshi+pper of the golden calf, is well contrasted by the sleek, contented vacancy of so well-ereat eentle off his winnings

So engrossed is every one present by his own situation, that the flaarded, and the vehe the rooenerally deemed the first law of nature, self-preservation

Mr Gilpin observes:--”The fortune, which our adventurer has just received, enables hi-table He is exhibited, in the sixth print, venting curses on his folly for having lost his last stake--This is, upon the whole, perhaps, the best print of the set The horrid scene it describes, was never more inimitably drawn The composition is artful, and natural If the shape of the whole be not quite pleasing, the figures are so well grouped, and with so much ease and variety, that you cannot take offence

”The expression, in al representation of the hues of that species of , are here described On the first shock, all is inward disainst a wall, with his arony of horror Perhaps never passion was described with so loom bursts into a storm of fury: he tears in pieces what co down, invokes curses upon himself He next attacks others; every one in his turn whoer joy of the winning gamesters, the attention of the usurer, the vehehwayreat coolness, too, expressed in the little we see of the fat gentleman at the end of the table”

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS