Part 8 (1/2)
the audience compelled her to make her exit To set aside this partial and unjust decree, Mr Huggins appealed to the public, and printed his oratorio Though it was adorned with a frontispiece designed by Hogarth, and engraved by Vandergucht, the world could not be compelled to read, and the unhappy writer had no other resource than the consolatory reflection, that his as superlatively excellent, but unluckily printed in a tasteless age; a co self-consciousness, which hath, I verily believe, preventedhis own executioner
To paint a sound is ione in this print The tenor, treble, and bass of these ear-piercing choristers are so decisively discriure, whose head, hands, and feet are in equal agitation, has very properly tied on his spectacles; it would have been prudent to have tied on his periwig also, for by the energy of his action he has shaken it froer attention to true tientle, imn growth It has the engaging air of an iure in the sinister corner, is, it seems, intended for a Mr Tothall, a woollen-draper, who lived in Tavistock-court, and was Hogarth's intiht hand,
----”Whose growling bass Would drown the clarion of the braying ass,”
I cannot learn, nor do I think that this group were eneral representation of the violent distortions into which these crotchet-ers draw their features on such solemn occasions
Even the head of the bass-viol has air and character: by the band under the chin, it gives some idea of a professor, or what is, I think, called a Mus D
The words now singing, ”The world shall bow to the assyrian throne,” are extracted fro is in a iven as a subscription ticket to the Modern Midnight Conversation
I have seen a small political print on Sir Robert Walpole's administration, entitled, ”Excise, a new Ballad Opera,” of which this was unquestionably the basis Beneath it is the following learned and poetical motto:
”_Experto crede Roberto_”
”Mind how each hireling songster tunes his throat, And the vile knight beats ti while Rome was all in flames, But time shall brand with infamy their names”
FOOTNOTE:
[2] He was a respectable performer on the violin, some years chapel-master at Antwerp, and several seasons leader of the band at Marybone Gardens He published a collection of musical compositions, to which was annexed a portrait of himself, characterised by three lines from Milton:
”Thou honour'dst verse, and verseTo honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, That tun'st her happiest lines in hyives one additional naue I have somewhere seen of very old professors of e than persons in any other way of life, fro so attuned unto harmony, that they enjoy a perpetual peace of mind” It has been observed, and I believe justly, that thinking is a great eneevity, and that, consequently, they who think least will be likely to live longest The quantity of thought necessary to make an adept in this divine science, must be determined by those who have studied it--It would seem by this remark, that Mr Ireland was not aware that to acquire proficiency in the divine science to which he so pleasantly alludes, requires great application and study
[Illustration: THE CHORUS]
COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG
By the success of Colued into admiration; froenerated into envy To deny that his discovery carried in its train consequences infinitely more important than had resulted from any made since the creation, was impossible His enemies had recourse to another expedient, and boldly asserted that there was neither wisdom in the plan, nor hazard in the enterprise
When he was once at a Spanish supper, the co by his narrative furnished with the reflections which had induced hie, and the course that he had pursued in its coaciously observed, that ”it was iree above an idiot, to have failed of success The whole process was so obvious, itcould be so easy!”
”It is not difficult now I have pointed out the way,” was the answer of Columbus: ”but easy as it will appear, when you are possessed of my method, I do not believe that, without such instruction, any person present could place one of these eggs upright on the table” The cloth, knives, and forks were thrown aside, and two of the party, placing their eggs as required, kept theers One of them swore there could be no other way ”We will try,” said the navigator; and giving an egg, which he held in his hand, a sht The emotions which this excited in the company are expressed in their countenances In the be-ruffed booby at his left hand it raises astonishment; he is a DEAR ME! man, of the same family with Sterne's Simple Traveller, and ca his head, curses his own stupidity; and the whiskered ruffian, with his fore-finger on the egg, is in his heart cursing Columbus As to the two veterans on the other side, they have lived too long to be agitated with trifles: he ears a cap, exclaims, ”Is this all!” and the other, with a bald head, ”By St Jago, I did not think of that!” In the face of Columbus there is not that violent and excessive triumph which is exhibited by little characters on little occasions; he is too elevated to be overbearing; and, pointing to the conical solution of his problematical conundrum, displays a calm superiority, and silent internal contes upon the dish, are introduced as speciain displayed on the table-cloth, and hinted at on the knife-blade In all these curves there is peculiar propriety; for the etching was given as a receipt-ticket to the analysis, where this favourite undulating line forms the basis of his system
In the print of Coluarth called his own discovery; and in truth the connoisseurs'