w continually
recommending and vending vile copies to bubble collectors, and from
having never studied, or indeed having seen, few good pictures of the
great Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on
those glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. He
talked this language till he believed it; and having heard it often
asserted (as is true) that time gives a mellowness to colours, and
improves them, he not only denied the proposition, but maintained that
pictures only grew black and worse by age, not distinguishing between
the degrees in which the proposition might be true or false. He went
farther: he determined to rival the ancients, and unfortunately chose
one of the finest pictures in England as the object of his competition.
This was the celebrated Sigismonda of Sir Luke Schaub, now in the
possession of the Duke of Newcastle, said to be painted by Correggio,
probably by Furino."--"It is impossible to see the picture," (continues
his lordship,) "or read Dryden's inimitable tale, and not feel that the
same soul animated both. After many essays, Hogarth at last produced
_his_ Sigismonda,--but no more like Sigismonda than I to Hercules."

Notwithstanding Hogarth professed to decry literature, he felt an
inclination to communicate to the public his ideas on a topic connected
with his art. His "Analysis of Beauty" made its appearance in one volume
quarto, in the year 1753. Its leading principle is, that beauty
fundamentally consists in that union of uniformity which is found in the
curve or waving line; and that round swelling figures are most pleasing
to the eye. This principle he illustrates by many ingenious remarks and
examples, and also by some plates characteristic of his genius.

In the year 1757, his brother-in-law, Mr. Thornhill, resigned his office
of king's serjeant-painter in favour of Hogarth, who received his
appointment on the 6th of June, and entered on his functions on the 16th
of July, both in the same year. This place was re-granted to him by a
warrant of George the Third, which bears date the 30th October, 1761,
with a salary of ten pounds per annum, payable quarterly.

This connexion with the court probably induced Hogarth to deviate from
the strict line of party neutrality which he had hitherto observed, and
to engage against Mr. Wilkes and his friends, in a print published in
September, 1762, entitled _The Times_. This publication provoked some
severe strict