of age. It brings into one point of view
what Mr. Pope so exquisitely describes in his Epistle to Lord
Bathurst--

'Who sees pale _Mammon_ pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the poor;
This year a reservoir, to keep and spare;
The next a fountain, spouting through his heir.'

The introduction to this history is well delineated, and the
principal figure marked with that easy, unmeaning vacancy of face,
which speaks him formed by nature for a DUPE. Ignorant of the value
of money, and negligent in his nature, he leaves his bag of untold
gold in the reach of an old and greedy pettifogging attorney, who is
making an inventory of bonds, mortgages, indentures, &c. This man,
with the rapacity so natural to those who disgrace the profession,
seizes the first opportunity of plundering his employer. Hogarth
had, a few years before, been engaged in a law suit, which gave him
some experience of the PRACTICE of those pests of society."

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS.

PLATE 1.

THE YOUNG HERO TAKES POSSESSION OF THE MISER'S EFFECTS.]

PLATE II.

SURROUNDED BY ARTISTS AND PROFESSORS.

_Prosperity_ (with harlot's smiles,
Most pleasing when she most beguiles),
How soon, great foe, can all thy train
Of false, gay, frantic, loud, and vain,
Enter the unprovided mind,
And memory in fetters bind?
Load faith and love with golden chain,
And sprinkle _Lethe_ o'er the brain!
_Pleasure_, on her silver throne,
Smiling comes, nor comes alone;
_Venus_ comes with her along,
And smooth _Lyaeus_, ever young;
And in their train, to fill the press,
Come _apish Dance_ and _swoln Excess_,
Mechanic _Honour_, vicious _Taste_,
And _Fashion_ in her changing vest.

HOADLEY.

We are next to consider our hero as launched into the world, and having
equipped himself with all the necessaries to constitute him a man of
taste, he plunges at once into all the fashionable excesses, and enters
with spirit into the character he assumes.

The avarice of the penurious father then, in this print, is contrasted
by the giddy profusion of his prodigal son. We view him now at his
levee, attended by masters of various professions, supposed to be here
offering their interested services. The foremost figure is readily known
to be a dancing-master; behind him are two men, who at the t