of his bed. They would not exalt him to the
regions of air, but they o'ercanopy him on earth. A chemist in the
back-ground, happy in his views, watching the moment of projection,
is not to be disturbed from his dream by any thing less than the
fall of the roof, or the bursting of his retort;--and if his dream
affords him felicity, why should he be awakened? The bed and
gridiron, those poor remnants of our miserable spendthrift's
wretched property, are brought here as necessary in his degraded
situation; on one he must try to repose his wearied frame, on the
other, he is to dress his scanty meal."

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS.

PLATE 7.

PRISON SCENE.]

PLATE VIII.

SCENE IN A MADHOUSE.

"_Madness!_ thou chaos of the brain, }
What art, that pleasure giv'st and pain? }
Tyranny of fancy's reign!
Mechanic _fancy!_ that can build
Vast labyrinths and mazes wild,
With rude, disjointed, shapeless measure,
Fill'd with _horror_, fill'd with _pleasure_!
Shapes of _horror_, that would even
Cast doubt of mercy upon Heaven;
Shapes of _pleasure_, that but seen,
Would split the shaking sides of _Spleen_.

"O vanity of age! here see
The stamp of Heaven effaced by thee!
The headstrong course of youth thus run,
What comfort from this darling son?
His rattling chains with terror hear,
Behold death grappling with despair!
See him by thee to ruin sold,
And curse _thyself_, and curse thy _gold_!"

See our hero then, in the scene before us, raving in all the dismal
horrors of hopeless insanity, in the hospital of Bethlehem, the senate
of mankind, where each man may find a representative; there we behold
him trampling on the first great law of nature, tearing himself to
pieces with his own hands, and chained by the leg to prevent any further
mischief he might either do to himself or others. But in this scene,
dreary and horrid as are its accompaniments, he is attended by the
faithful and kind-hearted female whom he so basely betrayed. In the
first plate we see him refuse her his promised hand. In the fourth, she
releases him from the harpy fangs of a bailiff; she is present at his
marriage; and in the hope of relieving his distress, she follows him to
a prison. Our artist, in this scene of horror, has taken an opportunity
of pointing out to us the various causes of mental blindness; for such,
s