is satire, which is
always sharp and pertinent, and often highly moral, was
(except in a few instances, where he weakly and meanly
suffered his integrity to give way to his envy) seldom or
never employed in a dishonest or unmanly way. Hogarth has been
often imitated in his satirical vein, sometimes in his
humorous: but very few have attempted to rival him in his
moral walk. The line of art pursued by my very ingenious
predecessor and brother Academician, Mr. Penny, is quite
distinct from that of Hogarth, and is of a much more delicate
and superior relish; he attempts the heart, and reaches it,
whilst Hogarth's general aim is only to shake the sides; in
other respects no comparison can be thought of, as Mr. Penny
has all that knowledge of the figure and academical skill
which the other wanted. As to Mr. Bunbury, who had so happily
succeeded in the vein of humor and caricatura, he has for some
time past altogether relinquished it, for the more amiable
pursuit of beautiful nature: this, indeed, is not to be
wondered at, when we recollect that he has, in Mrs. Bunbury,
so admirable an exemplar of the most finished grace and beauty
continually at his elbow. But (to say all that occurs to me on
this subject) perhaps it may be reasonably doubted, whether
the being much conversant with Hogarth's method of exposing
meanness, deformity, and vice, in many of his works, is not
rather a dangerous, or, at least, a worthless pursuit; which,
if it does not find a false relish and a love of and search
after satire and buffoonery in the spectator, is at least not
unlikely to give him one. Life is short; and the little
leisure of it is much better laid out upon that species of art
which is employed about the amiable and the admirable, as it
is more likely to be attended with better and nobler
consequences to ourselves. These two pursuits in art may be
compared with two sets of people with whom we might associate;
if we give ourselves up to the Footes, the Kenricks, &c. we
shall be continually busied and paddling in whatever is
ridiculous, faulty, and vicious in life; whereas there are
those to be found with whom we should be in the constant
pursuit and study of all that gives a value and a dignity to
human nature." [Account of a Series of Pictures in the Great
Boom of the Society of A