"O how I love Thy law! it is my meditation all the day."--PSALM
CXIX. 97.
[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, PLATE II.]
This plate displays our industrious young man attending divine
service, in the same pew with his master's daughter, where he shows
every mark of decent and devout attention.
Mr. Hogarth's strong bias to burlesque was not to be checked by
time or place. It is not easy to imagine anything more whimsically
grotesque than the female Falstaff. A fellow near her, emulating the
deep-toned organ, and the man beneath, who, though asleep, joins his
sonorous tones in melodious chorus with the admirers of those two
pre-eminent poets, Hopkins and Sternhold. The pew-opener is a very
prominent and principal figure; two old women adjoining Miss West's
seat are so much in shadow, that we are apt to overlook them: they
are, however, all three making the dome ring with their exertions.
"Ah! had it been King David's fate
To hear them sing...."
The preacher, reader, and clerk, with many of the small figures in
the gallery and beneath, are truly ludicrous; and we regret their
being on so reduced a scale, that they are scarce perceptible to
the naked eye. It was necessary that the artist should exhibit a
crowded congregation, but it must be acknowledged he has neglected
the rules of perspective. The print wants depth. In the countenance
of Miss West and her lover there is a resemblance. Their faces have
not much expression, but this is atoned for by a natural and pleasing
simplicity. Character was not necessary.