_Engraved by William Hogarth, from his original painting in
Lincoln's-Inn Hall, and published as the Act directs, Feb. 5,
1752._
"And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to
come, Felix trembled."
[Illustration: PAUL PREACHING BEFORE FELIX.]
This print Mr. Hogarth intended as a serious and sublime
representation of the scene which he had so inimitably burlesqued;
yet so little are we qualified to judge of our own powers, that he
has here produced a print as destitute of elevation and sentiment as
are the works of those masters he so successfully ridiculed. With
the Roman eagle he could not soar, and has drawn the royal bird
like a sparrow-hawk, nailed to the bottom of a writing-desk. The
Apostle, with his right foot resting on a lower step than the left,
has neither grace, dignity, nor firmness. Felix has the appearance
of a vinegar-faced apothecary feeling the pulse of a nervous female
patient, and shocked at the velocity of our circulation, dropping
the prescription from his left hand. The haughty High Priest
biting his nails, is deficient in everything except his drapery:
the Jew immediately behind him bears a strong resemblance to an
old-clothes-man. The standard-bearer, and woman with her hands
closed, are a degree better; but the Herculean advocate, with a
brief in his right hand, looks like a journeyman hatter that has
drank porter till he is drowsy; by the strength of his muscles and
the stupidity of his countenance, he seems better fitted for a
bruiser than a pleader.
The listening soldier, at the opposite corner, is meanly conceived
and ill drawn.
At the bottom of one of the copies I once saw the following
memorandum in the handwriting of Hogarth: "A print of the plate that
was set aside as insufficient. Engraved by W. H."