"Thou, Nature, art my goddess."
[Illustration: BOYS PEEPING AT NATURE.]
This plate was engraved in 1733, and intended as the
subscription-ticket to "The Harlot's Progress;" but in the original
design Nature was habited in a petticoat, and the boy who now points
to a three-quarters portrait was placed before her, and represented
as curiously stooping down to examine the fringe. Some of the
artist's friends, suggesting that this was too ludicrous an idea for
the public, the copper was thrown aside.
In the year 1751, Hogarth etched his burlesque "Paul," as a
receipt-ticket to the large "Paul before Felix." In a printed
catalogue of his works, dated 1754, I find "Paul before Felix" marked
£0, 7s. 6d., and "Paul before Felix, in the manner of Rembrandt," £0,
0s. 0d. Applications for the gratis etching were very frequent; and
he found, to his great mortification, that the public were more eager
to possess his little print than either of the large ones. To punish
their want of taste, he gave away no more, but fixed the price at
two-thirds of the sum at which he published the large print.
This alteration of his first plan left the great "Paul" without a
ticket. To have given him the "Peeping Boys" in their original
state, would have been a species of sacrilege; they were chastened,
grouped as they now are, and transferred from the "Harlot" to the
"Apostle."
Though the circumstance from which it received a name was done away,
and very little either novel or striking remains, he retained the
original title of "Boys Peeping at Nature."[172]