Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Complete Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of One Hundred and Fifty Steel Engravings, From the Original Pictures; With an Introductory Essay
We must guard ourselves, nevertheless, from attributing to the memorable men among whom Hogarth grew up, the undue levity, the harshness and censoriousness, the wantonness Of temper and lack of feeling for the tranquil and the lovely, all of which might be hastily imputed to them, on our showing, if we did not explain ourselves, on this point, a little more fully. Some Of these faults did appear among their immediate predecessors, the lively wits, who pelted each other with epigrams for the bon-bons, during the literary carnival of Charles the Second's reign; and they are, probably, always to be found among individuals during periods Of satirical activity. But when we say that the literature Of what is called the Anne period was a satirical literature, we are thinking of the best characteristics and aspects Of satire; we are claiming for it an honourable and even a lofty place; we are remembering that Plato admired Aristophanes, and that St. Paul has quoted Menander; that the Reformation was aided by Erasmus, Von Hutten, and Sir David Lindsay; and that one of the favourite authors Of Hume was Lucian. Unless the reader is kind enough to bear in mind facts like these, and all that they imply - unless he is willing to recognise the voice of satire in the bitter denunciations which we find in scripture against the fool - unless, too, he will take the trouble of distinguishing between the high and low species of satire itself how are we to avoid the suspicion of having depreciated the age which bred Hogarth, by describing its literature in such words as we have used?
Who, however, can doubt, that in the list Of the great satirists are found the names of some of the greatest writers in the world? Or, how can we reasonably deny to satire a share of in?uence in the world's history? It is, indeed, a very subtle, as well as a very powerful agency; sometimes it works'hy laughter, and purifies the atmosphere as by a fresh genial breeze; sometimes by indignation, and purifies it as by a storm.
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