BARRY.
* * * * * One of the earliest and noblest enjoyments I had when a boy, was in the contemplation of those capital prints by Hogarth, the _Harlot's_ and _Rake's Progresses_, which, along with some others, hung upon the walls of a great hall in an old-fashioned house in -- --shire, and seemed the solitary tenants (with myself) of that antiquated and life-deserted apartment.
Recollection of the manner in which those prints used to affect me has often made me wonder, when I have heard Hogarth described as a mere comic painter, as one of those whose chief ambition was to _raise a laugh_.

To deny that there are throughout the prints which I have mentioned circumstances introduced of a laughable tendency, would be to run counter to the common notions of mankind; but to suppose that in their _ruling character_ they appeal chiefly to the risible faculty, and not first and foremost to the very heart of man, its best and most serious feelings, would be to mistake no less grossly their aim and purpose.

A set of severer Satires (for they are not so much Comedies, which they have been likened to, as they are strong and masculine Satires) less mingled with anything of mere fun, were never written upon paper, or graven upon copper.

They resemble Juvenal, or the satiric touches in Timon of Athens.
I was pleased with the reply of a gentleman, who being asked which book he esteemed most in his library, answered,--"Shakspeare:" being asked which he esteemed next best, replied, "Hogarth." His graphic representations are indeed books: they have the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of _words_.

Other pictures we look at,--his prints we read.
In pursuance of this parallel, I have sometimes entertained myself with comparing the _Timon of Athens_ of Shakespeare (which I have just mentioned) and Hogarth's _Rake's Progress_ together.