DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2056#0346
INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.
The following description of Mr.
design m these twelve plates, is copied from his
own hand writing.
" Industry and Idleness exemplified, in the
" conduct of two fellow 'prentices: where the
*' one fay taking good courses, and pursuing points
" for which he was put apprentice, becomes a va-
" luable man, and an ornament to his country:
" the other, by giving way to idleness, naturally
" falls into poverty, and ends fatally, as is ex-
" pressed in the last print. As the prints were in-
" tended more for use than ornament, they were
" done in a way that might bring them within the
" purchase of whom they might most concern;
" and lest any print should be mistaken, the de-
" scription of each print is engraved at top."
Such is the professed intention of the artist,
and such his apology for the manner in which
these plates are engraved; for, as Mr. Walpole
justly remarks, they have more merit in their in-
tention than execution.
As a contrast to an idle and vicious character,
who is brought to consequent misery and shame,
his fellow 'prentice is depicted moral, attentive,
The following description of Mr.
design m these twelve plates, is copied from his
own hand writing.
" Industry and Idleness exemplified, in the
" conduct of two fellow 'prentices: where the
*' one fay taking good courses, and pursuing points
" for which he was put apprentice, becomes a va-
" luable man, and an ornament to his country:
" the other, by giving way to idleness, naturally
" falls into poverty, and ends fatally, as is ex-
" pressed in the last print. As the prints were in-
" tended more for use than ornament, they were
" done in a way that might bring them within the
" purchase of whom they might most concern;
" and lest any print should be mistaken, the de-
" scription of each print is engraved at top."
Such is the professed intention of the artist,
and such his apology for the manner in which
these plates are engraved; for, as Mr. Walpole
justly remarks, they have more merit in their in-
tention than execution.
As a contrast to an idle and vicious character,
who is brought to consequent misery and shame,
his fellow 'prentice is depicted moral, attentive,