Ireland, John: Hogarth illustrated (Band 2,3): Nature (London, 1793)

of the arts, is proved by his fifth chapter on Sinking
in Poetry. '. Now, as the family of the Scribleri
with all their alliances and collateral relations,
have, time immemorial, been distinguished for the
cacoetbes scr'tbendi, of whatever he was a judge,
certes he would write, and that which he hath
written, I have happily preserved. With a few
extracts * I present the reader.

It is entitled,- Ma&t'ihus Scribleros.
IIEPI BA0OT2;

OK, THE ART OF SINKING IN PAINTING;

and thus is it introduced:

" Great and manifold have been the benefits (my
" dear countrymen) which Poesy hath derived
" from that innumerable army of critics and com-
" mentators, who fabricated fences to keep her
" in bounds, and bore blazing torches to irradiate
" her path. Lamentable is it to consider how few
" lights have been held out unto her sister art;
" who, notwithstanding an equal or prior claim,
" hath been suffered to wander through her dreary
*' night, with no other illumination than the glow-
" worm on the bank, or the igmis fatuus in the
" ditches. For the use and service of the poet there

• Should any lord, knight, esquire, artist, or spirited
bookseller, choose to purchase the whole copy, I am ready to
Meat with him upon proper terms.