Trusler, John; Hogarth, J.; Nichols, John; Hogarth, William [Ill.]; Hogarth, J. [Bearb.]; Nichols, John [Bearb.]: The Works Of William Hogarth In A Series Of Engravings: With Descriptions And A Cmment On Their Moral Tendency (London: Published By Jones And Co., 1833)

THE LIFE OF HOGARTH.

before his apprenticeship expired, he exhibited talent for caricature.
" He felt the impulse of genius, and that it directed him to painting,
though little apprised at that time of the mode Nature had intended he
should pursue."
The following circumstance gave the first indication of the talents
with which Hogarth afterwards proved himself to be so liberally endowed.
During his apprenticeship, he set out one Sunday, with two or three
companions, on an excursion to Highgate. The weather being hot, they
went into a public-house ; where they had not long been, before a quarrel
arose between some persons in the same room; from words they soon
got to blows, and the quart pots being the only missiles at hand, were
sent flying about the room in glorious confusion. This was a scene too
laughable for Hogarth to resist. He drew out his pencil, and produced
on the spot one of the most ludicrous pieces that ever was seen; which
exhibited likenesses not only of the combatants engaged in the affray,
but also of the persons gathered round them, placed in grotesque atti-
tudes, and heightened with character and points of humour.
On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he entered into the academy
in St. Martin's Lane, and studied drawing from the life: but in this his
proficiency was inconsiderable; nor would he ever have surpassed medio-
crity as a painter, if he had not penetrated through external form to
character and manners. "It was character, passions, the soul, that his
genius was given him to copy."
The engraving of arms and shop-bills seems to have been his first
employment by which to obtain a decent livelihood. He was, however,
soon engaged in decorating books, and furnished sets of plates for several
publications of the time. An edition of Hudibras afforded him the first
subject suited to his genius: yet he felt so much the shackles of other
men's ideas, that he was less successful in this task than might have been
expected. In the mean time, he had acquired the use of the brush, as
well as of the pen and graver; and, possessing a singular facility in seizing
likeness, he acquired considerable employment as a portrait-painter.
Shortly after his marriage, he informs us that he commenced painter of
small conversation pieces, from twelve to fifteen inches in height; the
novelty of which caused them to succeed for a few years. One of the
earliest productions of this kind, which distinguished him as a painter, is
supposed to have been a representation of Wanstead Assembly; the figures
in it were drawn from the life, and without burlesque. The faces were