Abus'd at home, abroad despis'd,
Unbred, unletter'd, unadvis'd;
The headstrong course of life begun,
What comfort from thy darling son?"
—Hoadley.[65]
THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, PLATE I.
In the last series of prints Mr. Hogarth delineated, with a master's hand, the miseries attendant upon a female's deviation from virtue. In this he presents to us the picture of a young man, thoughtless, extravagant, and licentious; and, in colours equally impressive, paints the destructive consequences of his conduct. The first print most forcibly contrasts two opposite passions,—the unthinking negligence of youth, and the sordid avaricious rapacity of age. It brings into one point of view what Mr. Pope so exquisitely describes in his Epistle to Lord Bathurst: