Note 172 — APPENDIX,
Reading edition
In the reduced copy I have ventured to abridge this title, though the very ingenious baptisms of sundry modern prints would have given ample countenance to the old inscription. For example: A girl hugging a dog in her arms is, with great attention to analogy, called "Nature;" and a woman with a large mallet in one hand, and a tenpenny nail in the other, "Art."
A female with a consumptive curd-and-whey countenance, that would not have got her a lover even in Otaheite, they have miscalled "Beauty;" and a little gorged misshapen boy, with swollen cheeks, and a bow and arrow, they kindly inform you is "Love."
A farmer's daughter with a basket on her arm, in which are two pigeons quarrelling for a straw, and drawing it different ways, is christened "Conjugal Peace;" and a very picturesque landscape, with a crowd of figures in the background, baptized "Solitude!"
Innumerable other instances might be given; but these are sufficient to prove, that in erroneous inscription Hogarth is not alone.