Note 208 — APPENDIX,
Reading edition
Some of these were in wood, and some in copper. The painter, when once asked why he did not answer them, replied, that "he had not seen one which promised to live so long as it would take to engrave a plate." A few of these poignant satires I have seen; but they have now attained a black letter value, and are seldom to be found except in the cabinets of the curious. A series of six or eight, beginning with one entitled "The Butifyer, or a Touch on the Times," Plate I., were designed and engraved by an artist of deserved celebrity.[209] With a frankness for which he is remarkable, and which does him honour, he once acknowledged to me, that being a very young man, he was deceived by the loud clamours of certain veterans, at that time leaders in the arts; but had he seen Hogarth's merit then as he does now, nothing should have induced him to attempt the ridicule of such talents.