he has sent it back with a letter full of criticisms, in which he says it accords not with his intentions, which are to reject all fancy from his work. How far he expects to please, I cannot tell. But as I cannot paint dirty rags and old shoes when I ought to plan naked beauty[1] or simple ornament, I despair of ever pleasing one class of man. Unfortunately our authors of books are among this class; how soon we shall have a change for the better I cannot prophesy. Dr. Trusler says: "Your fancy, from what I have seen of it, and I have seen a variety at Mr. Cumberland's, seems to be in the other world, or the world of spirits, which accords not with my intentions, which, whilst living in this world, wish to follow the nature of it." I could not help smiling at the difference between the doctrines of Dr. Trusler and those of Christ. But, however, for his own sake I am sorry that a man should be so enamoured of Rowlandson's caricatures as to call them copies from life and manners, or fit things for a clergyman to write upon.
Pray let me entreat you to persevere in your designing; it is the only source of pleasure. All your other pleasures depend upon it: it is the tree; your pleasures are the fruit. Your inventions of
- ↑ Art can never exist without Naked Beauty displayed" (one of the "Laocoon" sentences).
