any picture, ancient or modern. "It is a face" (Lamb says) "that no one
that has seen can easily forget." It is, as he argues, human suffering
stretched to its utmost endurance. I cannot forbear directing the
attention of the reader to Lamb's bold and excellent defence of Hogarth.
He will like both painter and author, I think, better than before. I have,
indeed, been in company where young men, professing to be painters, spoke
slightingly of Hogarth. To this I might have replied that Hogarth did not
paint for the applause of tyros in art, but--for the world!

The "Reflector" was edited by an old Christ's Hospital boy, Mr. Leigh
Hunt, who subsequently became, and during their joint lives remained, one
of Lamb's most familiar friends. It was a quarterly magazine, and
received, of course, the contributions of various writers; amongst whom
were Mr. Barnes (of the "Times"), Barron Field, Dr. Aikin, Mr. Landseer
(the elder), Charles Lamb, Octavius Gilchrist, Mitchell (the translator of
Aristophanes), and Leigh Hunt himself. I do not observe Lamb's name
appended to any of the articles in the first volume; but the second
comprises the Essays on Hogarth and on Burial Societies, together with a
paper on the Custom of Hissing at the Theatres, under the signature of
"Semel Damnatus." There is a good deal of humor in this paper (which has
not been republished, I believe). It professes to come from one of a club
of condemned authors, no person being admissible as a member until he had
been unequivocally damned.

I observe that in the letters, &c., of Lamb, which were published in 1841,
and copiously commented on by Sir Thomas N. Talfourd (the editor), there
is not much beyond a bare mention of Leigh Hunt's name, and no letter from
Charles Lamb to Mr. Hunt is published. It is now too late to remedy this
last defect, my recent endeavors to obtain such letters having resulted in
disappointment: otherwise I should have been very glad to record the