17 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B. I. Necessity

Ch.18. Mischief of Idol-worship

Ch. Elogiums mischievous

§ Character uncognisible[?]

2

22

My picture being the picture of the species not of the individual but of the species

is no more like his Majesty that now than like his Majesty that last was, or his

Majesty that next will be: but there is not one of them to whom it is not more like

than any picture of him you ever saw or can ever hope /reasonably look/ to see.

My picture is a picture of a man, though of a man seated on a throne. Being the

picture of a man, it presents a human character through {the medium of} a human

countenance. Your picture is not near so like to any one of them as the picture of

King Fergus in Holyrood House is to King Fergus. It is neither the picture of a man

nor of any thing else that has or ever had existence any where. It is a copy of the

picture of the handsomest Angel, whom you could find {doing Angels business} in your

prayer-book: to whom in addition to the goose-wing which the original limner has

equipped him with, you fit up /out/ with a cap with notches and flowerigigs[?] in it

called crown upon his head, after seating him in the sort of gilt elbow-chair called

a throne.

On the opposite side of the way is /sits/ stationed a limner who for his study instead of the King of Glorys handsome messenger takes

a more industrious officer /personage/ /character/ /a still more active citizen/ whom

in the same school he sees occupied /finds /beholds/ busy/ sometimes in passing

impertinent offers upon his betters, sometimes in works of husbandry indeed, but such

as no Secretary /neither M r Arthur Young nor any other Member/ of

the Board of Agriculture would approve of.

But what success can this dauber hope to have in comparison with the other?

Outen[?], for him who finds the white man with the goose’s wings like, there is the

fat of the land to feed upon: while he who should have the audacity to find the black

man with the bats wings the stronger likeness woud be sent to jail for it.