As a describer of life and manners, he must be allowed to stand perhaps
the first of the first rank. His humour, which, as Steele observes, is
peculiar to himself, is so happily diffused as to give the grace of
novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. He never "o'ersteps
the modesty of nature," nor raises merriment or wonder by the violation
of truth. His figures neither divert by distortion nor amaze by
aggravation. He copies life with so much fidelity that he can be hardly
said to invent; yet his exhibitions have an air so much original, that
it is difficult to suppose them not merely the product of imagination.
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