Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/441

 Rh injury." "How?" asked one of them. "Why, if you stand there, my neighbour over the way will say, 'I saw two blackguards stand at Fuseli's door; I dare say he is going to prison!'"

Fuseli's severe criticisms upon the works of his brother artists were often so pointedly witty, that in some instances he rendered his best friends both uneasy and ridiculous; but as he good-naturedly bore many sarcasms from Doctor Wolcott and other critics of his time, so he thought his friends would receive, with equal good temper, whatever he said of them or their productions. I must, however, do him the justice to say, that I firmly believe his observations were not kept in reserve to show off in the presence of great people—a practice too common with men viciously inclined; for sometimes his most stinging remarks were made to those of the least perception: and I firmly believe that many of his best are now entirely lost, though now and then Sam Stowger would relate a few of them. One I recollect hearing respecting Northcote's picture of the Judgment of Solomon, in which the King's right hand was raised, as ordering the executioner to divide the living child. Mr. Northcote, to avoid vulgarity, employed two fingers of the hand to accompany the commands; but, unfortunately,