A student reads to an audience the epic poems of Sir Richard Blackmore and the sermons of John ("Orator") Henley to find out which is the more soporific; his audience fall asleep with boredom. Etching by C. Grignion after F. Hayman.

Sir Richard Blackmore was a physician who wrote numerous epic poems such as 'Eliza: an epic poem in ten books' (1705). John Henley was a dissenting minister who preached at the Oratory in Clare Market (Houghton Street, London). An example of his published sermons is 'Sion in perfect beauty: or, the heaven of heavens: a sermon deliver'd in the Oratory by Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, on Sunday, April 26, 1730' (London 1730)