A Methodist minister attempting to choose between two women who pull him in different directions. Mezzotint after J. Collet.

The choice between pleasure and duty: a young woman, expensively dressed, lures him towards an inn and/or brothel bearing the inn-sign "The old goat new reviv[ed]", while an older woman holding a hymn book pulls him towards the chapel. F.G. Stephens in the British Museum catalogue, loc. cit., interprets the chapel as the Tabernacle of the Rev. John [i.e. George] Whitefield in Tottenham Court Road, London, which had opened in 1756 and was enlarged in 1759

In the background is an ass placed between two bundles of hay and unable to choose between them: the paradox of Buridan's ass

London (No. 53 Fleet Street) : R. Sayer & J. Bennet, 10 June 1776.

1 print : mezzotint ; image 15.2 x 11.2 cm

The continence of a Methodist parson or divinity in danger.

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1949, vol. IV, p. 752, no. 4610

Wellcome Collection 27978i

Reversed copy of an engraving by John Goldar after John Collet, 1773