what was the critical reception it received?
Immanuel Kant refers to the engravings as an example of how cruelty towards animals leads indirectly to failing duties towards humans. Others found the series less to their liking.
The Four Stages of Cruelty
In his "Lectures on Ethics" Immanuel Kant refers to the engravings as an example of how cruelty towards animals leads indirectly to failing duties towards humans as Hogarth "brings home to us the terrible rewards of cruelty, and this should be an impressive lesson to children."
Others found the series less to their liking. Charles Lamb dismissed the series as mere caricature, not worthy to be included alongside Hogarth's other work, but rather something produced as the result of a "wayward humour" outside of his normal habits. Art historian Allan Cunningham also had strong feelings about the series:
what is ''the four stages of cruelty''? is a series of four printed engravings that depicts a different stage in the life of the fictional Tom Nero. whose work is it? English artist William Hogarth what is the first stage of cruelty? He is shown being assisted by other boys to insert an arrow into a dog's rectum what about the second? Tom Nero  has turned into the professional cruelty of a man at work. Mistreatment of his horse and overloading, has collapsed, breaking its leg and upsetting the carriage.
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The Four Stages of Cruelty [SEP] Reception
Hogarth was pleased with the results. "European Magazine" reported that he commented to a bookseller from Cornhill (a Mr. Sewell): In his unfinished "Apology for Painters" he commented further: In his 1817 book "Shakespeare and His Times", Nathan Drake credits the representation of "throwing at cocks" in the first plate for changing public opinion about the practice, which was common at the time, and prompting magistrates to take a harder line on offenders. In his "Lectures on Ethics" Immanuel Kant refers to the engravings as an example of how cruelty towards animals leads indirectly to failing duties towards humans as Hogarth "brings home to us the terrible rewards of cruelty, and this should be an impressive lesson to children." Others found the series less to their liking.