1792-1800] Thomas Wedgwood n 



given you an excellent temper, and a very good under- 

 standing. Do not therefore content yourself with a medioc- 

 rity of goodness. You are now at a happy time of life when 

 almost everything is in your own power, and your character 

 may be said to be in your own hands, to make or mar it for 

 ever. If you humbly look into yourself, you are a better 

 judge of your failings than any other person can be, but do 

 not seek to palliate or veil them from your own heart. Your 

 friends will value you for your excellences. 



Josiah Wedgwood of Etruria had a third son, Thomas 

 Wedgwood, 1 who has not hitherto been mentioned. He was 

 a remarkable man in many directions the friend and bene- 

 factor of Coleridge, and practically the first discoverer of 

 photography, although he was unable to "fix " his pictures. 

 His short life ended in 1805, when he was thirty-four years 

 old, after years of terrible suffering from some mysterious 

 illness which was never explained. 



There is much evidence that his personality was impres- 

 sive. Fanny Allen tells of " the effect that his appearance 

 and manner had on Mackintosh's ' set,' as they were called." 

 ' Sydney Smith was almost awed " ; and she narrates how at 

 a party assembled to see a picture by Da Vinci of the head of 

 Christ, Dugald Stewart 2 said : " You are looking at that 

 head I cannot keep my eyes from the head of Mr Wedg- 

 wood (who was looking intently down at the picture), it is 

 the finest I ever saw." Wordsworth, too, describes his 

 appearance : ' His calm and dignified manner, united with 

 his tall person and beautiful face, produced in me an impres- 

 sion of sublimity beyond what I ever experienced from the 

 appearance of any other human being.' 1 His brother Jos 

 had a devoted, almost passionate, love for him. 



Tom Wedgwood spent a great part of his life wandering 

 in search of health. When at home he chiefly lived with 

 Jos and Bessy, and interested himself much in the education 

 of his little nephews and nieces. His doctrinaire views 

 founded on Rousseau must have been trying to his sister-in- 

 law. In other ways, too, the situation must have needed 

 her tact and unalterable sweetness of character to make the 

 home happy. 



1 See Tom Wedgwood, the First Photographer, by R. B. Litchfield. 



2 Famous at this time as the leading representative of philosophic 

 studies in England. He held the Chair of Moral Philosophy at 

 Edinburgh from 1785 to 1820. 



