SWBlT-SCElfTBD TUSSILAGE. 291 



power to discern merit, either in men or plants, 

 until it is pointed out to them by the finger of the 

 world, she gives the following anecdote of a young 

 miller in Holland, who, having a taste for painting, 

 exercised it at his leisure hours in pourtraying the 

 few objects within his limited circle : the mill, his 

 master's cattle, and the pastures, were all that pre- 

 sented themselves to his confined view, but these 

 he varied so accurately by light and shade, as the 

 effect of the clouds changed them, as fully to com- 

 pensate for the want of variety ; yet his labours 

 were not appreciated, and when he had finished 

 one picture he bartered it away to the colourman, 

 in exchange for materials to paint another. It so 

 happened that a master of a tavern, who expected 

 company at his house, wished to ornament the bare 

 walls of his apartment, and purchased one of these 

 paintings for a crown, which probably would have 

 still remained unnoticed on his wall, had not chance 

 sent an artist of judgment to his tavern, who had 

 no sooner entered the room where the picture was 

 hanging, than he discovered the merit of the young 

 rustic painter, and immediately offered the inn- 

 keeper a hundred florins for what had cost him a 

 Dutch crown ; and, paying down the money, de- 

 sired the landlord to procure him all the paintings 

 he could obtain from the young miller at the same 



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