INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii 
London, with the professed view of improvement in the 
art of shoemaking: but in reality with higher objects and 
better hopes; though he hardly ventured to own them to 
himself. ‘The manners and morals of his fellow workmen 
were ill suited to his feelings and pursuits; and served 
only to encrease his dislike for the profession to which he 
had been doomed. But it was some consolation to reflect 
that he was in the great mart of human knowledge ; and 
though unfriended, and a stranger, he found that informa- 
tion flowed in upon him on every side. His mind was fil- 
led, but not satisfied. Every museum, auction room, and 
book stall, every object to which his attention was calted, 
he visited with a rapid and unsatiable curiosity ; gleaning 
information wherever it was to be had, and treasuring it 
up with systematic care. His account of what he obser- 
ved in the capital is said to exhibit an obvious and striking 
proof of an inquisitive, diligent, and discerning mind. A 
person of this stamp could not long remain in London 
without meeting with kindred spirits. One of these asso- 
ciates, speaking of Cranch, observes, ‘ our conversations 
and philosophical rambles near London, have often cal- 
led forth such observations and disquisitions from him on 
the various qualities, attributes, combinations, provisions 
and arrangements of nature, as marked vast comprehen- 
sion, as well as the most delicate subtilties of discrimina- 
tion in an intellect, which seemed indeed to be calculated 
to grasp magnitude and minutiz with equal address, and 
which could at once surprise, delight, and instruct.” » 
After a residence of some time in London, he returned 
tothe haunts of his childhood ; but it'was soon discovered 
how little chance the “ bootmaker from London” had of 
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