104 THE WEDGWOODS. 



would have surmounted every obstacle which manual em- 

 ployment could offer, and would have risen above every 

 unfavourable circumstance by which he might be surrounded. 

 The small-pox, it is true, at tkat early period gave him 

 leisure and opportunity to think, to experimentalise, and to 

 form those ideas which in after life he so successfully and 

 beneficially, both to himself and to the world, worked out ; 

 but he would have become a great man even without that 

 ailment to help him on. 



The small-pox left a humour which settled in the leg, and 

 on every slight accident became so painful, that for one half 

 of the time of his apprenticeship he sat at his work with his 

 leg on a stool before him. The same cruel disorder continued 

 with him till manhood, and was at one time so much aggra- 

 vated by an unfortunate bruise, that he was confined to his 

 bed many months, and reduced to the last extremity of 

 debility. He recovered his strength after this violent shock, 

 but was not able to pursue his plans for some years without 

 frequent interruptions from the same sad cause. At length 

 the disorder reached the knee, and showing symptoms of 

 still advancing so as to endanger his life, he was advised to 

 undergo amputation, and submitted to it, it is said, about 

 the 34th year of his age. From this period he enjoyed a 

 tolerably good state of bodily health and activity, and has 

 been known to attribute much of his success of life to his 

 confinement under this illness, because it gave him oppor- 

 tunities to read, and to repair the defect of an education 

 which had, as I have shown, been necessarily narrowed by 

 circumstances. 



It is recorded that during his apprenticeship he worked 

 in the same room, as a thrower,* with his brother Richard, 



* A "thrower " is the man who forms at the " potter's wheel " the vessel 

 by hand from the moist clay. The " ball " of clay being placed on the 

 disc, the boy, or girl, employed for the purpose, turns the wheel quickly 

 or slowly, as occasion requires. By this means the disc is made to rotate 

 horizontally, and the "thrower," who is seated, forms the vessel by hand, 

 and by the aid of guides for shape which he has prepared for the purpose. 

 The throwing, it will thus be seen, is the first and most important opera- 

 tion in the forming of the vessels. 



