66 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



for one piece of practical advice to them which they will find at 

 the end of the present chapter. 



Evidence from Artists. 



More than one kind of evidence may be brought forward in 



this case, and I propose to " put in " a certain class of witness 



that not the most acute cross-examining counsel, Daniel O'Connell, 



Hawkins, or even Sergeant Buzfuz, can shake. I pity that young 



man or woman to-day who has not mended several holes in his 



education by reading the books of Dickens and Lever in editions 



illustrated by the immortal Phiz. If I do no more for him by this 



passage than induce him to mend such holes I shall have been of 



some use to his mind. For my part I look upon Phiz as far superior 



to Hogarth or Cruikshank in the fidelity to nature of his drawings 



of the faces of his numerous characters, especially the old men. 



Look through Dombey & Son. Bleak House, Pickwick Papers, 



Barnaby Budge, Tom Burke, Jack Hinton, Harry Lorrequer, The 



O'Donohue, and, perhaps best of all for the illustrations, The Knight 



of Gwynne. Examine, with a lens if necessary, the delicate way 



in which Phiz shows the projecting hairs on the eyebrows of his 



many elderly men, and note at the same time the truth to scientific 



fact which he shows in his female characters, for only in the drawings 



of " Mrs. Gamp proposes a toast " and of Mrs. Pipchin in " Paul 



and Mrs. Pipchin," and one or two doubtful instances, can I find 



that he represents even his elderly women with this feature of their 



eyebrow hairs. But see Captain Cuttle and Mr. Bunsby in " Solemn 



references to Mrs. Bunsby," both with strongly-marked shelves 



of hair sticking out from the brows, Captain Cuttle in " The shadow 



in the little parlour," one of the fat coachmen in " Mr. Weller and 



his friends drinking to Mr. Pell " — the sharp brush projecting 



from the brow of Bagnet in " Mr. Smallweed breaks the pipe of 



peace," that of Vholes in " Attorney and Client, fortitude and 



impatience " — (the equally remarkable absence of this feature in 



Pecksniff, Chadband and Skimpole, men without character or 



feeling) — Gashford in " Lord George Gordon," the fat figure in 



" The Gallant Vintner," Pioche in " Minette in attendance on 



Pioche," the courtier in " Louis XIV. and de Genchy," " The 



death of Sbaun," the blind man in " Joe the mighty hunter," 



the right hand figure in " Mr. O'Leary creating a sensation," 



Sir Archibald Mc'Nab in " A fireside group," " Roade's return 



to O'Donoughue Castle," Sandy Mc'Grane and Old Hickman in 



" Sandy expedites the doctor," Daly in " Daly bestows a helmet 



on Bully Dodd," the knight in " The Knight is taken Prisoner." 



