174 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



grudged nothing I could do to promote his hap- 

 piness. I had noticed, for some time past, that 

 he had been led under a guidance and influence 

 that made an alteration in his conduct for the 

 worse ; and he appeared to me not to be the 

 Ralph Beilby* he had been, for before this, he 

 deservedly bore the character of being a sensible 

 judicious fair-dealing industrious man, and a good 

 member of society. I used always to think him 

 careful and sometimes penurious, and this disposi- 

 tion might indeed have crept and increased upon 

 him ; but, whatever natural failings might be in 

 his composition, these had heretofore been checked 

 and regulated by the rules of morality and religion. 

 It seemed to me that it must have been a maxim 

 with him to do justice to all, but not to confer 

 favours upon any one; and yet he often joined 

 me in conferring such, in various ways, upon our 

 apprentices and others of our workpeople, for 

 which we commonly had dirt thrown in our faces. 



It does not require any great stretch of obser- 

 vation to discover that gratitude is a rare virtue, 

 and that, whatever favours are conferred upon an 

 ungrateful man, he will conclude that these would 

 not have been bestowed upon him had he not 

 deserved them. In these our gifts to prentices and 

 others of that stamp, I was to blame in thus 

 conferring favours that it would have been as well 

 to let alone. In other charities he was not back- 

 ward in contributing his mite, but in these matters 

 he was led by wisdom. In the former case, mine, 

 by giving vent to my feelings, were led by folly ; 

 but, indeed, these follies were trivial compared 



* Ralph Beilby, engraver, Newcastle, died 4th Jan., 1817, aged 73 

 and was buried at St. Andrew's. 



