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 Cruikfchank 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, 

 Barnahy 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 Shaun," 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." 



