14 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



although the greatest cares were bestowed on 

 endeavours to preserve the appearance of 

 Nature, I looked upon its vesture as more than 

 sullied, as requiring constant attention, and 

 repeated mendings, while, after all, it could no ' 

 longer be said to be fresh from the hands of its 

 Maker. I wished to possess all the productions 

 of Nature, but I wished life with them. This 

 was impossible. Then what was to be done ? 

 I turned to my father, and made known to him 

 my disappointment and anxiety. He produced 

 a book of Illustrations. A new life ran in my 

 veins. I turned over the leaves with avidity ; 

 and although what I saw was not what I longed 

 for, it gave me a desire to copy Nature. To 

 Nature I went, and tried to imitate her, as in 

 the days of my childhood I had tried to raise, 

 myself from the ground and stand erect, before 

 Nature had imparted the vigour necessary foP 

 the success of such an undertaking. 



" How sorely disappointed did I feel foD 

 many years, when I saw that my production* 

 were worse than those which I ventured (per- 

 haps in silence) to regard as bad, in the booki 

 given me by my father ! My pencil gave birth to 

 a family of cripples. So maimed were most of 

 them, that they resembled the mangled corpses 

 on a field of battle, compared with the integrity! 

 of living men. These difficulties and disap- 



