THOMAS BEWICK. 



15 



finer sentiments of an average human being, and even to Bewick the 

 difficulty of keeping clear of the taint must have been very great. 



Bewick's earliest life has now been sketched, and, as we have glanced at 

 his first dozen years of existence, we may pause to consider how fit he was 

 to go out into the world to fight the great battle of life. Although it 

 appears his education did not extend any great length beyond the usual 

 elementary tasks of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is certain that in these 

 at least he got a thorough grounding. He never was passionately fond of 

 reading ; but in the matter of written composition it cannot be said he was 

 at all deficient, and in his later life his work in this way deserves the very 

 highest praise. With figures he never had much to do except in his own 

 business transactions, and in these he was always shrewd enough. In hand- 

 writing his letters and manuscripts show that he had been very carefully 

 taught to handle his pen : his correspondence was ever the model of neat- 

 ness, and in spelling he had fair accuracy. In drawing — the principal 

 employment of his long life — he had not received any lessons, and though he 

 had to use chalk at first, the timely present of drawing materials enabled him 

 to proceed with facility. Though his genius had found a loophole through 

 which to display itself before he possessed proper implements, he under- 

 stood and quickly acted on the maxim, that " The best materials make the 

 best work." We do not know all the subjects he tried to draw when he was 

 young ; but in after-life he always accompanied a wonderfully feathered bird 

 or a lifelike quadruped with a faithful representation of a country scene, or a 

 little pictorial anecdote wherewith to "point a moral or adorn a tale." For 

 this work, in which he was yet to succeed, the less formal training he had the 

 better : he needed no interference from skilled hands to teach him the manner 

 of representing the truths he saw around him ; some guidance at first would 

 necessarily have been advantageous, but complete academical training would 

 have utterly spoiled him. But certainly no training was better than bad 



