rm, but to descend to it from a higher sphere. His paintings
illustrate his lessons, and his lessons seem to be derived from his
paintings.

"He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his art. To
be such a painter, he was a profound and penetrating philosopher.

"In full happiness of foreign and domestic fame, admired by the expert
in art, and by the learned in science, courted by the great, caressed
by sovereign powers, and celebrated by distinguished poets, his native
humility, modesty, and candor never forsook him, even on surprise or
provocation; nor was the least degree of arrogance or assumption
visible to the most scrutinizing eye in any part of his conduct or
discourse.

"His talents of every kind--powerful from nature, and not meanly
cultivated in letters--his social virtues in all the relations and all
the habitudes of life, rendered him the centre of a very great and
unparalleled variety of agreeable societies, which will be dissipated
by his death. He had too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too
much innocence to provoke any enmity. The loss of no man of his time
can be felt with more sincere, general, and unmixed sorrow."

BENJAMIN WEST

By MARTHA J. LAMB[5]

[Footnote 5: Reprinted by permission, from the Magazine of
American History.]

(1738-1820)

[Illustration: Benjamin West.]

In the wilds of the new world, a century and a half ago, there was,
apparently, no spot less likely to produce a famous painter than the
Quaker province of Pennsylvania. And yet, when George Washington was
only six years old there was born, in the little town of Springfield,
Chester County, a boy whose interesting and remarkable career from
infancy to old age has provided one of the most instructive lessons
for students in art that America affords.

Perhaps Benjamin West's aptitude for picture-making in his infancy,
while he was learning to walk and to talk, did not exceed that of
hosts of other children, in like circumstances, in every generation
since his time. But many curious things were remembered and told of
this baby's performances after he had developed a decided talent for
reproducing the beautiful objects that captivated his eye. It was in
the summer of 1745, a few months before he was seven years old that
his married sister came home for a visit, bringing with her an infant
daughter. The next morning after her arrival, little Benjamin was left
to keep the flie