ank, every part of his work bears witness to his
careful attention to detail; no part of it is elaborated at the expense
of the rest; from the tenants of the room down to the smallest and most
insignificant ornament on the chimney-piece, everything appears as
distinct as it would appear in actual every-day life.

But this study of Rembrandt and of Hogarth, this minute attention to
detail, this careful and conscientious elaboration, would have done
little for George Cruikshank if he had not possessed in an eminent
degree that faculty of creation, otherwise of originality, which men
call _genius_. Various descriptions of this gift have been attempted by
eminent men, but the most felicitous seems to us to be that given by
Robert William Elliston: "A true actor," says this distinguished
comedian, "must possess the power of _creation_, which is _genius_, as
well as the faculty of imitation, which is only _talent_." Substitute
the word "artist" for the word "actor," and the remark will apply with
equal felicity to the subject of our present chapter. It was this same
gift of genius which, whilst it enabled the artist to lend a sentient
expression to such unpromising subjects as a barrel, a wig-block, a jug
of beer, a pair of bellows, or an oyster, imparted to his drawings a
piquancy which has elevated these apparently insignificant designs into
perfectly sterling works of art. The reader who is fortunate enough to
number amongst his books the first half-dozen volumes of "Bentley's
Miscellany" and "Ainsworth's Magazine," "The Omnibus," "The Table Book,"
"The Comic Almanack," possesses a series of designs, drawn and etched by
the hand of the master himself, the value of which is yearly increasing,
not only because they are becoming scarcer and scarcer every day, but
because nothing like them--under the conditions in which book
illustration is now produced--will ever be seen again.

FOOTNOTES:

[85] The "Sketch Book" and "Scraps and Sketches" have recently been
republished; but the impressions from the sadly worn plates give but
little idea of the exquisite originals.

[86] Sala, in _Gentleman's Magazine_, May, 1878.

[87] Thackeray, _Westminster Review_.

[88] Thackeray, in the _Westminster Review_, June, 1840.

[89] This idea of the empty pipe is splendid, there never is any
tobacco in it; a better notion of absolute forgetfulness--of
inability to exercise the most trifling effort of memory--c