was ill-paid. There
does not exist such a thing as a slovenly drawing by Turner. With what
people were willing to give him for his work he was content; but he
considered that work in its relation to himself, not in its relation to
the purchaser. He took a poor price, that he might _live_; but he made
noble drawings, that he might _learn_. Of course some are slighter than
others, and they vary in their materials; those executed with pencil and
Indian ink being never finished to the degree of those which are
executed in color. But he is _never_ careless. According to the time and
means at his disposal, he always did his best. He never let a drawing
leave his hands without having made a step in advance, and having done
better in it than he had ever done before; and there is no important
drawing of the period which is not executed with a _total_ disregard of
time and price, and which was not, even then, worth four or five times
what Turner received for it.

Even without genius, a man who thus felt and thus labored was sure to do
great things; though it is seldom that, without great genius, men either
thus feel or thus labor. Turner was as far beyond all other men in
intellect as in industry; and his advance in power and grasp of thought
was as steady as the increasing light of sunrise.

97. His reputation was soon so far established that he was able to
devote himself to more consistent study. He never appears literally to
have _copied_ any picture; but whenever any master interested him, or
was of so established a reputation that he thought it necessary to study
him, he painted pictures of his own subjects in the style of that
master, until he felt himself able to rival his excellencies, whatever
they were. There are thus multitudes of pictures by Turner which are
direct imitations of other masters; especially of Claude, Wilson,
Loutherbourg, Gaspar Poussin, Vandevelde, Cuyp, and Rembrandt. It has
been argued by Mr. Leslie that, because Turner thus in his early years
imitated many of the old masters, therefore he must to the end of his
life have considered them greater than himself. The _non sequitur_ is
obvious. I trust there are few men so unhappy as never to have learned
anything from their inferiors; and I fear there are few men so wise as
never to have imitated anything but what was deserving of imitation. The
young Turner, indeed, would have been more than mortal if, in a period
utterly devoid of all healthy examples