isdom, she told him, was
of more value than gold. She grieved not that his face was imbrowned,
or his hands hardened by labour: toil is man's natural inheritance,
and he is bid to rejoice in his "labour, for it is the gift of God;"
but she rejoiced in the maturing of his heart, and saw that the good
seed she was sowing was taking root.
She had, however, one trouble concerning him, and not being able to
discern clearly what was her duty, it gave her more anxiety than even
her poverty. His love for sketching could not be repressed. She saw
that he shared his father's talent largely, but remembering what her
husband's views in reference to the cultivation of the noble art of
painting had been, the struggle between maternal pride and the natural
yearnings of a mother's heart to gratify a darling and worthy child,
in opposition to what seeming duty demanded, can scarcely be imagined.
Her late husband's opinions, tempered as they always were by judgment
and prudence, had acquired a character of sacredness in her view; but
when William, in showing her his sums, showed also the rude but
spirited sketches he had drawn on the border of his slate, she saw
that the gift was from God, and she could not condemn, although she
dared not praise. She was afraid of entailing misery on him by
fostering a taste beyond what his means would permit him to gratify.
He had no present prospect but that of earning his bread by the sorest
labour. Even if his talent were an extraordinary one, it would take a
long time to cultivate it to a profitable point; and in the meantime,
how was he to be supported?
She told all this to her son; but when he begged her, as his only
recreation (for he never played with any boys except George Herman, as
good a boy as himself), to let him look over his father's portfolio of
sketches, could she deny the favour? or was she wrong? Nor could she
forbid some pen-and-ink sketches, in which she recognised familiar
objects, although she warned him against giving offence by
caricaturing; and while she described to him the wonders of this
glorious earth, with its embosomed treasures of mines and minerals,
and made him read in his Bible how God had created all and called it
good, she also showed him that man was the crowning work;--beloved of
God, notwithstanding his rebellion; made only a little lower than the
angels, crowned with dignity and honour; and so loved by the Saviour,
that he came to save those who otherwise w
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