Some Account xcviii
will, I am confident, at a future period not
be unacceptable. He usually rose about
eight o'clock, breakfasted at nine, and was
in his painting-room before ten. Here he
generally employed an hour on some study,
or on the subordinate parts of whatever
portrait happened to be in hand ; and from
eleven the following five hours were devoted
to those who sat for their pictures : with
occasionally short intervals, during which
he sometimes admitted the visit of a friend.
Such was his love of his art, and such his
ardour to excel, that he often declared he had,
during the greater part of his life, laboured
fication, is the great glory of the human mind, that indeed
which most distinguishes man from other animals ; and
is the source of every thing that can be called science. I
believe, his early acquaintance with Mr. Mudge of Exeter,
a very learned and thinking man, and much inclined to
philosophize in the spirit of the Platonists, disposed him
to this habit. He certainly by that means liberalized in a
high degree the theory of his own art ; and if he had been
more methodically instituted in the early part of life, and
had possessed more leisure for study and reflection, he
would in my opinion have pursued this method with great
success.”