vigorously once more; and, in spite of his seeming rawness,
finished the copy so well that Canova admitted him at once to the
Academy to model from life. At this Academy Canova himself, who
loved art far more than money, used to attend twice a week to give
instruction to students without receiving any remuneration
whatsoever. It is of such noble men as this that the world of art
is largely made up--that world which we too-practical English have
always undervalued or even despised.

Gibson's student period at Rome under Canova was a very happy
episode in a uniformly happy and beautiful life. His only trouble
was that he had not been able to come there earlier. Singularly
free from every taint of envy (like all the great sculptors of his
time), he could not help regretting when he saw other men turning
out work of such great excellence while he was still only a
learner. "When I observed the power and experience of youths much
younger than myself," he says in his generous appreciative fashion,
"their masterly manner of sketching in the figure, and their
excellent imitation of nature, my spirits fell many degrees, and I
felt humbled and unhappy." He need not have done so, for the man
who thus distrusts his own work is always the truest workman; it is
only fools or poor creatures who are pleased and self-satisfied
with their own first bungling efforts. But the great enjoyment of
Rome to Gibson consisted in the free artistic society which he
found there. At Liverpool, he had felt almost isolated; there was
hardly anybody with whom he could talk on an equality about his
artistic interests; nobody but himself cared about the things that
pleased and engrossed his earnest soul the most. But at Rome,
there was a great society of artists; every man's studio was open
to his friends and fellow-workers; and a lively running fire of