them. Of all the nations of Europe the Swiss are the least poetical, and
yet the scenery of no other country seems so well calculated as that of
Switzerland to awaken the imagination; and Shakespeare, the greatest of
all modern Poets, was brought up in one of the least picturesque districts
of England.

Soon after the occurrence of the incident which has given rise to these
observations, the young Artist was sent to a school in the neighbourhood.
During his hours of leisure he was permitted to draw with pen and ink; for
it did not occur to any of the family to provide him with better
materials. In the course of the summer a party of Indians came to pay
their annual visit to Springfield, and being amused with the sketches of
birds and flowers which Benjamin shewed them, they taught him to prepare
the red and yellow colours with which they painted their ornaments. To
these his mother added blue, by giving him a piece of indigo, so that he
was thus put in possession of the three primary colours. The fancy is
disposed to expatiate on this interesting fact; for the mythologies of
antiquity furnish no allegory more beautiful; and a Painter who would
embody the metaphor of an Artist instructed by Nature, could scarcely
imagine any thing more picturesque than the real incident of the Indians
instructing West to prepare the prismatic colours. The Indians also taught
him to be an expert archer, and he was sometimes in the practice of
shooting birds for models, when he thought that their plumage would look
well in a picture.

His drawings at length attracted the attention of the neighbours; and some
of them happening to regret that the Artist had no pencils, he enquired
what kind of things these were, and they were described to him as small
brushes made of camels' hair fastened in a quill. As there were, however,
no camels in America, he could not think of any substitute, till he