he asked if Benjamin was his son; advising him at the same time to indulge
him in whatever might appear to be the bent of his talents, assuring him
that he was no common boy.

This interview was afterwards much spoken of by Williams, who in the mean
time lent him the works of Fresnoy and Richardson on Painting, and invited
him to see his pictures and drawings. The impression which these books
made on the imagination of West finally decided his destination. He was
allowed to carry them with him into the country; and his father and
mother, soon perceiving a great change in his conversation, were referred
to the books for an explanation of the cause. They read them for the first
time themselves, and treasuring in their minds those anecdotes of the
indications of the early symptoms of talent with which both works abound,
they remembered the prophetic injunction of Edmund Peckover.

The effect of the enthusiasm inspired by Richardson and Fresnoy may be
conceived from the following incident. Soon after the young Artist had
returned to Springfield, one of his schoolfellows, on a Saturday's half
holiday, engaged him to give up a party at trap-ball to ride with him to
one of the neighbouring plantations. At the time appointed the boy came,
with the horse saddled. West enquired how he was to ride; "Behind me,"
said the boy; but Benjamin, full of the dignity of the profession to which
he felt himself destined, answered, that he never would ride behind any
body. "O! very well then," said the good-natured boy, "you may take the
saddle, and I will get up behind you." Thus mounted, they proceeded on
their excursion; and the boy began to inform his companion that his father
intended to send him to be an apprentice. "In what business?" enquired
West; "A taylor," answered the boy. "Surely," said West, "you will never
follow that trade;" animadverting upon its feminine character. The other,
however, was a shrewd, sound-headed lad, and defended the election very