his father became anxious to see him settled in some established business.
For, though reluctant to thwart the bias of a genius at once so decided
and original, and to which the injunction of Peckover had rendered him
favourable and indulgent, the old gentleman was sensible that the
profession of a painter was not only precarious, but regarded by the
religious association to which he belonged, as adverse to their tenets, by
being only ornamental; and he was anxious, on his son's account and on his
own, to avoid those animadversions to which he was exposed by the freedom
he had hitherto granted to the predilections of Benjamin. He, therefore,
consulted several of his neighbours on the subject; and a meeting of the
Society of Friends in the vicinity was called, to consider, publicly, what
ought to be the destiny of his son.

The assembly met in the Meeting-house near Springfield, and after much
debate, approaching to altercation, a man of the name of John Williamson
rose, and delivered a very extraordinary speech upon the subject. He was
much respected by all present, for the purity and integrity of his life,
and enjoyed great influence in his sphere on account of the superiority
of his natural wisdom, and, as a public preacher among the Friends,
possessed an astonishing gift of convincing eloquence. He pointed to old
Mr. West and his wife, and expatiated on the blameless reputation which
they had so long maintained, and merited so well. "They have had," said
he, "ten children, whom they have carefully brought up in the fear of
God, and in the Christian religion; and the youth, whose lot in life we
are now convened to consider, is Benjamin, their youngest child. It is
known to you all that God is pleased, from time to time, to bestow upon
some men extraordinary gifts of mind, and you need not be told by how
wonderful an inspiration their son has been led to cultivate the art of
painting. It is true that our tenets deny the utility of that art to
mankind. But God has bestowed on the youth a genius for the art, and can