But this study of Rembrandt and of Hogarth, this minute attention to detail, this careful and conscientious elaboration, would have done little for George Cruikshank if he had not possessed in an eminent degree that faculty of creation, otherwise of originality, which men call _genius_. Various descriptions of this gift have been attempted by eminent men, but the most felicitous seems to us to be that given by Robert William Elliston: "A true actor," says this distinguished comedian, "must possess the power of _creation_, which is _genius_, as well as the faculty of imitation, which is only _talent_." Substitute the word "artist" for the word "actor," and the remark will apply with equal felicity to the subject of our present chapter. It was this same gift of genius which, whilst it enabled the artist to lend a sentient expression to such unpromising subjects as a barrel, a wig-block, a jug of beer, a pair of bellows, or an oyster, imparted to his drawings a piquancy which has elevated these apparently insignificant designs into perfectly sterling works of art. The reader who is fortunate enough to number amongst his books the first half-dozen volumes of "Bentley's Miscellany" and "Ainsworth's Magazine," "The Omnibus," "The Table Book," "The Comic Almanack," possesses a series of designs, drawn and etched by the hand of the master himself, the value of which is yearly increasing, not only because they are becoming scarcer and scarcer every day, but because nothing like them--under the conditions in which book illustration is now produced--will ever be seen again.
[85] The "Sketch Book" and "Scraps and Sketches" have recently been republished; but the impressions from the sadly worn plates give but little idea of the exquisite originals.
[86] Sala, in _Gentleman's Magazine_, May, 1878.
[88] Thackeray, in the _Westminster Review_, June, 1840.
[89] This idea of the empty pipe is splendid, there never is any tobacco in it; a better notion of absolute forgetfulness--of inability to exercise the most trifling effort of memory--could not be conveyed.
[92] This was written, of course, before the recent republication, which lacks the colour and crispness of the early issue.
[93] "British Artists from Hogarth to Turner."