Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/437

397 THOMAS TEGG. 397 statement upon every page : "In sitting down to write some account of my past life, I feel as if I were occu- pied in making my will. I feel at a loss to express fully my emotions. I write in a grateful spirit. What I have acquired has been acquired by industry, patience, and privation," and he adds elsewhere, " I can say in passing through life, whether rich or poor, my spirit never forsook me so as to prevent me from rallying again. I have seen and associated with all ranks and stations in society. I have lodged with beggars, and had the honour of presentation to Royalty. I have been so reduced as to plead for assistance, and, by the goodness of Providence, I have been able to render it to others." He was generally believed to have been the original of Twigg in Hood's " Tylney Hall." From the commencement of his career, Tegg made commercial success his one aim in life ; and with much patience, much endurance, and much labour, he achieved it thoroughly, and, in the achieving of it honestly, he conferred a great and lasting benefit upon the world ; for the book merchant holds in his hands the power to do good, or to do evil, far beyond any other merchant whatsoever. Rising from a humble position in life, he never forgot his early friends, never left unrewarded, when possible, his early encouragers and assistants. And if he was proud in having thus been the architect of his own fortune and position, this pride surely was a less ignoble one than that which leads one-half the world to go through life exultantly, with no other self-con- scious merit than having, by a simple accident, been born in wealthier circumstances than the other half. Tegg left behind him a large family who inherited