Page:Masterpieces of the sea (Morris, Richards, 1912).djvu/84

WILLIAM T. RICHARDS form and modelling. His always progressive mind was thus alert for what could add to his equipment even when he had passed into the sixties.

It was in drawing that Mr. Richards was a master. From the first this seems to have been implanted in him. I do not mean that it came instinctively; no such trait ever comes without work and thought. But the germ of correct vision and apt manual dexterity must have been born with him; and luckily he was gifted with a mind and a bodily diligence which brought that germ out and developed it to its limit. His patience and his diligence were, of course, essential to the full flowering of this faculty. He could not have drawn so masterfully if he had not studied unceasingly; but this is only saying that Mr. Richards was a marked man from the start, and if I make this clear in a loving attempt to do him justice I shall have done all I sought to do.

I have seen that other master of drawing, William 54