Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/457

 the stone were cut away. What an acquisition, then, an excellent carver must be in the studio of the classic Sculptor of high fame, whose mind must necessarily be engaged upon his designs; and whose hand, had it once been master of the tool, for the want of practice, could not manage it with so much ease as that of the artist who is continually employed on the marble only; nor, indeed, could his numerous commissions be executed by his hands alone. How, then, ought the modeller to value that carver, who possesses qualifications so highly essential to his future fame; and in the hour of sickness or affliction, how wise it would be in the employer, setting aside gratitude, which ought to be the first mover, to be attentive to the wants of one so useful to him!

In this feeling Nollekens was extremely deficient, for he seldom bestowed his encouragement even upon the most deserving person; though he would raise the wages of an idle fellow who fed his dog, and suffer his most valuable assistants to want. Poor Gahagan, for instance, who carved his figure of Pitt, erected in the Senate-house, at Cambridge, had only three hundred pounds for the task, when Nollekens's charge was three thousand! and when this excellent carver applied to Nollekens for fifty pounds more,