Page:Self-help with illustrations of conduct and perseverance (IA selfhelpwithillu00smiliala).pdf/271

 taining soda, and afterwards rubbing the engraved parts with a tooth-brush; and to my delight found the plan succeeded perfectly. My greatest difficulties now over, patience and perseverance were all that were needed to bring my labours to a successful issue. I had neither advice nor assistance from any one in finishing the plate. If, therefore, the work possess any merit, I can claim it as my own; and if in its accomplishment I have contributed to show what can be done by persevering industry and determination, it is all the honour I wish to lay claim to."

It would be beside our purpose to enter upon any criticism of 'The Forge' as an engraving, its merits having been already fully recognized by the art journals. The execution of the work occupied Sharples's leisure evening hours during a period of five years; and it was only when he took the plate to the printer that he for the first time saw an engraved plate produced by any other man. To this unvarnished picture of industry and genius we add one other trait, and it is a domestic one. "I have been married seven years," says he, "and during that time my greatest pleasure, after I had finished my daily labour at the foundry, has been to resume my pencil or graver, frequently until a late hour in the evening, my wife meanwhile sitting by my side and reading to me from some interesting book,"—a simple but beautiful testimony to the thorough common sense as well as the genuine right-heartedness of this most interesting and deserving workman.

The same industry and application which we have found to be necessary in order to acquire excellence in painting and sculpture are equally