[Illustration: FIG. 91.--_Portrait of Wedgwood._] It seems to me that in his portrait (Fig. 91) a good deal of this robust, manly, honorable character is to be traced. I like to think that the face here, as in many cases, is a sort of promise of the man. I cannot do better than to quote, from one of Wedgwood's catalogues, his own words, which are better than any sermon, better than much "burnt-offering and sacrifice;" which phrase of the prophet shows that there were shabby fellows then, even in the days of God's Jews. I quote: "A competition for cheapness, and not for excellence of workmanship, is the most frequent and certain cause of the rapid decay and entire destruction of arts and manufactures. "The desire of selling much in a little time, without respect to the taste or quality of the goods, leads manufacturers and merchants to ruin the reputation of the articles which they make and deal in; and while those who buy, for the sake of a fallacious saving, prefer mediocrity to excellence, it will be impossible for them either to improve or keep up the quality of their works. "All works of art must bear a price in proportion to the skill, the taste, the time, the expense, and the risk, attending the invention and execution of them. Those pieces that for these reasons bear the highest price, and which those who are not accustomed to consider the real difficulty and expense of making fine things are apt to call dear, are, when justly estimated, the cheapest articles that can be purchased; and such are generally attended with much less profit to the artist than those that everybody calls cheap. "Beautiful forms and compositions are not to be made by chance; and they never were made nor can be made in any kind at small expense; but the proprietors of this manufactory have the satisfaction of knowing, by a careful comparison, that the prices of many of their ornaments are much lower than, and all of them as low as, those of any other ornamental works in Europe of equal quality and risk, notwithstanding the high price of labor in England; and they are determined to give up the making of any article rather than to degrade it." From all this is it not evident that Wedgwood too found his world full of _shabby buyers_? I think so; and that has been the misfortune of others. While the buyers are apt to vituperate the workmen, in too many cases _they_ are the culprits. Few will dispute it, that nearly all the manufacturing and trading world has been sliding downward into shabbiness since Wedgwood's day; and few will dispute it, that the _mania_ to "buy cheap and sell dear" always did and always will debase any people.