May he perhaps have over-estimated his own skill? Years after he said of himself-- "I was the most conceited artist of the day." And yet where another might have been downcast he refused to be discouraged. He was upheld by a strong and silent sense of power within him. He went home to his father, and he said, "Give me time, and I will yet produce works which the Academy will be proud to acknowledge." Engleheart, the winner of the medal, was never heard of in later life, while the loser made for himself a name that afterwards "waxed wide." Now he worked harder than ever. He studied, he exhibited, he moulded, he designed the figure for a statue of Alexander the Great, which brought him some fame. But his father could not keep him, and he was driven to look about and bethink himself how he could keep himself. At this time--the most needy, perhaps, of his life--a door seemed to open to him. He fell in with the great Staffordshire potter, Josiah Wedgwood, and Wedgwood, with that keen eye of his ever on the outlook to discover talent, instantly recognised it in the boy. A great time was beginning for pottery. For ages hideous things had adorned people's houses and tables till Wedgwood arose, and there entered his great mind the idea of making common things beautiful, of giving people something to look at, even at their meals, that would raise their tastes and be a sort of education. After Wedgwood discovered young Flaxman he gave him some orders. The boy threw his whole soul into the work. Not that it was such work as always showed the artist at his best. The sculptor had first to make the model in wax. Then a mould was taken of this, and into this the potter's stuff, soft as dough, was carefully pressed. The thing was not finished yet. It remained for it still to be fired and polished, and so it is not wonderful if some of the delicacy and finish of the first design may have been occasionally lost. But with Flaxman's work Wedgwood was satisfied, and while he worked hard for him he paid him handsomely. It was not the sort of thing to bring him name and fame, but there was always the need to live to be faced, and he bravely took what offered and was thankful. And by living simply and saving where he could, he managed to keep himself by what he made. He faced this time of drudgery quietly and patiently, bringing to bear upon its hardships something of that serene spirit that belonged to him all through life. He gave to Wedgwood, as far as in him lay, of his best. Models of the four seasons, models of the ancient gods and goddesses--those deities whose stories were familiar to him from his childhood, Juno, Jupiter, Minerva, Apollo--models of vases. And besides these, chimney-pieces, plaques, candlesticks, inkstands, anything and everything, for Wedgwood held that a common teapot or a jug might be still a thing of beauty. For the models of the ancient gods he would get perhaps 10_s._ each, and for a pair of vases as much as £3 3_s._