orical painter of the
age, he resolved to send him to Rome; and having, by great economy,
saved a few louis d'or, he put them into Joseph's pocket, when he was
about eighteen years of age, and sent him off with a wagoner, who
undertook to conduct him to Marseilles.

VERNET'S PRECOCITY.

The wonderful stories told about the early exhibitions of genius in many
celebrated painters are really true with respect to Joseph Vernet. In
his infancy, he exhibited the most extraordinary passion for painting.
He himself has related, that on his return from Italy, his mother gave
him some drawings which he had executed at the age of five years, when
he was rewarded by being allowed to use the pencils he had tried to
purloin. Before he was fifteen, he painted frieze-panels, fire-screens,
coach-panels, sedan chair-panels, and the like, whenever he could get a
commission; he also gave proof of that facility of conceiving and
executing, which was one of the characteristics of his genius.

VERNET'S ENTHUSIASM.

It has been before stated that Vernet's father intended him for an
historical painter, but nature formed his genius to imitate her
sweetest, as well as most terrible aspect. When he was on his way to
Marseilles, he met with so many charming prospects, that he induced his
companion to halt so often while he sketched them, that it took them a
much longer time to reach that port than it would otherwise have done.

When he first saw the sea from the high hill, called La Viste, near
Marseilles, he stood wrapt in admiration. Before him stretched the blue
waters of the Mediterranean as far as the eye could reach, while three
islands, a few leagues from the shore, seemed to have been placed there
on purpose to break the uniformity of the immense expanse of waters, and
to gratify the eye; on his right rose a sloping town of country houses,
intersected with trees, rising above one another on successive terraces;
on his left was the little harbor of Mastigues; in front, innumerable
vessels rocked to and fro in the harbor of Marseilles, while the horizon
was terminated by the picturesque tower of Bouc, nearly lost, however,
in the distance. This scene made a lasting impression on Vernet. Nature
seemed not only to invite, but to woo him to paint marine subjects, and
from that moment his vocation was decided on. Thus nature frequently
instructs men of genius, and leads them on in the true path to
excellence and renown. Like the AEolian