Thus, too, he found in
Leonardo's engineering and anatomical drawings a perpetual feast;
and of the former he spoke even with emotion. Nothing indeed
annoyed Fleeming more than the attempt to separate the fine arts
from the arts of handicraft; any definition or theory that failed
to bring these two together, according to him, had missed the
point; and the essence of the pleasure received lay in seeing
things well done. Other qualities must be added; he was the last
to deny that; but this, of perfect craft, was at the bottom of all.
And on the other hand, a nail ill-driven, a joint ill-fitted, a
tracing clumsily done, anything to which a man had set his hand and
not set it aptly, moved him to shame and anger. With such a
character, he would feel but little drudgery at Fairbairn's. There
would be something daily to be done, slovenliness to be avoided,
and a higher mark of skill to be attained; he would chip and file,
as he had practiced scales, impatient of his own imperfection, but
resolute to learn.
And there was another spring of delight.
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