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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Self-Help, by Samuel Smiles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Self-Help
+       with illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance
+
+Author: Samuel Smiles
+
+Release Date: June 10, 1997 [eBook #935]
+[Most recently updated: January 29, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: David Price
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELF-HELP ***
+
+
+
+
+                   [Picture: Cover (somewhat battered)]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                SELF HELP
+                          WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF
+                        CONDUCT AND PERSEVERANCE.
+
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                         BY SAMUEL SMILES, LL.D.,
+                 AUTHOR OF “LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS,” ETC.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+    “This above all,—To thine own self be true;
+    And it must follow, as the night the day,
+    Then canst not then be false to any man.”
+
+                                                              SHAKESPEARE.
+
+    “Might I give counsel to any young man, I would say to him, try
+    to frequent the company of your betters.  In books and in life,
+    that is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly; the
+    great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admired;
+    they admired great things; narrow spirits admire basely and
+    worship meanly.”—W. M. THACKERAY.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                             POPULAR EDITION.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 LONDON:
+                      JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
+                                  1897.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+THIS is a revised edition of a book which has already been received with
+considerable favour at home and abroad.  It has been reprinted in various
+forms in America; translations have appeared in Dutch and French, and
+others are about to appear in German and Danish.  The book has,
+doubtless, proved attractive to readers in different countries by reason
+of the variety of anecdotal illustrations of life and character which it
+contains, and the interest which all more or less feel in the labours,
+the trials, the struggles, and the achievements of others.  No one can be
+better aware than the author, of its fragmentary character, arising from
+the manner in which it was for the most part originally composed,—having
+been put together principally from jottings made during many
+years,—intended as readings for young men, and without any view to
+publication.  The appearance of this edition has furnished an opportunity
+for pruning the volume of some superfluous matter, and introducing
+various new illustrations, which will probably be found of general
+interest.
+
+In one respect the title of the book, which it is now too late to alter,
+has proved unfortunate, as it has led some, who have judged it merely by
+the title, to suppose that it consists of a eulogy of selfishness: the
+very opposite of what it really is,—or at least of what the author
+intended it to be.  Although its chief object unquestionably is to
+stimulate youths to apply themselves diligently to right
+pursuits,—sparing neither labour, pains, nor self-denial in prosecuting
+them,—and to rely upon their own efforts in life, rather than depend upon
+the help or patronage of others, it will also be found, from the examples
+given of literary and scientific men, artists, inventors, educators,
+philanthropists, missionaries, and martyrs, that the duty of helping
+one’s self in the highest sense involves the helping of one’s neighbours.
+
+It has also been objected to the book that too much notice is taken in it
+of men who have succeeded in life by helping themselves, and too little
+of the multitude of men who have failed.  “Why should not Failure,” it
+has been asked, “have its Plutarch as well as Success?”  There is,
+indeed, no reason why Failure should not have its Plutarch, except that a
+record of mere failure would probably be found excessively depressing as
+well as uninstructive reading.  It is, however, shown in the following
+pages that Failure is the best discipline of the true worker, by
+stimulating him to renewed efforts, evoking his best powers, and carrying
+him onward in self-culture, self-control, and growth in knowledge and
+wisdom.  Viewed in this light, Failure, conquered by Perseverance, is
+always full of interest and instruction, and this we have endeavoured to
+illustrate by many examples.
+
+As for Failure _per se_, although it may be well to find consolations for
+it at the close of life, there is reason to doubt whether it is an object
+that ought to be set before youth at the beginning of it.  Indeed, “how
+_not_ to do it” is of all things the easiest learnt: it needs neither
+teaching, effort, self-denial, industry, patience, perseverance, nor
+judgment.  Besides, readers do not care to know about the general who
+lost his battles, the engineer whose engines blew up, the architect who
+designed only deformities, the painter who never got beyond daubs, the
+schemer who did not invent his machine, the merchant who could not keep
+out of the Gazette.  It is true, the best of men may fail, in the best of
+causes.  But even these best of men did not try to fail, or regard their
+failure as meritorious; on the contrary, they tried to succeed, and
+looked upon failure as misfortune.  Failure in any good cause is,
+however, honourable, whilst success in any bad cause is merely infamous.
+At the same time success in the good cause is unquestionably better than
+failure.  But it is not the result in any case that is to be regarded so
+much as the aim and the effort, the patience, the courage, and the
+endeavour with which desirable and worthy objects are pursued;—
+
+    “’Tis not in mortals to command success;
+    We will do more—deserve it.”
+
+The object of the book briefly is, to re-inculcate these old-fashioned
+but wholesome lessons—which perhaps cannot be too often urged,—that youth
+must work in order to enjoy,—that nothing creditable can be accomplished
+without application and diligence,—that the student must not be daunted
+by difficulties, but conquer them by patience and perseverance,—and that,
+above all, he must seek elevation of character, without which capacity is
+worthless and worldly success is naught.  If the author has not succeeded
+in illustrating these lessons, he can only say that he has failed in his
+object.
+
+Among the new passages introduced in the present edition, may be
+mentioned the following:—Illustrious Foreigners of humble origin (pp.
+10–12), French Generals and Marshals risen from the ranks (14), De
+Tocqueville and Mutual Help (24), William Lee, M.A., and the
+Stocking-loom (42), John Heathcoat, M.P., and the Bobbin-net machine
+(47), Jacquard and his Loom (55), Vaucanson (58), Joshua Heilmann and the
+Combing-machine (62), Bernard Palissy and his struggles (69), Böttgher,
+discoverer of Hard Porcelain (80), Count de Buffon as Student (104),
+Cuvier (128), Ambrose Paré (134), Claud Lorraine (160), Jacques Callot
+(162), Benvenuto Cellini (164), Nicholas Poussin (168), Ary Scheffer
+(171), the Strutts of Belper (214), Francis Xavier (238), Napoleon as a
+man of business (276), Intrepidity of Deal Boatmen (400), besides
+numerous other passages which it is unnecessary to specify.
+
+_London_, _May_, 1866.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+THE origin of this book may be briefly told.
+
+Some fifteen years since, the author was requested to deliver an address
+before the members of some evening classes, which had been formed in a
+northern town for mutual improvement, under the following circumstances:—
+
+Two or three young men of the humblest rank resolved to meet in the
+winter evenings, for the purpose of improving themselves by exchanging
+knowledge with each other.  Their first meetings were held in the room of
+a cottage in which one of the members lived; and, as others shortly
+joined them, the place soon became inconveniently filled.  When summer
+set in, they adjourned to the cottage garden outside; and the classes
+were then held in the open air, round a little boarded hut used as a
+garden-house, in which those who officiated as teachers set the sums, and
+gave forth the lessons of the evening.  When the weather was fine, the
+youths might be seen, until a late hour, hanging round the door of the
+hut like a cluster of bees; but sometimes a sudden shower of rain would
+dash the sums from their slates, and disperse them for the evening
+unsatisfied.
+
+Winter, with its cold nights, was drawing near, and what were they to do
+for shelter?  Their numbers had by this time so increased, that no room
+of an ordinary cottage could accommodate them.  Though they were for the
+most part young men earning comparatively small weekly wages, they
+resolved to incur the risk of hiring a room; and, on making inquiry, they
+found a large dingy apartment to let, which had been used as a temporary
+Cholera Hospital.  No tenant could be found for the place, which was
+avoided as if the plague still clung to it.  But the mutual improvement
+youths, nothing daunted, hired the cholera room at so much a week, lit it
+up, placed a few benches and a deal table in it, and began their winter
+classes.  The place soon presented a busy and cheerful appearance in the
+evenings.  The teaching may have been, as no doubt it was, of a very rude
+and imperfect sort; but it was done with a will.  Those who knew a little
+taught those who knew less—improving themselves while they improved the
+others; and, at all events, setting before them a good working example.
+Thus these youths—and there were also grown men amongst them—proceeded to
+teach themselves and each other, reading and writing, arithmetic and
+geography; and even mathematics, chemistry, and some of the modern
+languages.
+
+About a hundred young men had thus come together, when, growing
+ambitious, they desired to have lectures delivered to them; and then it
+was that the author became acquainted with their proceedings.  A party of
+them waited on him, for the purpose of inviting him to deliver an
+introductory address, or, as they expressed it, “to talk to them a bit;”
+prefacing the request by a modest statement of what they had done and
+what they were doing.  He could not fail to be touched by the admirable
+self-helping spirit which they had displayed; and, though entertaining
+but slight faith in popular lecturing, he felt that a few words of
+encouragement, honestly and sincerely uttered, might not be without some
+good effect.  And in this spirit he addressed them on more than one
+occasion, citing examples of what other men had done, as illustrations of
+what each might, in a greater or less degree, do for himself; and
+pointing out that their happiness and well-being as individuals in after
+life, must necessarily depend mainly upon themselves—upon their own
+diligent self-culture, self-discipline, and self-control—and, above all,
+on that honest and upright performance of individual duty, which is the
+glory of manly character.
+
+There was nothing in the slightest degree new or original in this
+counsel, which was as old as the Proverbs of Solomon, and possibly quite
+as familiar.  But old-fashioned though the advice may have been, it was
+welcomed.  The youths went forward in their course; worked on with energy
+and resolution; and, reaching manhood, they went forth in various
+directions into the world, where many of them now occupy positions of
+trust and usefulness.  Several years after the incidents referred to, the
+subject was unexpectedly recalled to the author’s recollection by an
+evening visit from a young man—apparently fresh from the work of a
+foundry—who explained that he was now an employer of labour and a
+thriving man; and he was pleased to remember with gratitude the words
+spoken in all honesty to him and to his fellow-pupils years before, and
+even to attribute some measure of his success in life to the endeavours
+which he had made to work up to their spirit.
+
+The author’s personal interest having in this way been attracted to the
+subject of Self-Help, he was accustomed to add to the memoranda from
+which he had addressed these young men; and to note down occasionally in
+his leisure evening moments, after the hours of business, the results of
+such reading, observation, and experience of life, as he conceived to
+bear upon it.  One of the most prominent illustrations cited in his
+earlier addresses, was that of George Stephenson, the engineer; and the
+original interest of the subject, as well as the special facilities and
+opportunities which the author possessed for illustrating Mr.
+Stephenson’s life and career, induced him to prosecute it at his leisure,
+and eventually to publish his biography.  The present volume is written
+in a similar spirit, as it has been similar in its origin.  The
+illustrative sketches of character introduced, are, however, necessarily
+less elaborately treated—being busts rather than full-length portraits,
+and, in many of the cases, only some striking feature has been noted; the
+lives of individuals, as indeed of nations, often concentrating their
+lustre and interest in a few passages.  Such as the book is, the author
+now leaves it in the hands of the reader; in the hope that the lessons of
+industry, perseverance, and self-culture, which it contains, will be
+found useful and instructive, as well as generally interesting.
+
+_London_, _September_, 1859.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                  SELF-HELP—NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL.
+Spirit of Self-Help—Institutions and men—Government a             Page
+reflex of the individualism of a nation—Cæsarism and              1–26
+Self-Help—William Dargan on Independence—Patient
+labourers in all ranks—Self-Help a feature in the
+English character—Power of example and of work in
+practical education—Value of biographies—Great men
+belong to no exclusive class or rank—Illustrious men
+sprung from the ranks—Shakespeare—Various humble
+origin of many eminent men—Distinguished
+astronomers—Eminent sons of clergymen—Of
+attorneys—Illustrious foreigners of humble
+origin—Vauquelin, the chemist—Promotions from the
+ranks in the French army—Instances of persevering
+application and energy—Joseph Brotherton—W. J. Fox—W.
+S. Lindsay—William Jackson—Richard Cobden—Diligence
+indispensable to usefulness and distinction—The
+wealthier ranks not all idlers—Examples—Military
+men—Philosophers—Men of science—Politicians—Literary
+men—Sir Robert Peel—Lord
+Brougham—Lytton—Disraeli—Wordsworth on
+self-reliance—De Tocqueville: his industry and
+recognition of the help of others—Men their own best
+helpers
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+             LEADERS OF INDUSTRY—INVENTORS AND PRODUCERS.
+Industry of the English people—Work the best                     27–66
+educator—Hugh Miller—Poverty and toil not
+insurmountable obstacles—Working men as
+inventors—Invention of the steam-engine—James Watt:
+his industry and habit of attention—Matthew
+Boulton—Applications of the steam-engine—The Cotton
+manufacture—The early inventors—Paul and
+Highs—Arkwright: his early life—Barber, inventor and
+manufacturer—His influence and character—The Peels of
+South Lancashire—The founder of the family—The first
+Sir Robert Peel, cotton-printer—Lady Peel—Rev. William
+Lee, inventor of the stocking-frame—Dies abroad in
+misery—James Lee—The Nottingham lace manufacture—John
+Heathcoat, inventor of the bobbin-net machine—His
+early life, his ingenuity, and plodding
+perseverance—Invention of his machine—Anecdote of Lord
+Lyndhurst—Progress of the lace-trade—Heathcoat’s
+machines destroyed by the Luddites—His
+character—Jacquard: his inventions and
+adventures—Vaucanson: his mechanical genius,
+improvements in silk manufacture—Jacquard improves
+Vaucanson’s machine—The Jacquard loom adopted—Joshua
+Heilmann, inventor of the combing-machine—History of
+the invention—Its value
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+          THREE GREAT POTTERS—PALLISSY, BÖTTGHER, WEDGWOOD.
+Ancient pottery—Etruscan ware—Luca della Robbia, the             67–93
+Florentine sculptor: re-discovers the art of
+enamelling—Bernard Pallissy: sketch of his life and
+labours—Inflamed by the sight of an Italian cup—His
+search after the secret of the enamel—His experiments
+during years of unproductive toil—His personal and
+family privations—Indomitable perseverance, burns his
+furniture to heat the furnace, and success at
+last—Reduced to destitution—Condemned to death, and
+release—His writings—Dies in the Bastille—John
+Frederick Böttgher, the Berlin ‘gold cook’—His trick
+in alchemy and consequent troubles—Flight into
+Saxony—His detention at Dresden—Discovers how to make
+red and white porcelain—The manufacture taken up by
+the Saxon Government—Böttgher treated as a prisoner
+and a slave—His unhappy end—The Sèvres porcelain
+manufactory—Josiah Wedgwood, the English potter—Early
+state of English earthenware manufacture—Wedgwood’s
+indefatigable industry, skill, and perseverance—His
+success—The Barberini vase—Wedgwood a national
+benefactor—Industrial heroes
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+                    APPLICATION AND PERSEVERANCE.
+Great results attained by simple means—Fortune favours          94–117
+the industrious—“Genius is patience”—Newton and
+Kepler—Industry of eminent men—Power acquired by
+repeated effort—Anecdote of Sir Robert Peel’s
+cultivation of memory—Facility comes by
+practice—Importance of patience—Cheerfulness—Sydney
+Smith—Dr. Hook—Hope an important element in
+character—Carey the missionary—Anecdote of Dr.
+Young—Anecdote of Audubon the ornithologist—Anecdote
+of Mr. Carlyle and his MS. of the ‘French
+Revolution’—Perseverance of Watt and
+Stephenson—Perseverance displayed in the discovery of
+the Nineveh marbles by Rawlinson and Layard—Comte de
+Buffon as student—His continuous and unremitting
+labours—Sir Walter Scott’s perseverance—John
+Britton—Loudon—Samuel Drew—Joseph Hume
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+             HELPS AND OPPORTUNITIES—SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS.
+No great result achieved by accident—Newton’s                  118–153
+discoveries—Dr. Young—Habit of observing with
+intelligence—Galileo—Inventions of Brown, Watt, and
+Brunel, accidentally suggested—Philosophy in little
+things—Apollonius Pergæus and conic sections—Franklin
+and Galvani—Discovery of steam power—Opportunities
+seized or made—Simple and rude tools of great
+workers—Lee and Stone’s opportunities for learning—Sir
+Walter Scott’s—Dr. Priestly—Sir Humphry
+Davy—Faraday—Davy and Coleridge—Cuvier—Dalton’s
+industry—Examples of improvement of time—Daguesseau
+and Bentham—Melancthon and Baxter—Writing down
+observations—Great note-makers—Dr. Pye Smith—John
+Hunter: his patient study of little things—His great
+labours—Ambrose Paré the French
+surgeon—Harvey—Jenner—Sir Charles Bell—Dr. Marshall
+Hall—Sir William Herschel—William Smith the geologist:
+his discoveries, his geological map—Hugh Miller: his
+observant faculties—John Brown and Robert Dick,
+geologists—Sir Roderick Murchison, his industry and
+attainments
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+                           WORKERS IN ART.
+Sir Joshua Reynolds on the power of industry in                154–201
+art—Humble origin of eminent artists—Acquisition of
+wealth not the ruling motive with artists—Michael
+Angelo on riches—Patient labours of Michael Angelo and
+Titian—West’s early success a disadvantage—Richard
+Wilson and Zuccarelli—Sir Joshua Reynolds, Blake,
+Bird, Gainsborough, and Hogarth, as boy
+artists—Hogarth a keen observer—Banks and
+Mulready—Claude Lorraine and Turner: their
+indefatigable industry—Perrier and Jacques Callot and
+their visits to Rome—Callot and the gipsies—Benvenuto
+Cellini, goldsmith and musician: his ambition to
+excel—Casting of his statue of Perseus—Nicolas
+Poussin, a sedulous student and
+worker—Duquesnoi—Poussin’s fame—Ary Scheffer: his
+hindrances and success—John Flaxman: his genius and
+perseverance—His brave wife—Their visit to
+Rome—Francis Chantrey: his industry and energy—David
+Wilkie and William Etty, unflagging workers—Privations
+endured by artists—Martin—Pugin—George Kemp, architect
+of the Scott monument—John Gibson, Robert Thorburn,
+Noel Paton—James Sharples the blacksmith artist: his
+autobiography—Industry of musicians—Handel, Haydn,
+Beethoven, Bach, Meyerbeer—Dr. Arne—William Jackson
+the self-taught composer
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                      INDUSTRY AND THE PEERAGE.
+The peerage fed from the industrial ranks—Fall of old          202–222
+families: Bohuns, Mortimers, and Plantagenets—The
+peerage comparatively modern—Peerages originating with
+traders and merchants—Richard Foley, nailmaker,
+founder of the Foley peerage—Adventurous career of
+William Phipps, founder of the Normanby peerage: his
+recovery of sunken treasure—Sir William Petty, founder
+of the Lansdowne peerage—Jedediah Strutt, founder of
+the Belper peerage—William and Edward Strutt—Naval and
+Military peers—Peerages founded by lawyers—Lords
+Tenterden and Campbell—Lord Eldon: his early struggles
+and eventual success—Baron Langdale—Rewards of
+perseverance
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                         ENERGY AND COURAGE.
+Energy characteristic of the Teutonic race—The                 223–262
+foundations of strength of character—Force of
+purpose—Concentration—Courageous working—Words of Hugh
+Miller and Fowell Buxton—Power and freedom of
+will—Words of Lamennais—Suwarrow—Napoleon and
+“glory”—Wellington and “duty”—Promptitude in
+action—Energy displayed by the British in India—Warren
+Hastings—Sir Charles Napier: his adventure with the
+Indian swordsman—The rebellion in India—The
+Lawrences—Nicholson—The siege of Delhi—Captain
+Hodson—Missionary labourers—Francis Xavier’s missions
+in the East—John Williams—Dr. Livingstone—John
+Howard—Jonas Hanway: his career—The philanthropic
+labours of Granville Sharp—Position of slaves in
+England—Result of Sharp’s efforts—Clarkson’s
+labours—Fowell Buxton: his resolute purpose and
+energy—Abolition of slavery
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+                           MEN OF BUSINESS.
+Hazlitt’s definition of the man of business—The chief          263–289
+requisite qualities—Men of genius men of
+business—Shakespeare, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton,
+Newton, Cowper, Wordsworth, Scott, Ricardo, Grote, J.
+S. Mill—Labour and application necessary to
+success—Lord Melbourne’s advice—The school of
+difficulty a good school—Conditions of success in
+Law—The industrious architect—The salutary influence
+of work—Consequences of contempt for arithmetic—Dr.
+Johnson on the alleged injustice of “the
+world”—Washington Irving’s views—Practical qualities
+necessary in business—Importance of accuracy—Charles
+James Fox—Method—Richard Cecil and De Witt: their
+despatch of business—Value of time—Sir Walter Scott’s
+advice—Promptitude—Economy of
+time—Punctuality—Firmness—Tact—Napoleon and Wellington
+as men of business—Napoleon’s attention to details—The
+‘Napoleon Correspondence’—Wellington’s business
+faculty—Wellington in the Peninsula—“Honesty the best
+policy”—Trade tries character—Dishonest gains—David
+Barclay a model man of business
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                       MONEY—ITS USE AND ABUSE.
+The right use of money a test of wisdom—The virtue of          290–313
+self-denial—Self-imposed taxes—Economy necessary to
+independence—Helplessness of the improvident—Frugality
+an important public question—Counsels of Richard
+Cobden and John Bright—The bondage of the
+improvident—Independence attainable by working
+men—Francis Horner’s advice from his father—Robert
+Burns—Living within the means—Bacon’s
+maxim—Wasters—Running into debt—Haydon’s
+debts—Fichte—Dr. Johnson on debt—John Locke—The Duke
+of Wellington on debt—Washington—Earl St. Vincent: his
+protested bill—Joseph Hume on living too high—Ambition
+after gentility—Napier’s order to his officers in
+India—Resistance to temptation—Hugh Miller’s case—High
+standard of life necessary—Proverbs on money-making
+and thrift—Thomas Wright and the reclamation of
+criminals—Mere money-making—John Foster—Riches no
+proof of worth—All honest industry honourable—The
+power of money over-estimated—Joseph Brotherton—True
+Respectability—Lord Collingwood
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+              SELF-CULTURE—FACILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES.
+Sir W. Scott and Sir B. Brodie on self-culture—Dr.             314–359
+Arnold’s spirit—Active employment salutary—Malthus’s
+advice to his son—Importance of physical
+health—Hodson, of “Hodson’s Horse”—Dr. Channing—Early
+labour—Training in use of tools—Healthiness of great
+men—Sir Walter Scott’s athletic sports—Barrow, Fuller,
+Clarke—Labour conquers all things—Words of Chatterton,
+Ferguson, Stone, Drew—Well-directed labour—Opinions of
+Sir Joshua Reynolds, Fowell Buxton, Dr. Ross, F.
+Horner, Loyola, and Lord St. Leonards—Thoroughness,
+accuracy, decision, and promptitude—The virtue of
+patient labour—The mischievous effects of “cramming”
+in labour-saving processes and multifarious
+reading—The right use of knowledge—Books may impart
+learning, but well-applied knowledge and experience
+only exhibit wisdom—The Magna Charta men—Brindley,
+Stephenson, Hunter, and others, not book-learned yet
+great—Self-respect—Jean Paul Richter—Knowledge as a
+means of rising—Base views of the value of
+knowledge—Ideas of Bacon and Southey—Douglas Jerrold
+on comic literature—Danger of immoderate love of
+pleasure—Benjamin Constant: his high thinking and low
+living—Thierry: his noble character—Coleridge and
+Southey—Robert Nicoll on Coleridge—Charles James Fox
+on perseverance—The wisdom and strength acquired
+through failure—Hunter, Rossini, Davy, Mendelssohn—The
+uses of difficulty and adversity—Lyndhurst,
+D’Alembert, Carissimi, Reynolds, and Henry Clay on
+persistency—Curran on honest poverty—Struggles with
+difficulties: Alexander Murray, William Chambers,
+Cobbet—The French stonemason turned Professor—Sir
+Samuel Romilly as a self-cultivator—John Leyden’s
+perseverance—Professor Lee: his perseverance and his
+attainments as a linguist—Late learners: Spelman,
+Franklin, Dryden, Scott, Boccaccio, Arnold, and
+others—Illustrious dunces: Generals Grant, Stonewall
+Jackson, John Howard, Davy, and others—Story of a
+dunce—Success depends on perseverance
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+                           EXAMPLE—MODELS.
+Example a potent instructor—Influence of                       360–381
+conduct—Parental example—All acts have their train of
+consequences—Disraeli on Cobden—Words of Babbage—Human
+responsibility—Every person owes a good example to
+others—Doing, not saying—Mrs. Chisholm—Dr. Guthrie and
+John Pounds—Good models of conduct—The company of our
+betters—Francis Horner’s views on personal
+intercourse—The Marquis of Lansdowne and
+Malesherbes—Fowell Buxton and the Gurney
+family—Personal influence of John Sterling—Influence
+of artistic genius upon others—Example of the brave an
+inspiration to the timid—Biography valuable as forming
+high models of character—Lives influenced by
+biography—Romilly, Franklin, Drew, Alfieri, Loyola,
+Wolff, Horner, Reynolds—Examples of cheerfulness—Dr.
+Arnold’s influence over others—Career of Sir John
+Sinclair
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                    CHARACTER—THE TRUE GENTLEMAN.
+Character a man’s best possession—Character of Francis         382–408
+Horner—Franklin—Character is power—The higher
+qualities of character—Lord Erskine’s rules of
+conduct—A high standard of life
+necessary—Truthfulness—Wellington’s character of
+Peel—Be what you seem—Integrity and honesty of
+action—Importance of habits—Habits constitute
+character—Growth of habit in youth—Words of Robertson
+of Brighton—Manners and morals—Civility and
+kindness—Anecdote of Abernethy—True
+politeness—Great-hearted men of no exclusive rank or
+class—William and Charles Grant, the “Brothers
+Cheeryble”—The true gentleman—Lord Edward
+Fitzgerald—Honour, probity, rectitude—The gentleman
+will not be bribed—Anecdotes of Hanway, Wellington,
+Wellesley, and Sir C. Napier—The poor in purse may be
+rich in spirit—A noble peasant—Intrepidity of Deal
+boatmen—Anecdotes of the Emperor of Austria and of two
+English navvies—Truth makes the success of the
+gentleman—Courage and gentleness—Gentlemen in
+India—Outram, Henry Lawrence—Lord Clyde—The private
+soldiers at Agra—The wreck of the _Birkenhead_—Use of
+power, the test of the Gentleman—Sir Ralph
+Abercrombie—Fuller’s character of Sir Francis Drake
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+SELF-HELP—NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL.
+
+
+    “The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the
+    individuals composing it.”—_J. S. Mill_.
+
+    “We put too much faith in systems, and look too little to men.”—_B.
+    Disraeli_.
+
+“HEAVEN helps those who help themselves” is a well-tried maxim, embodying
+in a small compass the results of vast human experience.  The spirit of
+self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and,
+exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of
+national vigour and strength.  Help from without is often enfeebling in
+its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.  Whatever is
+done _for_ men or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus
+and necessity of doing for themselves; and where men are subjected to
+over-guidance and over-government, the inevitable tendency is to render
+them comparatively helpless.
+
+Even the best institutions can give a man no active help.  Perhaps the
+most they can do is, to leave him free to develop himself and improve his
+individual condition.  But in all times men have been prone to believe
+that their happiness and well-being were to be secured by means of
+institutions rather than by their own conduct.  Hence the value of
+legislation as an agent in human advancement has usually been much
+over-estimated.  To constitute the millionth part of a Legislature, by
+voting for one or two men once in three or five years, however
+conscientiously this duty may be performed, can exercise but little
+active influence upon any man’s life and character.  Moreover, it is
+every day becoming more clearly understood, that the function of
+Government is negative and restrictive, rather than positive and active;
+being resolvable principally into protection—protection of life, liberty,
+and property.  Laws, wisely administered, will secure men in the
+enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, whether of mind or body, at a
+comparatively small personal sacrifice; but no laws, however stringent,
+can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken
+sober.  Such reforms can only be effected by means of individual action,
+economy, and self-denial; by better habits, rather than by greater
+rights.
+
+The Government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflex
+of the individuals composing it.  The Government that is ahead of the
+people will inevitably be dragged down to their level, as the Government
+that is behind them will in the long run be dragged up.  In the order of
+nature, the collective character of a nation will as surely find its
+befitting results in its law and government, as water finds its own
+level.  The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and
+corrupt ignobly.  Indeed all experience serves to prove that the worth
+and strength of a State depend far less upon the form of its institutions
+than upon the character of its men.  For the nation is only an aggregate
+of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of
+the personal improvement of the men, women, and children of whom society
+is composed.
+
+National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and
+uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness,
+and vice.  What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will,
+for the most part, be found to be but the outgrowth of man’s own
+perverted life; and though we may endeavour to cut them down and
+extirpate them by means of Law, they will only spring up again with fresh
+luxuriance in some other form, unless the conditions of personal life and
+character are radically improved.  If this view be correct, then it
+follows that the highest patriotism and philanthropy consist, not so much
+in altering laws and modifying institutions, as in helping and
+stimulating men to elevate and improve themselves by their own free and
+independent individual action.
+
+It may be of comparatively little consequence how a man is governed from
+without, whilst everything depends upon how he governs himself from
+within.  The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great
+though that evil be, but he who is the thrall of his own moral ignorance,
+selfishness, and vice.  Nations who are thus enslaved at heart cannot be
+freed by any mere changes of masters or of institutions; and so long as
+the fatal delusion prevails, that liberty solely depends upon and
+consists in government, so long will such changes, no matter at what cost
+they may be effected, have as little practical and lasting result as the
+shifting of the figures in a phantasmagoria.  The solid foundations of
+liberty must rest upon individual character; which is also the only sure
+guarantee for social security and national progress.  John Stuart Mill
+truly observes that “even despotism does not produce its worst effects so
+long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality
+_is_ despotism, by whatever name it be called.”
+
+Old fallacies as to human progress are constantly turning up.  Some call
+for Cæsars, others for Nationalities, and others for Acts of Parliament.
+We are to wait for Cæsars, and when they are found, “happy the people who
+recognise and follow them.” {4}  This doctrine shortly means, everything
+_for_ the people, nothing _by_ them,—a doctrine which, if taken as a
+guide, must, by destroying the free conscience of a community, speedily
+prepare the way for any form of despotism.  Cæsarism is human idolatry in
+its worst form—a worship of mere power, as degrading in its effects as
+the worship of mere wealth would be.  A far healthier doctrine to
+inculcate among the nations would be that of Self-Help; and so soon as it
+is thoroughly understood and carried into action, Cæsarism will be no
+more.  The two principles are directly antagonistic; and what Victor Hugo
+said of the Pen and the Sword alike applies to them, “Ceci tuera cela.”
+[This will kill that.]
+
+The power of Nationalities and Acts of Parliament is also a prevalent
+superstition.  What William Dargan, one of Ireland’s truest patriots,
+said at the closing of the first Dublin Industrial Exhibition, may well
+be quoted now.  “To tell the truth,” he said, “I never heard the word
+independence mentioned that my own country and my own fellow townsmen did
+not occur to my mind.  I have heard a great deal about the independence
+that we were to get from this, that, and the other place, and of the
+great expectations we were to have from persons from other countries
+coming amongst us.  Whilst I value as much as any man the great
+advantages that must result to us from that intercourse, I have always
+been deeply impressed with the feeling that our industrial independence
+is dependent upon ourselves.  I believe that with simple industry and
+careful exactness in the utilization of our energies, we never had a
+fairer chance nor a brighter prospect than the present.  We have made a
+step, but perseverance is the great agent of success; and if we but go on
+zealously, I believe in my conscience that in a short period we shall
+arrive at a position of equal comfort, of equal happiness, and of equal
+independence, with that of any other people.”
+
+All nations have been made what they are by the thinking and the working
+of many generations of men.  Patient and persevering labourers in all
+ranks and conditions of life, cultivators of the soil and explorers of
+the mine, inventors and discoverers, manufacturers, mechanics and
+artisans, poets, philosophers, and politicians, all have contributed
+towards the grand result, one generation building upon another’s labours,
+and carrying them forward to still higher stages.  This constant
+succession of noble workers—the artisans of civilisation—has served to
+create order out of chaos in industry, science, and art; and the living
+race has thus, in the course of nature, become the inheritor of the rich
+estate provided by the skill and industry of our forefathers, which is
+placed in our hands to cultivate, and to hand down, not only unimpaired
+but improved, to our successors.
+
+The spirit of self-help, as exhibited in the energetic action of
+individuals, has in all times been a marked feature in the English
+character, and furnishes the true measure of our power as a nation.
+Rising above the heads of the mass, there were always to be found a
+series of individuals distinguished beyond others, who commanded the
+public homage.  But our progress has also been owing to multitudes of
+smaller and less known men.  Though only the generals’ names may be
+remembered in the history of any great campaign, it has been in a great
+measure through the individual valour and heroism of the privates that
+victories have been won.  And life, too, is “a soldiers’ battle,”—men in
+the ranks having in all times been amongst the greatest of workers.  Many
+are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully
+influenced civilisation and progress as the more fortunate Great whose
+names are recorded in biography.  Even the humblest person, who sets
+before his fellows an example of industry, sobriety, and upright honesty
+of purpose in life, has a present as well as a future influence upon the
+well-being of his country; for his life and character pass unconsciously
+into the lives of others, and propagate good example for all time to
+come.
+
+Daily experience shows that it is energetic individualism which produces
+the most powerful effects upon the life and action of others, and really
+constitutes the best practical education.  Schools, academies, and
+colleges, give but the merest beginnings of culture in comparison with
+it.  Far more influential is the life-education daily given in our homes,
+in the streets, behind counters, in workshops, at the loom and the
+plough, in counting-houses and manufactories, and in the busy haunts of
+men.  This is that finishing instruction as members of society, which
+Schiller designated “the education of the human race,” consisting in
+action, conduct, self-culture, self-control,—all that tends to discipline
+a man truly, and fit him for the proper performance of the duties and
+business of life,—a kind of education not to be learnt from books, or
+acquired by any amount of mere literary training.  With his usual weight
+of words Bacon observes, that “Studies teach not their own use; but that
+is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation;” a remark
+that holds true of actual life, as well as of the cultivation of the
+intellect itself.  For all experience serves to illustrate and enforce
+the lesson, that a man perfects himself by work more than by
+reading,—that it is life rather than literature, action rather than
+study, and character rather than biography, which tend perpetually to
+renovate mankind.
+
+Biographies of great, but especially of good men, are nevertheless most
+instructive and useful, as helps, guides, and incentives to others.  Some
+of the best are almost equivalent to gospels—teaching high living, high
+thinking, and energetic action for their own and the world’s good.  The
+valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self-help, of
+patient purpose, resolute working, and steadfast integrity, issuing in
+the formation of truly noble and manly character, exhibit in language not
+to be misunderstood, what it is in the power of each to accomplish for
+himself; and eloquently illustrate the efficacy of self-respect and
+self-reliance in enabling men of even the humblest rank to work out for
+themselves an honourable competency and a solid reputation.
+
+Great men of science, literature, and art—apostles of great thoughts and
+lords of the great heart—have belonged to no exclusive class nor rank in
+life.  They have come alike from colleges, workshops, and
+farmhouses,—from the huts of poor men and the mansions of the rich.  Some
+of God’s greatest apostles have come from “the ranks.”  The poorest have
+sometimes taken the highest places; nor have difficulties apparently the
+most insuperable proved obstacles in their way.  Those very difficulties,
+in many instances, would ever seem to have been their best helpers, by
+evoking their powers of labour and endurance, and stimulating into life
+faculties which might otherwise have lain dormant.  The instances of
+obstacles thus surmounted, and of triumphs thus achieved, are indeed so
+numerous, as almost to justify the proverb that “with Will one can do
+anything.”  Take, for instance, the remarkable fact, that from the
+barber’s shop came Jeremy Taylor, the most poetical of divines; Sir
+Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning-jenny and founder of the
+cotton manufacture; Lord Tenterden, one of the most distinguished of Lord
+Chief Justices; and Turner, the greatest among landscape painters.
+
+No one knows to a certainty what Shakespeare was; but it is
+unquestionable that he sprang from a humble rank.  His father was a
+butcher and grazier; and Shakespeare himself is supposed to have been in
+early life a woolcomber; whilst others aver that he was an usher in a
+school and afterwards a scrivener’s clerk.  He truly seems to have been
+“not one, but all mankind’s epitome.”  For such is the accuracy of his
+sea phrases that a naval writer alleges that he must have been a sailor;
+whilst a clergyman infers, from internal evidence in his writings, that
+he was probably a parson’s clerk; and a distinguished judge of
+horse-flesh insists that he must have been a horse-dealer.  Shakespeare
+was certainly an actor, and in the course of his life “played many
+parts,” gathering his wonderful stores of knowledge from a wide field of
+experience and observation.  In any event, he must have been a close
+student and a hard worker; and to this day his writings continue to
+exercise a powerful influence on the formation of English character.
+
+The common class of day labourers has given us Brindley the engineer,
+Cook the navigator, and Burns the poet.  Masons and bricklayers can boast
+of Ben Jonson, who worked at the building of Lincoln’s Inn, with a trowel
+in his hand and a book in his pocket, Edwards and Telford the engineers,
+Hugh Miller the geologist, and Allan Cunningham the writer and sculptor;
+whilst among distinguished carpenters we find the names of Inigo Jones
+the architect, Harrison the chronometer-maker, John Hunter the
+physiologist, Romney and Opie the painters, Professor Lee the
+Orientalist, and John Gibson the sculptor.
+
+From the weaver class have sprung Simson the mathematician, Bacon the
+sculptor, the two Milners, Adam Walker, John Foster, Wilson the
+ornithologist, Dr. Livingstone the missionary traveller, and Tannahill
+the poet.  Shoemakers have given us Sir Cloudesley Shovel the great
+Admiral, Sturgeon the electrician, Samuel Drew the essayist, Gifford the
+editor of the ‘Quarterly Review,’ Bloomfield the poet, and William Carey
+the missionary; whilst Morrison, another laborious missionary, was a
+maker of shoe-lasts.  Within the last few years, a profound naturalist
+has been discovered in the person of a shoemaker at Banff, named Thomas
+Edwards, who, while maintaining himself by his trade, has devoted his
+leisure to the study of natural science in all its branches, his
+researches in connexion with the smaller crustaceæ having been rewarded
+by the discovery of a new species, to which the name of “Praniza
+Edwardsii” has been given by naturalists.
+
+Nor have tailors been undistinguished.  John Stow, the historian, worked
+at the trade during some part of his life.  Jackson, the painter, made
+clothes until he reached manhood.  The brave Sir John Hawkswood, who so
+greatly distinguished himself at Poictiers, and was knighted by Edward
+III. for his valour, was in early life apprenticed to a London tailor.
+Admiral Hobson, who broke the boom at Vigo in 1702, belonged to the same
+calling.  He was working as a tailor’s apprentice near Bonchurch, in the
+Isle of Wight, when the news flew through the village that a squadron of
+men-of-war was sailing off the island.  He sprang from the shopboard, and
+ran down with his comrades to the beach, to gaze upon the glorious sight.
+The boy was suddenly inflamed with the ambition to be a sailor; and
+springing into a boat, he rowed off to the squadron, gained the admiral’s
+ship, and was accepted as a volunteer.  Years after, he returned to his
+native village full of honours, and dined off bacon and eggs in the
+cottage where he had worked as an apprentice.  But the greatest tailor of
+all is unquestionably Andrew Johnson, the present President of the United
+States—a man of extraordinary force of character and vigour of intellect.
+In his great speech at Washington, when describing himself as having
+begun his political career as an alderman, and run through all the
+branches of the legislature, a voice in the crowd cried, “From a tailor
+up.”  It was characteristic of Johnson to take the intended sarcasm in
+good part, and even to turn it to account.  “Some gentleman says I have
+been a tailor.  That does not disconcert me in the least; for when I was
+a tailor I had the reputation of being a good one, and making close fits;
+I was always punctual with my customers, and always did good work.”
+
+Cardinal Wolsey, De Foe, Akenside, and Kirke White were the sons of
+butchers; Bunyan was a tinker, and Joseph Lancaster a basket-maker.
+Among the great names identified with the invention of the steam-engine
+are those of Newcomen, Watt, and Stephenson; the first a blacksmith, the
+second a maker of mathematical instruments, and the third an
+engine-fireman.  Huntingdon the preacher was originally a coalheaver, and
+Bewick, the father of wood-engraving, a coalminer.  Dodsley was a
+footman, and Holcroft a groom.  Baffin the navigator began his seafaring
+career as a man before the mast, and Sir Cloudesley Shovel as a
+cabin-boy.  Herschel played the oboe in a military band.  Chantrey was a
+journeyman carver, Etty a journeyman printer, and Sir Thomas Lawrence the
+son of a tavern-keeper.  Michael Faraday, the son of a blacksmith, was in
+early life apprenticed to a bookbinder, and worked at that trade until he
+reached his twenty-second year: he now occupies the very first rank as a
+philosopher, excelling even his master, Sir Humphry Davy, in the art of
+lucidly expounding the most difficult and abstruse points in natural
+science.
+
+Among those who have given the greatest impulse to the sublime science of
+astronomy, we find Copernicus, the son of a Polish baker; Kepler, the son
+of a German public-house keeper, and himself the “garçon de cabaret;”
+d’Alembert, a foundling picked up one winter’s night on the steps of the
+church of St. Jean le Rond at Paris, and brought up by the wife of a
+glazier; and Newton and Laplace, the one the son of a small freeholder
+near Grantham, the other the son of a poor peasant of Beaumont-en-Auge,
+near Honfleur.  Notwithstanding their comparatively adverse circumstances
+in early life, these distinguished men achieved a solid and enduring
+reputation by the exercise of their genius, which all the wealth in the
+world could not have purchased.  The very possession of wealth might
+indeed have proved an obstacle greater even than the humble means to
+which they were born.  The father of Lagrange, the astronomer and
+mathematician, held the office of Treasurer of War at Turin; but having
+ruined himself by speculations, his family were reduced to comparative
+poverty.  To this circumstance Lagrange was in after life accustomed
+partly to attribute his own fame and happiness.  “Had I been rich,” said
+he, “I should probably not have become a mathematician.”
+
+The sons of clergymen and ministers of religion generally, have
+particularly distinguished themselves in our country’s history.  Amongst
+them we find the names of Drake and Nelson, celebrated in naval heroism;
+of Wollaston, Young, Playfair, and Bell, in science; of Wren, Reynolds,
+Wilson, and Wilkie, in art; of Thurlow and Campbell, in law; and of
+Addison, Thomson, Goldsmith, Coleridge, and Tennyson, in literature.
+Lord Hardinge, Colonel Edwardes, and Major Hodson, so honourably known in
+Indian warfare, were also the sons of clergymen.  Indeed, the empire of
+England in India was won and held chiefly by men of the middle class—such
+as Clive, Warren Hastings, and their successors—men for the most part
+bred in factories and trained to habits of business.
+
+Among the sons of attorneys we find Edmund Burke, Smeaton the engineer,
+Scott and Wordsworth, and Lords Somers, Hardwick, and Dunning.  Sir
+William Blackstone was the posthumous son of a silk-mercer.  Lord
+Gifford’s father was a grocer at Dover; Lord Denman’s a physician; judge
+Talfourd’s a country brewer; and Lord Chief Baron Pollock’s a celebrated
+saddler at Charing Cross.  Layard, the discoverer of the monuments of
+Nineveh, was an articled clerk in a London solicitor’s office; and Sir
+William Armstrong, the inventor of hydraulic machinery and of the
+Armstrong ordnance, was also trained to the law and practised for some
+time as an attorney.  Milton was the son of a London scrivener, and Pope
+and Southey were the sons of linendrapers.  Professor Wilson was the son
+of a Paisley manufacturer, and Lord Macaulay of an African merchant.
+Keats was a druggist, and Sir Humphry Davy a country apothecary’s
+apprentice.  Speaking of himself, Davy once said, “What I am I have made
+myself: I say this without vanity, and in pure simplicity of heart.”
+Richard Owen, the Newton of Natural History, began life as a midshipman,
+and did not enter upon the line of scientific research in which he has
+since become so distinguished, until comparatively late in life.  He laid
+the foundations of his great knowledge while occupied in cataloguing the
+magnificent museum accumulated by the industry of John Hunter, a work
+which occupied him at the College of Surgeons during a period of about
+ten years.
+
+Foreign not less than English biography abounds in illustrations of men
+who have glorified the lot of poverty by their labours and their genius.
+In Art we find Claude, the son of a pastrycook; Geefs, of a baker;
+Leopold Robert, of a watchmaker; and Haydn, of a wheelwright; whilst
+Daguerre was a scene-painter at the Opera.  The father of Gregory VII.
+was a carpenter; of Sextus V., a shepherd; and of Adrian VI., a poor
+bargeman.  When a boy, Adrian, unable to pay for a light by which to
+study, was accustomed to prepare his lessons by the light of the lamps in
+the streets and the church porches, exhibiting a degree of patience and
+industry which were the certain forerunners of his future distinction.
+Of like humble origin were Hauy, the mineralogist, who was the son of a
+weaver of Saint-Just; Hautefeuille, the mechanician, of a baker at
+Orleans; Joseph Fourier, the mathematician, of a tailor at Auxerre;
+Durand, the architect, of a Paris shoemaker; and Gesner, the naturalist,
+of a skinner or worker in hides, at Zurich.  This last began his career
+under all the disadvantages attendant on poverty, sickness, and domestic
+calamity; none of which, however, were sufficient to damp his courage or
+hinder his progress.  His life was indeed an eminent illustration of the
+truth of the saying, that those who have most to do and are willing to
+work, will find the most time.  Pierre Ramus was another man of like
+character.  He was the son of poor parents in Picardy, and when a boy was
+employed to tend sheep.  But not liking the occupation he ran away to
+Paris.  After encountering much misery, he succeeded in entering the
+College of Navarre as a servant.  The situation, however, opened for him
+the road to learning, and he shortly became one of the most distinguished
+men of his time.
+
+The chemist Vauquelin was the son of a peasant of Saint-André-d’Herbetot,
+in the Calvados.  When a boy at school, though poorly clad, he was full
+of bright intelligence; and the master, who taught him to read and write,
+when praising him for his diligence, used to say, “Go on, my boy; work,
+study, Colin, and one day you will go as well dressed as the parish
+churchwarden!”  A country apothecary who visited the school, admired the
+robust boy’s arms, and offered to take him into his laboratory to pound
+his drugs, to which Vauquelin assented, in the hope of being able to
+continue his lessons.  But the apothecary would not permit him to spend
+any part of his time in learning; and on ascertaining this, the youth
+immediately determined to quit his service.  He therefore left
+Saint-André and took the road for Paris with his havresac on his back.
+Arrived there, he searched for a place as apothecary’s boy, but could not
+find one.  Worn out by fatigue and destitution, Vauquelin fell ill, and
+in that state was taken to the hospital, where he thought he should die.
+But better things were in store for the poor boy.  He recovered, and
+again proceeded in his search of employment, which he at length found
+with an apothecary.  Shortly after, he became known to Fourcroy the
+eminent chemist, who was so pleased with the youth that he made him his
+private secretary; and many years after, on the death of that great
+philosopher, Vauquelin succeeded him as Professor of Chemistry.  Finally,
+in 1829, the electors of the district of Calvados appointed him their
+representative in the Chamber of Deputies, and he re-entered in triumph
+the village which he had left so many years before, so poor and so
+obscure.
+
+England has no parallel instances to show, of promotions from the ranks
+of the army to the highest military offices; which have been so common in
+France since the first Revolution.  “La carrière ouverte aux talents” has
+there received many striking illustrations, which would doubtless be
+matched among ourselves were the road to promotion as open.  Hoche,
+Humbert, and Pichegru, began their respective careers as private
+soldiers.  Hoche, while in the King’s army, was accustomed to embroider
+waistcoats to enable him to earn money wherewith to purchase books on
+military science.  Humbert was a scapegrace when a youth; at sixteen he
+ran away from home, and was by turns servant to a tradesman at Nancy, a
+workman at Lyons, and a hawker of rabbit skins.  In 1792, he enlisted as
+a volunteer; and in a year he was general of brigade.  Kleber, Lefèvre,
+Suchet, Victor, Lannes, Soult, Massena, St. Cyr, D’Erlon, Murat,
+Augereau, Bessières, and Ney, all rose from the ranks.  In some cases
+promotion was rapid, in others it was slow.  Saint Cyr, the son of a
+tanner of Toul, began life as an actor, after which he enlisted in the
+Chasseurs, and was promoted to a captaincy within a year.  Victor, Duc de
+Belluno, enlisted in the Artillery in 1781: during the events preceding
+the Revolution he was discharged; but immediately on the outbreak of war
+he re-enlisted, and in the course of a few months his intrepidity and
+ability secured his promotion as Adjutant-Major and chief of battalion.
+Murat, “le beau sabreur,” was the son of a village innkeeper in Perigord,
+where he looked after the horses.  He first enlisted in a regiment of
+Chasseurs, from which he was dismissed for insubordination: but again
+enlisting, he shortly rose to the rank of Colonel.  Ney enlisted at
+eighteen in a hussar regiment, and gradually advanced step by step:
+Kleber soon discovered his merits, surnaming him “The Indefatigable,” and
+promoted him to be Adjutant-General when only twenty-five.  On the other
+hand, Soult {15} was six years from the date of his enlistment before he
+reached the rank of sergeant.  But Soult’s advancement was rapid compared
+with that of Massena, who served for fourteen years before he was made
+sergeant; and though he afterwards rose successively, step by step, to
+the grades of Colonel, General of Division, and Marshal, he declared that
+the post of sergeant was the step which of all others had cost him the
+most labour to win.  Similar promotions from the ranks, in the French
+army, have continued down to our own day.  Changarnier entered the King’s
+bodyguard as a private in 1815.  Marshal Bugeaud served four years in the
+ranks, after which he was made an officer.  Marshal Randon, the present
+French Minister of War, began his military career as a drummer boy; and
+in the portrait of him in the gallery at Versailles, his hand rests upon
+a drum-head, the picture being thus painted at his own request.
+Instances such as these inspire French soldiers with enthusiasm for their
+service, as each private feels that he may possibly carry the baton of a
+marshal in his knapsack.
+
+The instances of men, in this and other countries, who, by dint of
+persevering application and energy, have raised themselves from the
+humblest ranks of industry to eminent positions of usefulness and
+influence in society, are indeed so numerous that they have long ceased
+to be regarded as exceptional.  Looking at some of the more remarkable,
+it might almost be said that early encounter with difficulty and adverse
+circumstances was the necessary and indispensable condition of success.
+The British House of Commons has always contained a considerable number
+of such self-raised men—fitting representatives of the industrial
+character of the people; and it is to the credit of our Legislature that
+they have been welcomed and honoured there.  When the late Joseph
+Brotherton, member for Salford, in the course of the discussion on the
+Ten Hours Bill, detailed with true pathos the hardships and fatigues to
+which he had been subjected when working as a factory boy in a cotton
+mill, and described the resolution which he had then formed, that if ever
+it was in his power he would endeavour to ameliorate the condition of
+that class, Sir James Graham rose immediately after him, and declared,
+amidst the cheers of the House, that he did not before know that Mr.
+Brotherton’s origin had been so humble, but that it rendered him more
+proud than he had ever before been of the House of Commons, to think that
+a person risen from that condition should be able to sit side by side, on
+equal terms, with the hereditary gentry of the land.
+
+The late Mr. Fox, member for Oldham, was accustomed to introduce his
+recollections of past times with the words, “when I was working as a
+weaver boy at Norwich;” and there are other members of parliament, still
+living, whose origin has been equally humble.  Mr. Lindsay, the
+well-known ship owner, until recently member for Sunderland, once told
+the simple story of his life to the electors of Weymouth, in answer to an
+attack made upon him by his political opponents.  He had been left an
+orphan at fourteen, and when he left Glasgow for Liverpool to push his
+way in the world, not being able to pay the usual fare, the captain of
+the steamer agreed to take his labour in exchange, and the boy worked his
+passage by trimming the coals in the coal hole.  At Liverpool he remained
+for seven weeks before he could obtain employment, during which time he
+lived in sheds and fared hardly; until at last he found shelter on board
+a West Indiaman.  He entered as a boy, and before he was nineteen, by
+steady good conduct he had risen to the command of a ship.  At
+twenty-three he retired from the sea, and settled on shore, after which
+his progress was rapid “he had prospered,” he said, “by steady industry,
+by constant work, and by ever keeping in view the great principle of
+doing to others as you would be done by.”
+
+The career of Mr. William Jackson, of Birkenhead, the present member for
+North Derbyshire, bears considerable resemblance to that of Mr. Lindsay.
+His father, a surgeon at Lancaster, died, leaving a family of eleven
+children, of whom William Jackson was the seventh son.  The elder boys
+had been well educated while the father lived, but at his death the
+younger members had to shift for themselves.  William, when under twelve
+years old, was taken from school, and put to hard work at a ship’s side
+from six in the morning till nine at night.  His master falling ill, the
+boy was taken into the counting-house, where he had more leisure.  This
+gave him an opportunity of reading, and having obtained access to a set
+of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ he read the volumes through from A to
+Z, partly by day, but chiefly at night.  He afterwards put himself to a
+trade, was diligent, and succeeded in it.  Now he has ships sailing on
+almost every sea, and holds commercial relations with nearly every
+country on the globe.
+
+Among like men of the same class may be ranked the late Richard Cobden,
+whose start in life was equally humble.  The son of a small farmer at
+Midhurst in Sussex, he was sent at an early age to London and employed as
+a boy in a warehouse in the City.  He was diligent, well conducted, and
+eager for information.  His master, a man of the old school, warned him
+against too much reading; but the boy went on in his own course, storing
+his mind with the wealth found in books.  He was promoted from one
+position of trust to another—became a traveller for his house—secured a
+large connection, and eventually started in business as a calico printer
+at Manchester.  Taking an interest in public questions, more especially
+in popular education, his attention was gradually drawn to the subject of
+the Corn Laws, to the repeal of which he may be said to have devoted his
+fortune and his life.  It may be mentioned as a curious fact that the
+first speech he delivered in public was a total failure.  But he had
+great perseverance, application, and energy; and with persistency and
+practice, he became at length one of the most persuasive and effective of
+public speakers, extorting the disinterested eulogy of even Sir Robert
+Peel himself.  M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the French Ambassador, has eloquently
+said of Mr. Cobden, that he was “a living proof of what merit,
+perseverance, and labour can accomplish; one of the most complete
+examples of those men who, sprung from the humblest ranks of society,
+raise themselves to the highest rank in public estimation by the effect
+of their own worth and of their personal services; finally, one of the
+rarest examples of the solid qualities inherent in the English
+character.”
+
+In all these cases, strenuous individual application was the price paid
+for distinction; excellence of any sort being invariably placed beyond
+the reach of indolence.  It is the diligent hand and head alone that
+maketh rich—in self-culture, growth in wisdom, and in business.  Even
+when men are born to wealth and high social position, any solid
+reputation which they may individually achieve can only be attained by
+energetic application; for though an inheritance of acres may be
+bequeathed, an inheritance of knowledge and wisdom cannot.  The wealthy
+man may pay others for doing his work for him, but it is impossible to
+get his thinking done for him by another, or to purchase any kind of
+self-culture.  Indeed, the doctrine that excellence in any pursuit is
+only to be achieved by laborious application, holds as true in the case
+of the man of wealth as in that of Drew and Gifford, whose only school
+was a cobbler’s stall, or Hugh Miller, whose only college was a Cromarty
+stone quarry.
+
+Riches and ease, it is perfectly clear, are not necessary for man’s
+highest culture, else had not the world been so largely indebted in all
+times to those who have sprung from the humbler ranks.  An easy and
+luxurious existence does not train men to effort or encounter with
+difficulty; nor does it awaken that consciousness of power which is so
+necessary for energetic and effective action in life.  Indeed, so far
+from poverty being a misfortune, it may, by vigorous self-help, be
+converted even into a blessing; rousing a man to that struggle with the
+world in which, though some may purchase ease by degradation, the
+right-minded and true-hearted find strength, confidence, and triumph.
+Bacon says, “Men seem neither to understand their riches nor their
+strength: of the former they believe greater things than they should; of
+the latter much less.  Self-reliance and self-denial will teach a man to
+drink out of his own cistern, and eat his own sweet bread, and to learn
+and labour truly to get his living, and carefully to expend the good
+things committed to his trust.”
+
+Riches are so great a temptation to ease and self-indulgence, to which
+men are by nature prone, that the glory is all the greater of those who,
+born to ample fortunes, nevertheless take an active part in the work of
+their generation—who “scorn delights and live laborious days.”  It is to
+the honour of the wealthier ranks in this country that they are not
+idlers; for they do their fair share of the work of the state, and
+usually take more than their fair share of its dangers.  It was a fine
+thing said of a subaltern officer in the Peninsular campaigns, observed
+trudging alone through mud and mire by the side of his regiment, “There
+goes 15,000_l._ a year!” and in our own day, the bleak slopes of
+Sebastopol and the burning soil of India have borne witness to the like
+noble self-denial and devotion on the part of our gentler classes; many a
+gallant and noble fellow, of rank and estate, having risked his life, or
+lost it, in one or other of those fields of action, in the service of his
+country.
+
+Nor have the wealthier classes been undistinguished in the more peaceful
+pursuits of philosophy and science.  Take, for instance, the great names
+of Bacon, the father of modern philosophy, and of Worcester, Boyle,
+Cavendish, Talbot, and Rosse, in science.  The last named may be regarded
+as the great mechanic of the peerage; a man who, if he had not been born
+a peer, would probably have taken the highest rank as an inventor.  So
+thorough is his knowledge of smith-work that he is said to have been
+pressed on one occasion to accept the foremanship of a large workshop, by
+a manufacturer to whom his rank was unknown.  The great Rosse telescope,
+of his own fabrication, is certainly the most extraordinary instrument of
+the kind that has yet been constructed.
+
+But it is principally in the departments of politics and literature that
+we find the most energetic labourers amongst our higher classes.  Success
+in these lines of action, as in all others, can only be achieved through
+industry, practice, and study; and the great Minister, or parliamentary
+leader, must necessarily be amongst the very hardest of workers.  Such
+was Palmerston; and such are Derby and Russell, Disraeli and Gladstone.
+These men have had the benefit of no Ten Hours Bill, but have often,
+during the busy season of Parliament, worked “double shift,” almost day
+and night.  One of the most illustrious of such workers in modern times
+was unquestionably the late Sir Robert Peel.  He possessed in an
+extraordinary degree the power of continuous intellectual labour, nor did
+he spare himself.  His career, indeed, presented a remarkable example of
+how much a man of comparatively moderate powers can accomplish by means
+of assiduous application and indefatigable industry.  During the forty
+years that he held a seat in Parliament, his labours were prodigious.  He
+was a most conscientious man, and whatever he undertook to do, he did
+thoroughly.  All his speeches bear evidence of his careful study of
+everything that had been spoken or written on the subject under
+consideration.  He was elaborate almost to excess; and spared no pains to
+adapt himself to the various capacities of his audience.  Withal, he
+possessed much practical sagacity, great strength of purpose, and power
+to direct the issues of action with steady hand and eye.  In one respect
+he surpassed most men: his principles broadened and enlarged with time;
+and age, instead of contracting, only served to mellow and ripen his
+nature.  To the last he continued open to the reception of new views,
+and, though many thought him cautious to excess, he did not allow himself
+to fall into that indiscriminating admiration of the past, which is the
+palsy of many minds similarly educated, and renders the old age of many
+nothing but a pity.
+
+The indefatigable industry of Lord Brougham has become almost proverbial.
+His public labours have extended over a period of upwards of sixty years,
+during which he has ranged over many fields—of law, literature, politics,
+and science,—and achieved distinction in them all.  How he contrived it,
+has been to many a mystery.  Once, when Sir Samuel Romilly was requested
+to undertake some new work, he excused himself by saying that he had no
+time; “but,” he added, “go with it to that fellow Brougham, he seems to
+have time for everything.”  The secret of it was, that he never left a
+minute unemployed; withal he possessed a constitution of iron.  When
+arrived at an age at which most men would have retired from the world to
+enjoy their hard-earned leisure, perhaps to doze away their time in an
+easy chair, Lord Brougham commenced and prosecuted a series of elaborate
+investigations as to the laws of Light, and he submitted the results to
+the most scientific audiences that Paris and London could muster.  About
+the same time, he was passing through the press his admirable sketches of
+the ‘Men of Science and Literature of the Reign of George III.,’ and
+taking his full share of the law business and the political discussions
+in the House of Lords.  Sydney Smith once recommended him to confine
+himself to only the transaction of so much business as three strong men
+could get through.  But such was Brougham’s love of work—long become a
+habit—that no amount of application seems to have been too great for him;
+and such was his love of excellence, that it has been said of him that if
+his station in life had been only that of a shoe-black, he would never
+have rested satisfied until he had become the best shoe-black in England.
+
+Another hard-working man of the same class is Sir E. Bulwer Lytton.  Few
+writers have done more, or achieved higher distinction in various
+walks—as a novelist, poet, dramatist, historian, essayist, orator, and
+politician.  He has worked his way step by step, disdainful of ease, and
+animated throughout by the ardent desire to excel.  On the score of mere
+industry, there are few living English writers who have written so much,
+and none that have produced so much of high quality.  The industry of
+Bulwer is entitled to all the greater praise that it has been entirely
+self-imposed.  To hunt, and shoot, and live at ease,—to frequent the
+clubs and enjoy the opera, with the variety of London visiting and
+sight-seeing during the “season,” and then off to the country mansion,
+with its well-stocked preserves, and its thousand delightful out-door
+pleasures,—to travel abroad, to Paris, Vienna, or Rome,—all this is
+excessively attractive to a lover of pleasure and a man of fortune, and
+by no means calculated to make him voluntarily undertake continuous
+labour of any kind.  Yet these pleasures, all within his reach, Bulwer
+must, as compared with men born to similar estate, have denied himself in
+assuming the position and pursuing the career of a literary man.  Like
+Byron, his first effort was poetical (‘Weeds and Wild Flowers’), and a
+failure.  His second was a novel (‘Falkland’), and it proved a failure
+too.  A man of weaker nerve would have dropped authorship; but Bulwer had
+pluck and perseverance; and he worked on, determined to succeed.  He was
+incessantly industrious, read extensively, and from failure went
+courageously onwards to success.  ‘Pelham’ followed ‘Falkland’ within a
+year, and the remainder of Bulwer’s literary life, now extending over a
+period of thirty years, has been a succession of triumphs.
+
+Mr. Disraeli affords a similar instance of the power of industry and
+application in working out an eminent public career.  His first
+achievements were, like Bulwer’s, in literature; and he reached success
+only through a succession of failures.  His ‘Wondrous Tale of Alroy’ and
+‘Revolutionary Epic’ were laughed at, and regarded as indications of
+literary lunacy.  But he worked on in other directions, and his
+‘Coningsby,’ ‘Sybil,’ and ‘Tancred,’ proved the sterling stuff of which
+he was made.  As an orator too, his first appearance in the House of
+Commons was a failure.  It was spoken of as “more screaming than an
+Adelphi farce.”  Though composed in a grand and ambitious strain, every
+sentence was hailed with “loud laughter.”  ‘Hamlet’ played as a comedy
+were nothing to it.  But he concluded with a sentence which embodied a
+prophecy.  Writhing under the laughter with which his studied eloquence
+had been received, he exclaimed, “I have begun several times many things,
+and have succeeded in them at last.  I shall sit down now, but the time
+will come when you will hear me.”  The time did come; and how Disraeli
+succeeded in at length commanding the attention of the first assembly of
+gentlemen in the world, affords a striking illustration of what energy
+and determination will do; for Disraeli earned his position by dint of
+patient industry.  He did not, as many young men do, having once failed,
+retire dejected, to mope and whine in a corner, but diligently set
+himself to work.  He carefully unlearnt his faults, studied the character
+of his audience, practised sedulously the art of speech, and
+industriously filled his mind with the elements of parliamentary
+knowledge.  He worked patiently for success; and it came, but slowly:
+then the House laughed with him, instead of at him.  The recollection of
+his early failure was effaced, and by general consent he was at length
+admitted to be one of the most finished and effective of parliamentary
+speakers.
+
+Although much may be accomplished by means of individual industry and
+energy, as these and other instances set forth in the following pages
+serve to illustrate, it must at the same time be acknowledged that the
+help which we derive from others in the journey of life is of very great
+importance.  The poet Wordsworth has well said that “these two things,
+contradictory though they may seem, must go together—manly dependence and
+manly independence, manly reliance and manly self-reliance.”  From
+infancy to old age, all are more or less indebted to others for nurture
+and culture; and the best and strongest are usually found the readiest to
+acknowledge such help.  Take, for example, the career of the late Alexis
+de Tocqueville, a man doubly well-born, for his father was a
+distinguished peer of France, and his mother a grand-daughter of
+Malesherbes.  Through powerful family influence, he was appointed Judge
+Auditor at Versailles when only twenty-one; but probably feeling that he
+had not fairly won the position by merit, he determined to give it up and
+owe his future advancement in life to himself alone.  “A foolish
+resolution,” some will say; but De Tocqueville bravely acted it out.  He
+resigned his appointment, and made arrangements to leave France for the
+purpose of travelling through the United States, the results of which
+were published in his great book on ‘Democracy in America.’  His friend
+and travelling companion, Gustave de Beaumont, has described his
+indefatigable industry during this journey.  “His nature,” he says, “was
+wholly averse to idleness, and whether he was travelling or resting, his
+mind was always at work. . . . With Alexis, the most agreeable
+conversation was that which was the most useful.  The worst day was the
+lost day, or the day ill spent; the least loss of time annoyed him.”
+Tocqueville himself wrote to a friend—“There is no time of life at which
+one can wholly cease from action, for effort without one’s self, and
+still more effort within, is equally necessary, if not more so, when we
+grow old, as it is in youth.  I compare man in this world to a traveller
+journeying without ceasing towards a colder and colder region; the higher
+he goes, the faster he ought to walk.  The great malady of the soul is
+cold.  And in resisting this formidable evil, one needs not only to be
+sustained by the action of a mind employed, but also by contact with
+one’s fellows in the business of life.” {25}
+
+Notwithstanding de Tocqueville’s decided views as to the necessity of
+exercising individual energy and self-dependence, no one could be more
+ready than he was to recognise the value of that help and support for
+which all men are indebted to others in a greater or less degree.  Thus,
+he often acknowledged, with gratitude, his obligations to his friends De
+Kergorlay and Stofells,—to the former for intellectual assistance, and to
+the latter for moral support and sympathy.  To De Kergorlay he
+wrote—“Thine is the only soul in which I have confidence, and whose
+influence exercises a genuine effect upon my own.  Many others have
+influence upon the details of my actions, but no one has so much
+influence as thou on the origination of fundamental ideas, and of those
+principles which are the rule of conduct.”  De Tocqueville was not less
+ready to confess the great obligations which he owed to his wife, Marie,
+for the preservation of that temper and frame of mind which enabled him
+to prosecute his studies with success.  He believed that a noble-minded
+woman insensibly elevated the character of her husband, while one of a
+grovelling nature as certainly tended to degrade it. {26}
+
+In fine, human character is moulded by a thousand subtle influences; by
+example and precept; by life and literature; by friends and neighbours;
+by the world we live in as well as by the spirits of our forefathers,
+whose legacy of good words and deeds we inherit.  But great,
+unquestionably, though these influences are acknowledged to be, it is
+nevertheless equally clear that men must necessarily be the active agents
+of their own well-being and well-doing; and that, however much the wise
+and the good may owe to others, they themselves must in the very nature
+of things be their own best helpers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+LEADERS OF INDUSTRY—INVENTORS AND PRODUCERS.
+
+
+    “Le travail et la Science sont désormais les maîtres du monde.”—_De
+    Salvandy_.
+
+    “Deduct all that men of the humbler classes have done for England in
+    the way of inventions only, and see where she would have been but for
+    them.”—_Arthur Helps_.
+
+ONE of the most strongly-marked features of the English people is their
+spirit of industry, standing out prominent and distinct in their past
+history, and as strikingly characteristic of them now as at any former
+period.  It is this spirit, displayed by the commons of England, which
+has laid the foundations and built up the industrial greatness of the
+empire.  This vigorous growth of the nation has been mainly the result of
+the free energy of individuals, and it has been contingent upon the
+number of hands and minds from time to time actively employed within it,
+whether as cultivators of the soil, producers of articles of utility,
+contrivers of tools and machines, writers of books, or creators of works
+of art.  And while this spirit of active industry has been the vital
+principle of the nation, it has also been its saving and remedial one,
+counteracting from time to time the effects of errors in our laws and
+imperfections in our constitution.
+
+The career of industry which the nation has pursued, has also proved its
+best education.  As steady application to work is the healthiest training
+for every individual, so is it the best discipline of a state.
+Honourable industry travels the same road with duty; and Providence has
+closely linked both with happiness.  The gods, says the poet, have placed
+labour and toil on the way leading to the Elysian fields.  Certain it is
+that no bread eaten by man is so sweet as that earned by his own labour,
+whether bodily or mental.  By labour the earth has been subdued, and man
+redeemed from barbarism; nor has a single step in civilization been made
+without it.  Labour is not only a necessity and a duty, but a blessing:
+only the idler feels it to be a curse.  The duty of work is written on
+the thews and muscles of the limbs, the mechanism of the hand, the nerves
+and lobes of the brain—the sum of whose healthy action is satisfaction
+and enjoyment.  In the school of labour is taught the best practical
+wisdom; nor is a life of manual employment, as we shall hereafter find,
+incompatible with high mental culture.
+
+Hugh Miller, than whom none knew better the strength and the weakness
+belonging to the lot of labour, stated the result of his experience to
+be, that Work, even the hardest, is full of pleasure and materials for
+self-improvement.  He held honest labour to be the best of teachers, and
+that the school of toil is the noblest of schools—save only the Christian
+one,—that it is a school in which the ability of being useful is
+imparted, the spirit of independence learnt, and the habit of persevering
+effort acquired.  He was even of opinion that the training of the
+mechanic,—by the exercise which it gives to his observant faculties, from
+his daily dealing with things actual and practical, and the close
+experience of life which he acquires,—better fits him for picking his way
+along the journey of life, and is more favourable to his growth as a Man,
+emphatically speaking, than the training afforded by any other condition.
+
+The array of great names which we have already cursorily cited, of men
+springing from the ranks of the industrial classes, who have achieved
+distinction in various walks of life—in science, commerce, literature,
+and art—shows that at all events the difficulties interposed by poverty
+and labour are not insurmountable.  As respects the great contrivances
+and inventions which have conferred so much power and wealth upon the
+nation, it is unquestionable that for the greater part of them we have
+been indebted to men of the humblest rank.  Deduct what they have done in
+this particular line of action, and it will be found that very little
+indeed remains for other men to have accomplished.
+
+Inventors have set in motion some of the greatest industries of the
+world.  To them society owes many of its chief necessaries, comforts, and
+luxuries; and by their genius and labour daily life has been rendered in
+all respects more easy as well as enjoyable.  Our food, our clothing, the
+furniture of our homes, the glass which admits the light to our dwellings
+at the same time that it excludes the cold, the gas which illuminates our
+streets, our means of locomotion by land and by sea, the tools by which
+our various articles of necessity and luxury are fabricated, have been
+the result of the labour and ingenuity of many men and many minds.
+Mankind at large are all the happier for such inventions, and are every
+day reaping the benefit of them in an increase of individual well-being
+as well as of public enjoyment.
+
+Though the invention of the working steam-engine—the king of
+machines—belongs, comparatively speaking, to our own epoch, the idea of
+it was born many centuries ago.  Like other contrivances and discoveries,
+it was effected step by step—one man transmitting the result of his
+labours, at the time apparently useless, to his successors, who took it
+up and carried it forward another stage,—the prosecution of the inquiry
+extending over many generations.  Thus the idea promulgated by Hero of
+Alexandria was never altogether lost; but, like the grain of wheat hid in
+the hand of the Egyptian mummy, it sprouted and again grew vigorously
+when brought into the full light of modern science.  The steam-engine was
+nothing, however, until it emerged from the state of theory, and was
+taken in hand by practical mechanics; and what a noble story of patient,
+laborious investigation, of difficulties encountered and overcome by
+heroic industry, does not that marvellous machine tell of!  It is indeed,
+in itself, a monument of the power of self-help in man.  Grouped around
+it we find Savary, the military engineer; Newcomen, the Dartmouth
+blacksmith; Cawley, the glazier; Potter, the engine-boy; Smeaton, the
+civil engineer; and, towering above all, the laborious, patient,
+never-tiring James Watt, the mathematical-instrument maker.
+
+Watt was one of the most industrious of men; and the story of his life
+proves, what all experience confirms, that it is not the man of the
+greatest natural vigour and capacity who achieves the highest results,
+but he who employs his powers with the greatest industry and the most
+carefully disciplined skill—the skill that comes by labour, application,
+and experience.  Many men in his time knew far more than Watt, but none
+laboured so assiduously as he did to turn all that he did know to useful
+practical purposes.  He was, above all things, most persevering in the
+pursuit of facts.  He cultivated carefully that habit of active attention
+on which all the higher working qualities of the mind mainly depend.
+Indeed, Mr. Edgeworth entertained the opinion, that the difference of
+intellect in men depends more upon the early cultivation of this _habit
+of attention_, than upon any great disparity between the powers of one
+individual and another.
+
+Even when a boy, Watt found science in his toys.  The quadrants lying
+about his father’s carpenter’s shop led him to the study of optics and
+astronomy; his ill health induced him to pry into the secrets of
+physiology; and his solitary walks through the country attracted him to
+the study of botany and history.  While carrying on the business of a
+mathematical-instrument maker, he received an order to build an organ;
+and, though without an ear for music, he undertook the study of
+harmonics, and successfully constructed the instrument.  And, in like
+manner, when the little model of Newcomen’s steam-engine, belonging to
+the University of Glasgow, was placed in his hands to repair, he
+forthwith set himself to learn all that was then known about heat,
+evaporation, and condensation,—at the same time plodding his way in
+mechanics and the science of construction,—the results of which he at
+length embodied in his condensing steam-engine.
+
+For ten years he went on contriving and inventing—with little hope to
+cheer him, and with few friends to encourage him.  He went on, meanwhile,
+earning bread for his family by making and selling quadrants, making and
+mending fiddles, flutes, and musical instruments; measuring mason-work,
+surveying roads, superintending the construction of canals, or doing
+anything that turned up, and offered a prospect of honest gain.  At
+length, Watt found a fit partner in another eminent leader of
+industry—Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham; a skilful, energetic, and
+far-seeing man, who vigorously undertook the enterprise of introducing
+the condensing-engine into general use as a working power; and the
+success of both is now matter of history. {31}
+
+Many skilful inventors have from time to time added new power to the
+steam-engine; and, by numerous modifications, rendered it capable of
+being applied to nearly all the purposes of manufacture—driving
+machinery, impelling ships, grinding corn, printing books, stamping
+money, hammering, planing, and turning iron; in short, of performing
+every description of mechanical labour where power is required.  One of
+the most useful modifications in the engine was that devised by
+Trevithick, and eventually perfected by George Stephenson and his son, in
+the form of the railway locomotive, by which social changes of immense
+importance have been brought about, of even greater consequence,
+considered in their results on human progress and civilization, than the
+condensing-engine of Watt.
+
+One of the first grand results of Watt’s invention,—which placed an
+almost unlimited power at the command of the producing classes,—was the
+establishment of the cotton-manufacture.  The person most closely
+identified with the foundation of this great branch of industry was
+unquestionably Sir Richard Arkwright, whose practical energy and sagacity
+were perhaps even more remarkable than his mechanical inventiveness.  His
+originality as an inventor has indeed been called in question, like that
+of Watt and Stephenson.  Arkwright probably stood in the same relation to
+the spinning-machine that Watt did to the steam-engine and Stephenson to
+the locomotive.  He gathered together the scattered threads of ingenuity
+which already existed, and wove them, after his own design, into a new
+and original fabric.  Though Lewis Paul, of Birmingham, patented the
+invention of spinning by rollers thirty years before Arkwright, the
+machines constructed by him were so imperfect in their details, that they
+could not be profitably worked, and the invention was practically a
+failure.  Another obscure mechanic, a reed-maker of Leigh, named Thomas
+Highs, is also said to have invented the water-frame and spinning-jenny;
+but they, too, proved unsuccessful.
+
+When the demands of industry are found to press upon the resources of
+inventors, the same idea is usually found floating about in many
+minds;—such has been the case with the steam-engine, the safety-lamp, the
+electric telegraph, and other inventions.  Many ingenious minds are found
+labouring in the throes of invention, until at length the master mind,
+the strong practical man, steps forward, and straightway delivers them of
+their idea, applies the principle successfully, and the thing is done.
+Then there is a loud outcry among all the smaller contrivers, who see
+themselves distanced in the race; and hence men such as Watt, Stephenson,
+and Arkwright, have usually to defend their reputation and their rights
+as practical and successful inventors.
+
+Richard Arkwright, like most of our great mechanicians, sprang from the
+ranks.  He was born in Preston in 1732.  His parents were very poor, and
+he was the youngest of thirteen children.  He was never at school: the
+only education he received he gave to himself; and to the last he was
+only able to write with difficulty.  When a boy, he was apprenticed to a
+barber, and after learning the business, he set up for himself in Bolton,
+where he occupied an underground cellar, over which he put up the sign,
+“Come to the subterraneous barber—he shaves for a penny.”  The other
+barbers found their customers leaving them, and reduced their prices to
+his standard, when Arkwright, determined to push his trade, announced his
+determination to give “A clean shave for a halfpenny.”  After a few years
+he quitted his cellar, and became an itinerant dealer in hair.  At that
+time wigs were worn, and wig-making formed an important branch of the
+barbering business.  Arkwright went about buying hair for the wigs.  He
+was accustomed to attend the hiring fairs throughout Lancashire resorted
+to by young women, for the purpose of securing their long tresses; and it
+is said that in negotiations of this sort he was very successful.  He
+also dealt in a chemical hair dye, which he used adroitly, and thereby
+secured a considerable trade.  But he does not seem, notwithstanding his
+pushing character, to have done more than earn a bare living.
+
+The fashion of wig-wearing having undergone a change, distress fell upon
+the wig-makers; and Arkwright, being of a mechanical turn, was
+consequently induced to turn machine inventor or “conjurer,” as the
+pursuit was then popularly termed.  Many attempts were made about that
+time to invent a spinning-machine, and our barber determined to launch
+his little bark on the sea of invention with the rest.  Like other
+self-taught men of the same bias, he had already been devoting his spare
+time to the invention of a perpetual-motion machine; and from that the
+transition to a spinning-machine was easy.  He followed his experiments
+so assiduously that he neglected his business, lost the little money he
+had saved, and was reduced to great poverty.  His wife—for he had by this
+time married—was impatient at what she conceived to be a wanton waste of
+time and money, and in a moment of sudden wrath she seized upon and
+destroyed his models, hoping thus to remove the cause of the family
+privations.  Arkwright was a stubborn and enthusiastic man, and he was
+provoked beyond measure by this conduct of his wife, from whom he
+immediately separated.
+
+In travelling about the country, Arkwright had become acquainted with a
+person named Kay, a clockmaker at Warrington, who assisted him in
+constructing some of the parts of his perpetual-motion machinery.  It is
+supposed that he was informed by Kay of the principle of spinning by
+rollers; but it is also said that the idea was first suggested to him by
+accidentally observing a red-hot piece of iron become elongated by
+passing between iron rollers.  However this may be, the idea at once took
+firm possession of his mind, and he proceeded to devise the process by
+which it was to be accomplished, Kay being able to tell him nothing on
+this point.  Arkwright now abandoned his business of hair collecting, and
+devoted himself to the perfecting of his machine, a model of which,
+constructed by Kay under his directions, he set up in the parlour of the
+Free Grammar School at Preston.  Being a burgess of the town, he voted at
+the contested election at which General Burgoyne was returned; but such
+was his poverty, and such the tattered state of his dress, that a number
+of persons subscribed a sum sufficient to have him put in a state fit to
+appear in the poll-room.  The exhibition of his machine in a town where
+so many workpeople lived by the exercise of manual labour proved a
+dangerous experiment; ominous growlings were heard outside the
+school-room from time to time, and Arkwright,—remembering the fate of
+Kay, who was mobbed and compelled to fly from Lancashire because of his
+invention of the fly-shuttle, and of poor Hargreaves, whose
+spinning-jenny had been pulled to pieces only a short time before by a
+Blackburn mob,—wisely determined on packing up his model and removing to
+a less dangerous locality.  He went accordingly to Nottingham, where he
+applied to some of the local bankers for pecuniary assistance; and the
+Messrs. Wright consented to advance him a sum of money on condition of
+sharing in the profits of the invention.  The machine, however, not being
+perfected so soon as they had anticipated, the bankers recommended
+Arkwright to apply to Messrs. Strutt and Need, the former of whom was the
+ingenious inventor and patentee of the stocking-frame.  Mr. Strutt at
+once appreciated the merits of the invention, and a partnership was
+entered into with Arkwright, whose road to fortune was now clear.  The
+patent was secured in the name of “Richard Arkwright, of Nottingham,
+clockmaker,” and it is a circumstance worthy of note, that it was taken
+out in 1769, the same year in which Watt secured the patent for his
+steam-engine.  A cotton-mill was first erected at Nottingham, driven by
+horses; and another was shortly after built, on a much larger scale, at
+Cromford, in Derbyshire, turned by a water-wheel, from which circumstance
+the spinning-machine came to be called the water-frame.
+
+Arkwright’s labours, however, were, comparatively speaking, only begun.
+He had still to perfect all the working details of his machine.  It was
+in his hands the subject of constant modification and improvement, until
+eventually it was rendered practicable and profitable in an eminent
+degree.  But success was only secured by long and patient labour: for
+some years, indeed, the speculation was disheartening and unprofitable,
+swallowing up a very large amount of capital without any result.  When
+success began to appear more certain, then the Lancashire manufacturers
+fell upon Arkwright’s patent to pull it in pieces, as the Cornish miners
+fell upon Boulton and Watt to rob them of the profits of their
+steam-engine.  Arkwright was even denounced as the enemy of the working
+people; and a mill which he built near Chorley was destroyed by a mob in
+the presence of a strong force of police and military.  The Lancashire
+men refused to buy his materials, though they were confessedly the best
+in the market.  Then they refused to pay patent-right for the use of his
+machines, and combined to crush him in the courts of law.  To the disgust
+of right-minded people, Arkwright’s patent was upset.  After the trial,
+when passing the hotel at which his opponents were staying, one of them
+said, loud enough to be heard by him, “Well, we’ve done the old shaver at
+last;” to which he coolly replied, “Never mind, I’ve a razor left that
+will shave you all.”  He established new mills in Lancashire, Derbyshire,
+and at New Lanark, in Scotland.  The mills at Cromford also came into his
+hands at the expiry of his partnership with Strutt, and the amount and
+the excellence of his products were such, that in a short time he
+obtained so complete a control of the trade, that the prices were fixed
+by him, and he governed the main operations of the other cotton-spinners.
+
+Arkwright was a man of great force of character, indomitable courage,
+much worldly shrewdness, with a business faculty almost amounting to
+genius.  At one period his time was engrossed by severe and continuous
+labour, occasioned by the organising and conducting of his numerous
+manufactories, sometimes from four in the morning till nine at night.  At
+fifty years of age he set to work to learn English grammar, and improve
+himself in writing and orthography.  After overcoming every obstacle, he
+had the satisfaction of reaping the reward of his enterprise.  Eighteen
+years after he had constructed his first machine, he rose to such
+estimation in Derbyshire that he was appointed High Sheriff of the
+county, and shortly after George III. conferred upon him the honour of
+knighthood.  He died in 1792.  Be it for good or for evil, Arkwright was
+the founder in England of the modern factory system, a branch of industry
+which has unquestionably proved a source of immense wealth to individuals
+and to the nation.
+
+All the other great branches of industry in Britain furnish like examples
+of energetic men of business, the source of much benefit to the
+neighbourhoods in which they have laboured, and of increased power and
+wealth to the community at large.  Amongst such might be cited the
+Strutts of Belper; the Tennants of Glasgow; the Marshalls and Gotts of
+Leeds; the Peels, Ashworths, Birleys, Fieldens, Ashtons, Heywoods, and
+Ainsworths of South Lancashire, some of whose descendants have since
+become distinguished in connection with the political history of England.
+Such pre-eminently were the Peels of South Lancashire.
+
+The founder of the Peel family, about the middle of last century, was a
+small yeoman, occupying the Hole House Farm, near Blackburn, from which
+he afterwards removed to a house situated in Fish Lane in that town.
+Robert Peel, as he advanced in life, saw a large family of sons and
+daughters growing up about him; but the land about Blackburn being
+somewhat barren, it did not appear to him that agricultural pursuits
+offered a very encouraging prospect for their industry.  The place had,
+however, long been the seat of a domestic manufacture—the fabric called
+“Blackburn greys,” consisting of linen weft and cotton warp, being
+chiefly made in that town and its neighbourhood.  It was then
+customary—previous to the introduction of the factory system—for
+industrious yeomen with families to employ the time not occupied in the
+fields in weaving at home; and Robert Peel accordingly began the domestic
+trade of calico-making.  He was honest, and made an honest article;
+thrifty and hardworking, and his trade prospered.  He was also
+enterprising, and was one of the first to adopt the carding cylinder,
+then recently invented.
+
+But Robert Peel’s attention was principally directed to the _printing_ of
+calico—then a comparatively unknown art—and for some time he carried on a
+series of experiments with the object of printing by machinery.  The
+experiments were secretly conducted in his own house, the cloth being
+ironed for the purpose by one of the women of the family.  It was then
+customary, in such houses as the Peels, to use pewter plates at dinner.
+Having sketched a figure or pattern on one of the plates, the thought
+struck him that an impression might be got from it in reverse, and
+printed on calico with colour.  In a cottage at the end of the farm-house
+lived a woman who kept a calendering machine, and going into her cottage,
+he put the plate with colour rubbed into the figured part and some calico
+over it, through the machine, when it was found to leave a satisfactory
+impression.  Such is said to have been the origin of roller printing on
+calico.  Robert Peel shortly perfected his process, and the first pattern
+he brought out was a parsley leaf; hence he is spoken of in the
+neighbourhood of Blackburn to this day as “Parsley Peel.”  The process of
+calico printing by what is called the mule machine—that is, by means of a
+wooden cylinder in relief, with an engraved copper cylinder—was
+afterwards brought to perfection by one of his sons, the head of the firm
+of Messrs. Peel and Co., of Church.  Stimulated by his success, Robert
+Peel shortly gave up farming, and removing to Brookside, a village about
+two miles from Blackburn, he devoted himself exclusively to the printing
+business.  There, with the aid of his sons, who were as energetic as
+himself, he successfully carried on the trade for several years; and as
+the young men grew up towards manhood, the concern branched out into
+various firms of Peels, each of which became a centre of industrial
+activity and a source of remunerative employment to large numbers of
+people.
+
+From what can now be learnt of the character of the original and untitled
+Robert Peel, he must have been a remarkable man—shrewd, sagacious, and
+far-seeing.  But little is known of him excepting from traditions and the
+sons of those who knew him are fast passing away.  His son, Sir Robert,
+thus modestly spoke of him:—“My father may be truly said to have been the
+founder of our family; and he so accurately appreciated the importance of
+commercial wealth in a national point of view, that he was often heard to
+say that the gains to individuals were small compared with the national
+gains arising from trade.”
+
+Sir Robert Peel, the first baronet and the second manufacturer of the
+name, inherited all his father’s enterprise, ability, and industry.  His
+position, at starting in life, was little above that of an ordinary
+working man; for his father, though laying the foundations of future
+prosperity, was still struggling with the difficulties arising from
+insufficient capital.  When Robert was only twenty years of age, he
+determined to begin the business of cotton-printing, which he had by this
+time learnt from his father, on his own account.  His uncle, James
+Haworth, and William Yates of Blackburn, joined him in his enterprise;
+the whole capital which they could raise amongst them amounting to only
+about 500_l._, the principal part of which was supplied by William Yates.
+The father of the latter was a householder in Blackburn, where he was
+well known and much respected; and having saved money by his business, he
+was willing to advance sufficient to give his son a start in the
+lucrative trade of cotton-printing, then in its infancy.  Robert Peel,
+though comparatively a mere youth, supplied the practical knowledge of
+the business; but it was said of him, and proved true, that he “carried
+an old head on young shoulders.”  A ruined corn-mill, with its adjoining
+fields, was purchased for a comparatively small sum, near the then
+insignificant town of Bury, where the works long after continued to be
+known as “The Ground;” and a few wooden sheds having been run up, the
+firm commenced their cotton-printing business in a very humble way in the
+year 1770, adding to it that of cotton-spinning a few years later.  The
+frugal style in which the partners lived may be inferred from the
+following incident in their early career.  William Yates, being a married
+man with a family, commenced housekeeping on a small scale, and, to
+oblige Peel, who was single, he agreed to take him as a lodger.  The sum
+which the latter first paid for board and lodging was only 8_s._ a week;
+but Yates, considering this too little, insisted on the weekly payment
+being increased a shilling, to which Peel at first demurred, and a
+difference between the partners took place, which was eventually
+compromised by the lodger paying an advance of sixpence a week.  William
+Yates’s eldest child was a girl named Ellen, and she very soon became an
+especial favourite with the young lodger.  On returning from his hard
+day’s work at “The Ground,” he would take the little girl upon his knee,
+and say to her, “Nelly, thou bonny little dear, wilt be my wife?” to
+which the child would readily answer “Yes,” as any child would do.  “Then
+I’ll wait for thee, Nelly; I’ll wed thee, and none else.”  And Robert
+Peel did wait.  As the girl grew in beauty towards womanhood, his
+determination to wait for her was strengthened; and after the lapse of
+ten years—years of close application to business and rapidly increasing
+prosperity—Robert Peel married Ellen Yates when she had completed her
+seventeenth year; and the pretty child, whom her mother’s lodger and
+father’s partner had nursed upon his knee, became Mrs. Peel, and
+eventually Lady Peel, the mother of the future Prime Minister of England.
+Lady Peel was a noble and beautiful woman, fitted to grace any station in
+life.  She possessed rare powers of mind, and was, on every emergency,
+the high-souled and faithful counsellor of her husband.  For many years
+after their marriage, she acted as his amanuensis, conducting the
+principal part of his business correspondence, for Mr. Peel himself was
+an indifferent and almost unintelligible writer.  She died in 1803, only
+three years after the Baronetcy had been conferred upon her husband.  It
+is said that London fashionable life—so unlike what she had been
+accustomed to at home—proved injurious to her health; and old Mr. Yates
+afterwards used to say, “if Robert hadn’t made our Nelly a ‘Lady,’ she
+might ha’ been living yet.”
+
+The career of Yates, Peel, & Co., was throughout one of great and
+uninterrupted prosperity.  Sir Robert Peel himself was the soul of the
+firm; to great energy and application uniting much practical sagacity,
+and first-rate mercantile abilities—qualities in which many of the early
+cotton-spinners were exceedingly deficient.  He was a man of iron mind
+and frame, and toiled unceasingly.  In short, he was to cotton printing
+what Arkwright was to cotton-spinning, and his success was equally great.
+The excellence of the articles produced by the firm secured the command
+of the market, and the character of the firm stood pre-eminent in
+Lancashire.  Besides greatly benefiting Bury, the partnership planted
+similar extensive works in the neighbourhood, on the Irwell and the Roch;
+and it was cited to their honour, that, while they sought to raise to the
+highest perfection the quality of their manufactures, they also
+endeavoured, in all ways, to promote the well-being and comfort of their
+workpeople; for whom they contrived to provide remunerative employment
+even in the least prosperous times.
+
+Sir Robert Peel readily appreciated the value of all new processes and
+inventions; in illustration of which we may allude to his adoption of the
+process for producing what is called _resist work_ in calico printing.
+This is accomplished by the use of a paste, or resist, on such parts of
+the cloth as were intended to remain white.  The person who discovered
+the paste was a traveller for a London house, who sold it to Mr. Peel for
+an inconsiderable sum.  It required the experience of a year or two to
+perfect the system and make it practically useful; but the beauty of its
+effect, and the extreme precision of outline in the pattern produced, at
+once placed the Bury establishment at the head of all the factories for
+calico printing in the country.  Other firms, conducted with like spirit,
+were established by members of the same family at Burnley, Foxhill bank,
+and Altham, in Lancashire; Salley Abbey, in Yorkshire; and afterwards at
+Burton-on-Trent, in Staffordshire; these various establishments, whilst
+they brought wealth to their proprietors, setting an example to the whole
+cotton trade, and training up many of the most successful printers and
+manufacturers in Lancashire.
+
+Among other distinguished founders of industry, the Rev. William Lee,
+inventor of the Stocking Frame, and John Heathcoat, inventor of the
+Bobbin-net Machine, are worthy of notice, as men of great mechanical
+skill and perseverance, through whose labours a vast amount of
+remunerative employment has been provided for the labouring population of
+Nottingham and the adjacent districts.  The accounts which have been
+preserved of the circumstances connected with the invention of the
+Stocking Frame are very confused, and in many respects contradictory,
+though there is no doubt as to the name of the inventor.  This was
+William Lee, born at Woodborough, a village some seven miles from
+Nottingham, about the year 1563.  According to some accounts, he was the
+heir to a small freehold, while according to others he was a poor
+scholar, {43a} and had to struggle with poverty from his earliest years.
+He entered as a sizar at Christ College, Cambridge, in May, 1579, and
+subsequently removed to St. John’s, taking his degree of B.A. in 1582–3.
+It is believed that he commenced M.A. in 1586; but on this point there
+appears to be some confusion in the records of the University.  The
+statement usually made that he was expelled for marrying contrary to the
+statutes, is incorrect, as he was never a Fellow of the University, and
+therefore could not be prejudiced by taking such a step.
+
+At the time when Lee invented the Stocking Frame he was officiating as
+curate of Calverton, near Nottingham; and it is alleged by some writers
+that the invention had its origin in disappointed affection.  The curate
+is said to have fallen deeply in love with a young lady of the village,
+who failed to reciprocate his affections; and when he visited her, she
+was accustomed to pay much more attention to the process of knitting
+stockings and instructing her pupils in the art, than to the addresses of
+her admirer.  This slight is said to have created in his mind such an
+aversion to knitting by hand, that he formed the determination to invent
+a machine that should supersede it and render it a gainless employment.
+For three years he devoted himself to the prosecution of the invention,
+sacrificing everything to his new idea.  At the prospect of success
+opened before him, he abandoned his curacy, and devoted himself to the
+art of stocking making by machinery.  This is the version of the story
+given by Henson {43b} on the authority of an old stocking-maker, who died
+in Collins’s Hospital, Nottingham, aged ninety-two, and was apprenticed
+in the town during the reign of Queen Anne.  It is also given by Deering
+and Blackner as the traditional account in the neighbourhood, and it is
+in some measure borne out by the arms of the London Company of Frame-Work
+Knitters, which consists of a stocking frame without the wood-work, with
+a clergyman on one side and a woman on the other as supporters. {44}
+
+Whatever may have been the actual facts as to the origin of the invention
+of the Stocking Loom, there can be no doubt as to the extraordinary
+mechanical genius displayed by its inventor.  That a clergyman living in
+a remote village, whose life had for the most part been spent with books,
+should contrive a machine of such delicate and complicated movements, and
+at once advance the art of knitting from the tedious process of linking
+threads in a chain of loops by three skewers in the fingers of a woman,
+to the beautiful and rapid process of weaving by the stocking frame, was
+indeed an astonishing achievement, which may be pronounced almost
+unequalled in the history of mechanical invention.  Lee’s merit was all
+the greater, as the handicraft arts were then in their infancy, and
+little attention had as yet been given to the contrivance of machinery
+for the purposes of manufacture.  He was under the necessity of
+extemporising the parts of his machine as he best could, and adopting
+various expedients to overcome difficulties as they arose.  His tools
+were imperfect, and his materials imperfect; and he had no skilled
+workmen to assist him.  According to tradition, the first frame he made
+was a twelve gauge, without lead sinkers, and it was almost wholly of
+wood; the needles being also stuck in bits of wood.  One of Lee’s
+principal difficulties consisted in the formation of the stitch, for want
+of needle eyes; but this he eventually overcame by forming eyes to the
+needles with a three-square file. {45}  At length, one difficulty after
+another was successfully overcome, and after three years’ labour the
+machine was sufficiently complete to be fit for use.  The quondam curate,
+full of enthusiasm for his art, now began stocking weaving in the village
+of Calverton, and he continued to work there for several years,
+instructing his brother James and several of his relations in the
+practice of the art.
+
+Having brought his frame to a considerable degree of perfection, and
+being desirous of securing the patronage of Queen Elizabeth, whose
+partiality for knitted silk stockings was well known, Lee proceeded to
+London to exhibit the loom before her Majesty.  He first showed it to
+several members of the court, among others to Sir William (afterwards
+Lord) Hunsdon, whom he taught to work it with success; and Lee was,
+through their instrumentality, at length admitted to an interview with
+the Queen, and worked the machine in her presence.  Elizabeth, however,
+did not give him the encouragement that he had expected; and she is said
+to have opposed the invention on the ground that it was calculated to
+deprive a large number of poor people of their employment of hand
+knitting.  Lee was no more successful in finding other patrons, and
+considering himself and his invention treated with contempt, he embraced
+the offer made to him by Sully, the sagacious minister of Henry IV., to
+proceed to Rouen and instruct the operatives of that town—then one of the
+most important manufacturing centres of France—in the construction and
+use of the stocking-frame.  Lee accordingly transferred himself and his
+machines to France, in 1605, taking with him his brother and seven
+workmen.  He met with a cordial reception at Rouen, and was proceeding
+with the manufacture of stockings on a large scale—having nine of his
+frames in full work,—when unhappily ill fortune again overtook him.
+Henry IV., his protector, on whom he had relied for the rewards, honours,
+and promised grant of privileges, which had induced Lee to settle in
+France, was murdered by the fanatic Ravaillac; and the encouragement and
+protection which had heretofore been extended to him were at once
+withdrawn.  To press his claims at court, Lee proceeded to Paris; but
+being a protestant as well as a foreigner, his representations were
+treated with neglect; and worn out with vexation and grief, this
+distinguished inventor shortly after died at Paris, in a state of extreme
+poverty and distress.
+
+Lee’s brother, with seven of the workmen, succeeded in escaping from
+France with their frames, leaving two behind.  On James Lee’s return to
+Nottinghamshire, he was joined by one Ashton, a miller of Thoroton, who
+had been instructed in the art of frame-work knitting by the inventor
+himself before he left England.  These two, with the workmen and their
+frames, began the stocking manufacture at Thoroton, and carried it on
+with considerable success.  The place was favourably situated for the
+purpose, as the sheep pastured in the neighbouring district of Sherwood
+yielded a kind of wool of the longest staple.  Ashton is said to have
+introduced the method of making the frames with lead sinkers, which was a
+great improvement.  The number of looms employed in different parts of
+England gradually increased; and the machine manufacture of stockings
+eventually became an important branch of the national industry.
+
+One of the most important modifications in the Stocking-Frame was that
+which enabled it to be applied to the manufacture of lace on a large
+scale.  In 1777, two workmen, Frost and Holmes, were both engaged in
+making point-net by means of the modifications they had introduced in the
+stocking-frame; and in the course of about thirty years, so rapid was the
+growth of this branch of production that 1500 point-net frames were at
+work, giving employment to upwards of 15,000 people.  Owing, however, to
+the war, to change of fashion, and to other circumstances, the Nottingham
+lace manufacture rapidly fell off; and it continued in a decaying state
+until the invention of the Bobbin-net Machine by John Heathcoat, late
+M.P. for Tiverton, which had the effect of at once re-establishing the
+manufacture on solid foundations.
+
+John Heathcoat was the youngest son of a respectable small farmer at
+Duffield, Derbyshire, where he was born in 1783.  When at school he made
+steady and rapid progress, but was early removed from it to be
+apprenticed to a frame-smith near Loughborough.  The boy soon learnt to
+handle tools with dexterity, and he acquired a minute knowledge of the
+parts of which the stocking-frame was composed, as well as of the more
+intricate warp-machine.  At his leisure he studied how to introduce
+improvements in them, and his friend, Mr. Bazley, M.P., states that as
+early as the age of sixteen, he conceived the idea of inventing a machine
+by which lace might be made similar to Buckingham or French lace, then
+all made by hand.  The first practical improvement he succeeded in
+introducing was in the warp-frame, when, by means of an ingenious
+apparatus, he succeeded in producing “mitts” of a lacy appearance, and it
+was this success which determined him to pursue the study of mechanical
+lace-making.  The stocking-frame had already, in a modified form, been
+applied to the manufacture of point-net lace, in which the mesh was
+_looped_ as in a stocking, but the work was slight and frail, and
+therefore unsatisfactory.  Many ingenious Nottingham mechanics had,
+during a long succession of years, been labouring at the problem of
+inventing a machine by which the mesh of threads should be _twisted_
+round each other on the formation of the net.  Some of these men died in
+poverty, some were driven insane, and all alike failed in the object of
+their search.  The old warp-machine held its ground.
+
+When a little over twenty-one years of age, Heathcoat went to Nottingham,
+where he readily found employment, for which he soon received the highest
+remuneration, as a setter-up of hosiery and warp-frames, and was much
+respected for his talent for invention, general intelligence, and the
+sound and sober principles that governed his conduct.  He also continued
+to pursue the subject on which his mind had before been occupied, and
+laboured to compass the contrivance of a twist traverse-net machine.  He
+first studied the art of making the Buckingham or pillow-lace by hand,
+with the object of effecting the same motions by mechanical means.  It
+was a long and laborious task, requiring the exercise of great
+perseverance and ingenuity.  His master, Elliot, described him at that
+time as inventive, patient, self-denying, and taciturn, undaunted by
+failures and mistakes, full of resources and expedients, and entertaining
+the most perfect confidence that his application of mechanical principles
+would eventually be crowned with success.
+
+It is difficult to describe in words an invention so complicated as the
+bobbin-net machine.  It was, indeed, a mechanical pillow for making lace,
+imitating in an ingenious manner the motions of the lace-maker’s fingers
+in intersecting or tying the meshes of the lace upon her pillow.  On
+analysing the component parts of a piece of hand-made lace, Heathcoat was
+enabled to classify the threads into longitudinal and diagonal.  He began
+his experiments by fixing common pack-threads lengthwise on a sort of
+frame for the warp, and then passing the weft threads between them by
+common plyers, delivering them to other plyers on the opposite side;
+then, after giving them a sideways motion and twist, the threads were
+repassed back between the next adjoining cords, the meshes being thus
+tied in the same way as upon pillows by hand.  He had then to contrive a
+mechanism that should accomplish all these nice and delicate movements,
+and to do this cost him no small amount of mental toil.  Long after he
+said, “The single difficulty of getting the diagonal threads to twist in
+the allotted space was so great that if it had now to be done, I should
+probably not attempt its accomplishment.”  His next step was to provide
+thin metallic discs, to be used as bobbins for conducting the threads
+backwards and forwards through the warp.  These discs, being arranged in
+carrier-frames placed on each side of the warp, were moved by suitable
+machinery so as to conduct the threads from side to side in forming the
+lace.  He eventually succeeded in working out his principle with
+extraordinary skill and success; and, at the age of twenty-four, he was
+enabled to secure his invention by a patent.
+
+During this time his wife was kept in almost as great anxiety as himself,
+for she well knew of his trials and difficulties while he was striving to
+perfect his invention.  Many years after they had been successfully
+overcome, the conversation which took place one eventful evening was
+vividly remembered.  “Well,” said the anxious wife, “will it work?”
+“No,” was the sad answer; “I have had to take it all to pieces again.”
+Though he could still speak hopefully and cheerfully, his poor wife could
+restrain her feelings no longer, but sat down and cried bitterly.  She
+had, however, only a few more weeks to wait, for success long laboured
+for and richly deserved, came at last, and a proud and happy man was John
+Heathcoat when he brought home the first narrow strip of bobbin-net made
+by his machine, and placed it in the hands of his wife.
+
+As in the case of nearly all inventions which have proved productive,
+Heathcoat’s rights as a patentee were disputed, and his claims as an
+inventor called in question.  On the supposed invalidity of the patent,
+the lace-makers boldly adopted the bobbin-net machine, and set the
+inventor at defiance.  But other patents were taken out for alleged
+improvements and adaptations; and it was only when these new patentees
+fell out and went to law with each other that Heathcoat’s rights became
+established.  One lace-manufacturer having brought an action against
+another for an alleged infringement of his patent, the jury brought in a
+verdict for the defendant, in which the judge concurred, on the ground
+that _both_ the machines in question were infringements of Heathcoat’s
+patent.  It was on the occasion of this trial, “Boville v. Moore,” that
+Sir John Copley (afterwards Lord Lyndhurst), who was retained for the
+defence in the interest of Mr. Heathcoat, learnt to work the bobbin-net
+machine in order that he might master the details of the invention.  On
+reading over his brief, he confessed that he did not quite understand the
+merits of the case; but as it seemed to him to be one of great
+importance, he offered to go down into the country forthwith and study
+the machine until he understood it; “and then,” said he, “I will defend
+you to the best of my ability.”  He accordingly put himself into that
+night’s mail, and went down to Nottingham to get up his case as perhaps
+counsel never got it up before.  Next morning the learned sergeant placed
+himself in a lace-loom, and he did not leave it until he could deftly
+make a piece of bobbin-net with his own hands, and thoroughly understood
+the principle as well as the details of the machine.  When the case came
+on for trial, the learned sergeant was enabled to work the model on the
+table with such case and skill, and to explain the precise nature of the
+invention with such felicitous clearness, as to astonish alike judge,
+jury, and spectators; and the thorough conscientiousness and mastery with
+which he handled the case had no doubt its influence upon the decision of
+the court.
+
+After the trial was over, Mr. Heathcoat, on inquiry, found about six
+hundred machines at work after his patent, and he proceeded to levy
+royalty upon the owners of them, which amounted to a large sum.  But the
+profits realised by the manufacturers of lace were very great, and the
+use of the machines rapidly extended; while the price of the article was
+reduced from five pounds the square yard to about five pence in the
+course of twenty-five years.  During the same period the average annual
+returns of the lace-trade have been at least four millions sterling, and
+it gives remunerative employment to about 150,000 workpeople.
+
+To return to the personal history of Mr. Heathcoat.  In 1809 we find him
+established as a lace-manufacturer at Loughborough, in Leicestershire.
+There he carried on a prosperous business for several years, giving
+employment to a large number of operatives, at wages varying from 5_l._
+to 10_l._ a week.  Notwithstanding the great increase in the number of
+hands employed in lace-making through the introduction of the new
+machines, it began to be whispered about among the workpeople that they
+were superseding labour, and an extensive conspiracy was formed for the
+purpose of destroying them wherever found.  As early as the year 1811
+disputes arose between the masters and men engaged in the stocking and
+lace trades in the south-western parts of Nottinghamshire and the
+adjacent parts of Derbyshire and Leicestershire, the result of which was
+the assembly of a mob at Sutton, in Ashfield, who proceeded in open day
+to break the stocking and lace-frames of the manufacturers.  Some of the
+ringleaders having been seized and punished, the disaffected learnt
+caution; but the destruction of the machines was nevertheless carried on
+secretly wherever a safe opportunity presented itself.  As the machines
+were of so delicate a construction that a single blow of a hammer
+rendered them useless, and as the manufacture was carried on for the most
+part in detached buildings, often in private dwellings remote from towns,
+the opportunities of destroying them were unusually easy.  In the
+neighbourhood of Nottingham, which was the focus of turbulence, the
+machine-breakers organized themselves in regular bodies, and held
+nocturnal meetings at which their plans were arranged.  Probably with the
+view of inspiring confidence, they gave out that they were under the
+command of a leader named Ned Ludd, or General Ludd, and hence their
+designation of Luddites.  Under this organization machine-breaking was
+carried on with great vigour during the winter of 1811, occasioning great
+distress, and throwing large numbers of workpeople out of employment.
+Meanwhile, the owners of the frames proceeded to remove them from the
+villages and lone dwellings in the country, and brought them into
+warehouses in the towns for their better protection.
+
+The Luddites seem to have been encouraged by the lenity of the sentences
+pronounced on such of their confederates as had been apprehended and
+tried; and, shortly after, the mania broke out afresh, and rapidly
+extended over the northern and midland manufacturing districts.  The
+organization became more secret; an oath was administered to the members
+binding them to obedience to the orders issued by the heads of the
+confederacy; and the betrayal of their designs was decreed to be death.
+All machines were doomed by them to destruction, whether employed in the
+manufacture of cloth, calico, or lace; and a reign of terror began which
+lasted for years.  In Yorkshire and Lancashire mills were boldly attacked
+by armed rioters, and in many cases they were wrecked or burnt; so that
+it became necessary to guard them by soldiers and yeomanry.  The masters
+themselves were doomed to death; many of them were assaulted, and some
+were murdered.  At length the law was vigorously set in motion; numbers
+of the misguided Luddites were apprehended; some were executed; and after
+several years’ violent commotion from this cause, the machine-breaking
+riots were at length quelled.
+
+Among the numerous manufacturers whose works were attacked by the
+Luddites, was the inventor of the bobbin-net machine himself.  One bright
+sunny day, in the summer of 1816, a body of rioters entered his factory
+at Loughborough with torches, and set fire to it, destroying thirty-seven
+lace-machines, and above 10,000_l._ worth of property.  Ten of the men
+were apprehended for the felony, and eight of them were executed.  Mr.
+Heathcoat made a claim upon the county for compensation, and it was
+resisted; but the Court of Queen’s Bench decided in his favour, and
+decreed that the county must make good his loss of 10,000_l._  The
+magistrates sought to couple with the payment of the damage the condition
+that Mr. Heathcoat should expend the money in the county of Leicester;
+but to this he would not assent, having already resolved on removing his
+manufacture elsewhere.  At Tiverton, in Devonshire, he found a large
+building which had been formerly used as a woollen manufactory; but the
+Tiverton cloth trade having fallen into decay, the building remained
+unoccupied, and the town itself was generally in a very poverty-stricken
+condition.  Mr. Heathcoat bought the old mill, renovated and enlarged it,
+and there recommenced the manufacture of lace upon a larger scale than
+before; keeping in full work as many as three hundred machines, and
+employing a large number of artisans at good wages.  Not only did he
+carry on the manufacture of lace, but the various branches of business
+connected with it—yarn-doubling, silk-spinning, net-making, and
+finishing.  He also established at Tiverton an iron-foundry and works for
+the manufacture of agricultural implements, which proved of great
+convenience to the district.  It was a favourite idea of his that steam
+power was capable of being applied to perform all the heavy drudgery of
+life, and he laboured for a long time at the invention of a steam-plough.
+In 1832 he so far completed his invention as to be enabled to take out a
+patent for it; and Heathcoat’s steam-plough, though it has since been
+superseded by Fowler’s, was considered the best machine of the kind that
+had up to that time been invented.
+
+Mr. Heathcoat was a man of great natural gifts.  He possessed a sound
+understanding, quick perception, and a genius for business of the highest
+order.  With these he combined uprightness, honesty, and
+integrity—qualities which are the true glory of human character.  Himself
+a diligent self-educator, he gave ready encouragement to deserving youths
+in his employment, stimulating their talents and fostering their
+energies.  During his own busy life, he contrived to save time to master
+French and Italian, of which he acquired an accurate and grammatical
+knowledge.  His mind was largely stored with the results of a careful
+study of the best literature, and there were few subjects on which he had
+not formed for himself shrewd and accurate views.  The two thousand
+workpeople in his employment regarded him almost as a father, and he
+carefully provided for their comfort and improvement.  Prosperity did not
+spoil him, as it does so many; nor close his heart against the claims of
+the poor and struggling, who were always sure of his sympathy and help.
+To provide for the education of the children of his workpeople, he built
+schools for them at a cost of about 6000_l._  He was also a man of
+singularly cheerful and buoyant disposition, a favourite with men of all
+classes and most admired and beloved by those who knew him best.
+
+In 1831 the electors of Tiverton, of which town Mr. Heathcoat had proved
+himself so genuine a benefactor, returned him to represent them in
+Parliament, and he continued their member for nearly thirty years.
+During a great part of that time he had Lord Palmerston for his
+colleague, and the noble lord, on more than one public occasion,
+expressed the high regard which he entertained for his venerable friend.
+On retiring from the representation in 1859, owing to advancing age and
+increasing infirmities, thirteen hundred of his workmen presented him
+with a silver inkstand and gold pen, in token of their esteem.  He
+enjoyed his leisure for only two more years, dying in January, 1861, at
+the age of seventy-seven, and leaving behind him a character for probity,
+virtue, manliness, and mechanical genius, of which his descendants may
+well be proud.
+
+We next turn to a career of a very different kind, that of the
+illustrious but unfortunate Jacquard, whose life also illustrates in a
+remarkable manner the influence which ingenious men, even of the humblest
+rank, may exercise upon the industry of a nation.  Jacquard was the son
+of a hard-working couple of Lyons, his father being a weaver, and his
+mother a pattern reader.  They were too poor to give him any but the most
+meagre education.  When he was of age to learn a trade, his father placed
+him with a book-binder.  An old clerk, who made up the master’s accounts,
+gave Jacquard some lessons in mathematics.  He very shortly began to
+display a remarkable turn for mechanics, and some of his contrivances
+quite astonished the old clerk, who advised Jacquard’s father to put him
+to some other trade, in which his peculiar abilities might have better
+scope than in bookbinding.  He was accordingly put apprentice to a
+cutler; but was so badly treated by his master, that he shortly
+afterwards left his employment, on which he was placed with a
+type-founder.
+
+His parents dying, Jacquard found himself in a measure compelled to take
+to his father’s two looms, and carry on the trade of a weaver.  He
+immediately proceeded to improve the looms, and became so engrossed with
+his inventions that he forgot his work, and very soon found himself at
+the end of his means.  He then sold the looms to pay his debts, at the
+same time that he took upon himself the burden of supporting a wife.  He
+became still poorer, and to satisfy his creditors, he next sold his
+cottage.  He tried to find employment, but in vain, people believing him
+to be an idler, occupied with mere dreams about his inventions.  At
+length he obtained employment with a line-maker of Bresse, whither he
+went, his wife remaining at Lyons, earning a precarious living by making
+straw bonnets.
+
+We hear nothing further of Jacquard for some years, but in the interval
+he seems to have prosecuted his improvement in the drawloom for the
+better manufacture of figured fabrics; for, in 1790, he brought out his
+contrivance for selecting the warp threads, which, when added to the
+loom, superseded the services of a draw-boy.  The adoption of this
+machine was slow but steady, and in ten years after its introduction,
+4000 of them were found at work in Lyons.  Jacquard’s pursuits were
+rudely interrupted by the Revolution, and, in 1792, we find him fighting
+in the ranks of the Lyonnaise Volunteers against the Army of the
+Convention under the command of Dubois Crancé.  The city was taken;
+Jacquard fled and joined the Army of the Rhine, where he rose to the rank
+of sergeant.  He might have remained a soldier, but that, his only son
+having been shot dead at his side, he deserted and returned to Lyons to
+recover his wife.  He found her in a garret still employed at her old
+trade of straw-bonnet making.  While living in concealment with her, his
+mind reverted to the inventions over which he had so long brooded in
+former years; but he had no means wherewith to prosecute them.  Jacquard
+found it necessary, however, to emerge from his hiding-place and try to
+find some employment.  He succeeded in obtaining it with an intelligent
+manufacturer, and while working by day he went on inventing by night.  It
+had occurred to him that great improvements might still be introduced in
+looms for figured goods, and he incidentally mentioned the subject one
+day to his master, regretting at the same time that his limited means
+prevented him from carrying out his ideas.  Happily his master
+appreciated the value of the suggestions, and with laudable generosity
+placed a sum of money at his disposal, that he might prosecute the
+proposed improvements at his leisure.
+
+In three months Jacquard had invented a loom to substitute mechanical
+action for the irksome and toilsome labour of the workman.  The loom was
+exhibited at the Exposition of National Industry at Paris in 1801, and
+obtained a bronze medal.  Jacquard was further honoured by a visit at
+Lyons from the Minister Carnot, who desired to congratulate him in person
+on the success of his invention.  In the following year the Society of
+Arts in London offered a prize for the invention of a machine for
+manufacturing fishing-nets and boarding-netting for ships.  Jacquard
+heard of this, and while walking one day in the fields according to his
+custom, he turned the subject over in his mind, and contrived the plan of
+a machine for the purpose.  His friend, the manufacturer, again furnished
+him with the means of carrying out his idea, and in three weeks Jacquard
+had completed his invention.
+
+Jacquard’s achievement having come to the knowledge of the Prefect of the
+Department, he was summoned before that functionary, and, on his
+explanation of the working of the machine, a report on the subject was
+forwarded to the Emperor.  The inventor was forthwith summoned to Paris
+with his machine, and brought into the presence of the Emperor, who
+received him with the consideration due to his genius.  The interview
+lasted two hours, during which Jacquard, placed at his ease by the
+Emperor’s affability, explained to him the improvements which he proposed
+to make in the looms for weaving figured goods.  The result was, that he
+was provided with apartments in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers,
+where he had the use of the workshop during his stay, and was provided
+with a suitable allowance for his maintenance.
+
+Installed in the Conservatoire, Jacquard proceeded to complete the
+details of his improved loom.  He had the advantage of minutely
+inspecting the various exquisite pieces of mechanism contained in that
+great treasury of human ingenuity.  Among the machines which more
+particularly attracted his attention, and eventually set him upon the
+track of his discovery, was a loom for weaving flowered silk, made by
+Vaucanson the celebrated automaton-maker.
+
+Vaucanson was a man of the highest order of constructive genius.  The
+inventive faculty was so strong in him that it may almost be said to have
+amounted to a passion, and could not be restrained.  The saying that the
+poet is born, not made, applies with equal force to the inventor, who,
+though indebted, like the other, to culture and improved opportunities,
+nevertheless contrives and constructs new combinations of machinery
+mainly to gratify his own instinct.  This was peculiarly the case with
+Vaucanson; for his most elaborate works were not so much distinguished
+for their utility as for the curious ingenuity which they displayed.
+While a mere boy attending Sunday conversations with his mother, he
+amused himself by watching, through the chinks of a partition wall, part
+of the movements of a clock in the adjoining apartment.  He endeavoured
+to understand them, and by brooding over the subject, after several
+months he discovered the principle of the escapement.
+
+From that time the subject of mechanical invention took complete
+possession of him.  With some rude tools which he contrived, he made a
+wooden clock that marked the hours with remarkable exactness; while he
+made for a miniature chapel the figures of some angels which waved their
+wings, and some priests that made several ecclesiastical movements.  With
+the view of executing some other automata he had designed, he proceeded
+to study anatomy, music, and mechanics, which occupied him for several
+years.  The sight of the Flute-player in the Gardens of the Tuileries
+inspired him with the resolution to invent a similar figure that should
+_play_; and after several years’ study and labour, though struggling with
+illness, he succeeded in accomplishing his object.  He next produced a
+Flageolet-player, which was succeeded by a Duck—the most ingenious of his
+contrivances,—which swam, dabbled, drank, and quacked like a real duck.
+He next invented an asp, employed in the tragedy of ‘Cléopâtre,’ which
+hissed and darted at the bosom of the actress.
+
+Vaucanson, however, did not confine himself merely to the making of
+automata.  By reason of his ingenuity, Cardinal de Fleury appointed him
+inspector of the silk manufactories of France; and he was no sooner in
+office, than with his usual irrepressible instinct to invent, he
+proceeded to introduce improvements in silk machinery.  One of these was
+his mill for thrown silk, which so excited the anger of the Lyons
+operatives, who feared the loss of employment through its means, that
+they pelted him with stones and had nearly killed him.  He nevertheless
+went on inventing, and next produced a machine for weaving flowered
+silks, with a contrivance for giving a dressing to the thread, so as to
+render that of each bobbin or skein of an equal thickness.
+
+When Vaucanson died in 1782, after a long illness, he bequeathed his
+collection of machines to the Queen, who seems to have set but small
+value on them, and they were shortly after dispersed.  But his machine
+for weaving flowered silks was happily preserved in the Conservatoire des
+Arts et Métiers, and there Jacquard found it among the many curious and
+interesting articles in the collection.  It proved of the utmost value to
+him, for it immediately set him on the track of the principal
+modification which he introduced in his improved loom.
+
+One of the chief features of Vaucanson’s machine was a pierced cylinder
+which, according to the holes it presented when revolved, regulated the
+movement of certain needles, and caused the threads of the warp to
+deviate in such a manner as to produce a given design, though only of a
+simple character.  Jacquard seized upon the suggestion with avidity, and,
+with the genius of the true inventor, at once proceeded to improve upon
+it.  At the end of a month his weaving-machine was completed.  To the
+cylinder of Vancanson, he added an endless piece of pasteboard pierced
+with a number of holes, through which the threads of the warp were
+presented to the weaver; while another piece of mechanism indicated to
+the workman the colour of the shuttle which he ought to throw.  Thus the
+drawboy and the reader of designs were both at once superseded.  The
+first use Jacquard made of his new loom was to weave with it several
+yards of rich stuff which he presented to the Empress Josephine.
+Napoleon was highly gratified with the result of the inventor’s labours,
+and ordered a number of the looms to be constructed by the best workmen,
+after Jacquard’s model, and presented to him; after which he returned to
+Lyons.
+
+There he experienced the frequent fate of inventors.  He was regarded by
+his townsmen as an enemy, and treated by them as Kay, Hargreaves, and
+Arkwright had been in Lancashire.  The workmen looked upon the new loom
+as fatal to their trade, and feared lest it should at once take the bread
+from their mouths.  A tumultuous meeting was held on the Place des
+Terreaux, when it was determined to destroy the machines.  This was
+however prevented by the military.  But Jacquard was denounced and hanged
+in effigy.  The ‘Conseil des prud’hommes’ in vain endeavoured to allay
+the excitement, and they were themselves denounced.  At length, carried
+away by the popular impulse, the prud’hommes, most of whom had been
+workmen and sympathized with the class, had one of Jacquard’s looms
+carried off and publicly broken in pieces.  Riots followed, in one of
+which Jacquard was dragged along the quay by an infuriated mob intending
+to drown him, but he was rescued.
+
+The great value of the Jacquard loom, however, could not be denied, and
+its success was only a question of time.  Jacquard was urged by some
+English silk manufacturers to pass over into England and settle there.
+But notwithstanding the harsh and cruel treatment he had received at the
+hands of his townspeople, his patriotism was too strong to permit him to
+accept their offer.  The English manufacturers, however, adopted his
+loom.  Then it was, and only then, that Lyons, threatened to be beaten
+out of the field, adopted it with eagerness; and before long the Jacquard
+machine was employed in nearly all kinds of weaving.  The result proved
+that the fears of the workpeople had been entirely unfounded.  Instead of
+diminishing employment, the Jacquard loom increased it at least tenfold.
+The number of persons occupied in the manufacture of figured goods in
+Lyons, was stated by M. Leon Faucher to have been 60,000 in 1833; and
+that number has since been considerably increased.
+
+As for Jacquard himself, the rest of his life passed peacefully,
+excepting that the workpeople who dragged him along the quay to drown him
+were shortly after found eager to bear him in triumph along the same
+route in celebration of his birthday.  But his modesty would not permit
+him to take part in such a demonstration.  The Municipal Council of Lyons
+proposed to him that he should devote himself to improving his machine
+for the benefit of the local industry, to which Jacquard agreed in
+consideration of a moderate pension, the amount of which was fixed by
+himself.  After perfecting his invention accordingly, he retired at sixty
+to end his days at Oullins, his father’s native place.  It was there that
+he received, in 1820, the decoration of the Legion of Honour; and it was
+there that he died and was buried in 1834.  A statue was erected to his
+memory, but his relatives remained in poverty; and twenty years after his
+death, his two nieces were under the necessity of selling for a few
+hundred francs the gold medal bestowed upon their uncle by Louis XVIII.
+“Such,” says a French writer, “was the gratitude of the manufacturing
+interests of Lyons to the man to whom it owes so large a portion of its
+splendour.”
+
+It would be easy to extend the martyrology of inventors, and to cite the
+names of other equally distinguished men who have, without any
+corresponding advantage to themselves, contributed to the industrial
+progress of the age,—for it has too often happened that genius has
+planted the tree, of which patient dulness has gathered the fruit; but we
+will confine ourselves for the present to a brief account of an inventor
+of comparatively recent date, by way of illustration of the difficulties
+and privations which it is so frequently the lot of mechanical genius to
+surmount.  We allude to Joshua Heilmann, the inventor of the Combing
+Machine.
+
+Heilmann was born in 1796 at Mulhouse, the principal seat of the Alsace
+cotton manufacture.  His father was engaged in that business; and Joshua
+entered his office at fifteen.  He remained there for two years,
+employing his spare time in mechanical drawing.  He afterwards spent two
+years in his uncle’s banking-house in Paris, prosecuting the study of
+mathematics in the evenings.  Some of his relatives having established a
+small cotton-spinning factory at Mulhouse, young Heilmann was placed with
+Messrs. Tissot and Rey, at Paris, to learn the practice of that firm.  At
+the same time he became a student at the Conservatoire des Arts et
+Métiers, where he attended the lectures, and studied the machines in the
+museum.  He also took practical lessons in turning from a toymaker.
+After some time, thus diligently occupied, he returned to Alsace, to
+superintend the construction of the machinery for the new factory at
+Vieux-Thann, which was shortly finished and set to work.  The operations
+of the manufactory were, however, seriously affected by a commercial
+crisis which occurred, and it passed into other hands, on which Heilmann
+returned to his family at Mulhouse.
+
+He had in the mean time been occupying much of his leisure with
+inventions, more particularly in connection with the weaving of cotton
+and the preparation of the staple for spinning.  One of his earliest
+contrivances was an embroidering-machine, in which twenty needles were
+employed, working simultaneously; and he succeeded in accomplishing his
+object after about six months’ labour.  For this invention, which he
+exhibited at the Exposition of 1834, he received a gold medal, and was
+decorated with the Legion of Honour.  Other inventions quickly
+followed—an improved loom, a machine for measuring and folding fabrics,
+an improvement of the “bobbin and fly frames” of the English spinners,
+and a weft winding-machine, with various improvements in the machinery
+for preparing, spinning, and weaving silk and cotton.  One of his most
+ingenious contrivances was his loom for weaving simultaneously two pieces
+of velvet or other piled fabric, united by the pile common to both, with
+a knife and traversing apparatus for separating the two fabrics when
+woven.  But by far the most beautiful and ingenious of his inventions was
+the combing-machine, the history of which we now proceed shortly to
+describe.
+
+Heilmann had for some years been diligently studying the contrivance of a
+machine for combing long-stapled cotton, the ordinary carding-machine
+being found ineffective in preparing the raw material for spinning,
+especially the finer sorts of yarn, besides causing considerable waste.
+To avoid these imperfections, the cotton-spinners of Alsace offered a
+prize of 5000 francs for an improved combing-machine, and Heilmann
+immediately proceeded to compete for the reward.  He was not stimulated
+by the desire of gain, for he was comparatively rich, having acquired a
+considerable fortune by his wife.  It was a saying of his that “one will
+never accomplish great things who is constantly asking himself, how much
+gain will this bring me?”  What mainly impelled him was the irrepressible
+instinct of the inventor, who no sooner has a mechanical problem set
+before him than he feels impelled to undertake its solution.  The problem
+in this case was, however, much more difficult than he had anticipated.
+The close study of the subject occupied him for several years, and the
+expenses in which he became involved in connection with it were so great,
+that his wife’s fortune was shortly swallowed up, and he was reduced to
+poverty, without being able to bring his machine to perfection.  From
+that time he was under the necessity of relying mainly on the help of his
+friends to enable him to prosecute the invention.
+
+While still struggling with poverty and difficulties, Heilmann’s wife
+died, believing her husband ruined; and shortly after he proceeded to
+England and settled for a time at Manchester, still labouring at his
+machine.  He had a model made for him by the eminent machine-makers,
+Sharpe, Roberts, and Company; but still he could not make it work
+satisfactorily, and he was at length brought almost to the verge of
+despair.  He returned to France to visit his family, still pursuing his
+idea, which had obtained complete possession of his mind.  While sitting
+by his hearth one evening, meditating upon the hard fate of inventors and
+the misfortunes in which their families so often become involved, he
+found himself almost unconsciously watching his daughters coming their
+long hair and drawing it out at full length between their fingers.  The
+thought suddenly struck him that if he could successfully imitate in a
+machine the process of combing out the longest hair and forcing back the
+short by reversing the action of the comb, it might serve to extricate
+him from his difficulty.  It may be remembered that this incident in the
+life of Heilmann has been made the subject of a beautiful picture by Mr.
+Elmore, R.A., which was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of
+1862.
+
+Upon this idea he proceeded, introduced the apparently simple but really
+most intricate process of machine-combing, and after great labour he
+succeeded in perfecting the invention.  The singular beauty of the
+process can only be appreciated by those who have witnessed the machine
+at work, when the similarity of its movements to that of combing the
+hair, which suggested the invention, is at once apparent.  The machine
+has been described as “acting with almost the delicacy of touch of the
+human fingers.”  It combs the lock of cotton _at both ends_, places the
+fibres exactly parallel with each other, separates the long from the
+short, and unites the long fibres in one sliver and the short ones in
+another.  In fine, the machine not only acts with the delicate accuracy
+of the human fingers, but apparently with the delicate intelligence of
+the human mind.
+
+The chief commercial value of the invention consisted in its rendering
+the commoner sorts of cotton available for fine spinning.  The
+manufacturers were thereby enabled to select the most suitable fibres for
+high-priced fabrics, and to produce the finer sorts of yarn in much
+larger quantities.  It became possible by its means to make thread so
+fine that a length of 334 miles might be spun from a single pound weight
+of the prepared cotton, and, worked up into the finer sorts of lace, the
+original shilling’s worth of cotton-wool, before it passed into the hands
+of the consumer, might thus be increased to the value of between 300_l._
+and 400_l._ sterling.
+
+The beauty and utility of Heilmann’s invention were at once appreciated
+by the English cotton-spinners.  Six Lancashire firms united and
+purchased the patent for cotton-spinning for England for the sum of
+30,000_l._; the wool-spinners paid the same sum for the privilege of
+applying the process to wool; and the Messrs. Marshall, of Leeds,
+20,000_l._ for the privilege of applying it to flax.  Thus wealth
+suddenly flowed in upon poor Heilmann at last.  But he did not live to
+enjoy it.  Scarcely had his long labours been crowned by success than he
+died, and his son, who had shared in his privations, shortly followed
+him.
+
+It is at the price of lives such as these that the wonders of
+civilisation are achieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+HE GREAT POTTERS—PALISSY, BÖTTGHER, WEDGWOOD.
+
+
+    “Patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude, and the
+    rarest too . . . Patience lies at the root of all pleasures, as well
+    as of all powers.  Hope herself ceases to be happiness when
+    Impatience companions her.”—_John Ruskin_.
+
+    “Il y a vingt et cinq ans passez qu’il ne me fut monstré une coupe de
+    terre, tournée et esmaillée d’une telle beauté que . . . dèslors,
+    sans avoir esgard que je n’avois nulle connoissance des terres
+    argileuses, je me mis a chercher les émaux, comme un homme qui taste
+    en ténèbres.”—_Bernard Palissy_.
+
+IT so happens that the history of Pottery furnishes some of the most
+remarkable instances of patient perseverance to be found in the whole
+range of biography.  Of these we select three of the most striking, as
+exhibited in the lives of Bernard Palissy, the Frenchman; Johann
+Friedrich Böttgher, the German; and Josiah Wedgwood, the Englishman.
+
+Though the art of making common vessels of clay was known to most of the
+ancient nations, that of manufacturing enamelled earthenware was much
+less common.  It was, however, practised by the ancient Etruscans,
+specimens of whose ware are still to be found in antiquarian collections.
+But it became a lost art, and was only recovered at a comparatively
+recent date.  The Etruscan ware was very valuable in ancient times, a
+vase being worth its weight in gold in the time of Augustus.  The Moors
+seem to have preserved amongst them a knowledge of the art, which they
+were found practising in the island of Majorca when it was taken by the
+Pisans in 1115. Among the spoil carried away were many plates of Moorish
+earthenware, which, in token of triumph, were embedded in the walls of
+several of the ancient churches of Pisa, where they are to be seen to
+this day.  About two centuries later the Italians began to make an
+imitation enamelled ware, which they named Majolica, after the Moorish
+place of manufacture.
+
+The reviver or re-discoverer of the art of enamelling in Italy was Luca
+della Robbia, a Florentine sculptor.  Vasari describes him as a man of
+indefatigable perseverance, working with his chisel all day and
+practising drawing during the greater part of the night.  He pursued the
+latter art with so much assiduity, that when working late, to prevent his
+feet from freezing with the cold, he was accustomed to provide himself
+with a basket of shavings, in which he placed them to keep himself warm
+and enable him to proceed with his drawings.  “Nor,” says Vasari, “am I
+in the least astonished at this, since no man ever becomes distinguished
+in any art whatsoever who does not early begin to acquire the power of
+supporting heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and other discomforts; whereas
+those persons deceive themselves altogether who suppose that when taking
+their ease and surrounded by all the enjoyments of the world they may
+still attain to honourable distinction,—for it is not by sleeping, but by
+waking, watching, and labouring continually, that proficiency is attained
+and reputation acquired.”
+
+But Luca, notwithstanding all his application and industry, did not
+succeed in earning enough money by sculpture to enable him to live by the
+art, and the idea occurred to him that he might nevertheless be able to
+pursue his modelling in some material more facile and less dear than
+marble.  Hence it was that he began to make his models in clay, and to
+endeavour by experiment so to coat and bake the clay as to render those
+models durable.  After many trials he at length discovered a method of
+covering the clay with a material, which, when exposed to the intense
+heat of a furnace, became converted into an almost imperishable enamel.
+He afterwards made the further discovery of a method of imparting colour
+to the enamel, thus greatly adding to its beauty.
+
+The fame of Luca’s work extended throughout Europe, and specimens of his
+art became widely diffused.  Many of them were sent into France and
+Spain, where they were greatly prized.  At that time coarse brown jars
+and pipkins were almost the only articles of earthenware produced in
+France; and this continued to be the case, with comparatively small
+improvement, until the time of Palissy—a man who toiled and fought
+against stupendous difficulties with a heroism that sheds a glow almost
+of romance over the events of his chequered life.
+
+Bernard Palissy is supposed to have been born in the south of France, in
+the diocese of Agen, about the year 1510.  His father was probably a
+worker in glass, to which trade Bernard was brought up.  His parents were
+poor people—too poor to give him the benefit of any school education.  “I
+had no other books,” said he afterwards, “than heaven and earth, which
+are open to all.”  He learnt, however, the art of glass-painting, to
+which he added that of drawing, and afterwards reading and writing.
+
+When about eighteen years old, the glass trade becoming decayed, Palissy
+left his father’s house, with his wallet on his back, and went out into
+the world to search whether there was any place in it for him.  He first
+travelled towards Gascony, working at his trade where he could find
+employment, and occasionally occupying part of his time in
+land-measuring.  Then he travelled northwards, sojourning for various
+periods at different places in France, Flanders, and Lower Germany.
+
+Thus Palissy occupied about ten more years of his life, after which he
+married, and ceased from his wanderings, settling down to practise
+glass-painting and land-measuring at the small town of Saintes, in the
+Lower Charente.  There children were born to him; and not only his
+responsibilities but his expenses increased, while, do what he could, his
+earnings remained too small for his needs.  It was therefore necessary
+for him to bestir himself.  Probably he felt capable of better things
+than drudging in an employment so precarious as glass-painting; and hence
+he was induced to turn his attention to the kindred art of painting and
+enamelling earthenware.  Yet on this subject he was wholly ignorant; for
+he had never seen earth baked before he began his operations.  He had
+therefore everything to learn by himself, without any helper.  But he was
+full of hope, eager to learn, of unbounded perseverance and inexhaustible
+patience.
+
+It was the sight of an elegant cup of Italian manufacture—most probably
+one of Luca della Robbia’s make—which first set Palissy a-thinking about
+the new art.  A circumstance so apparently insignificant would have
+produced no effect upon an ordinary mind, or even upon Palissy himself at
+an ordinary time; but occurring as it did when he was meditating a change
+of calling, he at once became inflamed with the desire of imitating it.
+The sight of this cup disturbed his whole existence; and the
+determination to discover the enamel with which it was glazed
+thenceforward possessed him like a passion.  Had he been a single man he
+might have travelled into Italy in search of the secret; but he was bound
+to his wife and his children, and could not leave them; so he remained by
+their side groping in the dark in the hope of finding out the process of
+making and enamelling earthenware.
+
+At first he could merely guess the materials of which the enamel was
+composed; and he proceeded to try all manner of experiments to ascertain
+what they really were.  He pounded all the substances which he supposed
+were likely to produce it.  Then he bought common earthen pots, broke
+them into pieces, and, spreading his compounds over them, subjected them
+to the heat of a furnace which he erected for the purpose of baking them.
+His experiments failed; and the results were broken pots and a waste of
+fuel, drugs, time, and labour.  Women do not readily sympathise with
+experiments whose only tangible effect is to dissipate the means of
+buying clothes and food for their children; and Palissy’s wife, however
+dutiful in other respects, could not be reconciled to the purchase of
+more earthen pots, which seemed to her to be bought only to be broken.
+Yet she must needs submit; for Palissy had become thoroughly possessed by
+the determination to master the secret of the enamel, and would not leave
+it alone.
+
+For many successive months and years Palissy pursued his experiments.
+The first furnace having proved a failure, he proceeded to erect another
+out of doors.  There he burnt more wood, spoiled more drugs and pots, and
+lost more time, until poverty stared him and his family in the face.
+“Thus,” said he, “I fooled away several years, with sorrow and sighs,
+because I could not at all arrive at my intention.”  In the intervals of
+his experiments he occasionally worked at his former callings, painting
+on glass, drawing portraits, and measuring land; but his earnings from
+these sources were very small.  At length he was no longer able to carry
+on his experiments in his own furnace because of the heavy cost of fuel;
+but he bought more potsherds, broke them up as before into three or four
+hundred pieces, and, covering them with chemicals, carried them to a
+tile-work a league and a half distant from Saintes, there to be baked in
+an ordinary furnace.  After the operation he went to see the pieces taken
+out; and, to his dismay, the whole of the experiments were failures.  But
+though disappointed, he was not yet defeated; for he determined on the
+very spot to “begin afresh.”
+
+His business as a land-measurer called him away for a brief season from
+the pursuit of his experiments.  In conformity with an edict of the
+State, it became necessary to survey the salt-marshes in the
+neighbourhood of Saintes for the purpose of levying the land-tax.
+Palissy was employed to make this survey, and prepare the requisite map.
+The work occupied him some time, and he was doubtless well paid for it;
+but no sooner was it completed than he proceeded, with redoubled zeal, to
+follow up his old investigations “in the track of the enamels.”  He began
+by breaking three dozen new earthen pots, the pieces of which he covered
+with different materials which he had compounded, and then took them to a
+neighbouring glass-furnace to be baked.  The results gave him a glimmer
+of hope.  The greater heat of the glass-furnace had melted some of the
+compounds; but though Palissy searched diligently for the white enamel he
+could find none.
+
+For two more years he went on experimenting without any satisfactory
+result, until the proceeds of his survey of the salt-marshes having
+become nearly spent, he was reduced to poverty again.  But he resolved to
+make a last great effort; and he began by breaking more pots than ever.
+More than three hundred pieces of pottery covered with his compounds were
+sent to the glass-furnace; and thither he himself went to watch the
+results of the baking.  Four hours passed, during which he watched; and
+then the furnace was opened.  The material on _one_ only of the three
+hundred pieces of potsherd had melted, and it was taken out to cool.  As
+it hardened, it grew white-white and polished!  The piece of potsherd was
+covered with white enamel, described by Palissy as “singularly
+beautiful!”  And beautiful it must no doubt have been in his eyes after
+all his weary waiting.  He ran home with it to his wife, feeling himself,
+as he expressed it, quite a new creature.  But the prize was not yet
+won—far from it.  The partial success of this intended last effort merely
+had the effect of luring him on to a succession of further experiments
+and failures.
+
+In order that he might complete the invention, which he now believed to
+be at hand, he resolved to build for himself a glass-furnace near his
+dwelling, where he might carry on his operations in secret.  He proceeded
+to build the furnace with his own hands, carrying the bricks from the
+brick-field upon his back.  He was bricklayer, labourer, and all.  From
+seven to eight more months passed.  At last the furnace was built and
+ready for use.  Palissy had in the mean time fashioned a number of
+vessels of clay in readiness for the laying on of the enamel.  After
+being subjected to a preliminary process of baking, they were covered
+with the enamel compound, and again placed in the furnace for the grand
+crucial experiment.  Although his means were nearly exhausted, Palissy
+had been for some time accumulating a great store of fuel for the final
+effort; and he thought it was enough.  At last the fire was lit, and the
+operation proceeded.  All day he sat by the furnace, feeding it with
+fuel.  He sat there watching and feeding all through the long night.  But
+the enamel did not melt.  The sun rose upon his labours.  His wife
+brought him a portion of the scanty morning meal,—for he would not stir
+from the furnace, into which he continued from time to time to heave more
+fuel.  The second day passed, and still the enamel did not melt.  The sun
+set, and another night passed.  The pale, haggard, unshorn, baffled yet
+not beaten Palissy sat by his furnace eagerly looking for the melting of
+the enamel.  A third day and night passed—a fourth, a fifth, and even a
+sixth,—yes, for six long days and nights did the unconquerable Palissy
+watch and toil, fighting against hope; and still the enamel would not
+melt.
+
+It then occurred to him that there might be some defect in the materials
+for the enamel—perhaps something wanting in the flux; so he set to work
+to pound and compound fresh materials for a new experiment.  Thus two or
+three more weeks passed.  But how to buy more pots?—for those which he
+had made with his own hands for the purposes of the first experiment were
+by long baking irretrievably spoilt for the purposes of a second.  His
+money was now all spent; but he could borrow.  His character was still
+good, though his wife and the neighbours thought him foolishly wasting
+his means in futile experiments.  Nevertheless he succeeded.  He borrowed
+sufficient from a friend to enable him to buy more fuel and more pots,
+and he was again ready for a further experiment.  The pots were covered
+with the new compound, placed in the furnace, and the fire was again lit.
+
+It was the last and most desperate experiment of the whole.  The fire
+blazed up; the heat became intense; but still the enamel did not melt.
+The fuel began to run short!  How to keep up the fire?  There were the
+garden palings: these would burn.  They must be sacrificed rather than
+that the great experiment should fail.  The garden palings were pulled up
+and cast into the furnace.  They were burnt in vain!  The enamel had not
+yet melted.  Ten minutes more heat might do it.  Fuel must be had at
+whatever cost.  There remained the household furniture and shelving.  A
+crashing noise was heard in the house; and amidst the screams of his wife
+and children, who now feared Palissy’s reason was giving way, the tables
+were seized, broken up, and heaved into the furnace.  The enamel had not
+melted yet!  There remained the shelving.  Another noise of the wrenching
+of timber was heard within the house; and the shelves were torn down and
+hurled after the furniture into the fire.  Wife and children then rushed
+from the house, and went frantically through the town, calling out that
+poor Palissy had gone mad, and was breaking up his very furniture for
+firewood! {74}
+
+For an entire month his shirt had not been off his back, and he was
+utterly worn out—wasted with toil, anxiety, watching, and want of food.
+He was in debt, and seemed on the verge of ruin.  But he had at length
+mastered the secret; for the last great burst of heat had melted the
+enamel.  The common brown household jars, when taken out of the furnace
+after it had become cool, were found covered with a white glaze!  For
+this he could endure reproach, contumely, and scorn, and wait patiently
+for the opportunity of putting his discovery into practice as better days
+came round.
+
+Palissy next hired a potter to make some earthen vessels after designs
+which he furnished; while he himself proceeded to model some medallions
+in clay for the purpose of enamelling them.  But how to maintain himself
+and his family until the wares were made and ready for sale?  Fortunately
+there remained one man in Saintes who still believed in the integrity, if
+not in the judgment, of Palissy—an inn-keeper, who agreed to feed and
+lodge him for six months, while he went on with his manufacture.  As for
+the working potter whom he had hired, Palissy soon found that he could
+not pay him the stipulated wages.  Having already stripped his dwelling,
+he could but strip himself; and he accordingly parted with some of his
+clothes to the potter, in part payment of the wages which he owed him.
+
+Palissy next erected an improved furnace, but he was so unfortunate as to
+build part of the inside with flints.  When it was heated, these flints
+cracked and burst, and the spiculæ were scattered over the pieces of
+pottery, sticking to them.  Though the enamel came out right, the work
+was irretrievably spoilt, and thus six more months’ labour was lost.
+Persons were found willing to buy the articles at a low price,
+notwithstanding the injury they had sustained; but Palissy would not sell
+them, considering that to have done so would be to “decry and abate his
+honour;” and so he broke in pieces the entire batch.  “Nevertheless,”
+says he, “hope continued to inspire me, and I held on manfully;
+sometimes, when visitors called, I entertained them with pleasantry,
+while I was really sad at heart. . . . Worst of all the sufferings I had
+to endure, were the mockeries and persecutions of those of my own
+household, who were so unreasonable as to expect me to execute work
+without the means of doing so.  For years my furnaces were without any
+covering or protection, and while attending them I have been for nights
+at the mercy of the wind and the rain, without help or consolation, save
+it might be the wailing of cats on the one side and the howling of dogs
+on the other.  Sometimes the tempest would beat so furiously against the
+furnaces that I was compelled to leave them and seek shelter within
+doors.  Drenched by rain, and in no better plight than if I had been
+dragged through mire, I have gone to lie down at midnight or at daybreak,
+stumbling into the house without a light, and reeling from one side to
+another as if I had been drunken, but really weary with watching and
+filled with sorrow at the loss of my labour after such long toiling.  But
+alas! my home proved no refuge; for, drenched and besmeared as I was, I
+found in my chamber a second persecution worse than the first, which
+makes me even now marvel that I was not utterly consumed by my many
+sorrows.”
+
+At this stage of his affairs, Palissy became melancholy and almost
+hopeless, and seems to have all but broken down.  He wandered gloomily
+about the fields near Saintes, his clothes hanging in tatters, and
+himself worn to a skeleton.  In a curious passage in his writings he
+describes how that the calves of his legs had disappeared and were no
+longer able with the help of garters to hold up his stockings, which fell
+about his heels when he walked. {77}  The family continued to reproach
+him for his recklessness, and his neighbours cried shame upon him for his
+obstinate folly.  So he returned for a time to his former calling; and
+after about a year’s diligent labour, during which he earned bread for
+his household and somewhat recovered his character among his neighbours,
+he again resumed his darling enterprise.  But though he had already spent
+about ten years in the search for the enamel, it cost him nearly eight
+more years of experimental plodding before he perfected his invention.
+He gradually learnt dexterity and certainty of result by experience,
+gathering practical knowledge out of many failures.  Every mishap was a
+fresh lesson to him, teaching him something new about the nature of
+enamels, the qualities of argillaceous earths, the tempering of clays,
+and the construction and management of furnaces.
+
+At last, after about sixteen years’ labour, Palissy took heart and called
+himself Potter.  These sixteen years had been his term of apprenticeship
+to the art; during which he had wholly to teach himself, beginning at the
+very beginning.  He was now able to sell his wares and thereby maintain
+his family in comfort.  But he never rested satisfied with what he had
+accomplished.  He proceeded from one step of improvement to another;
+always aiming at the greatest perfection possible.  He studied natural
+objects for patterns, and with such success that the great Buffon spoke
+of him as “so great a naturalist as Nature only can produce.”  His
+ornamental pieces are now regarded as rare gems in the cabinets of
+virtuosi, and sell at almost fabulous prices. {78}  The ornaments on them
+are for the most part accurate models from life, of wild animals,
+lizards, and plants, found in the fields about Saintes, and tastefully
+combined as ornaments into the texture of a plate or vase.  When Palissy
+had reached the height of his art he styled himself “Ouvrier de Terre et
+Inventeur des Rustics Figulines.”
+
+We have not, however, come to an end of the sufferings of Palissy,
+respecting which a few words remain to be said.  Being a Protestant, at a
+time when religious persecution waxed hot in the south of France, and
+expressing his views without fear, he was regarded as a dangerous
+heretic.  His enemies having informed against him, his house at Saintes
+was entered by the officers of “justice,” and his workshop was thrown
+open to the rabble, who entered and smashed his pottery, while he himself
+was hurried off by night and cast into a dungeon at Bordeaux, to wait his
+turn at the stake or the scaffold.  He was condemned to be burnt; but a
+powerful noble, the Constable de Montmorency, interposed to save his
+life—not because he had any special regard for Palissy or his religion,
+but because no other artist could be found capable of executing the
+enamelled pavement for his magnificent château then in course of erection
+at Ecouen, about four leagues from Paris.  By his influence an edict was
+issued appointing Palissy Inventor of Rustic Figulines to the King and to
+the Constable, which had the effect of immediately removing him from the
+jurisdiction of Bourdeaux.  He was accordingly liberated, and returned to
+his home at Saintes only to find it devastated and broken up. His
+workshop was open to the sky, and his works lay in ruins.  Shaking the
+dust of Saintes from his feet he left the place never to return to it,
+and removed to Paris to carry on the works ordered of him by the
+Constable and the Queen Mother, being lodged in the Tuileries {79} while
+so occupied.
+
+Besides carrying on the manufacture of pottery, with the aid of his two
+sons, Palissy, during the latter part of his life, wrote and published
+several books on the potter’s art, with a view to the instruction of his
+countrymen, and in order that they might avoid the many mistakes which he
+himself had made.  He also wrote on agriculture, on fortification, and
+natural history, on which latter subject he even delivered lectures to a
+limited number of persons.  He waged war against astrology, alchemy,
+witchcraft, and like impostures.  This stirred up against him many
+enemies, who pointed the finger at him as a heretic, and he was again
+arrested for his religion and imprisoned in the Bastille.  He was now an
+old man of seventy-eight, trembling on the verge of the grave, but his
+spirit was as brave as ever.  He was threatened with death unless he
+recanted; but he was as obstinate in holding to his religion as he had
+been in hunting out the secret of the enamel.  The king, Henry III., even
+went to see him in prison to induce him to abjure his faith.  “My good
+man,” said the King, “you have now served my mother and myself for
+forty-five years.  We have put up with your adhering to your religion
+amidst fires and massacres: now I am so pressed by the Guise party as
+well as by my own people, that I am constrained to leave you in the hands
+of your enemies, and to-morrow you will be burnt unless you become
+converted.”  “Sire,” answered the unconquerable old man, “I am ready to
+give my life for the glory of God.  You have said many times that you
+have pity on me; and now I have pity on you, who have pronounced the
+words _I am constrained_!  It is not spoken like a king, sire; it is what
+you, and those who constrain you, the Guisards and all your people, can
+never effect upon me, for I know how to die.” {80a}  Palissy did indeed
+die shortly after, a martyr, though not at the stake.  He died in the
+Bastille, after enduring about a year’s imprisonment,—there peacefully
+terminating a life distinguished for heroic labour, extraordinary
+endurance, inflexible rectitude, and the exhibition of many rare and
+noble virtues. {80b}
+
+The life of John Frederick Böttgher, the inventor of hard porcelain,
+presents a remarkable contrast to that of Palissy; though it also
+contains many points of singular and almost romantic interest.  Böttgher
+was born at Schleiz, in the Voightland, in 1685, and at twelve years of
+age was placed apprentice with an apothecary at Berlin.  He seems to have
+been early fascinated by chemistry, and occupied most of his leisure in
+making experiments.  These for the most part tended in one direction—the
+art of converting common on metals into gold.  At the end of several
+years, Böttgher pretended to have discovered the universal solvent of the
+alchemists, and professed that he had made gold by its means.  He
+exhibited its powers before his master, the apothecary Zörn, and by some
+trick or other succeeded in making him and several other witnesses
+believe that he had actually converted copper into gold.
+
+The news spread abroad that the apothecary’s apprentice had discovered
+the grand secret, and crowds collected about the shop to get a sight of
+the wonderful young “gold-cook.”  The king himself expressed a wish to
+see and converse with him, and when Frederick I. was presented with a
+piece of the gold pretended to have been converted from copper, he was so
+dazzled with the prospect of securing an infinite quantity of it—Prussia
+being then in great straits for money—that he determined to secure
+Böttgher and employ him to make gold for him within the strong fortress
+of Spandau.  But the young apothecary, suspecting the king’s intention,
+and probably fearing detection, at once resolved on flight, and he
+succeeded in getting across the frontier into Saxony.
+
+A reward of a thousand thalers was offered for Böttgher’s apprehension,
+but in vain.  He arrived at Wittenberg, and appealed for protection to
+the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus I. (King of Poland), surnamed
+“the Strong.”  Frederick was himself very much in want of money at the
+time, and he was overjoyed at the prospect of obtaining gold in any
+quantity by the aid of the young alchemist.  Böttgher was accordingly
+conveyed in secret to Dresden, accompanied by a royal escort.  He had
+scarcely left Wittenberg when a battalion of Prussian grenadiers appeared
+before the gates demanding the gold-maker’s extradition.  But it was too
+late: Böttgher had already arrived in Dresden, where he was lodged in the
+Golden House, and treated with every consideration, though strictly
+watched and kept under guard.
+
+The Elector, however, must needs leave him there for a time, having to
+depart forthwith to Poland, then almost in a state of anarchy.  But,
+impatient for gold, he wrote Böttgher from Warsaw, urging him to
+communicate the secret, so that he himself might practise the art of
+commutation.  The young “gold-cook,” thus pressed, forwarded to Frederick
+a small phial containing “a reddish fluid,” which, it was asserted,
+changed all metals, when in a molten state, into gold.  This important
+phial was taken in charge by the Prince Fürst von Fürstenburg, who,
+accompanied by a regiment of Guards, hurried with it to Warsaw.  Arrived
+there, it was determined to make immediate trial of the process.  The
+King and the Prince locked themselves up in a secret chamber of the
+palace, girt themselves about with leather aprons, and like true
+“gold-cooks” set to work melting copper in a crucible and afterwards
+applying to it the red fluid of Böttgher.  But the result was
+unsatisfactory; for notwithstanding all that they could do, the copper
+obstinately remained copper.  On referring to the alchemist’s
+instructions, however, the King found that, to succeed with the process,
+it was necessary that the fluid should be used “in great purity of
+heart;” and as his Majesty was conscious of having spent the evening in
+very bad company he attributed the failure of the experiment to that
+cause.  A second trial was followed by no better results, and then the
+King became furious; for he had confessed and received absolution before
+beginning the second experiment.
+
+Frederick Augustus now resolved on forcing Böttgher to disclose the
+golden secret, as the only means of relief from his urgent pecuniary
+difficulties.  The alchemist, hearing of the royal intention, again
+determined to fly.  He succeeded in escaping his guard, and, after three
+days’ travel, arrived at Ens in Austria, where he thought himself safe.
+The agents of the Elector were, however, at his heels; they had tracked
+him to the “Golden Stag,” which they surrounded, and seizing him in his
+bed, notwithstanding his resistance and appeals to the Austrian
+authorities for help, they carried him by force to Dresden.  From this
+time he was more strictly watched than ever, and he was shortly after
+transferred to the strong fortress of Köningstein.  It was communicated
+to him that the royal exchequer was completely empty, and that ten
+regiments of Poles in arrears of pay were waiting for his gold.  The King
+himself visited him, and told him in a severe tone that if he did not at
+once proceed to make gold, he would be hung!  (“_Thu mir zurecht_,
+_Böttgher_, _sonst lass ich dich hangen_”).
+
+Years passed, and still Böttgher made no gold; but he was not hung.  It
+was reserved for him to make a far more important discovery than the
+conversion of copper into gold, namely, the conversion of clay into
+porcelain.  Some rare specimens of this ware had been brought by the
+Portuguese from China, which were sold for more than their weight in
+gold.  Böttgher was first induced to turn his attention to the subject by
+Walter von Tschirnhaus, a maker of optical instruments, also an
+alchemist.  Tschirnhaus was a man of education and distinction, and was
+held in much esteem by Prince Fürstenburg as well as by the Elector.  He
+very sensibly said to Böttgher, still in fear of the gallows—“If you
+can’t make gold, try and do something else; make porcelain.”
+
+The alchemist acted on the hint, and began his experiments, working night
+and day.  He prosecuted his investigations for a long time with great
+assiduity, but without success.  At length some red clay, brought to him
+for the purpose of making his crucibles, set him on the right track.  He
+found that this clay, when submitted to a high temperature, became
+vitrified and retained its shape; and that its texture resembled that of
+porcelain, excepting in colour and opacity.  He had in fact accidentally
+discovered red porcelain, and he proceeded to manufacture it and sell it
+as porcelain.
+
+Böttgher was, however, well aware that the white colour was an essential
+property of true porcelain; and he therefore prosecuted his experiments
+in the hope of discovering the secret.  Several years thus passed, but
+without success; until again accident stood his friend, and helped him to
+a knowledge of the art of making white porcelain.  One day, in the year
+1707, he found his perruque unusually heavy, and asked of his valet the
+reason.  The answer was, that it was owing to the powder with which the
+wig was dressed, which consisted of a kind of earth then much used for
+hair powder.  Böttgher’s quick imagination immediately seized upon the
+idea.  This white earthy powder might possibly be the very earth of which
+he was in search—at all events the opportunity must not be let slip of
+ascertaining what it really was.  He was rewarded for his painstaking
+care and watchfulness; for he found, on experiment, that the principal
+ingredient of the hair-powder consisted of _kaolin_, the want of which
+had so long formed an insuperable difficulty in the way of his inquiries.
+
+The discovery, in Böttgher’s intelligent hands, led to great results, and
+proved of far greater importance than the discovery of the philosopher’s
+stone would have been.  In October, 1707, he presented his first piece of
+porcelain to the Elector, who was greatly pleased with it; and it was
+resolved that Böttgher should be furnished with the means necessary for
+perfecting his invention.  Having obtained a skilled workman from Delft,
+he began to _turn_ porcelain with great success.  He now entirely
+abandoned alchemy for pottery, and inscribed over the door of his
+workshop this distich:—
+
+    “_Es machte Gott_, _der grosse Schöpfer_,
+    _Aus einem Goldmacher einen Töpfer_.” {84}
+
+Böttgher, however, was still under strict surveillance, for fear lest he
+should communicate his secret to others or escape the Elector’s control.
+The new workshops and furnaces which were erected for him, were guarded
+by troops night and day, and six superior officers were made responsible
+for the personal security of the potter.
+
+Böttgher’s further experiments with his new furnaces proving very
+successful, and the porcelain which he manufactured being found to fetch
+large prices, it was next determined to establish a Royal Manufactory of
+porcelain.  The manufacture of delft ware was known to have greatly
+enriched Holland.  Why should not the manufacture of porcelain equally
+enrich the Elector?  Accordingly, a decree went forth, dated the 23rd of
+January, 1710, for the establishment of “a large manufactory of
+porcelain” at the Albrechtsburg in Meissen.  In this decree, which was
+translated into Latin, French, and Dutch, and distributed by the
+Ambassadors of the Elector at all the European Courts, Frederick Augustus
+set forth that to promote the welfare of Saxony, which had suffered much
+through the Swedish invasion, he had “directed his attention to the
+subterranean treasures (_unterirdischen Schätze_)” of the country, and
+having employed some able persons in the investigation, they had
+succeeded in manufacturing “a sort of red vessels (_eine Art rother
+Gefässe_) far superior to the Indian terra sigillata;” {85} as also
+“coloured ware and plates (_buntes Geschirr und Tafeln_) which may be
+cut, ground, and polished, and are quite equal to Indian vessels,” and
+finally that “specimens of white porcelain (_Proben von weissem
+Porzellan_)” had already been obtained, and it was hoped that this
+quality, too, would soon be manufactured in considerable quantities.  The
+royal decree concluded by inviting “foreign artists and handicraftmen” to
+come to Saxony and engage as assistants in the new factory, at high
+wages, and under the patronage of the King.  This royal edict probably
+gives the best account of the actual state of Böttgher’s invention at the
+time.
+
+It has been stated in German publications that Böttgher, for the great
+services rendered by him to the Elector and to Saxony, was made Manager
+of the Royal Porcelain Works, and further promoted to the dignity of
+Baron.  Doubtless he deserved these honours; but his treatment was of an
+altogether different character, for it was shabby, cruel, and inhuman.
+Two royal officials, named Matthieu and Nehmitz, were put over his head
+as directors of the factory, while he himself only held the position of
+foreman of potters, and at the same time was detained the King’s
+prisoner.  During the erection of the factory at Meissen, while his
+assistance was still indispensable, he was conducted by soldiers to and
+from Dresden; and even after the works were finished, he was locked up
+nightly in his room.  All this preyed upon his mind, and in repeated
+letters to the King he sought to obtain mitigation of his fate.  Some of
+these letters are very touching.  “I will devote my whole soul to the art
+of making porcelain,” he writes on one occasion, “I will do more than any
+inventor ever did before; only give me liberty, liberty!”
+
+To these appeals, the King turned a deaf ear.  He was ready to spend
+money and grant favours; but liberty he would not give.  He regarded
+Böttgher as his slave.  In this position, the persecuted man kept on
+working for some time, till, at the end of a year or two, he grew
+negligent.  Disgusted with the world and with himself, he took to
+drinking.  Such is the force of example, that it no sooner became known
+that Böttgher had betaken himself to this vice, than the greater number
+of the workmen at the Meissen factory became drunkards too.  Quarrels and
+fightings without end were the consequence, so that the troops were
+frequently called upon to interfere and keep peace among the
+“Porzellanern,” as they were nicknamed.  After a while, the whole of
+them, more than three hundred, were shut up in the Albrechtsburg, and
+treated as prisoners of state.
+
+Böttgher at last fell seriously ill, and in May, 1713, his dissolution
+was hourly expected.  The King, alarmed at losing so valuable a slave,
+now gave him permission to take carriage exercise under a guard; and,
+having somewhat recovered, he was allowed occasionally to go to Dresden.
+In a letter written by the King in April, 1714, Böttgher was promised his
+full liberty; but the offer came too late.  Broken in body and mind,
+alternately working and drinking, though with occasional gleams of nobler
+intention, and suffering under constant ill-health, the result of his
+enforced confinement, Böttgher lingered on for a few years more, until
+death freed him from his sufferings on the 13th March, 1719, in the
+thirty-fifth year of his age.  He was buried _at night_—as if he had been
+a dog—in the Johannis Cemetery of Meissen.  Such was the treatment and
+such the unhappy end, of one of Saxony’s greatest benefactors.
+
+The porcelain manufacture immediately opened up an important source of
+public revenue, and it became so productive to the Elector of Saxony,
+that his example was shortly after followed by most European monarchs.
+Although soft porcelain had been made at St. Cloud fourteen years before
+Böttgher’s discovery, the superiority of the hard porcelain soon became
+generally recognised.  Its manufacture was begun at Sèvres in 1770, and
+it has since almost entirely superseded the softer material.  This is now
+one of the most thriving branches of French industry, of which the high
+quality of the articles produced is certainly indisputable.
+
+The career of Josiah Wedgwood, the English potter, was less chequered and
+more prosperous than that of either Palissy or Böttgher, and his lot was
+cast in happier times.  Down to the middle of last century England was
+behind most other nations of the first order in Europe in respect of
+skilled industry.  Although there were many potters in Staffordshire—and
+Wedgwood himself belonged to a numerous clan of potters of the same
+name—their productions were of the rudest kind, for the most part only
+plain brown ware, with the patterns scratched in while the clay was wet.
+The principal supply of the better articles of earthenware came from
+Delft in Holland, and of drinking stone pots from Cologne.  Two foreign
+potters, the brothers Elers from Nuremberg, settled for a time in
+Staffordshire, and introduced an improved manufacture, but they shortly
+after removed to Chelsea, where they confined themselves to the
+manufacture of ornamental pieces.  No porcelain capable of resisting a
+scratch with a hard point had yet been made in England; and for a long
+time the “white ware” made in Staffordshire was not white, but of a dirty
+cream colour.  Such, in a few words, was the condition of the pottery
+manufacture when Josiah Wedgwood was born at Burslem in 1730.  By the
+time that he died, sixty-four years later, it had become completely
+changed.  By his energy, skill, and genius, he established the trade upon
+a new and solid foundation; and, in the words of his epitaph, “converted
+a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art and an
+important branch of national commerce.”
+
+Josiah Wedgwood was one of those indefatigable men who from time to time
+spring from the ranks of the common people, and by their energetic
+character not only practically educate the working population in habits
+of industry, but by the example of diligence and perseverance which they
+set before them, largely influence the public activity in all directions,
+and contribute in a great degree to form the national character.  He was,
+like Arkwright, the youngest of a family of thirteen children.  His
+grandfather and granduncle were both potters, as was also his father who
+died when he was a mere boy, leaving him a patrimony of twenty pounds.
+He had learned to read and write at the village school; but on the death
+of his father he was taken from it and set to work as a “thrower” in a
+small pottery carried on by his elder brother.  There he began life, his
+working life, to use his own words, “at the lowest round of the ladder,”
+when only eleven years old.  He was shortly after seized by an attack of
+virulent smallpox, from the effects of which he suffered during the rest
+of his life, for it was followed by a disease in the right knee, which
+recurred at frequent intervals, and was only got rid of by the amputation
+of the limb many years later.  Mr. Gladstone, in his eloquent Éloge on
+Wedgwood recently delivered at Burslem, well observed that the disease
+from which he suffered was not improbably the occasion of his subsequent
+excellence.  “It prevented him from growing up to be the active, vigorous
+English workman, possessed of all his limbs, and knowing right well the
+use of them; but it put him upon considering whether, as he could not be
+that, he might not be something else, and something greater.  It sent his
+mind inwards; it drove him to meditate upon the laws and secrets of his
+art.  The result was, that he arrived at a perception and a grasp of them
+which might, perhaps, have been envied, certainly have been owned, by an
+Athenian potter.” {89}
+
+When he had completed his apprenticeship with his brother, Josiah joined
+partnership with another workman, and carried on a small business in
+making knife-hafts, boxes, and sundry articles for domestic use.  Another
+partnership followed, when he proceeded to make melon table plates, green
+pickle leaves, candlesticks, snuffboxes, and such like articles; but he
+made comparatively little progress until he began business on his own
+account at Burslem in the year 1759.  There he diligently pursued his
+calling, introducing new articles to the trade, and gradually extending
+his business.  What he chiefly aimed at was to manufacture cream-coloured
+ware of a better quality than was then produced in Staffordshire as
+regarded shape, colour, glaze, and durability.  To understand the subject
+thoroughly, he devoted his leisure to the study of chemistry; and he made
+numerous experiments on fluxes, glazes, and various sorts of clay.  Being
+a close inquirer and accurate observer, he noticed that a certain earth
+containing silica, which was black before calcination, became white after
+exposure to the heat of a furnace.  This fact, observed and pondered on,
+led to the idea of mixing silica with the red powder of the potteries,
+and to the discovery that the mixture becomes white when calcined.  He
+had but to cover this material with a vitrification of transparent glaze,
+to obtain one of the most important products of fictile art—that which,
+under the name of English earthenware, was to attain the greatest
+commercial value and become of the most extensive utility.
+
+Wedgwood was for some time much troubled by his furnaces, though nothing
+like to the same extent that Palissy was; and he overcame his
+difficulties in the same way—by repeated experiments and unfaltering
+perseverance.  His first attempts at making porcelain for table use was a
+succession of disastrous failures,—the labours of months being often
+destroyed in a day.  It was only after a long series of trials, in the
+course of which he lost time, money, and labour, that he arrived at the
+proper sort of glaze to be used; but he would not be denied, and at last
+he conquered success through patience.  The improvement of pottery became
+his passion, and was never lost sight of for a moment.  Even when he had
+mastered his difficulties, and become a prosperous man—manufacturing
+white stone ware and cream-coloured ware in large quantities for home and
+foreign use—he went forward perfecting his manufactures, until, his
+example extending in all directions, the action of the entire district
+was stimulated, and a great branch of British industry was eventually
+established on firm foundations.  He aimed throughout at the highest
+excellence, declaring his determination “to give over manufacturing any
+article, whatsoever it might be, rather than to degrade it.”
+
+Wedgwood was cordially helped by many persons of rank and influence; for,
+working in the truest spirit, he readily commanded the help and
+encouragement of other true workers.  He made for Queen Charlotte the
+first royal table-service of English manufacture, of the kind afterwards
+called “Queen’s-ware,” and was appointed Royal Potter; a title which he
+prized more than if he had been made a baron.  Valuable sets of porcelain
+were entrusted to him for imitation, in which he succeeded to admiration.
+Sir William Hamilton lent him specimens of ancient art from Herculaneum,
+of which he produced accurate and beautiful copies.  The Duchess of
+Portland outbid him for the Barberini Vase when that article was offered
+for sale.  He bid as high as seventeen hundred guineas for it: her grace
+secured it for eighteen hundred; but when she learnt Wedgwood’s object
+she at once generously lent him the vase to copy.  He produced fifty
+copies at a cost of about 2500_l._, and his expenses were not covered by
+their sale; but he gained his object, which was to show that whatever had
+been done, that English skill and energy could and would accomplish.
+
+Wedgwood called to his aid the crucible of the chemist, the knowledge of
+the antiquary, and the skill of the artist.  He found out Flaxman when a
+youth, and while he liberally nurtured his genius drew from him a large
+number of beautiful designs for his pottery and porcelain; converting
+them by his manufacture into objects of taste and excellence, and thus
+making them instrumental in the diffusion of classical art amongst the
+people.  By careful experiment and study he was even enabled to
+rediscover the art of painting on porcelain or earthenware vases and
+similar articles—an art practised by the ancient Etruscans, but which had
+been lost since the time of Pliny.  He distinguished himself by his own
+contributions to science, and his name is still identified with the
+Pyrometer which he invented.  He was an indefatigable supporter of all
+measures of public utility; and the construction of the Trent and Mersey
+Canal, which completed the navigable communication between the eastern
+and western sides of the island, was mainly due to his public-spirited
+exertions, allied to the engineering skill of Brindley.  The road
+accommodation of the district being of an execrable character, he planned
+and executed a turnpike-road through the Potteries, ten miles in length.
+The reputation he achieved was such that his works at Burslem, and
+subsequently those at Etruria, which he founded and built, became a point
+of attraction to distinguished visitors from all parts of Europe.
+
+The result of Wedgwood’s labours was, that the manufacture of pottery,
+which he found in the very lowest condition, became one of the staples of
+England; and instead of importing what we needed for home use from
+abroad, we became large exporters to other countries, supplying them with
+earthenware even in the face of enormous prohibitory duties on articles
+of British produce.  Wedgwood gave evidence as to his manufactures before
+Parliament in 1785, only some thirty years after he had begun his
+operations; from which it appeared, that instead of providing only casual
+employment to a small number of inefficient and badly remunerated
+workmen, about 20,000 persons then derived their bread directly from the
+manufacture of earthenware, without taking into account the increased
+numbers to which it gave employment in coal-mines, and in the carrying
+trade by land and sea, and the stimulus which it gave to employment in
+many ways in various parts of the country.  Yet, important as had been
+the advances made in his time, Mr. Wedgwood was of opinion that the
+manufacture was but in its infancy, and that the improvements which he
+had effected were of but small amount compared with those to which the
+art was capable of attaining, through the continued industry and growing
+intelligence of the manufacturers, and the natural facilities and
+political advantages enjoyed by Great Britain; an opinion which has been
+fully borne out by the progress which has since been effected in this
+important branch of industry.  In 1852 not fewer than 84,000,000 pieces
+of pottery were exported from England to other countries, besides what
+were made for home use.  But it is not merely the quantity and value of
+the produce that is entitled to consideration, but the improvement of the
+condition of the population by whom this great branch of industry is
+conducted.  When Wedgwood began his labours, the Staffordshire district
+was only in a half-civilized state.  The people were poor, uncultivated,
+and few in number.  When Wedgwood’s manufacture was firmly established,
+there was found ample employment at good wages for three times the number
+of population; while their moral advancement had kept pace with their
+material improvement.
+
+Men such as these are fairly entitled to take rank as the Industrial
+Heroes of the civilized world.  Their patient self-reliance amidst trials
+and difficulties, their courage and perseverance in the pursuit of worthy
+objects, are not less heroic of their kind than the bravery and devotion
+of the soldier and the sailor, whose duty and pride it is heroically to
+defend what these valiant leaders of industry have so heroically
+achieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+APPLICATION AND PERSEVERANCE.
+
+
+    “Rich are the diligent, who can command
+    Time, nature’s stock! and could his hour-glass fall,
+    Would, as for seed of stars, stoop for the sand,
+    And, by incessant labour, gather all.”—_D’Avenant_.
+
+    “Allez en avant, et la foi vous viendra!”—_D’Alembert_.
+
+THE greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and
+the exercise of ordinary qualities.  The common life of every day, with
+its cares, necessities, and duties, affords ample opportunity for
+acquiring experience of the best kind; and its most beaten paths provide
+the true worker with abundant scope for effort and room for
+self-improvement.  The road of human welfare lies along the old highway
+of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work
+in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful.
+
+Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so
+blind as men are.  Those who look into practical life will find that
+fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves
+are on the side of the best navigators.  In the pursuit of even the
+highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the
+most useful—such as common sense, attention, application, and
+perseverance.  Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the
+highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities.  The
+very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of
+genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the
+commoner sort.  Some have even defined genius to be only common sense
+intensified.  A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of
+it as the power of making efforts.  John Foster held it to be the power
+of lighting one’s own fire.  Buffon said of genius “it is patience.”
+
+Newton’s was unquestionably a mind of the very highest order, and yet,
+when asked by what means he had worked out his extraordinary discoveries,
+he modestly answered, “By always thinking unto them.”  At another time he
+thus expressed his method of study: “I keep the subject continually
+before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by little and
+little into a full and clear light.”  It was in Newton’s case, as in
+every other, only by diligent application and perseverance that his great
+reputation was achieved.  Even his recreation consisted in change of
+study, laying down one subject to take up another.  To Dr. Bentley he
+said: “If I have done the public any service, it is due to nothing but
+industry and patient thought.”  So Kepler, another great philosopher,
+speaking of his studies and his progress, said: “As in Virgil, ‘Fama
+mobilitate viget, vires acquirit eundo,’ so it was with me, that the
+diligent thought on these things was the occasion of still further
+thinking; until at last I brooded with the whole energy of my mind upon
+the subject.”
+
+The extraordinary results effected by dint of sheer industry and
+perseverance, have led many distinguished men to doubt whether the gift
+of genius be so exceptional an endowment as it is usually supposed to be.
+Thus Voltaire held that it is only a very slight line of separation that
+divides the man of genius from the man of ordinary mould.  Beccaria was
+even of opinion that all men might be poets and orators, and Reynolds
+that they might be painters and sculptors.  If this were really so, that
+stolid Englishman might not have been so very far wrong after all, who,
+on Canova’s death, inquired of his brother whether it was “his intention
+to carry on the business!”  Locke, Helvetius, and Diderot believed that
+all men have an equal aptitude for genius, and that what some are able to
+effect, under the laws which regulate the operations of the intellect,
+must also be within the reach of others who, under like circumstances,
+apply themselves to like pursuits.  But while admitting to the fullest
+extent the wonderful achievements of labour, and recognising the fact
+that men of the most distinguished genius have invariably been found the
+most indefatigable workers, it must nevertheless be sufficiently obvious
+that, without the original endowment of heart and brain, no amount of
+labour, however well applied, could have produced a Shakespeare, a
+Newton, a Beethoven, or a Michael Angelo.
+
+Dalton, the chemist, repudiated the notion of his being “a genius,”
+attributing everything which he had accomplished to simple industry and
+accumulation.  John Hunter said of himself, “My mind is like a beehive;
+but full as it is of buzz and apparent confusion, it is yet full of order
+and regularity, and food collected with incessant industry from the
+choicest stores of nature.”  We have, indeed, but to glance at the
+biographies of great men to find that the most distinguished inventors,
+artists, thinkers, and workers of all kinds, owe their success, in a
+great measure, to their indefatigable industry and application.  They
+were men who turned all things to gold—even time itself.  Disraeli the
+elder held that the secret of success consisted in being master of your
+subject, such mastery being attainable only through continuous
+application and study.  Hence it happens that the men who have most moved
+the world, have not been so much men of genius, strictly so called, as
+men of intense mediocre abilities, and untiring perseverance; not so
+often the gifted, of naturally bright and shining qualities, as those who
+have applied themselves diligently to their work, in whatsoever line that
+might lie.  “Alas!” said a widow, speaking of her brilliant but careless
+son, “he has not the gift of continuance.”  Wanting in perseverance, such
+volatile natures are outstripped in the race of life by the diligent and
+even the dull.  “Che va piano, va longano, e va lontano,” says the
+Italian proverb: Who goes slowly, goes long, and goes far.
+
+Hence, a great point to be aimed at is to get the working quality well
+trained.  When that is done, the race will be found comparatively easy.
+We must repeat and again repeat; facility will come with labour.  Not
+even the simplest art can be accomplished without it; and what
+difficulties it is found capable of achieving!  It was by early
+discipline and repetition that the late Sir Robert Peel cultivated those
+remarkable, though still mediocre powers, which rendered him so
+illustrious an ornament of the British Senate.  When a boy at Drayton
+Manor, his father was accustomed to set him up at table to practise
+speaking extempore; and he early accustomed him to repeat as much of the
+Sunday’s sermon as he could remember.  Little progress was made at first,
+but by steady perseverance the habit of attention became powerful, and
+the sermon was at length repeated almost verbatim.  When afterwards
+replying in succession to the arguments of his parliamentary opponents—an
+art in which he was perhaps unrivalled—it was little surmised that the
+extraordinary power of accurate remembrance which he displayed on such
+occasions had been originally trained under the discipline of his father
+in the parish church of Drayton.
+
+It is indeed marvellous what continuous application will effect in the
+commonest of things.  It may seem a simple affair to play upon a violin;
+yet what a long and laborious practice it requires!  Giardini said to a
+youth who asked him how long it would take to learn it, “Twelve hours a
+day for twenty years together.”  Industry, it is said, _fait l’ours
+danser_.  The poor figurante must devote years of incessant toil to her
+profitless task before she can shine in it.  When Taglioni was preparing
+herself for her evening exhibition, she would, after a severe two hours’
+lesson from her father, fall down exhausted, and had to be undressed,
+sponged, and resuscitated totally unconscious.  The agility and bounds of
+the evening were insured only at a price like this.
+
+Progress, however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow.  Great
+results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance
+in life as we walk, step by step.  De Maistre says that “to know _how to
+wait_ is the great secret of success.”  We must sow before we can reap,
+and often have to wait long, content meanwhile to look patiently forward
+in hope; the fruit best worth waiting for often ripening the slowest.
+But “time and patience,” says the Eastern proverb, “change the mulberry
+leaf to satin.”
+
+To wait patiently, however, men must work cheerfully.  Cheerfulness is an
+excellent working quality, imparting great elasticity to the character.
+As a bishop has said, “Temper is nine-tenths of Christianity;” so are
+cheerfulness and diligence nine-tenths of practical wisdom.  They are the
+life and soul of success, as well as of happiness; perhaps the very
+highest pleasure in life consisting in clear, brisk, conscious working;
+energy, confidence, and every other good quality mainly depending upon
+it.  Sydney Smith, when labouring as a parish priest at Foston-le-Clay,
+in Yorkshire,—though he did not feel himself to be in his proper
+element,—went cheerfully to work in the firm determination to do his
+best.  “I am resolved,” he said, “to like it, and reconcile myself to it,
+which is more manly than to feign myself above it, and to send up
+complaints by the post of being thrown away, and being desolate, and such
+like trash.”  So Dr. Hook, when leaving Leeds for a new sphere of labour
+said, “Wherever I may be, I shall, by God’s blessing, do with my might
+what my hand findeth to do; and if I do not find work, I shall make it.”
+
+Labourers for the public good especially, have to work long and
+patiently, often uncheered by the prospect of immediate recompense or
+result.  The seeds they sow sometimes lie hidden under the winter’s snow,
+and before the spring comes the husbandman may have gone to his rest.  It
+is not every public worker who, like Rowland Hill, sees his great idea
+bring forth fruit in his life-time.  Adam Smith sowed the seeds of a
+great social amelioration in that dingy old University of Glasgow where
+he so long laboured, and laid the foundations of his ‘Wealth of Nations;’
+but seventy years passed before his work bore substantial fruits, nor
+indeed are they all gathered in yet.
+
+Nothing can compensate for the loss of hope in a man: it entirely changes
+the character.  “How can I work—how can I be happy,” said a great but
+miserable thinker, “when I have lost all hope?”  One of the most cheerful
+and courageous, because one of the most hopeful of workers, was Carey,
+the missionary.  When in India, it was no uncommon thing for him to weary
+out three pundits, who officiated as his clerks, in one day, he himself
+taking rest only in change of employment.  Carey, the son of a
+shoe-maker, was supported in his labours by Ward, the son of a carpenter,
+and Marsham, the son of a weaver.  By their labours, a magnificent
+college was erected at Serampore; sixteen flourishing stations were
+established; the Bible was translated into sixteen languages, and the
+seeds were sown of a beneficent moral revolution in British India.  Carey
+was never ashamed of the humbleness of his origin.  On one occasion, when
+at the Governor-General’s table he over-heard an officer opposite him
+asking another, loud enough to be heard, whether Carey had not once been
+a shoemaker: “No, sir,” exclaimed Carey immediately; “only a cobbler.”
+An eminently characteristic anecdote has been told of his perseverance as
+a boy.  When climbing a tree one day, his foot slipped, and he fell to
+the ground, breaking his leg by the fall.  He was confined to his bed for
+weeks, but when he recovered and was able to walk without support, the
+very first thing he did was to go and climb that tree.  Carey had need of
+this sort of dauntless courage for the great missionary work of his life,
+and nobly and resolutely he did it.
+
+It was a maxim of Dr. Young, the philosopher, that “Any man can do what
+any other man has done;” and it is unquestionable that he himself never
+recoiled from any trials to which he determined to subject himself.  It
+is related of him, that the first time he mounted a horse, he was in
+company with the grandson of Mr. Barclay of Ury, the well-known
+sportsman; when the horseman who preceded them leapt a high fence.  Young
+wished to imitate him, but fell off his horse in the attempt.  Without
+saying a word, he remounted, made a second effort, and was again
+unsuccessful, but this time he was not thrown further than on to the
+horse’s neck, to which he clung.  At the third trial, he succeeded, and
+cleared the fence.
+
+The story of Timour the Tartar learning a lesson of perseverance under
+adversity from the spider is well known.  Not less interesting is the
+anecdote of Audubon, the American ornithologist, as related by himself:
+“An accident,” he says, “which happened to two hundred of my original
+drawings, nearly put a stop to my researches in ornithology.  I shall
+relate it, merely to show how far enthusiasm—for by no other name can I
+call my perseverance—may enable the preserver of nature to surmount the
+most disheartening difficulties.  I left the village of Henderson, in
+Kentucky, situated on the banks of the Ohio, where I resided for several
+years, to proceed to Philadelphia on business.  I looked to my drawings
+before my departure, placed them carefully in a wooden box, and gave them
+in charge of a relative, with injunctions to see that no injury should
+happen to them.  My absence was of several months; and when I returned,
+after having enjoyed the pleasures of home for a few days, I inquired
+after my box, and what I was pleased to call my treasure.  The box was
+produced and opened; but reader, feel for me—a pair of Norway rats had
+taken possession of the whole, and reared a young family among the gnawed
+bits of paper, which, but a month previous, represented nearly a thousand
+inhabitants of air!  The burning beat which instantly rushed through my
+brain was too great to be endured without affecting my whole nervous
+system.  I slept for several nights, and the days passed like days of
+oblivion—until the animal powers being recalled into action through the
+strength of my constitution, I took up my gun, my notebook, and my
+pencils, and went forth to the woods as gaily as if nothing had happened.
+I felt pleased that I might now make better drawings than before; and,
+ere a period not exceeding three years had elapsed, my portfolio was
+again filled.”
+
+The accidental destruction of Sir Isaac Newton’s papers, by his little
+dog ‘Diamond’ upsetting a lighted taper upon his desk, by which the
+elaborate calculations of many years were in a moment destroyed, is a
+well-known anecdote, and need not be repeated: it is said that the loss
+caused the philosopher such profound grief that it seriously injured his
+health, and impaired his understanding.  An accident of a somewhat
+similar kind happened to the MS. of Mr. Carlyle’s first volume of his
+‘French Revolution.’  He had lent the MS. to a literary neighbour to
+peruse.  By some mischance, it had been left lying on the parlour floor,
+and become forgotten.  Weeks ran on, and the historian sent for his work,
+the printers being loud for “copy.”  Inquiries were made, and it was
+found that the maid-of-all-work, finding what she conceived to be a
+bundle of waste paper on the floor, had used it to light the kitchen and
+parlour fires with!  Such was the answer returned to Mr. Carlyle; and his
+feelings may be imagined.  There was, however, no help for him but to set
+resolutely to work to re-write the book; and he turned to and did it.  He
+had no draft, and was compelled to rake up from his memory facts, ideas,
+and expressions, which had been long since dismissed.  The composition of
+the book in the first instance had been a work of pleasure; the
+re-writing of it a second time was one of pain and anguish almost beyond
+belief.  That he persevered and finished the volume under such
+circumstances, affords an instance of determination of purpose which has
+seldom been surpassed.
+
+The lives of eminent inventors are eminently illustrative of the same
+quality of perseverance.  George Stephenson, when addressing young men,
+was accustomed to sum up his best advice to them, in the words, “Do as I
+have done—persevere.”  He had worked at the improvement of his locomotive
+for some fifteen years before achieving his decisive victory at Rainhill;
+and Watt was engaged for some thirty years upon the condensing-engine
+before he brought it to perfection.  But there are equally striking
+illustrations of perseverance to be found in every other branch of
+science, art, and industry.  Perhaps one of the most interesting is that
+connected with the disentombment of the Nineveh marbles, and the
+discovery of the long-lost cuneiform or arrow-headed character in which
+the inscriptions on them are written—a kind of writing which had been
+lost to the world since the period of the Macedonian conquest of Persia.
+
+An intelligent cadet of the East India Company, stationed at Kermanshah,
+in Persia, had observed the curious cuneiform inscriptions on the old
+monuments in the neighbourhood—so old that all historical traces of them
+had been lost,—and amongst the inscriptions which he copied was that on
+the celebrated rock of Behistun—a perpendicular rock rising abruptly some
+1700 feet from the plain, the lower part bearing inscriptions for the
+space of about 300 feet in three languages—Persian, Scythian, and
+Assyrian.  Comparison of the known with the unknown, of the language
+which survived with the language that had been lost, enabled this cadet
+to acquire some knowledge of the cuneiform character, and even to form an
+alphabet.  Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Rawlinson sent his tracings home
+for examination.  No professors in colleges as yet knew anything of the
+cuneiform character; but there was a ci-devant clerk of the East India
+House—a modest unknown man of the name of Norris—who had made this
+little-understood subject his study, to whom the tracings were submitted;
+and so accurate was his knowledge, that, though he had never seen the
+Behistun rock, he pronounced that the cadet had not copied the puzzling
+inscription with proper exactness.  Rawlinson, who was still in the
+neighbourhood of the rock, compared his copy with the original, and found
+that Norris was right; and by further comparison and careful study the
+knowledge of the cuneiform writing was thus greatly advanced.
+
+But to make the learning of these two self-taught men of avail, a third
+labourer was necessary in order to supply them with material for the
+exercise of their skill.  Such a labourer presented himself in the person
+of Austen Layard, originally an articled clerk in the office of a London
+solicitor.  One would scarcely have expected to find in these three men,
+a cadet, an India-House clerk, and a lawyer’s clerk, the discoverers of a
+forgotten language, and of the buried history of Babylon; yet it was so.
+Layard was a youth of only twenty-two, travelling in the East, when he
+was possessed with a desire to penetrate the regions beyond the
+Euphrates.  Accompanied by a single companion, trusting to his arms for
+protection, and, what was better, to his cheerfulness, politeness, and
+chivalrous bearing, he passed safely amidst tribes at deadly war with
+each other; and, after the lapse of many years, with comparatively
+slender means at his command, but aided by application and perseverance,
+resolute will and purpose, and almost sublime patience,—borne up
+throughout by his passionate enthusiasm for discovery and research,—he
+succeeded in laying bare and digging up an amount of historical
+treasures, the like of which has probably never before been collected by
+the industry of any one man.  Not less than two miles of bas-reliefs were
+thus brought to light by Mr. Layard.  The selection of these valuable
+antiquities, now placed in the British Museum, was found so curiously
+corroborative of the scriptural records of events which occurred some
+three thousand years ago, that they burst upon the world almost like a
+new revelation.  And the story of the disentombment of these remarkable
+works, as told by Mr. Layard himself in his ‘Monuments of Nineveh,’ will
+always be regarded as one of the most charming and unaffected records
+which we possess of individual enterprise, industry, and energy.
+
+The career of the Comte de Buffon presents another remarkable
+illustration of the power of patient industry as well as of his own
+saying, that “Genius is patience.”  Notwithstanding the great results
+achieved by him in natural history, Buffon, when a youth, was regarded as
+of mediocre talents.  His mind was slow in forming itself, and slow in
+reproducing what it had acquired.  He was also constitutionally indolent;
+and being born to good estate, it might be supposed that he would indulge
+his liking for ease and luxury.  Instead of which, he early formed the
+resolution of denying himself pleasure, and devoting himself to study and
+self-culture.  Regarding time as a treasure that was limited, and finding
+that he was losing many hours by lying a-bed in the mornings, he
+determined to break himself of the habit.  He struggled hard against it
+for some time, but failed in being able to rise at the hour he had fixed.
+He then called his servant, Joseph, to his help, and promised him the
+reward of a crown every time that he succeeded in getting him up before
+six.  At first, when called, Buffon declined to rise—pleaded that he was
+ill, or pretended anger at being disturbed; and on the Count at length
+getting up, Joseph found that he had earned nothing but reproaches for
+having permitted his master to lie a-bed contrary to his express orders.
+At length the valet determined to earn his crown; and again and again he
+forced Buffon to rise, notwithstanding his entreaties, expostulations,
+and threats of immediate discharge from his service.  One morning Buffon
+was unusually obstinate, and Joseph found it necessary to resort to the
+extreme measure of dashing a basin of ice-cold water under the
+bed-clothes, the effect of which was instantaneous.  By the persistent
+use of such means, Buffon at length conquered his habit; and he was
+accustomed to say that he owed to Joseph three or four volumes of his
+Natural History.
+
+For forty years of his life, Buffon worked every morning at his desk from
+nine till two, and again in the evening from five till nine.  His
+diligence was so continuous and so regular that it became habitual.  His
+biographer has said of him, “Work was his necessity; his studies were the
+charm of his life; and towards the last term of his glorious career he
+frequently said that he still hoped to be able to consecrate to them a
+few more years.”  He was a most conscientious worker, always studying to
+give the reader his best thoughts, expressed in the very best manner.  He
+was never wearied with touching and retouching his compositions, so that
+his style may be pronounced almost perfect.  He wrote the ‘Epoques de la
+Nature’ not fewer than eleven times before he was satisfied with it;
+although he had thought over the work about fifty years.  He was a
+thorough man of business, most orderly in everything; and he was
+accustomed to say that genius without order lost three-fourths of its
+power.  His great success as a writer was the result mainly of his
+painstaking labour and diligent application.  “Buffon,” observed Madame
+Necker, “strongly persuaded that genius is the result of a profound
+attention directed to a particular subject, said that he was thoroughly
+wearied out when composing his first writings, but compelled himself to
+return to them and go over them carefully again, even when he thought he
+had already brought them to a certain degree of perfection; and that at
+length he found pleasure instead of weariness in this long and elaborate
+correction.”  It ought also to be added that Buffon wrote and published
+all his great works while afflicted by one of the most painful diseases
+to which the human frame is subject.
+
+Literary life affords abundant illustrations of the same power of
+perseverance; and perhaps no career is more instructive, viewed in this
+light, than that of Sir Walter Scott.  His admirable working qualities
+were trained in a lawyer’s office, where he pursued for many years a sort
+of drudgery scarcely above that of a copying clerk.  His daily dull
+routine made his evenings, which were his own, all the more sweet; and he
+generally devoted them to reading and study.  He himself attributed to
+his prosaic office discipline that habit of steady, sober diligence, in
+which mere literary men are so often found wanting.  As a copying clerk
+he was allowed 3_d._ for every page containing a certain number of words;
+and he sometimes, by extra work, was able to copy as many as 120 pages in
+twenty-four hours, thus earning some 30_s._; out of which he would
+occasionally purchase an odd volume, otherwise beyond his means.
+
+During his after-life Scott was wont to pride himself upon being a man of
+business, and he averred, in contradiction to what he called the cant of
+sonneteers, that there was no necessary connection between genius and an
+aversion or contempt for the common duties of life.  On the contrary, he
+was of opinion that to spend some fair portion of every day in any
+matter-of-fact occupation was good for the higher faculties themselves in
+the upshot.  While afterwards acting as clerk to the Court of Session in
+Edinburgh, he performed his literary work chiefly before breakfast,
+attending the court during the day, where he authenticated registered
+deeds and writings of various kinds.  On the whole, says Lockhart, “it
+forms one of the most remarkable features in his history, that throughout
+the most active period of his literary career, he must have devoted a
+large proportion of his hours, during half at least of every year, to the
+conscientious discharge of professional duties.”  It was a principle of
+action which he laid down for himself, that he must earn his living by
+business, and not by literature.  On one occasion he said, “I determined
+that literature should be my staff, not my crutch, and that the profits
+of my literary labour, however convenient otherwise, should not, if I
+could help it, become necessary to my ordinary expenses.”
+
+His punctuality was one of the most carefully cultivated of his habits,
+otherwise it had not been possible for him to get through so enormous an
+amount of literary labour.  He made it a rule to answer every letter
+received by him on the same day, except where inquiry and deliberation
+were requisite.  Nothing else could have enabled him to keep abreast with
+the flood of communications that poured in upon him and sometimes put his
+good nature to the severest test.  It was his practice to rise by five
+o’clock, and light his own fire.  He shaved and dressed with
+deliberation, and was seated at his desk by six o’clock, with his papers
+arranged before him in the most accurate order, his works of reference
+marshalled round him on the floor, while at least one favourite dog lay
+watching his eye, outside the line of books.  Thus by the time the family
+assembled for breakfast, between nine and ten, he had done enough—to use
+his own words—to break the neck of the day’s work.  But with all his
+diligent and indefatigable industry, and his immense knowledge, the
+result of many years’ patient labour, Scott always spoke with the
+greatest diffidence of his own powers.  On one occasion he said,
+“Throughout every part of my career I have felt pinched and hampered by
+my own ignorance.”
+
+Such is true wisdom and humility; for the more a man really knows, the
+less conceited he will be.  The student at Trinity College who went up to
+his professor to take leave of him because he had “finished his
+education,” was wisely rebuked by the professor’s reply, “Indeed!  I am
+only beginning mine.”  The superficial person who has obtained a
+smattering of many things, but knows nothing well, may pride himself upon
+his gifts; but the sage humbly confesses that “all he knows is, that he
+knows nothing,” or like Newton, that he has been only engaged in picking
+shells by the sea shore, while the great ocean of truth lies all
+unexplored before him.
+
+The lives of second-rate literary men furnish equally remarkable
+illustrations of the power of perseverance.  The late John Britton,
+author of ‘The Beauties of England and Wales,’ and of many valuable
+architectural works, was born in a miserable cot in Kingston, Wiltshire.
+His father had been a baker and maltster, but was ruined in trade and
+became insane while Britton was yet a child.  The boy received very
+little schooling, but a great deal of bad example, which happily did not
+corrupt him.  He was early in life set to labour with an uncle, a
+tavern-keeper in Clerkenwell, under whom he bottled, corked, and binned
+wine for more than five years.  His health failing him, his uncle turned
+him adrift in the world, with only two guineas, the fruits of his five
+years’ service, in his pocket.  During the next seven years of his life
+he endured many vicissitudes and hardships.  Yet he says, in his
+autobiography, “in my poor and obscure lodgings, at eighteenpence a week,
+I indulged in study, and often read in bed during the winter evenings,
+because I could not afford a fire.”  Travelling on foot to Bath, he there
+obtained an engagement as a cellarman, but shortly after we find him back
+in the metropolis again almost penniless, shoeless, and shirtless.  He
+succeeded, however, in obtaining employment as a cellarman at the London
+Tavern, where it was his duty to be in the cellar from seven in the
+morning until eleven at night.  His health broke down under this
+confinement in the dark, added to the heavy work; and he then engaged
+himself, at fifteen shillings a week, to an attorney,—for he had been
+diligently cultivating the art of writing during the few spare minutes
+that he could call his own.  While in this employment, he devoted his
+leisure principally to perambulating the bookstalls, where he read books
+by snatches which he could not buy, and thus picked up a good deal of odd
+knowledge.  Then he shifted to another office, at the advanced wages of
+twenty shillings a week, still reading and studying.  At twenty-eight he
+was able to write a book, which he published under the title of ‘The
+Enterprising Adventures of Pizarro;’ and from that time until his death,
+during a period of about fifty-five years, Britton was occupied in
+laborious literary occupation.  The number of his published works is not
+fewer than eighty-seven; the most important being ‘The Cathedral
+Antiquities of England,’ in fourteen volumes, a truly magnificent work;
+itself the best monument of John Britton’s indefatigable industry.
+
+London, the landscape gardener, was a man of somewhat similar character,
+possessed of an extraordinary working power.  The son of a farmer near
+Edinburgh, he was early inured to work.  His skill in drawing plans and
+making sketches of scenery induced his father to train him for a
+landscape gardener.  During his apprenticeship he sat up two whole nights
+every week to study; yet he worked harder during the day than any
+labourer.  In the course of his night studies he learnt French, and
+before he was eighteen he translated a life of Abelard for an
+Encyclopædia.  He was so eager to make progress in life, that when only
+twenty, while working as a gardener in England, he wrote down in his
+note-book, “I am now twenty years of age, and perhaps a third part of my
+life has passed away, and yet what have I done to benefit my fellow men?”
+an unusual reflection for a youth of only twenty.  From French he
+proceeded to learn German, and rapidly mastered that language.  Having
+taken a large farm, for the purpose of introducing Scotch improvements in
+the art of agriculture, he shortly succeeded in realising a considerable
+income.  The continent being thrown open at the end of the war, he
+travelled abroad for the purpose of inquiring into the system of
+gardening and agriculture in other countries.  He twice repeated his
+journeys, and the results were published in his Encyclopædias, which are
+among the most remarkable works of their kind,—distinguished for the
+immense mass of useful matter which they contain, collected by an amount
+of industry and labour which has rarely been equalled.
+
+The career of Samuel Drew is not less remarkable than any of those which
+we have cited.  His father was a hard-working labourer of the parish of
+St. Austell, in Cornwall.  Though poor, he contrived to send his two sons
+to a penny-a-week school in the neighbourhood.  Jabez, the elder, took
+delight in learning, and made great progress in his lessons; but Samuel,
+the younger, was a dunce, notoriously given to mischief and playing
+truant.  When about eight years old he was put to manual labour, earning
+three-halfpence a day as a buddle-boy at a tin mine.  At ten he was
+apprenticed to a shoemaker, and while in this employment he endured much
+hardship,—living, as he used to say, “like a toad under a harrow.”  He
+often thought of running away and becoming a pirate, or something of the
+sort, and he seems to have grown in recklessness as he grew in years.  In
+robbing orchards he was usually a leader; and, as he grew older, he
+delighted to take part in any poaching or smuggling adventure.  When
+about seventeen, before his apprenticeship was out, he ran away,
+intending to enter on board a man-of-war; but, sleeping in a hay-field at
+night cooled him a little, and he returned to his trade.
+
+Drew next removed to the neighbourhood of Plymouth to work at his
+shoemaking business, and while at Cawsand he won a prize for
+cudgel-playing, in which he seems to have been an adept.  While living
+there, he had nearly lost his life in a smuggling exploit which he had
+joined, partly induced by the love of adventure, and partly by the love
+of gain, for his regular wages were not more than eight shillings a-week.
+One night, notice was given throughout Crafthole, that a smuggler was off
+the coast, ready to land her cargo; on which the male population of the
+place—nearly all smugglers—made for the shore.  One party remained on the
+rocks to make signals and dispose of the goods as they were landed; and
+another manned the boats, Drew being of the latter party.  The night was
+intensely dark, and very little of the cargo had been landed, when the
+wind rose, with a heavy sea.  The men in the boats, however, determined
+to persevere, and several trips were made between the smuggler, now
+standing farther out to sea, and the shore.  One of the men in the boat
+in which Drew was, had his hat blown off by the wind, and in attempting
+to recover it, the boat was upset.  Three of the men were immediately
+drowned; the others clung to the boat for a time, but finding it drifting
+out to sea, they took to swimming.  They were two miles from land, and
+the night was intensely dark.  After being about three hours in the
+water, Drew reached a rock near the shore, with one or two others, where
+he remained benumbed with cold till morning, when he and his companions
+were discovered and taken off, more dead than alive.  A keg of brandy
+from the cargo just landed was brought, the head knocked in with a
+hatchet, and a bowlfull of the liquid presented to the survivors; and,
+shortly after, Drew was able to walk two miles through deep snow, to his
+lodgings.
+
+This was a very unpromising beginning of a life; and yet this same Drew,
+scapegrace, orchard-robber, shoemaker, cudgel-player, and smuggler,
+outlived the recklessness of his youth and became distinguished as a
+minister of the Gospel and a writer of good books.  Happily, before it
+was too late, the energy which characterised him was turned into a more
+healthy direction, and rendered him as eminent in usefulness as he had
+before been in wickedness.  His father again took him back to St.
+Austell, and found employment for him as a journeyman shoemaker.  Perhaps
+his recent escape from death had tended to make the young man serious, as
+we shortly find him attracted by the forcible preaching of Dr. Adam
+Clarke, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodists.  His brother having died
+about the same time, the impression of seriousness was deepened; and
+thenceforward he was an altered man.  He began anew the work of
+education, for he had almost forgotten how to read and write; and even
+after several years’ practice, a friend compared his writing to the
+traces of a spider dipped in ink set to crawl upon paper.  Speaking of
+himself, about that time, Drew afterwards said, “The more I read, the
+more I felt my own ignorance; and the more I felt my ignorance, the more
+invincible became my energy to surmount it.  Every leisure moment was now
+employed in reading one thing or another.  Having to support myself by
+manual labour, my time for reading was but little, and to overcome this
+disadvantage, my usual method was to place a book before me while at
+meat, and at every repast I read five or six pages.”  The perusal of
+Locke’s ‘Essay on the Understanding’ gave the first metaphysical turn to
+his mind.  “It awakened me from my stupor,” said he, “and induced me to
+form a resolution to abandon the grovelling views which I had been
+accustomed to entertain.”
+
+Drew began business on his own account, with a capital of a few
+shillings; but his character for steadiness was such that a neighbouring
+miller offered him a loan, which was accepted, and, success attending his
+industry, the debt was repaid at the end of a year.  He started with a
+determination to “owe no man anything,” and he held to it in the midst of
+many privations.  Often he went to bed supperless, to avoid rising in
+debt.  His ambition was to achieve independence by industry and economy,
+and in this he gradually succeeded.  In the midst of incessant labour, he
+sedulously strove to improve his mind, studying astronomy, history, and
+metaphysics.  He was induced to pursue the latter study chiefly because
+it required fewer books to consult than either of the others.  “It
+appeared to be a thorny path,” he said, “but I determined, nevertheless,
+to enter, and accordingly began to tread it.”
+
+Added to his labours in shoemaking and metaphysics, Drew became a local
+preacher and a class leader.  He took an eager interest in politics, and
+his shop became a favourite resort with the village politicians.  And
+when they did not come to him, he went to them to talk over public
+affairs.  This so encroached upon his time that he found it necessary
+sometimes to work until midnight to make up for the hours lost during the
+day.  His political fervour become the talk of the village.  While busy
+one night hammering away at a shoe-sole, a little boy, seeing a light in
+the shop, put his mouth to the keyhole of the door, and called out in a
+shrill pipe, “Shoemaker! shoe-maker! work by night and run about by day!”
+A friend, to whom Drew afterwards told the story, asked, “And did not you
+run after the boy, and strap him?”  “No, no,” was the reply; “had a
+pistol been fired off at my ear, I could not have been more dismayed or
+confounded.  I dropped my work, and said to myself, ‘True, true! but you
+shall never have that to say of me again.’  To me that cry was as the
+voice of God, and it has been a word in season throughout my life.  I
+learnt from it not to leave till to-morrow the work of to-day, or to idle
+when I ought to be working.”
+
+From that moment Drew dropped politics, and stuck to his work, reading
+and studying in his spare hours: but he never allowed the latter pursuit
+to interfere with his business, though it frequently broke in upon his
+rest.  He married, and thought of emigrating to America; but he remained
+working on.  His literary taste first took the direction of poetical
+composition; and from some of the fragments which have been preserved, it
+appears that his speculations as to the immateriality and immortality of
+the soul had their origin in these poetical musings.  His study was the
+kitchen, where his wife’s bellows served him for a desk; and he wrote
+amidst the cries and cradlings of his children.  Paine’s ‘Age of Reason’
+having appeared about this time and excited much interest, he composed a
+pamphlet in refutation of its arguments, which was published.  He used
+afterwards to say that it was the ‘Age of Reason’ that made him an
+author.  Various pamphlets from his pen shortly appeared in rapid
+succession, and a few years later, while still working at shoemaking, he
+wrote and published his admirable ‘Essay on the Immateriality and
+Immortality of the Human Soul,’ which he sold for twenty pounds, a great
+sum in his estimation at the time.  The book went through many editions,
+and is still prized.
+
+Drew was in no wise puffed up by his success, as many young authors are,
+but, long after he had become celebrated as a writer, used to be seen
+sweeping the street before his door, or helping his apprentices to carry
+in the winter’s coals.  Nor could he, for some time, bring himself to
+regard literature as a profession to live by.  His first care was, to
+secure an honest livelihood by his business, and to put into the “lottery
+of literary success,” as he termed it, only the surplus of his time.  At
+length, however, he devoted himself wholly to literature, more
+particularly in connection with the Wesleyan body; editing one of their
+magazines, and superintending the publication of several of their
+denominational works.  He also wrote in the ‘Eclectic Review,’ and
+compiled and published a valuable history of his native county, Cornwall,
+with numerous other works.  Towards the close of his career, he said of
+himself,—“Raised from one of the lowest stations in society, I have
+endeavoured through life to bring my family into a state of
+respectability, by honest industry, frugality, and a high regard for my
+moral character.  Divine providence has smiled on my exertions, and
+crowned my wishes with success.”
+
+The late Joseph Hume pursued a very different career, but worked in an
+equally persevering spirit.  He was a man of moderate parts, but of great
+industry and unimpeachable honesty of purpose.  The motto of his life was
+“Perseverance,” and well, he acted up to it.  His father dying while he
+was a mere child, his mother opened a small shop in Montrose, and toiled
+hard to maintain her family and bring them up respectably.  Joseph she
+put apprentice to a surgeon, and educated for the medical profession.
+Having got his diploma, he made several voyages to India as ship’s
+surgeon, {115} and afterwards obtained a cadetship in the Company’s
+service.  None worked harder, or lived more temperately, than he did,
+and, securing the confidence of his superiors, who found him a capable
+man in the performance of his duty, they gradually promoted him to higher
+offices.  In 1803 he was with the division of the army under General
+Powell, in the Mahratta war; and the interpreter having died, Hume, who
+had meanwhile studied and mastered the native languages, was appointed in
+his stead.  He was next made chief of the medical staff.  But as if this
+were not enough to occupy his full working power, he undertook in
+addition the offices of paymaster and post-master, and filled them
+satisfactorily.  He also contracted to supply the commissariat, which he
+did with advantage to the army and profit to himself.  After about ten
+years’ unremitting labour, he returned to England with a competency; and
+one of his first acts was to make provision for the poorer members of his
+family.
+
+But Joseph Hume was not a man to enjoy the fruits of his industry in
+idleness.  Work and occupation had become necessary for his comfort and
+happiness.  To make himself fully acquainted with the actual state of his
+own country, and the condition of the people, he visited every town in
+the kingdom which then enjoyed any degree of manufacturing celebrity.  He
+afterwards travelled abroad for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of
+foreign states. Returned to England, he entered Parliament in 1812, and
+continued a member of that assembly, with a short interruption, for a
+period of about thirty-four years.  His first recorded speech was on the
+subject of public education, and throughout his long and honourable
+career he took an active and earnest interest in that and all other
+questions calculated to elevate and improve the condition of the
+people—criminal reform, savings-banks, free trade, economy and
+retrenchment, extended representation, and such like measures, all of
+which he indefatigably promoted.  Whatever subject he undertook, he
+worked at with all his might.  He was not a good speaker, but what he
+said was believed to proceed from the lips of an honest, single-minded,
+accurate man.  If ridicule, as Shaftesbury says, be the test of truth,
+Joseph Hume stood the test well.  No man was more laughed at, but there
+he stood perpetually, and literally, “at his post.”  He was usually
+beaten on a division, but the influence which he exercised was
+nevertheless felt, and many important financial improvements were
+effected by him even with the vote directly against him.  The amount of
+hard work which he contrived to get through was something extraordinary.
+He rose at six, wrote letters and arranged his papers for parliament;
+then, after breakfast, he received persons on business, sometimes as many
+as twenty in a morning.  The House rarely assembled without him, and
+though the debate might be prolonged to two or three o’clock in the
+morning, his name was seldom found absent from the division.  In short,
+to perform the work which he did, extending over so long a period, in the
+face of so many Administrations, week after week, year after year,—to be
+outvoted, beaten, laughed at, standing on many occasions almost alone,—to
+persevere in the face of every discouragement, preserving his temper
+unruffled, never relaxing in his energy or his hope, and living to see
+the greater number of his measures adopted with acclamation, must be
+regarded as one of the most remarkable illustrations of the power of
+human perseverance that biography can exhibit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+HELPS AND OPPORTUNITIES—SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS.
+
+
+    “Neither the naked hand, nor the understanding, left to itself, can
+    do much; the work is accomplished by instruments and helps, of which
+    the need is not less for the understanding than the hand.”—_Bacon_.
+
+    “Opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald; if you seize her
+    by the forelock you may hold her, but, if suffered to escape, not
+    Jupiter himself can catch her again.”—_From the Latin_.
+
+ACCIDENT does very little towards the production of any great result in
+life.  Though sometimes what is called “a happy hit” may be made by a
+bold venture, the common highway of steady industry and application is
+the only safe road to travel.  It is said of the landscape painter
+Wilson, that when he had nearly finished a picture in a tame, correct
+manner, he would step back from it, his pencil fixed at the end of a long
+stick, and after gazing earnestly on the work, he would suddenly walk up
+and by a few bold touches give a brilliant finish to the painting.  But
+it will not do for every one who would produce an effect, to throw his
+brush at the canvas in the hope of producing a picture.  The capability
+of putting in these last vital touches is acquired only by the labour of
+a life; and the probability is, that the artist who has not carefully
+trained himself beforehand, in attempting to produce a brilliant effect
+at a dash, will only produce a blotch.
+
+Sedulous attention and painstaking industry always mark the true worker.
+The greatest men are not those who “despise the day of small things,” but
+those who improve them the most carefully.  Michael Angelo was one day
+explaining to a visitor at his studio, what he had been doing at a statue
+since his previous visit.  “I have retouched this part—polished
+that—softened this feature—brought out that muscle—given some expression
+to this lip, and more energy to that limb.”  “But these are trifles,”
+remarked the visitor.  “It may be so,” replied the sculptor, “but
+recollect that trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.”  So
+it was said of Nicholas Poussin, the painter, that the rule of his
+conduct was, that “whatever was worth doing at all was worth doing well;”
+and when asked, late in life, by his friend Vigneul de Marville, by what
+means he had gained so high a reputation among the painters of Italy,
+Poussin emphatically answered, “Because I have neglected nothing.”
+
+Although there are discoveries which are said to have been made by
+accident, if carefully inquired into, it will be found that there has
+really been very little that was accidental about them.  For the most
+part, these so-called accidents have only been opportunities, carefully
+improved by genius.  The fall of the apple at Newton’s feet has often
+been quoted in proof of the accidental character of some discoveries.
+But Newton’s whole mind had already been devoted for years to the
+laborious and patient investigation of the subject of gravitation; and
+the circumstance of the apple falling before his eyes was suddenly
+apprehended only as genius could apprehend it, and served to flash upon
+him the brilliant discovery then opening to his sight.  In like manner,
+the brilliantly-coloured soap-bubbles blown from a common tobacco
+pipe—though “trifles light as air” in most eyes—suggested to Dr. Young
+his beautiful theory of “interferences,” and led to his discovery
+relating to the diffraction of light.  Although great men are popularly
+supposed only to deal with great things, men such as Newton and Young
+were ready to detect the significance of the most familiar and simple
+facts; their greatness consisting mainly in their wise interpretation of
+them.
+
+The difference between men consists, in a great measure, in the
+intelligence of their observation.  The Russian proverb says of the
+non-observant man, “He goes through the forest and sees no firewood.”
+“The wise man’s eyes are in his head,” says Solomon, “but the fool
+walketh in darkness.”  “Sir,” said Johnson, on one occasion, to a fine
+gentleman just returned from Italy, “some men will learn more in the
+Hampstead stage than others in the tour of Europe.”  It is the mind that
+sees as well as the eye.  Where unthinking gazers observe nothing, men of
+intelligent vision penetrate into the very fibre of the phenomena
+presented to them, attentively noting differences, making comparisons,
+and recognizing their underlying idea.  Many before Galileo had seen a
+suspended weight swing before their eyes with a measured beat; but he was
+the first to detect the value of the fact.  One of the vergers in the
+cathedral at Pisa, after replenishing with oil a lamp which hung from the
+roof, left it swinging to and fro; and Galileo, then a youth of only
+eighteen, noting it attentively, conceived the idea of applying it to the
+measurement of time.  Fifty years of study and labour, however, elapsed,
+before he completed the invention of his Pendulum,—the importance of
+which, in the measurement of time and in astronomical calculations, can
+scarcely be overrated.  In like manner, Galileo, having casually heard
+that one Lippershey, a Dutch spectacle-maker, had presented to Count
+Maurice of Nassau an instrument by means of which distant objects
+appeared nearer to the beholder, addressed himself to the cause of such a
+phenomenon, which led to the invention of the telescope, and proved the
+beginning of the modern science of astronomy.  Discoveries such as these
+could never have been made by a negligent observer, or by a mere passive
+listener.
+
+While Captain (afterwards Sir Samuel) Brown was occupied in studying the
+construction of bridges, with the view of contriving one of a cheap
+description to be thrown across the Tweed, near which he lived, he was
+walking in his garden one dewy autumn morning, when he saw a tiny
+spider’s net suspended across his path.  The idea immediately occurred to
+him, that a bridge of iron ropes or chains might be constructed in like
+manner, and the result was the invention of his Suspension Bridge.  So
+James Watt, when consulted about the mode of carrying water by pipes
+under the Clyde, along the unequal bed of the river, turned his attention
+one day to the shell of a lobster presented at table; and from that model
+he invented an iron tube, which, when laid down, was found effectually to
+answer the purpose.  Sir Isambert Brunel took his first lessons in
+forming the Thames Tunnel from the tiny shipworm: he saw how the little
+creature perforated the wood with its well-armed head, first in one
+direction and then in another, till the archway was complete, and then
+daubed over the roof and sides with a kind of varnish; and by copying
+this work exactly on a large scale, Brunel was at length enabled to
+construct his shield and accomplish his great engineering work.
+
+It is the intelligent eye of the careful observer which gives these
+apparently trivial phenomena their value.  So trifling a matter as the
+sight of seaweed floating past his ship, enabled Columbus to quell the
+mutiny which arose amongst his sailors at not discovering land, and to
+assure them that the eagerly sought New World was not far off.  There is
+nothing so small that it should remain forgotten; and no fact, however
+trivial, but may prove useful in some way or other if carefully
+interpreted.  Who could have imagined that the famous “chalk cliffs of
+Albion” had been built up by tiny insects—detected only by the help of
+the microscope—of the same order of creatures that have gemmed the sea
+with islands of coral!  And who that contemplates such extraordinary
+results, arising from infinitely minute operations, will venture to
+question the power of little things?
+
+It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of
+success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life.
+Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small facts, made by successive
+generations of men, the little bits of knowledge and experience carefully
+treasured up by them growing at length into a mighty pyramid.  Though
+many of these facts and observations seemed in the first instance to have
+but slight significance, they are all found to have their eventual uses,
+and to fit into their proper places.  Even many speculations seemingly
+remote, turn out to be the basis of results the most obviously practical.
+In the case of the conic sections discovered by Apollonius Pergæus,
+twenty centuries elapsed before they were made the basis of astronomy—a
+science which enables the modern navigator to steer his way through
+unknown seas and traces for him in the heavens an unerring path to his
+appointed haven.  And had not mathematicians toiled for so long, and, to
+uninstructed observers, apparently so fruitlessly, over the abstract
+relations of lines and surfaces, it is probable that but few of our
+mechanical inventions would have seen the light.
+
+When Franklin made his discovery of the identity of lightning and
+electricity, it was sneered at, and people asked, “Of what use is it?”
+To which his reply was, “What is the use of a child?  It may become a
+man!”  When Galvani discovered that a frog’s leg twitched when placed in
+contact with different metals, it could scarcely have been imagined that
+so apparently insignificant a fact could have led to important results.
+Yet therein lay the germ of the Electric Telegraph, which binds the
+intelligence of continents together, and, probably before many years have
+elapsed, will “put a girdle round the globe.”  So too, little bits of
+stone and fossil, dug out of the earth, intelligently interpreted, have
+issued in the science of geology and the practical operations of mining,
+in which large capitals are invested and vast numbers of persons
+profitably employed.
+
+The gigantic machinery employed in pumping our mines, working our mills
+and manufactures, and driving our steam-ships and locomotives, in like
+manner depends for its supply of power upon so slight an agency as little
+drops of water expanded by heat,—that familiar agency called steam, which
+we see issuing from that common tea-kettle spout, but which, when put up
+within an ingeniously contrived mechanism, displays a force equal to that
+of millions of horses, and contains a power to rebuke the waves and set
+even the hurricane at defiance.  The same power at work within the bowels
+of the earth has been the cause of those volcanoes and earthquakes which
+have played so mighty a part in the history of the globe.
+
+It is said that the Marquis of Worcester’s attention was first
+accidentally directed to the subject of steam power, by the tight cover
+of a vessel containing hot water having been blown off before his eyes,
+when confined a prisoner in the Tower.  He published the result of his
+observations in his ‘Century of Inventions,’ which formed a sort of
+text-book for inquirers into the powers of steam for a time, until
+Savary, Newcomen, and others, applying it to practical purposes, brought
+the steam-engine to the state in which Watt found it when called upon to
+repair a model of Newcomen’s engine, which belonged to the University of
+Glasgow.  This accidental circumstance was an opportunity for Watt, which
+he was not slow to improve; and it was the labour of his life to bring
+the steam-engine to perfection.
+
+This art of seizing opportunities and turning even accidents to account,
+bending them to some purpose is a great secret of success.  Dr. Johnson
+has defined genius to be “a mind of large general powers accidentally
+determined in some particular direction.”  Men who are resolved to find a
+way for themselves, will always find opportunities enough; and if they do
+not lie ready to their hand, they will make them.  It is not those who
+have enjoyed the advantages of colleges, museums, and public galleries,
+that have accomplished the most for science and art; nor have the
+greatest mechanics and inventors been trained in mechanics’ institutes.
+Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and
+the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.  Some
+of the very best workmen have had the most indifferent tools to work
+with.  But it is not tools that make the workman, but the trained skill
+and perseverance of the man himself.  Indeed it is proverbial that the
+bad workman never yet had a good tool.  Some one asked Opie by what
+wonderful process he mixed his colours.  “I mix them with my brains,
+sir,” was his reply.  It is the same with every workman who would excel.
+Ferguson made marvellous things—such as his wooden clock, that accurately
+measured the hours—by means of a common penknife, a tool in everybody’s
+hand; but then everybody is not a Ferguson.  A pan of water and two
+thermometers were the tools by which Dr. Black discovered latent heat;
+and a prism, a lens, and a sheet of pasteboard enabled Newton to unfold
+the composition of light and the origin of colours.  An eminent foreign
+_savant_ once called upon Dr. Wollaston, and requested to be shown over
+his laboratories in which science had been enriched by so many important
+discoveries, when the doctor took him into a little study, and, pointing
+to an old tea-tray on the table, containing a few watch-glasses, test
+papers, a small balance, and a blowpipe, said, “There is all the
+laboratory that I have!”
+
+Stothard learnt the art of combining colours by closely studying
+butterflies’ wings: he would often say that no one knew what he owed to
+these tiny insects.  A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu
+of pencil and canvas.  Bewick first practised drawing on the cottage
+walls of his native village, which he covered with his sketches in chalk;
+and Benjamin West made his first brushes out of the cat’s tail.  Ferguson
+laid himself down in the fields at night in a blanket, and made a map of
+the heavenly bodies by means of a thread with small beads on it stretched
+between his eye and the stars.  Franklin first robbed the thundercloud of
+its lightning by means of a kite made with two cross sticks and a silk
+handkerchief.  Watt made his first model of the condensing steam-engine
+out of an old anatomist’s syringe, used to inject the arteries previous
+to dissection.  Gifford worked his first problems in mathematics, when a
+cobbler’s apprentice, upon small scraps of leather, which he beat smooth
+for the purpose; whilst Rittenhouse, the astronomer, first calculated
+eclipses on his plough handle.
+
+The most ordinary occasions will furnish a man with opportunities or
+suggestions for improvement, if he be but prompt to take advantage of
+them.  Professor Lee was attracted to the study of Hebrew by finding a
+Bible in that tongue in a synagogue, while working as a common carpenter
+at the repairs of the benches.  He became possessed with a desire to read
+the book in the original, and, buying a cheap second-hand copy of a
+Hebrew grammar, he set to work and learnt the language for himself.  As
+Edmund Stone said to the Duke of Argyle, in answer to his grace’s inquiry
+how he, a poor gardener’s boy, had contrived to be able to read Newton’s
+Principia in Latin, “One needs only to know the twenty-four letters of
+the alphabet in order to learn everything else that one wishes.”
+Application and perseverance, and the diligent improvement of
+opportunities, will do the rest.
+
+Sir Walter Scott found opportunities for self-improvement in every
+pursuit, and turned even accidents to account.  Thus it was in the
+discharge of his functions as a writer’s apprentice that he first visited
+the Highlands, and formed those friendships among the surviving heroes of
+1745 which served to lay the foundation of a large class of his works.
+Later in life, when employed as quartermaster of the Edinburgh Light
+Cavalry, he was accidentally disabled by the kick of a horse, and
+confined for some time to his house; but Scott was a sworn enemy to
+idleness, and he forthwith set his mind to work.  In three days he had
+composed the first canto of ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel,’ which he
+shortly after finished,—his first great original work.
+
+The attention of Dr. Priestley, the discoverer of so many gases, was
+accidentally drawn to the subject of chemistry through his living in the
+neighbourhood of a brewery.  When visiting the place one day, he noted
+the peculiar appearances attending the extinction of lighted chips in the
+gas floating over the fermented liquor.  He was forty years old at the
+time, and knew nothing of chemistry.  He consulted books to ascertain the
+cause, but they told him little, for as yet nothing was known on the
+subject.  Then he began to experiment, with some rude apparatus of his
+own contrivance.  The curious results of his first experiments led to
+others, which in his hands shortly became the science of pneumatic
+chemistry.  About the same time, Scheele was obscurely working in the
+same direction in a remote Swedish village; and he discovered several new
+gases, with no more effective apparatus at his command than a few
+apothecaries’ phials and pigs’ bladders.
+
+Sir Humphry Davy, when an apothecary’s apprentice, performed his first
+experiments with instruments of the rudest description.  He extemporised
+the greater part of them himself, out of the motley materials which
+chance threw in his way,—the pots and pans of the kitchen, and the phials
+and vessels of his master’s surgery.  It happened that a French ship was
+wrecked off the Land’s End, and the surgeon escaped, bearing with him his
+case of instruments, amongst which was an old-fashioned glyster
+apparatus; this article he presented to Davy, with whom he had become
+acquainted.  The apothecary’s apprentice received it with great
+exultation, and forthwith employed it as a part of a pneumatic apparatus
+which he contrived, afterwards using it to perform the duties of an
+air-pump in one of his experiments on the nature and sources of heat.
+
+In like manner Professor Faraday, Sir Humphry Davy’s scientific
+successor, made his first experiments in electricity by means of an old
+bottle, while he was still a working bookbinder.  And it is a curious
+fact that Faraday was first attracted to the study of chemistry by
+hearing one of Sir Humphry Davy’s lectures on the subject at the Royal
+Institution.  A gentleman, who was a member, calling one day at the shop
+where Faraday was employed in binding books, found him poring over the
+article “Electricity” in an Encyclopædia placed in his hands to bind.
+The gentleman, having made inquiries, found that the young bookbinder was
+curious about such subjects, and gave him an order of admission to the
+Royal Institution, where he attended a course of four lectures delivered
+by Sir Humphry.  He took notes of them, which he showed to the lecturer,
+who acknowledged their scientific accuracy, and was surprised when
+informed of the humble position of the reporter.  Faraday then expressed
+his desire to devote himself to the prosecution of chemical studies, from
+which Sir Humphry at first endeavoured to dissuade him: but the young man
+persisting, he was at length taken into the Royal Institution as an
+assistant; and eventually the mantle of the brilliant apothecary’s boy
+fell upon the worthy shoulders of the equally brilliant bookbinder’s
+apprentice.
+
+The words which Davy entered in his note-book, when about twenty years of
+age, working in Dr. Beddoes’ laboratory at Bristol, were eminently
+characteristic of him: “I have neither riches, nor power, nor birth to
+recommend me; yet if I live, I trust I shall not be of less service to
+mankind and my friends, than if I had been born with all these
+advantages.”  Davy possessed the capability, as Faraday does, of devoting
+the whole power of his mind to the practical and experimental
+investigation of a subject in all its bearings; and such a mind will
+rarely fail, by dint of mere industry and patient thinking, in producing
+results of the highest order.  Coleridge said of Davy, “There is an
+energy and elasticity in his mind, which enables him to seize on and
+analyze all questions, pushing them to their legitimate consequences.
+Every subject in Davy’s mind has the principle of vitality.  Living
+thoughts spring up like turf under his feet.”  Davy, on his part, said of
+Coleridge, whose abilities he greatly admired, “With the most exalted
+genius, enlarged views, sensitive heart, and enlightened mind, he will be
+the victim of a want of order, precision, and regularity.”
+
+The great Cuvier was a singularly accurate, careful, and industrious
+observer.  When a boy, he was attracted to the subject of natural history
+by the sight of a volume of Buffon which accidentally fell in his way.
+He at once proceeded to copy the drawings, and to colour them after the
+descriptions given in the text.  While still at school, one of his
+teachers made him a present of ‘Linnæus’s System of Nature;’ and for more
+than ten years this constituted his library of natural history.  At
+eighteen he was offered the situation of tutor in a family residing near
+Fécamp, in Normandy.  Living close to the sea-shore, he was brought face
+to face with the wonders of marine life.  Strolling along the sands one
+day, he observed a stranded cuttlefish.  He was attracted by the curious
+object, took it home to dissect, and thus began the study of the
+molluscæ, in the pursuit of which he achieved so distinguished a
+reputation.  He had no books to refer to, excepting only the great book
+of Nature which lay open before him.  The study of the novel and
+interesting objects which it daily presented to his eyes made a much
+deeper impression on his mind than any written or engraved descriptions
+could possibly have done.  Three years thus passed, during which he
+compared the living species of marine animals with the fossil remains
+found in the neighbourhood, dissected the specimens of marine life that
+came under his notice, and, by careful observation, prepared the way for
+a complete reform in the classification of the animal kingdom.  About
+this time Cuvier became known to the learned Abbé Teissier, who wrote to
+Jussieu and other friends in Paris on the subject of the young
+naturalist’s inquiries, in terms of such high commendation, that Cuvier
+was requested to send some of his papers to the Society of Natural
+History; and he was shortly after appointed assistant-superintendent at
+the Jardin des Plantes.  In the letter written by Teissier to Jussieu,
+introducing the young naturalist to his notice, he said, “You remember
+that it was I who gave Delambre to the Academy in another branch of
+science: this also will be a Delambre.”  We need scarcely add that the
+prediction of Teissier was more than fulfilled.
+
+It is not accident, then, that helps a man in the world so much as
+purpose and persistent industry.  To the feeble, the sluggish and
+purposeless, the happiest accidents avail nothing,—they pass them by,
+seeing no meaning in them.  But it is astonishing how much can be
+accomplished if we are prompt to seize and improve the opportunities for
+action and effort which are constantly presenting themselves.  Watt
+taught himself chemistry and mechanics while working at his trade of a
+mathematical-instrument maker, at the same time that he was learning
+German from a Swiss dyer.  Stephenson taught himself arithmetic and
+mensuration while working as an engineman during the night shifts; and
+when he could snatch a few moments in the intervals allowed for meals
+during the day, he worked his sums with a bit of chalk upon the sides of
+the colliery waggons.  Dalton’s industry was the habit of his life.  He
+began from his boyhood, for he taught a little village-school when he was
+only about twelve years old,—keeping the school in winter, and working
+upon his father’s farm in summer.  He would sometimes urge himself and
+companions to study by the stimulus of a bet, though bred a Quaker; and
+on one occasion, by his satisfactory solution of a problem, he won as
+much as enabled him to buy a winter’s store of candles.  He continued his
+meteorological observations until a day or two before he died,—having
+made and recorded upwards of 200,000 in the course of his life.
+
+With perseverance, the very odds and ends of time may be worked up into
+results of the greatest value.  An hour in every day withdrawn from
+frivolous pursuits would, if profitably employed, enable a person of
+ordinary capacity to go far towards mastering a science.  It would make
+an ignorant man a well-informed one in less than ten years.  Time should
+not be allowed to pass without yielding fruits, in the form of something
+learnt worthy of being known, some good principle cultivated, or some
+good habit strengthened.  Dr. Mason Good translated Lucretius while
+riding in his carriage in the streets of London, going the round of his
+patients.  Dr. Darwin composed nearly all his works in the same way while
+driving about in his “sulky” from house to house in the country,—writing
+down his thoughts on little scraps of paper, which he carried about with
+him for the purpose.  Hale wrote his ‘Contemplations’ while travelling on
+circuit.  Dr. Burney learnt French and Italian while travelling on
+horseback from one musical pupil to another in the course of his
+profession.  Kirke White learnt Greek while walking to and from a
+lawyer’s office; and we personally know a man of eminent position who
+learnt Latin and French while going messages as an errand-boy in the
+streets of Manchester.
+
+Daguesseau, one of the great Chancellors of France, by carefully working
+up his odd bits of time, wrote a bulky and able volume in the successive
+intervals of waiting for dinner, and Madame de Genlis composed several of
+her charming volumes while waiting for the princess to whom she gave her
+daily lessons.  Elihu Burritt attributed his first success in
+self-improvement, not to genius, which he disclaimed, but simply to the
+careful employment of those invaluable fragments of time, called “odd
+moments.”  While working and earning his living as a blacksmith, he
+mastered some eighteen ancient and modern languages, and twenty-two
+European dialects.
+
+What a solemn and striking admonition to youth is that inscribed on the
+dial at All Souls, Oxford—“Pereunt et imputantur”—the hours perish, and
+are laid to our charge.  Time is the only little fragment of Eternity
+that belongs to man; and, like life, it can never be recalled.  “In the
+dissipation of worldly treasure,” says Jackson of Exeter, “the frugality
+of the future may balance the extravagance of the past; but who can say,
+‘I will take from minutes to-morrow to compensate for those I have lost
+to-day’?”  Melancthon noted down the time lost by him, that he might
+thereby reanimate his industry, and not lose an hour.  An Italian scholar
+put over his door an inscription intimating that whosoever remained there
+should join in his labours.  “We are afraid,” said some visitors to
+Baxter, “that we break in upon your time.”  “To be sure you do,” replied
+the disturbed and blunt divine.  Time was the estate out of which these
+great workers, and all other workers, formed that rich treasury of
+thoughts and deeds which they have left to their successors.
+
+The mere drudgery undergone by some men in carrying on their undertakings
+has been something extraordinary, but the drudgery they regarded as the
+price of success.  Addison amassed as much as three folios of manuscript
+materials before he began his ‘Spectator.’  Newton wrote his ‘Chronology’
+fifteen times over before he was satisfied with it; and Gibbon wrote out
+his ‘Memoir’ nine times.  Hale studied for many years at the rate of
+sixteen hours a day, and when wearied with the study of the law, he would
+recreate himself with philosophy and the study of the mathematics.  Hume
+wrote thirteen hours a day while preparing his ‘History of England.’
+Montesquieu, speaking of one part of his writings, said to a friend, “You
+will read it in a few hours; but I assure you it has cost me so much
+labour that it has whitened my hair.”
+
+The practice of writing down thoughts and facts for the purpose of
+holding them fast and preventing their escape into the dim region of
+forgetfulness, has been much resorted to by thoughtful and studious men.
+Lord Bacon left behind him many manuscripts entitled “Sudden thoughts set
+down for use.”  Erskine made great extracts from Burke; and Eldon copied
+Coke upon Littleton twice over with his own hand, so that the book
+became, as it were, part of his own mind.  The late Dr. Pye Smith, when
+apprenticed to his father as a bookbinder, was accustomed to make copious
+memoranda of all the books he read, with extracts and criticisms.  This
+indomitable industry in collecting materials distinguished him through
+life, his biographer describing him as “always at work, always in
+advance, always accumulating.”  These note-books afterwards proved, like
+Richter’s “quarries,” the great storehouse from which he drew his
+illustrations.
+
+The same practice characterized the eminent John Hunter, who adopted it
+for the purpose of supplying the defects of memory; and he was accustomed
+thus to illustrate the advantages which one derives from putting one’s
+thoughts in writing: “It resembles,” he said, “a tradesman taking stock,
+without which he never knows either what he possesses or in what he is
+deficient.”  John Hunter—whose observation was so keen that Abernethy was
+accustomed to speak of him as “the Argus-eyed”—furnished an illustrious
+example of the power of patient industry.  He received little or no
+education till he was about twenty years of age, and it was with
+difficulty that he acquired the arts of reading and writing.  He worked
+for some years as a common carpenter at Glasgow, after which he joined
+his brother William, who had settled in London as a lecturer and
+anatomical demonstrator.  John entered his dissecting-room as an
+assistant, but soon shot ahead of his brother, partly by virtue of his
+great natural ability, but mainly by reason of his patient application
+and indefatigable industry.  He was one of the first in this country to
+devote himself assiduously to the study of comparative anatomy, and the
+objects he dissected and collected took the eminent Professor Owen no
+less than ten years to arrange.  The collection contains some twenty
+thousand specimens, and is the most precious treasure of the kind that
+has ever been accumulated by the industry of one man.  Hunter used to
+spend every morning from sunrise until eight o’clock in his museum; and
+throughout the day he carried on his extensive private practice,
+performed his laborious duties as surgeon to St. George’s Hospital and
+deputy surgeon-general to the army; delivered lectures to students, and
+superintended a school of practical anatomy at his own house; finding
+leisure, amidst all, for elaborate experiments on the animal economy, and
+the composition of various works of great scientific importance.  To find
+time for this gigantic amount of work, he allowed himself only four hours
+of sleep at night, and an hour after dinner.  When once asked what method
+he had adopted to insure success in his undertakings, he replied, “My
+rule is, deliberately to consider, before I commence, whether the thing
+be practicable.  If it be not practicable, I do not attempt it.  If it be
+practicable, I can accomplish it if I give sufficient pains to it; and
+having begun, I never stop till the thing is done.  To this rule I owe
+all my success.”
+
+Hunter occupied a great deal of his time in collecting definite facts
+respecting matters which, before his day, were regarded as exceedingly
+trivial.  Thus it was supposed by many of his contemporaries that he was
+only wasting his time and thought in studying so carefully as he did the
+growth of a deer’s horn.  But Hunter was impressed with the conviction
+that no accurate knowledge of scientific facts is without its value.  By
+the study referred to, he learnt how arteries accommodate themselves to
+circumstances, and enlarge as occasion requires; and the knowledge thus
+acquired emboldened him, in a case of aneurism in a branch artery, to tie
+the main trunk where no surgeon before him had dared to tie it, and the
+life of his patient was saved.  Like many original men, he worked for a
+long time as it were underground, digging and laying foundations.  He was
+a solitary and self-reliant genius, holding on his course without the
+solace of sympathy or approbation,—for but few of his contemporaries
+perceived the ultimate object of his pursuits.  But like all true
+workers, he did not fail in securing his best reward—that which depends
+less upon others than upon one’s self—the approval of conscience, which
+in a right-minded man invariably follows the honest and energetic
+performance of duty.
+
+Ambrose Paré, the great French surgeon, was another illustrious instance
+of close observation, patient application, and indefatigable
+perseverance.  He was the son of a barber at Laval, in Maine, where he
+was born in 1509.  His parents were too poor to send him to school, but
+they placed him as foot-boy with the curé of the village, hoping that
+under that learned man he might pick up an education for himself.  But
+the curé kept him so busily employed in grooming his mule and in other
+menial offices that the boy found no time for learning.  While in his
+service, it happened that the celebrated lithotomist, Cotot, came to
+Laval to operate on one of the curé’s ecclesiastical brethren.  Paré was
+present at the operation, and was so much interested by it that he is
+said to have from that time formed the determination of devoting himself
+to the art of surgery.
+
+Leaving the curé’s household service, Paré apprenticed himself to a
+barber-surgeon named Vialot, under whom he learnt to let blood, draw
+teeth, and perform the minor operations.  After four years’ experience of
+this kind, he went to Paris to study at the school of anatomy and
+surgery, meanwhile maintaining himself by his trade of a barber.  He
+afterwards succeeded in obtaining an appointment as assistant at the
+Hôtel Dieu, where his conduct was so exemplary, and his progress so
+marked, that the chief surgeon, Goupil, entrusted him with the charge of
+the patients whom he could not himself attend to.  After the usual course
+of instruction, Paré was admitted a master barber-surgeon, and shortly
+after was appointed to a charge with the French army under Montmorenci in
+Piedmont.  Paré was not a man to follow in the ordinary ruts of his
+profession, but brought the resources of an ardent and original mind to
+bear upon his daily work, diligently thinking out for himself the
+_rationale_ of diseases and their befitting remedies.  Before his time
+the wounded suffered much more at the hands of their surgeons than they
+did at those of their enemies.  To stop bleeding from gunshot wounds, the
+barbarous expedient was resorted to of dressing them with boiling oil.
+Hæmorrhage was also stopped by searing the wounds with a red-hot iron;
+and when amputation was necessary, it was performed with a red-hot knife.
+At first Paré treated wounds according to the approved methods; but,
+fortunately, on one occasion, running short of boiling oil, he
+substituted a mild and emollient application.  He was in great fear all
+night lest he should have done wrong in adopting this treatment; but was
+greatly relieved next morning on finding his patients comparatively
+comfortable, while those whose wounds had been treated in the usual way
+were writhing in torment.  Such was the casual origin of one of Paré’s
+greatest improvements in the treatment of gun-shot wounds; and he
+proceeded to adopt the emollient treatment in all future cases.  Another
+still more important improvement was his employment of the ligature in
+tying arteries to stop hæmorrhage, instead of the actual cautery.  Paré,
+however, met with the usual fate of innovators and reformers.  His
+practice was denounced by his surgical brethren as dangerous,
+unprofessional, and empirical; and the older surgeons banded themselves
+together to resist its adoption.  They reproached him for his want of
+education, more especially for his ignorance of Latin and Greek; and they
+assailed him with quotations from ancient writers, which he was unable
+either to verify or refute.  But the best answer to his assailants was
+the success of his practice.  The wounded soldiers called out everywhere
+for Paré, and he was always at their service: he tended them carefully
+and affectionately; and he usually took leave of them with the words, “I
+have dressed you; may God cure you.”
+
+After three years’ active service as army-surgeon, Paré returned to Paris
+with such a reputation that he was at once appointed surgeon in ordinary
+to the King.  When Metz was besieged by the Spanish army, under Charles
+V., the garrison suffered heavy loss, and the number of wounded was very
+great.  The surgeons were few and incompetent, and probably slew more by
+their bad treatment than the Spaniards did by the sword.  The Duke of
+Guise, who commanded the garrison, wrote to the King imploring him to
+send Paré to his help.  The courageous surgeon at once set out, and,
+after braving many dangers (to use his own words, “d’estre pendu,
+estranglé ou mis en pièces”), he succeeded in passing the enemy’s lines,
+and entered Metz in safety.  The Duke, the generals, and the captains
+gave him an affectionate welcome; while the soldiers, when they heard of
+his arrival, cried, “We no longer fear dying of our wounds; our friend is
+among us.”  In the following year Paré was in like manner with the
+besieged in the town of Hesdin, which shortly fell before the Duke of
+Savoy, and he was taken prisoner.  But having succeeded in curing one of
+the enemy’s chief officers of a serious wound, he was discharged without
+ransom, and returned in safety to Paris.
+
+The rest of his life was occupied in study, in self-improvement, in
+piety, and in good deeds.  Urged by some of the most learned among his
+contemporaries, he placed on record the results of his surgical
+experience, in twenty-eight books, which were published by him at
+different times.  His writings are valuable and remarkable chiefly on
+account of the great number of facts and cases contained in them, and the
+care with which he avoids giving any directions resting merely upon
+theory unsupported by observation.  Paré continued, though a Protestant,
+to hold the office of surgeon in ordinary to the King; and during the
+Massacre of St. Bartholomew he owed his life to the personal friendship
+of Charles IX., whom he had on one occasion saved from the dangerous
+effects of a wound inflicted by a clumsy surgeon in performing the
+operation of venesection.  Brantôme, in his ‘Mémoires,’ thus speaks of
+the King’s rescue of Paré on the night of Saint Bartholomew—“He sent to
+fetch him, and to remain during the night in his chamber and
+wardrobe-room, commanding him not to stir, and saying that it was not
+reasonable that a man who had preserved the lives of so many people
+should himself be massacred.”  Thus Paré escaped the horrors of that
+fearful night, which he survived for many years, and was permitted to die
+in peace, full of age and honours.
+
+Harvey was as indefatigable a labourer as any we have named.  He spent
+not less than eight long years of investigation and research before he
+published his views of the circulation of the blood.  He repeated and
+verified his experiments again and again, probably anticipating the
+opposition he would have to encounter from the profession on making known
+his discovery.  The tract in which he at length announced his views, was
+a most modest one,—but simple, perspicuous, and conclusive.  It was
+nevertheless received with ridicule, as the utterance of a crack-brained
+impostor.  For some time, he did not make a single convert, and gained
+nothing but contumely and abuse.  He had called in question the revered
+authority of the ancients; and it was even averred that his views were
+calculated to subvert the authority of the Scriptures and undermine the
+very foundations of morality and religion.  His little practice fell
+away, and he was left almost without a friend.  This lasted for some
+years, until the great truth, held fast by Harvey amidst all his
+adversity, and which had dropped into many thoughtful minds, gradually
+ripened by further observation, and after a period of about twenty-five
+years, it became generally recognised as an established scientific truth.
+
+The difficulties encountered by Dr. Jenner in promulgating and
+establishing his discovery of vaccination as a preventive of small-pox,
+were even greater than those of Harvey.  Many, before him, had witnessed
+the cow-pox, and had heard of the report current among the milkmaids in
+Gloucestershire, that whoever had taken that disease was secure against
+small-pox.  It was a trifling, vulgar rumour, supposed to have no
+significance whatever; and no one had thought it worthy of investigation,
+until it was accidentally brought under the notice of Jenner.  He was a
+youth, pursuing his studies at Sodbury, when his attention was arrested
+by the casual observation made by a country girl who came to his master’s
+shop for advice.  The small-pox was mentioned, when the girl said, “I
+can’t take that disease, for I have had cow-pox.”  The observation
+immediately riveted Jenner’s attention, and he forthwith set about
+inquiring and making observations on the subject.  His professional
+friends, to whom he mentioned his views as to the prophylactic virtues of
+cow-pox, laughed at him, and even threatened to expel him from their
+society, if he persisted in harassing them with the subject.  In London
+he was so fortunate as to study under John Hunter, to whom he
+communicated his views.  The advice of the great anatomist was thoroughly
+characteristic: “Don’t think, but _try_; be patient, be accurate.”
+Jenner’s courage was supported by the advice, which conveyed to him the
+true art of philosophical investigation.  He went back to the country to
+practise his profession and make observations and experiments, which he
+continued to pursue for a period of twenty years.  His faith in his
+discovery was so implicit that he vaccinated his own son on three several
+occasions.  At length he published his views in a quarto of about seventy
+pages, in which he gave the details of twenty-three cases of successful
+vaccination of individuals, to whom it was found afterwards impossible to
+communicate the small-pox either by contagion or inoculation.  It was in
+1798 that this treatise was published; though he had been working out his
+ideas since the year 1775, when they had begun to assume a definite form.
+
+How was the discovery received?  First with indifference, then with
+active hostility.  Jenner proceeded to London to exhibit to the
+profession the process of vaccination and its results; but not a single
+medical man could be induced to make trial of it, and after fruitlessly
+waiting for nearly three months, he returned to his native village.  He
+was even caricatured and abused for his attempt to “bestialize” his
+species by the introduction into their systems of diseased matter from
+the cow’s udder.  Vaccination was denounced from the pulpit as
+“diabolical.”  It was averred that vaccinated children became “ox-faced,”
+that abscesses broke out to “indicate sprouting horns,” and that the
+countenance was gradually “transmuted into the visage of a cow, the voice
+into the bellowing of bulls.”  Vaccination, however, was a truth, and
+notwithstanding the violence of the opposition, belief in it spread
+slowly.  In one village, where a gentleman tried to introduce the
+practice, the first persons who permitted themselves to be vaccinated
+were absolutely pelted and driven into their houses if they appeared out
+of doors.  Two ladies of title—Lady Ducie and the Countess of Berkeley—to
+their honour be it remembered—had the courage to vaccinate their
+children; and the prejudices of the day were at once broken through.  The
+medical profession gradually came round, and there were several who even
+sought to rob Dr. Jenner of the merit of the discovery, when its
+importance came to be recognised.  Jenner’s cause at last triumphed, and
+he was publicly honoured and rewarded.  In his prosperity he was as
+modest as he had been in his obscurity.  He was invited to settle in
+London, and told that he might command a practice of 10,000_l._ a year.
+But his answer was, “No!  In the morning of my days I have sought the
+sequestered and lowly paths of life—the valley, and not the mountain,—and
+now, in the evening of my days, it is not meet for me to hold myself up
+as an object for fortune and for fame.”  During Jenner’s own life-time
+the practice of vaccination became adopted all over the civilized world;
+and when he died, his title as a Benefactor of his kind was recognised
+far and wide.  Cuvier has said, “If vaccine were the only discovery of
+the epoch, it would serve to render it illustrious for ever; yet it
+knocked twenty times in vain at the doors of the Academies.”
+
+Not less patient, resolute, and persevering was Sir Charles Bell in the
+prosecution of his discoveries relating to the nervous system.  Previous
+to his time, the most confused notions prevailed as to the functions of
+the nerves, and this branch of study was little more advanced than it had
+been in the times of Democritus and Anaxagoras three thousand years
+before.  Sir Charles Bell, in the valuable series of papers the
+publication of which was commenced in 1821, took an entirely original
+view of the subject, based upon a long series of careful, accurate, and
+oft-repeated experiments.  Elaborately tracing the development of the
+nervous system up from the lowest order of animated being, to man—the
+lord of the animal kingdom,—he displayed it, to use his own words, “as
+plainly as if it were written in our mother-tongue.”  His discovery
+consisted in the fact, that the spinal nerves are double in their
+function, and arise by double roots from the spinal marrow,—volition
+being conveyed by that part of the nerves springing from the one root,
+and sensation by the other.  The subject occupied the mind of Sir Charles
+Bell for a period of forty years, when, in 1840, he laid his last paper
+before the Royal Society.  As in the cases of Harvey and Jenner, when he
+had lived down the ridicule and opposition with which his views were
+first received, and their truth came to be recognised, numerous claims
+for priority in making the discovery were set up at home and abroad.
+Like them, too, he lost practice by the publication of his papers; and he
+left it on record that, after every step in his discovery, he was obliged
+to work harder than ever to preserve his reputation as a practitioner.
+The great merits of Sir Charles Bell were, however, at length fully
+recognised; and Cuvier himself, when on his death-bed, finding his face
+distorted and drawn to one side, pointed out the symptom to his
+attendants as a proof of the correctness of Sir Charles Bell’s theory.
+
+An equally devoted pursuer of the same branch of science was the late Dr.
+Marshall Hall, whose name posterity will rank with those of Harvey,
+Hunter, Jenner, and Bell.  During the whole course of his long and useful
+life he was a most careful and minute observer; and no fact, however
+apparently insignificant, escaped his attention.  His important discovery
+of the diastaltic nervous system, by which his name will long be known
+amongst scientific men, originated in an exceedingly simple circumstance.
+When investigating the pneumonic circulation in the Triton, the
+decapitated object lay upon the table; and on separating the tail and
+accidentally pricking the external integument, he observed that it moved
+with energy, and became contorted into various forms.  He had not touched
+a muscle or a muscular nerve; what then was the nature of these
+movements?  The same phenomena had probably been often observed before,
+but Dr. Hall was the first to apply himself perseveringly to the
+investigation of their causes; and he exclaimed on the occasion, “I will
+never rest satisfied until I have found all this out, and made it clear.”
+His attention to the subject was almost incessant; and it is estimated
+that in the course of his life he devoted not less than 25,000 hours to
+its experimental and chemical investigation.  He was at the same time
+carrying on an extensive private practice, and officiating as lecturer at
+St. Thomas’s Hospital and other Medical Schools.  It will scarcely be
+credited that the paper in which he embodied his discovery was rejected
+by the Royal Society, and was only accepted after the lapse of seventeen
+years, when the truth of his views had become acknowledged by scientific
+men both at home and abroad.
+
+The life of Sir William Herschel affords another remarkable illustration
+of the force of perseverance in another branch of science.  His father
+was a poor German musician, who brought up his four sons to the same
+calling.  William came over to England to seek his fortune, and he joined
+the band of the Durham Militia, in which he played the oboe.  The
+regiment was lying at Doncaster, where Dr. Miller first became acquainted
+with Herschel, having heard him perform a solo on the violin in a
+surprising manner.  The Doctor entered into conversation with the youth,
+and was so pleased with him, that he urged him to leave the militia and
+take up his residence at his house for a time.  Herschel did so, and
+while at Doncaster was principally occupied in violin-playing at
+concerts, availing himself of the advantages of Dr. Miller’s library to
+study at his leisure hours.  A new organ having been built for the parish
+church of Halifax, an organist was advertised for, on which Herschel
+applied for the office, and was selected.  Leading the wandering life of
+an artist, he was next attracted to Bath, where he played in the
+Pump-room band, and also officiated as organist in the Octagon chapel.
+Some recent discoveries in astronomy having arrested his mind, and
+awakened in him a powerful spirit of curiosity, he sought and obtained
+from a friend the loan of a two-foot Gregorian telescope.  So fascinated
+was the poor musician by the science, that he even thought of purchasing
+a telescope, but the price asked by the London optician was so alarming,
+that he determined to make one.  Those who know what a reflecting
+telescope is, and the skill which is required to prepare the concave
+metallic speculum which forms the most important part of the apparatus,
+will be able to form some idea of the difficulty of this undertaking.
+Nevertheless, Herschel succeeded, after long and painful labour, in
+completing a five-foot reflector, with which he had the gratification of
+observing the ring and satellites of Saturn.  Not satisfied with his
+triumph, he proceeded to make other instruments in succession, of seven,
+ten, and even twenty feet.  In constructing the seven-foot reflector, he
+finished no fewer than two hundred specula before he produced one that
+would bear any power that was applied to it,—a striking instance of the
+persevering laboriousness of the man.  While gauging the heavens with his
+instruments, he continued patiently to earn his bread by piping to the
+fashionable frequenters of the Pump-room.  So eager was he in his
+astronomical observations, that he would steal away from the room during
+an interval of the performance, give a little turn at his telescope, and
+contentedly return to his oboe.  Thus working away, Herschel discovered
+the Georgium Sidus, the orbit and rate of motion of which he carefully
+calculated, and sent the result to the Royal Society; when the humble
+oboe player found himself at once elevated from obscurity to fame.  He
+was shortly after appointed Astronomer Royal, and by the kindness of
+George III. was placed in a position of honourable competency for life.
+He bore his honours with the same meekness and humility which had
+distinguished him in the days of his obscurity.  So gentle and patient,
+and withal so distinguished and successful a follower of science under
+difficulties, perhaps cannot be found in the entire history of biography.
+
+The career of William Smith, the father of English geology, though
+perhaps less known, is not less interesting and instructive as an example
+of patient and laborious effort, and the diligent cultivation of
+opportunities.  He was born in 1769, the son of a yeoman farmer at
+Churchill, in Oxfordshire.  His father dying when he was but a child, he
+received a very sparing education at the village school, and even that
+was to a considerable extent interfered with by his wandering and
+somewhat idle habits as a boy.  His mother having married a second time,
+he was taken in charge by an uncle, also a farmer, by whom he was brought
+up.  Though the uncle was by no means pleased with the boy’s love of
+wandering about, collecting “poundstones,” “pundips,” and other stony
+curiosities which lay scattered about the adjoining land, he yet enabled
+him to purchase a few of the necessary books wherewith to instruct
+himself in the rudiments of geometry and surveying; for the boy was
+already destined for the business of a land-surveyor.  One of his marked
+characteristics, even as a youth, was the accuracy and keenness of his
+observation; and what he once clearly saw he never forgot.  He began to
+draw, attempted to colour, and practised the arts of mensuration and
+surveying, all without regular instruction; and by his efforts in
+self-culture, he shortly became so proficient, that he was taken on as
+assistant to a local surveyor of ability in the neighbourhood.  In
+carrying on his business he was constantly under the necessity of
+traversing Oxfordshire and the adjoining counties.  One of the first
+things he seriously pondered over, was the position of the various soils
+and strata that came under his notice on the lands which he surveyed or
+travelled over; more especially the position of the red earth in regard
+to the lias and superincumbent rocks.  The surveys of numerous collieries
+which he was called upon to make, gave him further experience; and
+already, when only twenty-three years of age, he contemplated making a
+model of the strata of the earth.
+
+While engaged in levelling for a proposed canal in Gloucestershire, the
+idea of a general law occurred to him relating to the strata of that
+district.  He conceived that the strata lying above the coal were not
+laid horizontally, but inclined, and in one direction, towards the east;
+resembling, on a large scale, “the ordinary appearance of superposed
+slices of bread and butter.”  The correctness of this theory he shortly
+after confirmed by observations of the strata in two parallel valleys,
+the “red ground,” “lias,” and “freestone” or “oolite,” being found to
+come down in an eastern direction, and to sink below the level, yielding
+place to the next in succession.  He was shortly enabled to verify the
+truth of his views on a larger scale, having been appointed to examine
+personally into the management of canals in England and Wales.  During
+his journeys, which extended from Bath to Newcastle-on-Tyne, returning by
+Shropshire and Wales, his keen eyes were never idle for a moment.  He
+rapidly noted the aspect and structure of the country through which he
+passed with his companions, treasuring up his observations for future
+use.  His geologic vision was so acute, that though the road along which
+he passed from York to Newcastle in the post chaise was from five to
+fifteen miles distant from the hills of chalk and oolite on the east, he
+was satisfied as to their nature, by their contours and relative
+position, and their ranges on the surface in relation to the lias and
+“red ground” occasionally seen on the road.
+
+The general results of his observation seem to have been these.  He noted
+that the rocky masses of country in the western parts of England
+generally inclined to the east and south-east; that the red sandstones
+and marls above the coal measures passed beneath the lias, clay, and
+limestone, that these again passed beneath the sands, yellow limestones
+and clays, forming the table-land of the Cotswold Hills, while these in
+turn passed beneath the great chalk deposits occupying the eastern parts
+of England.  He further observed, that each layer of clay, sand, and
+limestone held its own peculiar classes of fossils; and pondering much on
+these things, he at length came to the then unheard-of conclusion, that
+each distinct deposit of marine animals, in these several strata,
+indicated a distinct sea-bottom, and that each layer of clay, sand,
+chalk, and stone, marked a distinct epoch of time in the history of the
+earth.
+
+This idea took firm possession of his mind, and he could talk and think
+of nothing else.  At canal boards, at sheep-shearings, at county
+meetings, and at agricultural associations, ‘Strata Smith,’ as he came to
+be called, was always running over with the subject that possessed him.
+He had indeed made a great discovery, though he was as yet a man utterly
+unknown in the scientific world.  He proceeded to project a map of the
+stratification of England; but was for some time deterred from proceeding
+with it, being fully occupied in carrying out the works of the
+Somersetshire coal canal, which engaged him for a period of about six
+years.  He continued, nevertheless, to be unremitting in his observation
+of facts; and he became so expert in apprehending the internal structure
+of a district and detecting the lie of the strata from its external
+configuration, that he was often consulted respecting the drainage of
+extensive tracts of land, in which, guided by his geological knowledge,
+he proved remarkably successful, and acquired an extensive reputation.
+
+One day, when looking over the cabinet collection of fossils belonging to
+the Rev. Samuel Richardson, at Bath, Smith astonished his friend by
+suddenly disarranging his classification, and re-arranging the fossils in
+their stratigraphical order, saying—“These came from the blue lias, these
+from the over-lying sand and freestone, these from the fuller’s earth,
+and these from the Bath building stone.”  A new light flashed upon Mr.
+Richardson’s mind, and he shortly became a convert to and believer in
+William Smith’s doctrine.  The geologists of the day were not, however,
+so easily convinced; and it was scarcely to be tolerated that an unknown
+land-surveyor should pretend to teach them the science of geology.  But
+William Smith had an eye and mind to penetrate deep beneath the skin of
+the earth; he saw its very fibre and skeleton, and, as it were, divined
+its organization.  His knowledge of the strata in the neighbourhood of
+Bath was so accurate, that one evening, when dining at the house of the
+Rev. Joseph Townsend, he dictated to Mr. Richardson the different strata
+according to their order of succession in descending order, twenty-three
+in number, commencing with the chalk and descending in continuous series
+down to the coal, below which the strata were not then sufficiently
+determined.  To this was added a list of the more remarkable fossils
+which had been gathered in the several layers of rock.  This was printed
+and extensively circulated in 1801.
+
+He next determined to trace out the strata through districts as remote
+from Bath as his means would enable him to reach.  For years he journeyed
+to and fro, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, riding on the tops
+of stage coaches, often making up by night-travelling the time he had
+lost by day, so as not to fail in his ordinary business engagements.
+When he was professionally called away to any distance from home—as, for
+instance, when travelling from Bath to Holkham, in Norfolk, to direct the
+irrigation and drainage of Mr. Coke’s land in that county—he rode on
+horseback, making frequent detours from the road to note the geological
+features of the country which he traversed.
+
+For several years he was thus engaged in his journeys to distant quarters
+in England and Ireland, to the extent of upwards of ten thousand miles
+yearly; and it was amidst this incessant and laborious travelling, that
+he contrived to commit to paper his fast-growing generalizations on what
+he rightly regarded as a new science.  No observation, howsoever trivial
+it might appear, was neglected, and no opportunity of collecting fresh
+facts was overlooked.  Whenever he could, he possessed himself of records
+of borings, natural and artificial sections, drew them to a constant
+scale of eight yards to the inch, and coloured them up.  Of his keenness
+of observation take the following illustration.  When making one of his
+geological excursions about the country near Woburn, as he was drawing
+near to the foot of the Dunstable chalk hills, he observed to his
+companion, “If there be any broken ground about the foot of these hills,
+we may find _shark’s teeth_;” and they had not proceeded far, before they
+picked up six from the white bank of a new fence-ditch.  As he afterwards
+said of himself, “The habit of observation crept on me, gained a
+settlement in my mind, became a constant associate of my life, and
+started up in activity at the first thought of a journey; so that I
+generally went off well prepared with maps, and sometimes with
+contemplations on its objects, or on those on the road, reduced to
+writing before it commenced.  My mind was, therefore, like the canvas of
+a painter, well prepared for the first and best impressions.”
+
+Notwithstanding his courageous and indefatigable industry, many
+circumstances contributed to prevent the promised publication of William
+Smith’s ‘Map of the Strata of England and Wales,’ and it was not until
+1814 that he was enabled, by the assistance of some friends, to give to
+the world the fruits of his twenty years’ incessant labour.  To prosecute
+his inquiries, and collect the extensive series of facts and observations
+requisite for his purpose, he had to expend the whole of the profits of
+his professional labours during that period; and he even sold off his
+small property to provide the means of visiting remoter parts of the
+island.  Meanwhile he had entered on a quarrying speculation near Bath,
+which proved unsuccessful, and he was under the necessity of selling his
+geological collection (which was purchased by the British Museum), his
+furniture and library, reserving only his papers, maps, and sections,
+which were useless save to himself.  He bore his losses and misfortunes
+with exemplary fortitude; and amidst all, he went on working with
+cheerful courage and untiring patience.  He died at Northampton, in
+August, 1839, while on his way to attend the meeting of the British
+Association at Birmingham.
+
+It is difficult to speak in terms of too high praise of the first
+geological map of England, which we owe to the industry of this
+courageous man of science.  An accomplished writer says of it, “It was a
+work so masterly in conception and so correct in general outline, that in
+principle it served as a basis not only for the production of later maps
+of the British Islands, but for geological maps of all other parts of the
+world, wherever they have been undertaken.  In the apartments of the
+Geological Society Smith’s map may yet be seen—a great historical
+document, old and worn, calling for renewal of its faded tints.  Let any
+one conversant with the subject compare it with later works on a similar
+scale, and he will find that in all essential features it will not suffer
+by the comparison—the intricate anatomy of the Silurian rocks of Wales
+and the north of England by Murchison and Sedgwick being the chief
+additions made to his great generalizations.” {149}  The genius of the
+Oxfordshire surveyor did not fail to be duly recognised and honoured by
+men of science during his lifetime.  In 1831 the Geological Society of
+London awarded to him the Wollaston medal, “in consideration of his being
+a great original discoverer in English geology, and especially for his
+being the first in this country to discover and to teach the
+identification of strata, and to determine their succession by means of
+their imbedded fossils.”  William Smith, in his simple, earnest way,
+gained for himself a name as lasting as the science he loved so well.  To
+use the words of the writer above quoted, “Till the manner as well as the
+fact of the first appearance of successive forms of life shall be solved,
+it is not easy to surmise how any discovery can be made in geology equal
+in value to that which we owe to the genius of William Smith.”
+
+Hugh Miller was a man of like observant faculties, who studied literature
+as well as science with zeal and success.  The book in which he has told
+the story of his life, (‘My Schools and Schoolmasters’), is extremely
+interesting, and calculated to be eminently useful.  It is the history of
+the formation of a truly noble character in the humblest condition of
+life; and inculcates most powerfully the lessons of self-help,
+self-respect, and self-dependence.  While Hugh was but a child, his
+father, who was a sailor, was drowned at sea, and he was brought up by
+his widowed mother.  He had a school training after a sort, but his best
+teachers were the boys with whom he played, the men amongst whom he
+worked, the friends and relatives with whom he lived.  He read much and
+miscellaneously, and picked up odd sorts of knowledge from many
+quarters,—from workmen, carpenters, fishermen and sailors, and above all,
+from the old boulders strewed along the shores of the Cromarty Frith.
+With a big hammer which had belonged to his great-grandfather, an old
+buccaneer, the boy went about chipping the stones, and accumulating
+specimens of mica, porphyry, garnet, and such like.  Sometimes he had a
+day in the woods, and there, too, the boy’s attention was excited by the
+peculiar geological curiosities which came in his way.  While searching
+among the rocks on the beach, he was sometimes asked, in irony, by the
+farm servants who came to load their carts with sea-weed, whether he “was
+gettin’ siller in the stanes,” but was so unlucky as never to be able to
+answer in the affirmative.  When of a suitable age he was apprenticed to
+the trade of his choice—that of a working stonemason; and he began his
+labouring career in a quarry looking out upon the Cromarty Frith.  This
+quarry proved one of his best schools.  The remarkable geological
+formations which it displayed awakened his curiosity.  The bar of
+deep-red stone beneath, and the bar of pale-red clay above, were noted by
+the young quarryman, who even in such unpromising subjects found matter
+for observation and reflection.  Where other men saw nothing, he detected
+analogies, differences, and peculiarities, which set him a-thinking.  He
+simply kept his eyes and his mind open; was sober, diligent, and
+persevering; and this was the secret of his intellectual growth.
+
+His curiosity was excited and kept alive by the curious organic remains,
+principally of old and extinct species of fishes, ferns, and ammonites,
+which were revealed along the coast by the washings of the waves, or were
+exposed by the stroke of his mason’s hammer.  He never lost sight of the
+subject; but went on accumulating observations and comparing formations,
+until at length, many years afterwards, when no longer a working mason,
+he gave to the world his highly interesting work on the Old Red
+Sandstone, which at once established his reputation as a scientific
+geologist.  But this work was the fruit of long years of patient
+observation and research.  As he modestly states in his autobiography,
+“the only merit to which I lay claim in the case is that of patient
+research—a merit in which whoever wills may rival or surpass me; and this
+humble faculty of patience, when rightly developed, may lead to more
+extraordinary developments of idea than even genius itself.”
+
+The late John Brown, the eminent English geologist, was, like Miller, a
+stonemason in his early life, serving an apprenticeship to the trade at
+Colchester, and afterwards working as a journeyman mason at Norwich.  He
+began business as a builder on his own account at Colchester, where by
+frugality and industry he secured a competency.  It was while working at
+his trade that his attention was first drawn to the study of fossils and
+shells; and he proceeded to make a collection of them, which afterwards
+grew into one of the finest in England.  His researches along the coasts
+of Essex, Kent, and Sussex brought to light some magnificent remains of
+the elephant and rhinoceros, the most valuable of which were presented by
+him to the British Museum.  During the last few years of his life he
+devoted considerable attention to the study of the Foraminifera in chalk,
+respecting which he made several interesting discoveries.  His life was
+useful, happy, and honoured; and he died at Stanway, in Essex, in
+November 1859, at the ripe age of eighty years.
+
+Not long ago, Sir Roderick Murchison discovered at Thurso, in the far
+north of Scotland, a profound geologist, in the person of a baker there,
+named Robert Dick.  When Sir Roderick called upon him at the bakehouse in
+which he baked and earned his bread, Robert Dick delineated to him, by
+means of flour upon the board, the geographical features and geological
+phenomena of his native county, pointing out the imperfections in the
+existing maps, which he had ascertained by travelling over the country in
+his leisure hours.  On further inquiry, Sir Roderick ascertained that the
+humble individual before him was not only a capital baker and geologist,
+but a first-rate botanist.  “I found,” said the President of the
+Geographical Society, “to my great humiliation that the baker knew
+infinitely more of botanical science, ay, ten times more, than I did; and
+that there were only some twenty or thirty specimens of flowers which he
+had not collected.  Some he had obtained as presents, some he had
+purchased, but the greater portion had been accumulated by his industry,
+in his native county of Caithness; and the specimens were all arranged in
+the most beautiful order, with their scientific names affixed.”
+
+Sir Roderick Murchison himself is an illustrious follower of these and
+kindred branches of science.  A writer in the ‘Quarterly Review’ cites
+him as a “singular instance of a man who, having passed the early part of
+his life as a soldier, never having had the advantage, or disadvantage as
+the case might have been, of a scientific training, instead of remaining
+a fox-hunting country gentleman, has succeeded by his own native vigour
+and sagacity, untiring industry and zeal, in making for himself a
+scientific reputation that is as wide as it is likely to be lasting.  He
+took first of all an unexplored and difficult district at home, and, by
+the labour of many years, examined its rock-formations, classed them in
+natural groups, assigned to each its characteristic assemblage of
+fossils, and was the first to decipher two great chapters in the world’s
+geological history, which must always henceforth carry his name on their
+title-page.  Not only so, but he applied the knowledge thus acquired to
+the dissection of large districts, both at home and abroad, so as to
+become the geological discoverer of great countries which had formerly
+been ‘terræ incognitæ.’”  But Sir Roderick Murchison is not merely a
+geologist.  His indefatigable labours in many branches of knowledge have
+contributed to render him among the most accomplished and complete of
+scientific men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+WORKERS IN ART.
+
+
+    “If what shone afar so grand,
+    Turn to nothing in thy hand,
+    On again; the virtue lies
+    In struggle, not the prize.”—_R. M. Milnes_.
+
+    “Excelle, et tu vivras.”—_Joubert_.
+
+EXCELLENCE in art, as in everything else, can only be achieved by dint of
+painstaking labour.
+
+There is nothing less accidental than the painting of a fine picture or
+the chiselling of a noble statue.  Every skilled touch of the artist’s
+brush or chisel, though guided by genius, is the product of unremitting
+study.
+
+Sir Joshua Reynolds was such a believer in the force of industry, that he
+held that artistic excellence, “however expressed by genius, taste, or
+the gift of heaven, may be acquired.”  Writing to Barry he said, “Whoever
+is resolved to excel in painting, or indeed any other art, must bring all
+his mind to bear upon that one object from the moment that he rises till
+he goes to bed.”  And on another occasion he said, “Those who are
+resolved to excel must go to their work, willing or unwilling, morning,
+noon, and night: they will find it no play, but very hard labour.”  But
+although diligent application is no doubt absolutely necessary for the
+achievement of the highest distinction in art, it is equally true that
+without the inborn genius, no amount of mere industry, however well
+applied, will make an artist.  The gift comes by nature, but is perfected
+by self-culture, which is of more avail than all the imparted education
+of the schools.
+
+Some of the greatest artists have had to force their way upward in the
+face of poverty and manifold obstructions.  Illustrious instances will at
+once flash upon the reader’s mind.  Claude Lorraine, the pastrycook;
+Tintoretto, the dyer; the two Caravaggios, the one a colour-grinder, the
+other a mortar-carrier at the Vatican; Salvator Rosa, the associate of
+bandits; Giotto, the peasant boy; Zingaro, the gipsy; Cavedone, turned
+out of doors to beg by his father; Canova, the stone-cutter; these, and
+many other well-known artists, succeeded in achieving distinction by
+severe study and labour, under circumstances the most adverse.
+
+Nor have the most distinguished artists of our own country been born in a
+position of life more than ordinarily favourable to the culture of
+artistic genius.  Gainsborough and Bacon were the sons of cloth-workers;
+Barry was an Irish sailor boy, and Maclise a banker’s apprentice at Cork;
+Opie and Romney, like Inigo Jones, were carpenters; West was the son of a
+small Quaker farmer in Pennsylvania; Northcote was a watchmaker, Jackson
+a tailor, and Etty a printer; Reynolds, Wilson, and Wilkie, were the sons
+of clergymen; Lawrence was the son of a publican, and Turner of a barber.
+Several of our painters, it is true, originally had some connection with
+art, though in a very humble way,—such as Flaxman, whose father sold
+plaster casts; Bird, who ornamented tea-trays; Martin, who was a
+coach-painter; Wright and Gilpin, who were ship-painters; Chantrey, who
+was a carver and gilder; and David Cox, Stanfield, and Roberts, who were
+scene-painters.
+
+It was not by luck or accident that these men achieved distinction, but
+by sheer industry and hard work.  Though some achieved wealth, yet this
+was rarely, if ever, the ruling motive.  Indeed, no mere love of money
+could sustain the efforts of the artist in his early career of
+self-denial and application.  The pleasure of the pursuit has always been
+its best reward; the wealth which followed but an accident.  Many
+noble-minded artists have preferred following the bent of their genius,
+to chaffering with the public for terms.  Spagnoletto verified in his
+life the beautiful fiction of Xenophon, and after he had acquired the
+means of luxury, preferred withdrawing himself from their influence, and
+voluntarily returned to poverty and labour.  When Michael Angelo was
+asked his opinion respecting a work which a painter had taken great pains
+to exhibit for profit, he said, “I think that he will be a poor fellow so
+long as he shows such an extreme eagerness to become rich.”
+
+Like Sir Joshua Reynolds, Michael Angelo was a great believer in the
+force of labour; and he held that there was nothing which the imagination
+conceived, that could not be embodied in marble, if the hand were made
+vigorously to obey the mind.  He was himself one of the most
+indefatigable of workers; and he attributed his power of studying for a
+greater number of hours than most of his contemporaries, to his spare
+habits of living.  A little bread and wine was all he required for the
+chief part of the day when employed at his work; and very frequently he
+rose in the middle of the night to resume his labours.  On these
+occasions, it was his practice to fix the candle, by the light of which
+he chiselled, on the summit of a paste-board cap which he wore.
+Sometimes he was too wearied to undress, and he slept in his clothes,
+ready to spring to his work so soon as refreshed by sleep.  He had a
+favourite device of an old man in a go-cart, with an hour-glass upon it
+bearing the inscription, _Ancora imparo_!  Still I am learning.
+
+Titian, also, was an indefatigable worker.  His celebrated “Pietro
+Martire” was eight years in hand, and his “Last Supper” seven.  In his
+letter to Charles V. he said, “I send your Majesty the ‘Last Supper’
+after working at it almost daily for seven years—_dopo sette anni
+lavorandovi quasi continuamente_.”  Few think of the patient labour and
+long training involved in the greatest works of the artist.  They seem
+easy and quickly accomplished, yet with how great difficulty has this
+ease been acquired.  “You charge me fifty sequins,” said the Venetian
+nobleman to the sculptor, “for a bust that cost you only ten days’
+labour.”  “You forget,” said the artist, “that I have been thirty years
+learning to make that bust in ten days.”  Once when Domenichino was
+blamed for his slowness in finishing a picture which was bespoken, he
+made answer, “I am continually painting it within myself.”  It was
+eminently characteristic of the industry of the late Sir Augustus
+Callcott, that he made not fewer than forty separate sketches in the
+composition of his famous picture of “Rochester.”  This constant
+repetition is one of the main conditions of success in art, as in life
+itself.
+
+No matter how generous nature has been in bestowing the gift of genius,
+the pursuit of art is nevertheless a long and continuous labour.  Many
+artists have been precocious, but without diligence their precocity would
+have come to nothing.  The anecdote related of West is well known.  When
+only seven years old, struck with the beauty of the sleeping infant of
+his eldest sister whilst watching by its cradle, he ran to seek some
+paper and forthwith drew its portrait in red and black ink.  The little
+incident revealed the artist in him, and it was found impossible to draw
+him from his bent.  West might have been a greater painter, had he not
+been injured by too early success: his fame, though great, was not
+purchased by study, trials, and difficulties, and it has not been
+enduring.
+
+Richard Wilson, when a mere child, indulged himself with tracing figures
+of men and animals on the walls of his father’s house, with a burnt
+stick.  He first directed his attention to portrait painting; but when in
+Italy, calling one day at the house of Zucarelli, and growing weary with
+waiting, he began painting the scene on which his friend’s chamber window
+looked.  When Zucarelli arrived, he was so charmed with the picture, that
+he asked if Wilson had not studied landscape, to which he replied that he
+had not.  “Then, I advise you,” said the other, “to try; for you are sure
+of great success.”  Wilson adopted the advice, studied and worked hard,
+and became our first great English landscape painter.
+
+Sir Joshua Reynolds, when a boy, forgot his lessons, and took pleasure
+only in drawing, for which his father was accustomed to rebuke him.  The
+boy was destined for the profession of physic, but his strong instinct
+for art could not be repressed, and he became a painter.  Gainsborough
+went sketching, when a schoolboy, in the woods of Sudbury; and at twelve
+he was a confirmed artist: he was a keen observer and a hard worker,—no
+picturesque feature of any scene he had once looked upon, escaping his
+diligent pencil.  William Blake, a hosier’s son, employed himself in
+drawing designs on the backs of his father’s shop-bills, and making
+sketches on the counter.  Edward Bird, when a child only three or four
+years old, would mount a chair and draw figures on the walls, which he
+called French and English soldiers.  A box of colours was purchased for
+him, and his father, desirous of turning his love of art to account, put
+him apprentice to a maker of tea-trays!  Out of this trade he gradually
+raised himself, by study and labour, to the rank of a Royal Academician.
+
+Hogarth, though a very dull boy at his lessons, took pleasure in making
+drawings of the letters of the alphabet, and his school exercises were
+more remarkable for the ornaments with which he embellished them, than
+for the matter of the exercises themselves.  In the latter respect he was
+beaten by all the blockheads of the school, but in his adornments he
+stood alone.  His father put him apprentice to a silversmith, where he
+learnt to draw, and also to engrave spoons and forks with crests and
+ciphers.  From silver-chasing, he went on to teach himself engraving on
+copper, principally griffins and monsters of heraldry, in the course of
+which practice he became ambitious to delineate the varieties of human
+character.  The singular excellence which he reached in this art, was
+mainly the result of careful observation and study.  He had the gift,
+which he sedulously cultivated, of committing to memory the precise
+features of any remarkable face, and afterwards reproducing them on
+paper; but if any singularly fantastic form or _outré_ face came in his
+way, he would make a sketch of it on the spot, upon his thumb-nail, and
+carry it home to expand at his leisure.  Everything fantastical and
+original had a powerful attraction for him, and he wandered into many
+out-of-the-way places for the purpose of meeting with character.  By this
+careful storing of his mind, he was afterwards enabled to crowd an
+immense amount of thought and treasured observation into his works.
+Hence it is that Hogarth’s pictures are so truthful a memorial of the
+character, the manners, and even the very thoughts of the times in which
+he lived.  True painting, he himself observed, can only be learnt in one
+school, and that is kept by Nature.  But he was not a highly cultivated
+man, except in his own walk.  His school education had been of the
+slenderest kind, scarcely even perfecting him in the art of spelling; his
+self-culture did the rest.  For a long time he was in very straitened
+circumstances, but nevertheless worked on with a cheerful heart.  Poor
+though he was, he contrived to live within his small means, and he
+boasted, with becoming pride, that he was “a punctual paymaster.”  When
+he had conquered all his difficulties and become a famous and thriving
+man, he loved to dwell upon his early labours and privations, and to
+fight over again the battle which ended so honourably to him as a man and
+so gloriously as an artist.  “I remember the time,” said he on one
+occasion, “when I have gone moping into the city with scarce a shilling,
+but as soon as I have received ten guineas there for a plate, I have
+returned home, put on my sword, and sallied out with all the confidence
+of a man who had thousands in his pockets.”
+
+“Industry and perseverance” was the motto of the sculptor Banks, which he
+acted on himself, and strongly recommended to others.  His well-known
+kindness induced many aspiring youths to call upon him and ask for his
+advice and assistance; and it is related that one day a boy called at his
+door to see him with this object, but the servant, angry at the loud
+knock he had given, scolded him, and was about sending him away, when
+Banks overhearing her, himself went out.  The little boy stood at the
+door with some drawings in his hand.  “What do you want with me?” asked
+the sculptor.  “I want, sir, if you please, to be admitted to draw at the
+Academy.”  Banks explained that he himself could not procure his
+admission, but he asked to look at the boy’s drawings.  Examining them,
+he said, “Time enough for the Academy, my little man! go home—mind your
+schooling—try to make a better drawing of the Apollo—and in a month come
+again and let me see it.”  The boy went home—sketched and worked with
+redoubled diligence—and, at the end of the month, called again on the
+sculptor.  The drawing was better; but again Banks sent him back, with
+good advice, to work and study.  In a week the boy was again at his door,
+his drawing much improved; and Banks bid him be of good cheer, for if
+spared he would distinguish himself.  The boy was Mulready; and the
+sculptor’s augury was amply fulfilled.
+
+The fame of Claude Lorraine is partly explained by his indefatigable
+industry.  Born at Champagne, in Lorraine, of poor parents, he was first
+apprenticed to a pastrycook.  His brother, who was a wood-carver,
+afterwards took him into his shop to learn that trade.  Having there
+shown indications of artistic skill, a travelling dealer persuaded the
+brother to allow Claude to accompany him to Italy.  He assented, and the
+young man reached Rome, where he was shortly after engaged by Agostino
+Tassi, the landscape painter, as his house-servant.  In that capacity
+Claude first learnt landscape painting, and in course of time he began to
+produce pictures.  We next find him making the tour of Italy, France, and
+Germany, occasionally resting by the way to paint landscapes, and thereby
+replenish his purse.  On returning to Rome he found an increasing demand
+for his works, and his reputation at length became European.  He was
+unwearied in the study of nature in her various aspects.  It was his
+practice to spend a great part of his time in closely copying buildings,
+bits of ground, trees, leaves, and such like, which he finished in
+detail, keeping the drawings by him in store for the purpose of
+introducing them in his studied landscapes.  He also gave close attention
+to the sky, watching it for whole days from morning till night, and
+noting the various changes occasioned by the passing clouds and the
+increasing and waning light.  By this constant practice he acquired,
+although it is said very slowly, such a mastery of hand and eye as
+eventually secured for him the first rank among landscape painters.
+
+Turner, who has been styled “the English Claude,” pursued a career of
+like laborious industry.  He was destined by his father for his own trade
+of a barber, which he carried on in London, until one day the sketch
+which the boy had made of a coat of arms on a silver salver having
+attracted the notice of a customer whom his father was shaving, the
+latter was urged to allow his son to follow his bias, and he was
+eventually permitted to follow art as a profession.  Like all young
+artists, Turner had many difficulties to encounter, and they were all the
+greater that his circumstances were so straitened.  But he was always
+willing to work, and to take pains with his work, no matter how humble it
+might be.  He was glad to hire himself out at half-a-crown a night to
+wash in skies in Indian ink upon other people’s drawings, getting his
+supper into the bargain.  Thus he earned money and acquired expertness.
+Then he took to illustrating guide-books, almanacs, and any sort of books
+that wanted cheap frontispieces.  “What could I have done better?” said
+he afterwards; “it was first-rate practice.”  He did everything carefully
+and conscientiously, never slurring over his work because he was
+ill-remunerated for it.  He aimed at learning as well as living; always
+doing his best, and never leaving a drawing without having made a step in
+advance upon his previous work.  A man who thus laboured was sure to do
+much; and his growth in power and grasp of thought was, to use Ruskin’s
+words, “as steady as the increasing light of sunrise.”  But Turner’s
+genius needs no panegyric; his best monument is the noble gallery of
+pictures bequeathed by him to the nation, which will ever be the most
+lasting memorial of his fame.
+
+To reach Rome, the capital of the fine arts, is usually the highest
+ambition of the art student.  But the journey to Rome is costly, and the
+student is often poor.  With a will resolute to overcome difficulties,
+Rome may however at last be reached.  Thus François Perrier, an early
+French painter, in his eager desire to visit the Eternal City, consented
+to act as guide to a blind vagrant.  After long wanderings he reached the
+Vatican, studied and became famous.  Not less enthusiasm was displayed by
+Jacques Callot in his determination to visit Rome.  Though opposed by his
+father in his wish to be an artist, the boy would not be baulked, but
+fled from home to make his way to Italy.  Having set out without means,
+he was soon reduced to great straits; but falling in with a band of
+gipsies, he joined their company, and wandered about with them from one
+fair to another, sharing in their numerous adventures.  During this
+remarkable journey Callot picked up much of that extraordinary knowledge
+of figure, feature, and character which he afterwards reproduced,
+sometimes in such exaggerated forms, in his wonderful engravings.
+
+When Callot at length reached Florence, a gentleman, pleased with his
+ingenious ardour, placed him with an artist to study; but he was not
+satisfied to stop short of Rome, and we find him shortly on his way
+thither.  At Rome he made the acquaintance of Porigi and Thomassin, who,
+on seeing his crayon sketches, predicted for him a brilliant career as an
+artist.  But a friend of Callot’s family having accidentally encountered
+him, took steps to compel the fugitive to return home.  By this time he
+had acquired such a love of wandering that he could not rest; so he ran
+away a second time, and a second time he was brought back by his elder
+brother, who caught him at Turin.  At last the father, seeing resistance
+was in vain, gave his reluctant consent to Callot’s prosecuting his
+studies at Rome.  Thither he went accordingly; and this time he remained,
+diligently studying design and engraving for several years, under
+competent masters.  On his way back to France, he was encouraged by Cosmo
+II. to remain at Florence, where he studied and worked for several years
+more.  On the death of his patron he returned to his family at Nancy,
+where, by the use of his burin and needle, he shortly acquired both
+wealth and fame.  When Nancy was taken by siege during the civil wars,
+Callot was requested by Richelieu to make a design and engraving of the
+event, but the artist would not commemorate the disaster which had
+befallen his native place, and he refused point-blank.  Richelieu could
+not shake his resolution, and threw him into prison.  There Callot met
+with some of his old friends the gipsies, who had relieved his wants on
+his first journey to Rome.  When Louis XIII. heard of his imprisonment,
+he not only released him, but offered to grant him any favour he might
+ask.  Callot immediately requested that his old companions, the gipsies,
+might be set free and permitted to beg in Paris without molestation.
+This odd request was granted on condition that Callot should engrave
+their portraits, and hence his curious book of engravings entitled “The
+Beggars.”  Louis is said to have offered Callot a pension of 3000 livres
+provided he would not leave Paris; but the artist was now too much of a
+Bohemian, and prized his liberty too highly to permit him to accept it;
+and he returned to Nancy, where he worked till his death.  His industry
+may be inferred from the number of his engravings and etchings, of which
+he left not fewer than 1600.  He was especially fond of grotesque
+subjects, which he treated with great skill; his free etchings, touched
+with the graver, being executed with especial delicacy and wonderful
+minuteness.
+
+Still more romantic and adventurous was the career of Benvenuto Cellini,
+the marvellous gold worker, painter, sculptor, engraver, engineer, and
+author.  His life, as told by himself, is one of the most extraordinary
+autobiographies ever written.  Giovanni Cellini, his father, was one of
+the Court musicians to Lorenzo de Medici at Florence; and his highest
+ambition concerning his son Benvenuto was that he should become an expert
+player on the flute.  But Giovanni having lost his appointment, found it
+necessary to send his son to learn some trade, and he was apprenticed to
+a goldsmith.  The boy had already displayed a love of drawing and of art;
+and, applying himself to his business, he soon became a dexterous
+workman.  Having got mixed up in a quarrel with some of the townspeople,
+he was banished for six months, during which period he worked with a
+goldsmith at Sienna, gaining further experience in jewellery and
+gold-working.
+
+His father still insisting on his becoming a flute-player, Benvenuto
+continued to practise on the instrument, though he detested it.  His
+chief pleasure was in art, which he pursued with enthusiasm.  Returning
+to Florence, he carefully studied the designs of Leonardo da Vinci and
+Michael Angelo; and, still further to improve himself in gold-working, he
+went on foot to Rome, where he met with a variety of adventures.  He
+returned to Florence with the reputation of being a most expert worker in
+the precious metals, and his skill was soon in great request.  But being
+of an irascible temper, he was constantly getting into scrapes, and was
+frequently under the necessity of flying for his life.  Thus he fled from
+Florence in the disguise of a friar, again taking refuge at Sienna, and
+afterwards at Rome.
+
+During his second residence in Rome, Cellini met with extensive
+patronage, and he was taken into the Pope’s service in the double
+capacity of goldsmith and musician.  He was constantly studying and
+improving himself by acquaintance with the works of the best masters.  He
+mounted jewels, finished enamels, engraved seals, and designed and
+executed works in gold, silver, and bronze, in such a style as to excel
+all other artists.  Whenever he heard of a goldsmith who was famous in
+any particular branch, he immediately determined to surpass him.  Thus it
+was that he rivalled the medals of one, the enamels of another, and the
+jewellery of a third; in fact, there was not a branch of his business
+that he did not feel impelled to excel in.
+
+Working in this spirit, it is not so wonderful that Cellini should have
+been able to accomplish so much.  He was a man of indefatigable activity,
+and was constantly on the move.  At one time we find him at Florence, at
+another at Rome; then he is at Mantua, at Rome, at Naples, and back to
+Florence again; then at Venice, and in Paris, making all his long
+journeys on horseback.  He could not carry much luggage with him; so,
+wherever he went, he usually began by making his own tools.  He not only
+designed his works, but executed them himself,—hammered and carved, and
+cast and shaped them with his own hands.  Indeed, his works have the
+impress of genius so clearly stamped upon them, that they could never
+have been designed by one person, and executed by another.  The humblest
+article—a buckle for a lady’s girdle, a seal, a locket, a brooch, a ring,
+or a button—became in his hands a beautiful work of art.
+
+Cellini was remarkable for his readiness and dexterity in handicraft.
+One day a surgeon entered the shop of Raffaello del Moro, the goldsmith,
+to perform an operation on his daughter’s hand.  On looking at the
+surgeon’s instruments, Cellini, who was present, found them rude and
+clumsy, as they usually were in those days, and he asked the surgeon to
+proceed no further with the operation for a quarter of an hour.  He then
+ran to his shop, and taking a piece of the finest steel, wrought out of
+it a beautifully finished knife, with which the operation was
+successfully performed.
+
+Among the statues executed by Cellini, the most important are the silver
+figure of Jupiter, executed at Paris for Francis I., and the Perseus,
+executed in bronze for the Grand Duke Cosmo of Florence.  He also
+executed statues in marble of Apollo, Hyacinthus, Narcissus, and Neptune.
+The extraordinary incidents connected with the casting of the Perseus
+were peculiarly illustrative of the remarkable character of the man.
+
+The Grand Duke having expressed a decided opinion that the model, when
+shown to him in wax, could not possibly be cast in bronze, Cellini was
+immediately stimulated by the predicted impossibility, not only to
+attempt, but to do it.  He first made the clay model, baked it, and
+covered it with wax, which he shaped into the perfect form of a statue.
+Then coating the wax with a sort of earth, he baked the second covering,
+during which the wax dissolved and escaped, leaving the space between the
+two layers for the reception of the metal.  To avoid disturbance, the
+latter process was conducted in a pit dug immediately under the furnace,
+from which the liquid metal was to be introduced by pipes and apertures
+into the mould prepared for it.
+
+Cellini had purchased and laid in several loads of pine-wood, in
+anticipation of the process of casting, which now began.  The furnace was
+filled with pieces of brass and bronze, and the fire was lit.  The
+resinous pine-wood was soon in such a furious blaze, that the shop took
+fire, and part of the roof was burnt; while at the same time the wind
+blowing and the rain filling on the furnace, kept down the heat, and
+prevented the metals from melting.  For hours Cellini struggled to keep
+up the heat, continually throwing in more wood, until at length he became
+so exhausted and ill, that he feared he should die before the statue
+could be cast.  He was forced to leave to his assistants the pouring in
+of the metal when melted, and betook himself to his bed.  While those
+about him were condoling with him in his distress, a workman suddenly
+entered the room, lamenting that “Poor Benvenuto’s work was irretrievably
+spoiled!”  On hearing this, Cellini immediately sprang from his bed and
+rushed to the workshop, where he found the fire so much gone down that
+the metal had again become hard.
+
+Sending across to a neighbour for a load of young oak which had been more
+than a year in drying, he soon had the fire blazing again and the metal
+melting and glittering.  The wind was, however, still blowing with fury,
+and the rain falling heavily; so, to protect himself, Cellini had some
+tables with pieces of tapestry and old clothes brought to him, behind
+which he went on hurling the wood into the furnace.  A mass of pewter was
+thrown in upon the other metal, and by stirring, sometimes with iron and
+sometimes with long poles, the whole soon became completely melted.  At
+this juncture, when the trying moment was close at hand, a terrible noise
+as of a thunderbolt was heard, and a glittering of fire flashed before
+Cellini’s eyes.  The cover of the furnace had burst, and the metal began
+to flow!  Finding that it did not run with the proper velocity, Cellini
+rushed into the kitchen, bore away every piece of copper and pewter that
+it contained—some two hundred porringers, dishes, and kettles of
+different kinds—and threw them into the furnace.  Then at length the
+metal flowed freely, and thus the splendid statue of Perseus was cast.
+
+The divine fury of genius in which Cellini rushed to his kitchen and
+stripped it of its utensils for the purposes of his furnace, will remind
+the reader of the like act of Pallissy in breaking up his furniture for
+the purpose of baking his earthenware.  Excepting, however, in their
+enthusiasm, no two men could be less alike in character.  Cellini was an
+Ishmael against whom, according to his own account, every man’s hand was
+turned.  But about his extraordinary skill as a workman, and his genius
+as an artist, there cannot be two opinions.
+
+Much less turbulent was the career of Nicolas Poussin, a man as pure and
+elevated in his ideas of art as he was in his daily life, and
+distinguished alike for his vigour of intellect, his rectitude of
+character, and his noble simplicity.  He was born in a very humble
+station, at Andeleys, near Rouen, where his father kept a small school.
+The boy had the benefit of his parent’s instruction, such as it was, but
+of that he is said to have been somewhat negligent, preferring to spend
+his time in covering his lesson-books and his slate with drawings.  A
+country painter, much pleased with his sketches, besought his parents not
+to thwart him in his tastes.  The painter agreed to give Poussin lessons,
+and he soon made such progress that his master had nothing more to teach
+him.  Becoming restless, and desirous of further improving himself,
+Poussin, at the age of 18, set out for Paris, painting signboards on his
+way for a maintenance.
+
+At Paris a new world of art opened before him, exciting his wonder and
+stimulating his emulation.  He worked diligently in many studios,
+drawing, copying, and painting pictures.  After a time, he resolved, if
+possible, to visit Rome, and set out on his journey; but he only
+succeeded in getting as far as Florence, and again returned to Paris.  A
+second attempt which he made to reach Rome was even less successful; for
+this time he only got as far as Lyons.  He was, nevertheless, careful to
+take advantage of all opportunities for improvement which came in his
+way, and continued as sedulous as before in studying and working.
+
+Thus twelve years passed, years of obscurity and toil, of failures and
+disappointments, and probably of privations.  At length Poussin succeeded
+in reaching Rome.  There he diligently studied the old masters, and
+especially the ancient statues, with whose perfection he was greatly
+impressed.  For some time he lived with the sculptor Duquesnoi, as poor
+as himself, and assisted him in modelling figures after the antique.
+With him he carefully measured some of the most celebrated statues in
+Rome, more particularly the ‘Antinous:’ and it is supposed that this
+practice exercised considerable influence on the formation of his future
+style.  At the same time he studied anatomy, practised drawing from the
+life, and made a great store of sketches of postures and attitudes of
+people whom he met, carefully reading at his leisure such standard books
+on art as he could borrow from his friends.
+
+During all this time he remained very poor, satisfied to be continually
+improving himself.  He was glad to sell his pictures for whatever they
+would bring.  One, of a prophet, he sold for eight livres; and another,
+the ‘Plague of the Philistines,’ he sold for 60 crowns—a picture
+afterwards bought by Cardinal de Richelieu for a thousand.  To add to his
+troubles, he was stricken by a cruel malady, during the helplessness
+occasioned by which the Chevalier del Posso assisted him with money.  For
+this gentleman Poussin afterwards painted the ‘Rest in the Desert,’ a
+fine picture, which far more than repaid the advances made during his
+illness.
+
+The brave man went on toiling and learning through suffering.  Still
+aiming at higher things, he went to Florence and Venice, enlarging the
+range of his studies.  The fruits of his conscientious labour at length
+appeared in the series of great pictures which he now began to
+produce,—his ‘Death of Germanicus,’ followed by ‘Extreme Unction,’ the
+‘Testament of Eudamidas,’ the ‘Manna,’ and the ‘Abduction of the
+Sabines.’
+
+The reputation of Poussin, however, grew but slowly.  He was of a
+retiring disposition and shunned society.  People gave him credit for
+being a thinker much more than a painter.  When not actually employed in
+painting, he took long solitary walks in the country, meditating the
+designs of future pictures.  One of his few friends while at Rome was
+Claude Lorraine, with whom he spent many hours at a time on the terrace
+of La Trinité-du-Mont, conversing about art and antiquarianism.  The
+monotony and the quiet of Rome were suited to his taste, and, provided he
+could earn a moderate living by his brush, he had no wish to leave it.
+
+But his fame now extended beyond Rome, and repeated invitations were sent
+him to return to Paris.  He was offered the appointment of principal
+painter to the King.  At first he hesitated; quoted the Italian proverb,
+_Chi sta bene non si muove_; said he had lived fifteen years in Rome,
+married a wife there, and looked forward to dying and being buried there.
+Urged again, he consented, and returned to Paris.  But his appearance
+there awakened much professional jealousy, and he soon wished himself
+back in Rome again.  While in Paris he painted some of his greatest
+works—his ‘Saint Xavier,’ the ‘Baptism,’ and the ‘Last Supper.’  He was
+kept constantly at work.  At first he did whatever he was asked to do,
+such as designing frontispieces for the royal books, more particularly a
+Bible and a Virgil, cartoons for the Louvre, and designs for tapestry;
+but at length he expostulated:—“It is impossible for me,” he said to M.
+de Chanteloup, “to work at the same time at frontispieces for books, at a
+Virgin, at a picture of the Congregation of St. Louis, at the various
+designs for the gallery, and, finally, at designs for the royal tapestry.
+I have only one pair of hands and a feeble head, and can neither be
+helped nor can my labours be lightened by another.”
+
+Annoyed by the enemies his success had provoked and whom he was unable to
+conciliate, he determined, at the end of less than two years’ labour in
+Paris, to return to Rome.  Again settled there in his humble dwelling on
+Mont Pincio, he employed himself diligently in the practice of his art
+during the remaining years of his life, living in great simplicity and
+privacy.  Though suffering much from the disease which afflicted him, he
+solaced himself by study, always striving after excellence.  “In growing
+old,” he said, “I feel myself becoming more and more inflamed with the
+desire of surpassing myself and reaching the highest degree of
+perfection.”  Thus toiling, struggling, and suffering, Poussin spent his
+later years.  He had no children; his wife died before him; all his
+friends were gone: so that in his old age he was left absolutely alone in
+Rome, so full of tombs, and died there in 1665, bequeathing to his
+relatives at Andeleys the savings of his life, amounting to about 1000
+crowns; and leaving behind him, as a legacy to his race, the great works
+of his genius.
+
+The career of Ary Scheffer furnishes one of the best examples in modern
+times of a like high-minded devotion to art.  Born at Dordrecht, the son
+of a German artist, he early manifested an aptitude for drawing and
+painting, which his parents encouraged.  His father dying while he was
+still young, his mother resolved, though her means were but small, to
+remove the family to Paris, in order that her son might obtain the best
+opportunities for instruction.  There young Scheffer was placed with
+Guérin the painter.  But his mother’s means were too limited to permit
+him to devote himself exclusively to study.  She had sold the few jewels
+she possessed, and refused herself every indulgence, in order to forward
+the instruction of her other children.  Under such circumstances, it was
+natural that Ary should wish to help her; and by the time he was eighteen
+years of age he began to paint small pictures of simple subjects, which
+met with a ready sale at moderate prices.  He also practised portrait
+painting, at the same time gathering experience and earning honest money.
+He gradually improved in drawing, colouring, and composition.  The
+‘Baptism’ marked a new epoch in his career, and from that point he went
+on advancing, until his fame culminated in his pictures illustrative of
+‘Faust,’ his ‘Francisca de Rimini,’ ‘Christ the Consoler,’ the ‘Holy
+Women,’ ‘St. Monica and St. Augustin,’ and many other noble works.
+
+“The amount of labour, thought, and attention,” says Mrs. Grote, “which
+Scheffer brought to the production of the ‘Francisca,’ must have been
+enormous.  In truth, his technical education having been so imperfect, he
+was forced to climb the steep of art by drawing upon his own resources,
+and thus, whilst his hand was at work, his mind was engaged in
+meditation.  He had to try various processes of handling, and experiments
+in colouring; to paint and repaint, with tedious and unremitting
+assiduity.  But Nature had endowed him with that which proved in some
+sort an equivalent for shortcomings of a professional kind.  His own
+elevation of character, and his profound sensibility, aided him in acting
+upon the feelings of others through the medium of the pencil.” {173}
+
+One of the artists whom Scheffer most admired was Flaxman; and he once
+said to a friend, “If I have unconsciously borrowed from any one in the
+design of the ‘Francisca,’ it must have been from something I had seen
+among Flaxman’s drawings.”  John Flaxman was the son of a humble seller
+of plaster casts in New Street, Covent Garden.  When a child, he was such
+an invalid that it was his custom to sit behind his father’s shop counter
+propped by pillows, amusing himself with drawing and reading.  A
+benevolent clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Matthews, calling at the shop one day,
+saw the boy trying to read a book, and on inquiring what it was, found it
+to be a Cornelius Nepos, which his father had picked up for a few pence
+at a bookstall.  The gentleman, after some conversation with the boy,
+said that was not the proper book for him to read, but that he would
+bring him one.  The next day he called with translations of Homer and
+‘Don Quixote,’ which the boy proceeded to read with great avidity.  His
+mind was soon filled with the heroism which breathed through the pages of
+the former, and, with the stucco Ajaxes and Achilleses about him, ranged
+along the shop shelves, the ambition took possession of him, that he too
+would design and embody in poetic forms those majestic heroes.
+
+Like all youthful efforts, his first designs were crude.  The proud
+father one day showed some of them to Roubilliac the sculptor, who turned
+from them with a contemptuous “pshaw!”  But the boy had the right stuff
+in him; he had industry and patience; and he continued to labour
+incessantly at his books and drawings.  He then tried his young powers in
+modelling figures in plaster of Paris, wax, and clay.  Some of these
+early works are still preserved, not because of their merit, but because
+they are curious as the first healthy efforts of patient genius.  It was
+long before the boy could walk, and he only learnt to do so by hobbling
+along upon crutches.  At length he became strong enough to walk without
+them.
+
+The kind Mr. Matthews invited him to his house, where his wife explained
+Homer and Milton to him.  They helped him also in his self-culture—giving
+him lessons in Greek and Latin, the study of which he prosecuted at home.
+By dint of patience and perseverance, his drawing improved so much that
+he obtained a commission from a lady, to execute six original drawings in
+black chalk of subjects in Homer.  His first commission!  What an event
+in the artist’s life!  A surgeon’s first fee, a lawyer’s first retainer,
+a legislator’s first speech, a singer’s first appearance behind the
+foot-lights, an author’s first book, are not any of them more full of
+interest to the aspirant for fame than the artist’s first commission.
+The boy at once proceeded to execute the order, and he was both well
+praised and well paid for his work.
+
+At fifteen Flaxman entered a pupil at the Royal Academy.  Notwithstanding
+his retiring disposition, he soon became known among the students, and
+great things were expected of him.  Nor were their expectations
+disappointed: in his fifteenth year he gained the silver prize, and next
+year he became a candidate for the gold one.  Everybody prophesied that
+he would carry off the medal, for there was none who surpassed him in
+ability and industry.  Yet he lost it, and the gold medal was adjudged to
+a pupil who was not afterwards heard of.  This failure on the part of the
+youth was really of service to him; for defeats do not long cast down the
+resolute-hearted, but only serve to call forth their real powers.  “Give
+me time,” said he to his father, “and I will yet produce works that the
+Academy will be proud to recognise.”  He redoubled his efforts, spared no
+pains, designed and modelled incessantly, and made steady if not rapid
+progress.  But meanwhile poverty threatened his father’s household; the
+plaster-cast trade yielded a very bare living; and young Flaxman, with
+resolute self-denial, curtailed his hours of study, and devoted himself
+to helping his father in the humble details of his business.  He laid
+aside his Homer to take up the plaster-trowel.  He was willing to work in
+the humblest department of the trade so that his father’s family might be
+supported, and the wolf kept from the door.  To this drudgery of his art
+he served a long apprenticeship; but it did him good.  It familiarised
+him with steady work, and cultivated in him the spirit of patience.  The
+discipline may have been hard, but it was wholesome.
+
+Happily, young Flaxman’s skill in design had reached the knowledge of
+Josiah Wedgwood, who sought him out for the purpose of employing him to
+design improved patterns of china and earthenware.  It may seem a humble
+department of art for such a genius as Flaxman to work in; but it really
+was not so.  An artist may be labouring truly in his vocation while
+designing a common teapot or water-jug.  Articles in daily use amongst
+the people, which are before their eyes at every meal, may be made the
+vehicles of education to all, and minister to their highest culture.  The
+most ambitious artist way thus confer a greater practical benefit on his
+countrymen than by executing an elaborate work which he may sell for
+thousands of pounds to be placed in some wealthy man’s gallery where it
+is hidden away from public sight.  Before Wedgwood’s time the designs
+which figured upon our china and stoneware were hideous both in drawing
+and execution, and he determined to improve both.  Flaxman did his best
+to carry out the manufacturer’s views.  He supplied him from time to time
+with models and designs of various pieces of earthenware, the subjects of
+which were principally from ancient verse and history.  Many of them are
+still in existence, and some are equal in beauty and simplicity to his
+after designs for marble.  The celebrated Etruscan vases, specimens of
+which were to be found in public museums and in the cabinets of the
+curious, furnished him with the best examples of form, and these he
+embellished with his own elegant devices.  Stuart’s ‘Athens,’ then
+recently published, furnished him with specimens of the purest-shaped
+Greek utensils; of these he adopted the best, and worked them into new
+shapes of elegance and beauty.  Flaxman then saw that he was labouring in
+a great work—no less than the promotion of popular education; and he was
+proud, in after life, to allude to his early labours in this walk, by
+which he was enabled at the same time to cultivate his love of the
+beautiful, to diffuse a taste for art among the people, and to replenish
+his own purse, while he promoted the prosperity of his friend and
+benefactor.
+
+At length, in the year 1782, when twenty-seven years of age, he quitted
+his father’s roof and rented a small house and studio in Wardour Street,
+Soho; and what was more, he married—Ann Denman was the name of his
+wife—and a cheerful, bright-souled, noble woman she was.  He believed
+that in marrying her he should be able to work with an intenser spirit;
+for, like him, she had a taste for poetry and art; and besides was an
+enthusiastic admirer of her husband’s genius.  Yet when Sir Joshua
+Reynolds—himself a bachelor—met Flaxman shortly after his marriage, he
+said to him, “So, Flaxman, I am told you are married; if so, sir, I tell
+you you are ruined for an artist.”  Flaxman went straight home, sat down
+beside his wife, took her hand in his, and said, “Ann, I am ruined for an
+artist.”  “How so, John?  How has it happened? and who has done it?”  “It
+happened,” he replied, “in the church, and Ann Denman has done it.”  He
+then told her of Sir Joshua’s remark—whose opinion was well known, and
+had often been expressed, that if students would excel they must bring
+the whole powers of their mind to bear upon their art, from the moment
+they rose until they went to bed; and also, that no man could be a
+_great_ artist unless he studied the grand works of Raffaelle, Michael
+Angelo, and others, at Rome and Florence.  “And I,” said Flaxman, drawing
+up his little figure to its full height, “_I_ would be a great artist.”
+“And a great artist you shall be,” said his wife, “and visit Rome too, if
+that be really necessary to make you great.”  “But how?” asked Flaxman.
+“_Work and economise_,” rejoined the brave wife; “I will never have it
+said that Ann Denman ruined John Flaxman for an artist.”  And so it was
+determined by the pair that the journey to Rome was to be made when their
+means would admit.  “I will go to Rome,” said Flaxman, “and show the
+President that wedlock is for a man’s good rather than his harm; and you,
+Ann, shall accompany me.”
+
+Patiently and happily the affectionate couple plodded on during five
+years in their humble little home in Wardour Street, always with the long
+journey to Rome before them.  It was never lost sight of for a moment,
+and not a penny was uselessly spent that could be saved towards the
+necessary expenses.  They said no word to any one about their project;
+solicited no aid from the Academy; but trusted only to their own patient
+labour and love to pursue and achieve their object.  During this time
+Flaxman exhibited very few works.  He could not afford marble to
+experiment in original designs; but he obtained frequent commissions for
+monuments, by the profits of which he maintained himself.  He still
+worked for Wedgwood, who was a prompt paymaster; and, on the whole, he
+was thriving, happy, and hopeful.  His local respectability was even such
+as to bring local honours and local work upon him; for he was elected by
+the ratepayers to collect the watch-rate for the Parish of St. Anne, when
+he might be seen going about with an ink-bottle suspended from his
+button-hole, collecting the money.
+
+At length Flaxman and his wife having accumulated a sufficient store of
+savings, set out for Rome.  Arrived there, he applied himself diligently
+to study, maintaining himself, like other poor artists, by making copies
+from the antique.  English visitors sought his studio, and gave him
+commissions; and it was then that he composed his beautiful designs
+illustrative of Homer, Æschylus, and Dante.  The price paid for them was
+moderate—only fifteen shillings a-piece; but Flaxman worked for art as
+well as money; and the beauty of the designs brought him other friends
+and patrons.  He executed Cupid and Aurora for the munificent Thomas
+Hope, and the Fury of Athamas for the Earl of Bristol.  He then prepared
+to return to England, his taste improved and cultivated by careful study;
+but before he left Italy, the Academies of Florence and Carrara
+recognised his merit by electing him a member.
+
+His fame had preceded him to London, where he soon found abundant
+employment.  While at Rome he had been commissioned to execute his famous
+monument in memory of Lord Mansfield, and it was erected in the north
+transept of Westminster Abbey shortly after his return.  It stands there
+in majestic grandeur, a monument to the genius of Flaxman himself—calm,
+simple, and severe.  No wonder that Banks, the sculptor, then in the
+heyday of his fame, exclaimed when he saw it, “This little man cuts us
+all out!”
+
+When the members of the Royal Academy heard of Flaxman’s return, and
+especially when they had an opportunity of seeing and admiring his
+portrait-statue of Mansfield, they were eager to have him enrolled among
+their number.  He allowed his name to be proposed in the candidates’ list
+of associates, and was immediately elected.  Shortly after, he appeared
+in an entirely new character.  The little boy who had begun his studies
+behind the plaster-cast-seller’s shop-counter in New Street, Covent
+Garden, was now a man of high intellect and recognised supremacy in art,
+to instruct students, in the character of Professor of Sculpture to the
+Royal Academy!  And no man better deserved to fill that distinguished
+office; for none is so able to instruct others as he who, for himself and
+by his own efforts, has learnt to grapple with and overcome difficulties.
+
+After a long, peaceful, and happy life, Flaxman found himself growing
+old.  The loss which he sustained by the death of his affectionate wife
+Ann, was a severe shock to him; but he survived her several years, during
+which he executed his celebrated “Shield of Achilles,” and his noble
+“Archangel Michael vanquishing Satan,”—perhaps his two greatest works.
+
+Chantrey was a more robust man;—somewhat rough, but hearty in his
+demeanour; proud of his successful struggle with the difficulties which
+beset him in early life; and, above all, proud of his independence.  He
+was born a poor man’s child, at Norton, near Sheffield.  His father dying
+when he was a mere boy, his mother married again.  Young Chantrey used to
+drive an ass laden with milk-cans across its back into the neighbouring
+town of Sheffield, and there serve his mother’s customers with milk.
+Such was the humble beginning of his industrial career; and it was by his
+own strength that he rose from that position, and achieved the highest
+eminence as an artist.  Not taking kindly to his step-father, the boy was
+sent to trade, and was first placed with a grocer in Sheffield.  The
+business was very distasteful to him; but, passing a carver’s shop window
+one day, his eye was attracted by the glittering articles it contained,
+and, charmed with the idea of being a carver, he begged to be released
+from the grocery business with that object.  His friends consented, and
+he was bound apprentice to the carver and gilder for seven years.  His
+new master, besides being a carver in wood, was also a dealer in prints
+and plaster models; and Chantrey at once set about imitating both,
+studying with great industry and energy.  All his spare hours were
+devoted to drawing, modelling, and self-improvement, and he often carried
+his labours far into the night.  Before his apprenticeship was out—at the
+ace of twenty-one—he paid over to his master the whole wealth which he
+was able to muster—a sum of 50_l._—to cancel his indentures, determined
+to devote himself to the career of an artist.  He then made the best of
+his way to London, and with characteristic good sense, sought employment
+as an assistant carver, studying painting and modelling at his bye-hours.
+Among the jobs on which he was first employed as a journeyman carver, was
+the decoration of the dining-room of Mr. Rogers, the poet—a room in which
+he was in after years a welcome visitor; and he usually took pleasure in
+pointing out his early handywork to the guests whom he met at his
+friend’s table.
+
+Returning to Sheffield on a professional visit, he advertised himself in
+the local papers as a painter of portraits in crayons and miniatures, and
+also in oil.  For his first crayon portrait he was paid a guinea by a
+cutler; and for a portrait in oil, a confectioner paid him as much as
+5_l._ and a pair of top boots!  Chantrey was soon in London again to
+study at the Royal Academy; and next time he returned to Sheffield he
+advertised himself as ready to model plaster busts of his townsmen, as
+well as paint portraits of them.  He was even selected to design a
+monument to a deceased vicar of the town, and executed it to the general
+satisfaction.  When in London he used a room over a stable as a studio,
+and there he modelled his first original work for exhibition.  It was a
+gigantic head of Satan.  Towards the close of Chantrey’s life, a friend
+passing through his studio was struck by this model lying in a corner.
+“That head,” said the sculptor, “was the first thing that I did after I
+came to London.  I worked at it in a garret with a paper cap on my head;
+and as I could then afford only one candle, I stuck that one in my cap
+that it might move along with me, and give me light whichever way I
+turned.”  Flaxman saw and admired this head at the Academy Exhibition,
+and recommended Chantrey for the execution of the busts of four admirals,
+required for the Naval Asylum at Greenwich.  This commission led to
+others, and painting was given up.  But for eight years before, he had
+not earned 5_l._ by his modelling.  His famous head of Horne Tooke was
+such a success that, according to his own account, it brought him
+commissions amounting to 12,000_l._
+
+Chantrey had now succeeded, but he had worked hard, and fairly earned his
+good fortune.  He was selected from amongst sixteen competitors to
+execute the statue of George III. for the city of London.  A few years
+later, he produced the exquisite monument of the Sleeping Children, now
+in Lichfield Cathedral,—a work of great tenderness and beauty; and
+thenceforward his career was one of increasing honour, fame, and
+prosperity.  His patience, industry, and steady perseverance were the
+means by which he achieved his greatness.  Nature endowed him with
+genius, and his sound sense enabled him to employ the precious gift as a
+blessing.  He was prudent and shrewd, like the men amongst whom he was
+born; the pocket-book which accompanied him on his Italian tour
+containing mingled notes on art, records of daily expenses, and the
+current prices of marble.  His tastes were simple, and he made his finest
+subjects great by the mere force of simplicity.  His statue of Watt, in
+Handsworth church, seems to us the very consummation of art; yet it is
+perfectly artless and simple.  His generosity to brother artists in need
+was splendid, but quiet and unostentatious.  He left the principal part
+of his fortune to the Royal Academy for the promotion of British art.
+
+The same honest and persistent industry was throughout distinctive of the
+career of David Wilkie.  The son of a Scotch minister, he gave early
+indications of an artistic turn; and though he was a negligent and inapt
+scholar, he was a sedulous drawer of faces and figures.  A silent boy, he
+already displayed that quiet concentrated energy of character which
+distinguished him through life.  He was always on the look-out for an
+opportunity to draw,—and the walls of the manse, or the smooth sand by
+the river side, were alike convenient for his purpose.  Any sort of tool
+would serve him; like Giotto, he found a pencil in a burnt stick, a
+prepared canvas in any smooth stone, and the subject for a picture in
+every ragged mendicant he met.  When he visited a house, he generally
+left his mark on the walls as an indication of his presence, sometimes to
+the disgust of cleanly housewives.  In short, notwithstanding the
+aversion of his father, the minister, to the “sinful” profession of
+painting, Wilkie’s strong propensity was not to be thwarted, and he
+became an artist, working his way manfully up the steep of difficulty.
+Though rejected on his first application as a candidate for admission to
+the Scottish Academy, at Edinburgh, on account of the rudeness and
+inaccuracy of his introductory specimens, he persevered in producing
+better, until he was admitted.  But his progress was slow.  He applied
+himself diligently to the drawing of the human figure, and held on with
+the determination to succeed, as if with a resolute confidence in the
+result.  He displayed none of the eccentric humour and fitful application
+of many youths who conceive themselves geniuses, but kept up the routine
+of steady application to such an extent that he himself was afterwards
+accustomed to attribute his success to his dogged perseverance rather
+than to any higher innate power.  “The single element,” he said, “in all
+the progressive movements of my pencil was persevering industry.”  At
+Edinburgh he gained a few premiums, thought of turning his attention to
+portrait painting, with a view to its higher and more certain
+remuneration, but eventually went boldly into the line in which he earned
+his fame,—and painted his Pitlessie Fair.  What was bolder still, he
+determined to proceed to London, on account of its presenting so much
+wider a field for study and work; and the poor Scotch lad arrived in
+town, and painted his Village Politicians while living in a humble
+lodging on eighteen shillings a week.
+
+Notwithstanding the success of this picture, and the commissions which
+followed it, Wilkie long continued poor.  The prices which his works
+realized were not great, for he bestowed upon them so much time and
+labour, that his earnings continued comparatively small for many years.
+Every picture was carefully studied and elaborated beforehand; nothing
+was struck off at a heat; many occupied him for years—touching,
+retouching, and improving them until they finally passed out of his
+hands.  As with Reynolds, his motto was “Work! work! work!” and, like
+him, he expressed great dislike for talking artists.  Talkers may sow,
+but the silent reap.  “Let us be _doing_ something,” was his oblique mode
+of rebuking the loquacious and admonishing the idle.  He once related to
+his friend Constable that when he studied at the Scottish Academy,
+Graham, the master of it, was accustomed to say to the students, in the
+words of Reynolds, “If you have genius, industry will improve it; if you
+have none, industry will supply its place.”  “So,” said Wilkie, “I was
+determined to be very industrious, for I knew I had no genius.”  He also
+told Constable that when Linnell and Burnett, his fellow-students in
+London, were talking about art, he always contrived to get as close to
+them as he could to hear all they said, “for,” said he, “they know a
+great deal, and I know very little.”  This was said with perfect
+sincerity, for Wilkie was habitually modest.  One of the first things
+that he did with the sum of thirty pounds which he obtained from Lord
+Mansfield for his Village Politicians, was to buy a present—of bonnets,
+shawls, and dresses—for his mother and sister at home, though but little
+able to afford it at the time.  Wilkie’s early poverty had trained him in
+habits of strict economy, which were, however, consistent with a noble
+liberality, as appears from sundry passages in the Autobiography of
+Abraham Raimbach the engraver.
+
+William Etty was another notable instance of unflagging industry and
+indomitable perseverance in art.  His father was a ginger-bread and
+spicemaker at York, and his mother—a woman of considerable force and
+originality of character—was the daughter of a ropemaker.  The boy early
+displayed a love of drawing, covering walls, floors, and tables with
+specimens of his skill; his first crayon being a farthing’s worth of
+chalk, and this giving place to a piece of coal or a bit of charred
+stick.  His mother, knowing nothing of art, put the boy apprentice to a
+trade—that of a printer.  But in his leisure hours he went on with the
+practice of drawing; and when his time was out he determined to follow
+his bent—he would be a painter and nothing else.  Fortunately his uncle
+and elder brother were able and willing to help him on in his new career,
+and they provided him with the means of entering as pupil at the Royal
+Academy.  We observe, from Leslie’s Autobiography, that Etty was looked
+upon by his fellow students as a worthy but dull, plodding person, who
+would never distinguish himself.  But he had in him the divine faculty of
+work, and diligently plodded his way upward to eminence in the highest
+walks of art.
+
+Many artists have had to encounter privations which have tried their
+courage and endurance to the utmost before they succeeded.  What number
+may have sunk under them we can never know.  Martin encountered
+difficulties in the course of his career such as perhaps fall to the lot
+of few.  More than once he found himself on the verge of starvation while
+engaged on his first great picture.  It is related of him that on one
+occasion he found himself reduced to his last shilling—a _bright_
+shilling—which he had kept because of its very brightness, but at length
+he found it necessary to exchange it for bread.  He went to a baker’s
+shop, bought a loaf, and was taking it away, when the baker snatched it
+from him, and tossed back the shilling to the starving painter.  The
+bright shilling had failed him in his hour of need—it was a bad one!
+Returning to his lodgings, he rummaged his trunk for some remaining crust
+to satisfy his hunger.  Upheld throughout by the victorious power of
+enthusiasm, he pursued his design with unsubdued energy.  He had the
+courage to work on and to wait; and when, a few days after, he found an
+opportunity to exhibit his picture, he was from that time famous.  Like
+many other great artists, his life proves that, in despite of outward
+circumstances, genius, aided by industry, will be its own protector, and
+that fame, though she comes late, will never ultimately refuse her
+favours to real merit.
+
+The most careful discipline and training after academic methods will fail
+in making an artist, unless he himself take an active part in the work.
+Like every highly cultivated man, he must be mainly self-educated.  When
+Pugin, who was brought up in his father’s office, had learnt all that he
+could learn of architecture according to the usual formulas, he still
+found that he had learned but little; and that he must begin at the
+beginning, and pass through the discipline of labour.  Young Pugin
+accordingly hired himself out as a common carpenter at Covent Garden
+Theatre—first working under the stage, then behind the flys, then upon
+the stage itself.  He thus acquired a familiarity with work, and
+cultivated an architectural taste, to which the diversity of the
+mechanical employment about a large operatic establishment is peculiarly
+favourable.  When the theatre closed for the season, he worked a
+sailing-ship between London and some of the French ports, carrying on at
+the same time a profitable trade.  At every opportunity he would land and
+make drawings of any old building, and especially of any ecclesiastical
+structure which fell in his way.  Afterwards he would make special
+journeys to the Continent for the same purpose, and returned home laden
+with drawings.  Thus he plodded and laboured on, making sure of the
+excellence and distinction which he eventually achieved.
+
+A similar illustration of plodding industry in the same walk is presented
+in the career of George Kemp, the architect of the beautiful Scott
+Monument at Edinburgh.  He was the son of a poor shepherd, who pursued
+his calling on the southern slope of the Pentland Hills.  Amidst that
+pastoral solitude the boy had no opportunity of enjoying the
+contemplation of works of art.  It happened, however, that in his tenth
+year he was sent on a message to Roslin, by the farmer for whom his
+father herded sheep, and the sight of the beautiful castle and chapel
+there seems to have made a vivid and enduring impression on his mind.
+Probably to enable him to indulge his love of architectural construction,
+the boy besought his father to let him be a joiner; and he was
+accordingly put apprentice to a neighbouring village carpenter.  Having
+served his time, he went to Galashiels to seek work.  As he was plodding
+along the valley of the Tweed with his tools upon his back, a carriage
+overtook him near Elibank Tower; and the coachman, doubtless at the
+suggestion of his master, who was seated inside, having asked the youth
+how far he had to walk, and learning that he was on his way to
+Galashiels, invited him to mount the box beside him, and thus to ride
+thither.  It turned out that the kindly gentleman inside was no other
+than Sir Walter Scott, then travelling on his official duty as Sheriff of
+Selkirkshire.  Whilst working at Galashiels, Kemp had frequent
+opportunities of visiting Melrose, Dryburgh, and Jedburgh Abbeys, which
+he studied carefully.  Inspired by his love of architecture, he worked
+his way as a carpenter over the greater part of the north of England,
+never omitting an opportunity of inspecting and making sketches of any
+fine Gothic building.  On one occasion, when working in Lancashire, he
+walked fifty miles to York, spent a week in carefully examining the
+Minster, and returned in like manner on foot.  We next find him in
+Glasgow, where he remained four years, studying the fine cathedral there
+during his spare time.  He returned to England again, this time working
+his way further south; studying Canterbury, Winchester, Tintern, and
+other well-known structures.  In 1824 he formed the design of travelling
+over Europe with the same object, supporting himself by his trade.
+Reaching Boulogne, he proceeded by Abbeville and Beauvais to Paris,
+spending a few weeks making drawings and studies at each place.  His
+skill as a mechanic, and especially his knowledge of mill-work, readily
+secured him employment wherever he went; and he usually chose the site of
+his employment in the neighbourhood of some fine old Gothic structure, in
+studying which he occupied his leisure.  After a year’s working, travel,
+and study abroad, he returned to Scotland.  He continued his studies, and
+became a proficient in drawing and perspective: Melrose was his favourite
+ruin; and he produced several elaborate drawings of the building, one of
+which, exhibiting it in a “restored” state, was afterwards engraved.  He
+also obtained employment as a modeller of architectural designs; and made
+drawings for a work begun by an Edinburgh engraver, after the plan of
+Britton’s ‘Cathedral Antiquities.’  This was a task congenial to his
+tastes, and he laboured at it with an enthusiasm which ensured its rapid
+advance; walking on foot for the purpose over half Scotland, and living
+as an ordinary mechanic, whilst executing drawings which would have done
+credit to the best masters in the art.  The projector of the work having
+died suddenly, the publication was however stopped, and Kemp sought other
+employment.  Few knew of the genius of this man—for he was exceedingly
+taciturn and habitually modest—when the Committee of the Scott Monument
+offered a prize for the best design.  The competitors were
+numerous—including some of the greatest names in classical architecture;
+but the design unanimously selected was that of George Kemp, who was
+working at Kilwinning Abbey in Ayrshire, many miles off, when the letter
+reached him intimating the decision of the committee.  Poor Kemp!
+Shortly after this event he met an untimely death, and did not live to
+see the first result of his indefatigable industry and self-culture
+embodied in stone,—one of the most beautiful and appropriate memorials
+ever erected to literary genius.
+
+John Gibson was another artist full of a genuine enthusiasm and love for
+his art, which placed him high above those sordid temptations which urge
+meaner natures to make time the measure of profit.  He was born at Gyffn,
+near Conway, in North Wales—the son of a gardener.  He early showed
+indications of his talent by the carvings in wood which he made by means
+of a common pocket knife; and his father, noting the direction of his
+talent, sent him to Liverpool and bound him apprentice to a cabinet-maker
+and wood-carver.  He rapidly improved at his trade, and some of his
+carvings were much admired.  He was thus naturally led to sculpture, and
+when eighteen years old he modelled a small figure of Time in wax, which
+attracted considerable notice.  The Messrs. Franceys, sculptors, of
+Liverpool, having purchased the boy’s indentures, took him as their
+apprentice for six years, during which his genius displayed itself in
+many original works.  From thence he proceeded to London, and afterwards
+to Rome; and his fame became European.
+
+Robert Thorburn, the Royal Academician, like John Gibson, was born of
+poor parents.  His father was a shoe-maker at Dumfries.  Besides Robert
+there were two other sons; one of whom is a skilful carver in wood.  One
+day a lady called at the shoemaker’s and found Robert, then a mere boy,
+engaged in drawing upon a stool which served him for a table.  She
+examined his work, and observing his abilities, interested herself in
+obtaining for him some employment in drawing, and enlisted in his behalf
+the services of others who could assist him in prosecuting the study of
+art.  The boy was diligent, pains-taking, staid, and silent, mixing
+little with his companions, and forming but few intimacies.  About the
+year 1830, some gentlemen of the town provided him with the means of
+proceeding to Edinburgh, where he was admitted a student at the Scottish
+Academy.  There he had the advantage of studying under competent masters,
+and the progress which he made was rapid.  From Edinburgh he removed to
+London, where, we understand, he had the advantage of being introduced to
+notice under the patronage of the Duke of Buccleuch.  We need scarcely
+say, however, that of whatever use patronage may have been to Thorburn in
+giving him an introduction to the best circles, patronage of no kind
+could have made him the great artist that he unquestionably is, without
+native genius and diligent application.
+
+Noel Paton, the well-known painter, began his artistic career at
+Dunfermline and Paisley, as a drawer of patterns for table-cloths and
+muslin embroidered by hand; meanwhile working diligently at higher
+subjects, including the drawing of the human figure.  He was, like
+Turner, ready to turn his hand to any kind of work, and in 1840, when a
+mere youth, we find him engaged, among his other labours, in illustrating
+the ‘Renfrewshire Annual.’  He worked his way step by step, slowly yet
+surely; but he remained unknown until the exhibition of the prize
+cartoons painted for the houses of Parliament, when his picture of the
+Spirit of Religion (for which he obtained one of the first prizes)
+revealed him to the world as a genuine artist; and the works which he has
+since exhibited—such as the ‘Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania,’
+‘Home,’ and ‘The bluidy Tryste’—have shown a steady advance in artistic
+power and culture.
+
+Another striking exemplification of perseverance and industry in the
+cultivation of art in humble life is presented in the career of James
+Sharples, a working blacksmith at Blackburn.  He was born at Wakefield in
+Yorkshire, in 1825, one of a family of thirteen children.  His father was
+a working ironfounder, and removed to Bury to follow his business.  The
+boys received no school education, but were all sent to work as soon as
+they were able; and at about ten James was placed in a foundry, where he
+was employed for about two years as smithy-boy.  After that he was sent
+into the engine-shop where his father worked as engine-smith.  The boy’s
+employment was to heat and carry rivets for the boiler-makers.  Though
+his hours of labour were very long—often from six in the morning until
+eight at night—his father contrived to give him some little teaching
+after working hours; and it was thus that he partially learned his
+letters.  An incident occurred in the course of his employment among the
+boiler-makers, which first awakened in him the desire to learn drawing.
+He had occasionally been employed by the foreman to hold the chalked line
+with which he made the designs of boilers upon the floor of the workshop;
+and on such occasions the foreman was accustomed to hold the line, and
+direct the boy to make the necessary dimensions.  James soon became so
+expert at this as to be of considerable service to the foreman; and at
+his leisure hours at home his great delight was to practise drawing
+designs of boilers upon his mother’s floor.  On one occasion, when a
+female relative was expected from Manchester to pay the family a visit,
+and the house had been made as decent as possible for her reception, the
+boy, on coming in from the foundry in the evening, began his usual
+operations upon the floor.  He had proceeded some way with his design of
+a large boiler in chalk, when his mother arrived with the visitor, and to
+her dismay found the boy unwashed and the floor chalked all over.  The
+relative, however, professed to be pleased with the boy’s industry,
+praised his design, and recommended his mother to provide “the little
+sweep,” as she called him, with paper and pencils.
+
+Encouraged by his elder brother, he began to practise figure and
+landscape drawing, making copies of lithographs, but as yet without any
+knowledge of the rules of perspective and the principles of light and
+shade.  He worked on, however, and gradually acquired expertness in
+copying.  At sixteen, he entered the Bury Mechanic’s Institution in order
+to attend the drawing class, taught by an amateur who followed the trade
+of a barber.  There he had a lesson a week during three months.  The
+teacher recommended him to obtain from the library Burnet’s ‘Practical
+Treatise on Painting;’ but as he could not yet read with ease, he was
+under the necessity of getting his mother, and sometimes his elder
+brother, to read passages from the book for him while he sat by and
+listened.  Feeling hampered by his ignorance of the art of reading, and
+eager to master the contents of Burnet’s book, he ceased attending the
+drawing class at the Institute after the first quarter, and devoted
+himself to learning reading and writing at home.  In this he soon
+succeeded; and when he again entered the Institute and took out ‘Burnet’
+a second time, he was not only able to read it, but to make written
+extracts for further use.  So ardently did he study the volume, that he
+used to rise at four o’clock in the morning to read it and copy out
+passages; after which he went to the foundry at six, worked until six and
+sometimes eight in the evening; and returned home to enter with fresh
+zest upon the study of Burnet, which he continued often until a late
+hour.  Parts of his nights were also occupied in drawing and making
+copies of drawings.  On one of these—a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last
+Supper”—he spent an entire night.  He went to bed indeed, but his mind
+was so engrossed with the subject that he could not sleep, and rose again
+to resume his pencil.
+
+He next proceeded to try his hand at painting in oil, for which purpose
+he procured some canvas from a draper, stretched it on a frame, coated it
+over with white lead, and began painting on it with colours bought from a
+house-painter.  But his work proved a total failure; for the canvas was
+rough and knotty, and the paint would not dry.  In his extremity he
+applied to his old teacher, the barber, from whom he first learnt that
+prepared canvas was to be had, and that there were colours and varnishes
+made for the special purpose of oil-painting.  As soon therefore, as his
+means would allow, he bought a small stock of the necessary articles and
+began afresh,—his amateur master showing him how to paint; and the pupil
+succeeded so well that he excelled the master’s copy.  His first picture
+was a copy from an engraving called “Sheep-shearing,” and was afterwards
+sold by him for half-a-crown.  Aided by a shilling Guide to Oil-painting,
+he went on working at his leisure hours, and gradually acquired a better
+knowledge of his materials.  He made his own easel and palette,
+palette-knife, and paint-chest; he bought his paint, brushes, and canvas,
+as he could raise the money by working over-time.  This was the slender
+fund which his parents consented to allow him for the purpose; the burden
+of supporting a very large family precluding them from doing more.  Often
+he would walk to Manchester and back in the evenings to buy two or three
+shillings’ worth of paint and canvas, returning almost at midnight, after
+his eighteen miles’ walk, sometimes wet through and completely exhausted,
+but borne up throughout by his inexhaustible hope and invincible
+determination.  The further progress of the self-taught artist is best
+narrated in his own words, as communicated by him in a letter to the
+author:—
+
+“The next pictures I painted,” he says, “were a Landscape by Moonlight, a
+Fruitpiece, and one or two others; after which I conceived the idea of
+painting ‘The Forge.’  I had for some time thought about it, but had not
+attempted to embody the conception in a drawing.  I now, however, made a
+sketch of the subject upon paper, and then proceeded to paint it on
+canvas.  The picture simply represents the interior of a large workshop
+such as I have been accustomed to work in, although not of any particular
+shop.  It is, therefore, to this extent, an original conception.  Having
+made an outline of the subject, I found that, before I could proceed with
+it successfully, a knowledge of anatomy was indispensable to enable me
+accurately to delineate the muscles of the figures.  My brother Peter
+came to my assistance at this juncture, and kindly purchased for me
+Flaxman’s ‘Anatomical studies,’—a work altogether beyond my means at the
+time, for it cost twenty-four shillings.  This book I looked upon as a
+great treasure, and I studied it laboriously, rising at three o’clock in
+the morning to draw after it, and occasionally getting my brother Peter
+to stand for me as a model at that untimely hour.  Although I gradually
+improved myself by this practice, it was some time before I felt
+sufficient confidence to go on with my picture.  I also felt hampered by
+my want of knowledge of perspective, which I endeavoured to remedy by
+carefully studying Brook Taylor’s ‘Principles;’ and shortly after I
+resumed my painting.  While engaged in the study of perspective at home,
+I used to apply for and obtain leave to work at the heavier kinds of
+smith work at the foundry, and for this reason—the time required for
+heating the heaviest iron work is so much longer than that required for
+heating the lighter, that it enabled me to secure a number of spare
+minutes in the course of the day, which I carefully employed in making
+diagrams in perspective upon the sheet iron casing in front of the hearth
+at which I worked.”
+
+Thus assiduously working and studying, James Sharples steadily advanced
+in his knowledge of the principles of art, and acquired greater facility
+in its practice.  Some eighteen months after the expiry of his
+apprenticeship he painted a portrait of his father, which attracted
+considerable notice in the town; as also did the picture of “The Forge,”
+which he finished soon after.  His success in portrait-painting obtained
+for him a commission from the foreman of the shop to paint a family
+group, and Sharples executed it so well that the foreman not only paid
+him the agreed price of eighteen pounds, but thirty shillings to boot.
+While engaged on this group he ceased to work at the foundry, and he had
+thoughts of giving up his trade altogether and devoting himself
+exclusively to painting.  He proceeded to paint several pictures, amongst
+others a head of Christ, an original conception, life-size, and a view of
+Bury; but not obtaining sufficient employment at portraits to occupy his
+time, or give him the prospect of a steady income, he had the good sense
+to resume his leather apron, and go on working at his honest trade of a
+blacksmith; employing his leisure hours in engraving his picture of “The
+Forge,” since published.  He was induced to commence the engraving by the
+following circumstance.  A Manchester picture-dealer, to whom he showed
+the painting, let drop the observation, that in the hands of a skilful
+engraver it would make a very good print.  Sharples immediately conceived
+the idea of engraving it himself, though altogether ignorant of the art.
+The difficulties which he encountered and successfully overcame in
+carrying out his project are thus described by himself:—
+
+“I had seen an advertisement of a Sheffield steel-plate maker, giving a
+list of the prices at which he supplied plates of various sizes, and,
+fixing upon one of suitable dimensions, I remitted the amount, together
+with a small additional sum for which I requested him to send me a few
+engraving tools.  I could not specify the articles wanted, for I did not
+then know anything about the process of engraving.  However, there duly
+arrived with the plate three or four gravers and an etching needle; the
+latter I spoiled before I knew its use.  While working at the plate, the
+Amalgamated Society of Engineers offered a premium for the best design
+for an emblematical picture, for which I determined to compete, and I was
+so fortunate as to win the prize.  Shortly after this I removed to
+Blackburn, where I obtained employment at Messrs. Yates’, engineers, as
+an engine-smith; and continued to employ my leisure time in drawing,
+painting, and engraving, as before.  With the engraving I made but very
+slow progress, owing to the difficulties I experienced from not
+possessing proper tools.  I then determined to try to make some that
+would suit my purpose, and after several failures I succeeded in making
+many that I have used in the course of my engraving.  I was also greatly
+at a loss for want of a proper magnifying glass, and part of the plate
+was executed with no other assistance of this sort than what my father’s
+spectacles afforded, though I afterwards succeeded in obtaining a proper
+magnifier, which was of the utmost use to me.  An incident occurred while
+I was engraving the plate, which had almost caused me to abandon it
+altogether.  It sometimes happened that I was obliged to lay it aside for
+a considerable time, when other work pressed; and in order to guard it
+against rust, I was accustomed to rub over the graven parts with oil.
+But on examining the plate after one of such intervals, I found that the
+oil had become a dark sticky substance extremely difficult to get out.  I
+tried to pick it out with a needle, but found that it would almost take
+as much time as to engrave the parts afresh.  I was in great despair at
+this, but at length hit upon the expedient of boiling it in water
+containing 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 recognised 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 have finished my daily labour at the foundry, has been
+to resume my pencil or graver, frequently until a late hour of 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
+required in the sister art of music—the one being the poetry of form and
+colour, the other of the sounds of nature.  Handel was an indefatigable
+and constant worker; he was never cast down by defeat, but his energy
+seemed to increase the more that adversity struck him.  When a prey to
+his mortifications as an insolvent debtor, he did not give way for a
+moment, but in one year produced his ‘Saul,’ ‘Israel,’ the music for
+Dryden’s ‘Ode,’ his ‘Twelve Grand Concertos,’ and the opera of ‘Jupiter
+in Argos,’ among the finest of his works.  As his biographer says of him,
+“He braved everything, and, by his unaided self, accomplished the work of
+twelve men.”
+
+Haydn, speaking of his art, said, “It consists in taking up a subject and
+pursuing it.”  “Work,” said Mozart, “is my chief pleasure.”  Beethoven’s
+favourite maxim was, “The barriers are not erected which can say to
+aspiring talents and industry, ‘Thus far and no farther.’”  When
+Moscheles submitted his score of ‘Fidelio’ for the pianoforte to
+Beethoven, the latter found written at the bottom of the last page,
+“Finis, with God’s help.”  Beethoven immediately wrote underneath, “O
+man! help thyself!”  This was the motto of his artistic life.  John
+Sebastian Bach said of himself, “I was industrious; whoever is equally
+sedulous, will be equally successful.”  But there is no doubt that Bach
+was born with a passion for music, which formed the mainspring of his
+industry, and was the true secret of his success.  When a mere youth, his
+elder brother, wishing to turn his abilities in another direction,
+destroyed a collection of studies which the young Sebastian, being denied
+candles, had copied by moonlight; proving the strong natural bent of the
+boy’s genius.  Of Meyerbeer, Bayle thus wrote from Milan in 1820:—“He is
+a man of some talent, but no genius; he lives solitary, working fifteen
+hours a day at music.”  Years passed, and Meyerbeer’s hard work fully
+brought out his genius, as displayed in his ‘Roberto,’ ‘Huguenots,’
+‘Prophète,’ and other works, confessedly amongst the greatest operas
+which have been produced in modern times.
+
+Although musical composition is not an art in which Englishmen have as
+yet greatly distinguished themselves, their energies having for the most
+part taken other and more practical directions, we are not without native
+illustrations of the power of perseverance in this special pursuit.  Arne
+was an upholsterer’s son, intended by his father for the legal
+profession; but his love of music was so great, that he could not be
+withheld from pursuing it.  While engaged in an attorney’s office, his
+means were very limited, but, to gratify his tastes, he was accustomed to
+borrow a livery and go into the gallery of the Opera, then appropriated
+to domestics.  Unknown to his father he made great progress with the
+violin, and the first knowledge his father had of the circumstance was
+when accidentally calling at the house of a neighbouring gentleman, to
+his surprise and consternation he found his son playing the leading
+instrument with a party of musicians.  This incident decided the fate of
+Arne.  His father offered no further opposition to his wishes; and the
+world thereby lost a lawyer, but gained a musician of much taste and
+delicacy of feeling, who added many valuable works to our stores of
+English music.
+
+The career of the late William Jackson, author of ‘The Deliverance of
+Israel,’ an oratorio which has been successfully performed in the
+principal towns of his native county of York, furnishes an interesting
+illustration of the triumph of perseverance over difficulties in the
+pursuit of musical science.  He was the son of a miller at Masham, a
+little town situated in the valley of the Yore, in the north-west corner
+of Yorkshire.  Musical taste seems to have been hereditary in the family,
+for his father played the fife in the band of the Masham Volunteers, and
+was a singer in the parish choir.  His grandfather also was leading
+singer and ringer at Masham Church; and one of the boy’s earliest musical
+treats was to be present at the bell pealing on Sunday mornings.  During
+the service, his wonder was still more excited by the organist’s
+performance on the barrel-organ, the doors of which were thrown open
+behind to let the sound fully into the church, by which the stops, pipes,
+barrels, staples, keyboard, and jacks, were fully exposed, to the
+wonderment of the little boys sitting in the gallery behind, and to none
+more than our young musician.  At eight years of age he began to play
+upon his father’s old fife, which, however, would not sound D; but his
+mother remedied the difficulty by buying for him a one-keyed flute; and
+shortly after, a gentleman of the neighbourhood presented him with a
+flute with four silver keys.  As the boy made no progress with his “book
+learning,” being fonder of cricket, fives, and boxing, than of his school
+lessons—the village schoolmaster giving him up as “a bad job”—his parents
+sent him off to a school at Pateley Bridge.  While there he found
+congenial society in a club of village choral singers at Brighouse Gate,
+and with them he learnt the sol-fa-ing gamut on the old English plan.  He
+was thus well drilled in the reading of music, in which he soon became a
+proficient.  His progress astonished the club, and he returned home full
+of musical ambition.  He now learnt to play upon his father’s old piano,
+but with little melodious result; and he became eager to possess a
+finger-organ, but had no means of procuring one.  About this time, a
+neighbouring parish clerk had purchased, for an insignificant sum, a
+small disabled barrel-organ, which had gone the circuit of the northern
+counties with a show.  The clerk tried to revive the tones of the
+instrument, but failed; at last he bethought him that he would try the
+skill of young Jackson, who had succeeded in making some alterations and
+improvements in the hand-organ of the parish church.  He accordingly
+brought it to the lad’s house in a donkey cart, and in a short time the
+instrument was repaired, and played over its old tunes again, greatly to
+the owner’s satisfaction.
+
+The thought now haunted the youth that he could make a barrel-organ, and
+he determined to do so.  His father and he set to work, and though
+without practice in carpentering, yet, by dint of hard labour and after
+many failures, they at last succeeded; and an organ was constructed which
+played ten tunes very decently, and the instrument was generally regarded
+as a marvel in the neighbourhood.  Young Jackson was now frequently sent
+for to repair old church organs, and to put new music upon the barrels
+which he added to them.  All this he accomplished to the satisfaction of
+his employers, after which he proceeded with the construction of a
+four-stop finger-organ, adapting to it the keys of an old harpsichord.
+This he learnt to play upon,—studying ‘Callcott’s Thorough Bass’ in the
+evening, and working at his trade of a miller during the day;
+occasionally also tramping about the country as a “cadger,” with an ass
+and a cart.  During summer he worked in the fields, at turnip-time,
+hay-time, and harvest, but was never without the solace of music in his
+leisure evening hours.  He next tried his hand at musical composition,
+and twelve of his anthems were shown to the late Mr. Camidge, of York, as
+“the production of a miller’s lad of fourteen.”  Mr. Camidge was pleased
+with them, marked the objectionable passages, and returned them with the
+encouraging remark, that they did the youth great credit, and that he
+must “go on writing.”
+
+A village band having been set on foot at Masham, young Jackson joined
+it, and was ultimately appointed leader.  He played all the instruments
+by turns, and thus acquired a considerable practical knowledge of his
+art: he also composed numerous tunes for the band.  A new finger-organ
+having been presented to the parish church, he was appointed the
+organist.  He now gave up his employment as a journeyman miller, and
+commenced tallow-chandling, still employing his spare hours in the study
+of music.  In 1839 he published his first anthem—‘For joy let fertile
+valleys sing;’ and in the following year he gained the first prize from
+the Huddersfield Glee Club, for his ‘Sisters of the Lea.’  His other
+anthem ‘God be merciful to us,’ and the 103rd Psalm, written for a double
+chorus and orchestra, are well known.  In the midst of these minor works,
+Jackson proceeded with the composition of his oratorio,—‘The Deliverance
+of Israel from Babylon.’  His practice was, to jot down a sketch of the
+ideas as they presented themselves to his mind, and to write them out in
+score in the evenings, after he had left his work in the candle-shop.
+His oratorio was published in parts, in the course of 1844–5, and he
+published the last chorus on his twenty-ninth birthday.  The work was
+exceedingly well received, and has been frequently performed with much
+success in the northern towns.  Mr. Jackson eventually settled as a
+professor of music at Bradford, where he contributed in no small degree
+to the cultivation of the musical taste of that town and its
+neighbourhood.  Some years since he had the honour of leading his fine
+company of Bradford choral singers before Her Majesty at Buckingham
+Palace; on which occasion, as well as at the Crystal Palace, some choral
+pieces of his composition, were performed with great effect. {201}
+
+Such is a brief outline of the career of a self-taught musician, whose
+life affords but another illustration of the power of self-help, and the
+force of courage and industry in enabling a man to surmount and overcome
+early difficulties and obstructions of no ordinary kind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+INDUSTRY AND THE PEERAGE.
+
+
+    “He either fears his fate too much,
+    Or his deserts are small,
+    That dares not put it to the touch,
+    To gain or lose it all.”—_Marquis of Montrose_.
+
+    “He hath put down the mighty from their seats; and exalted them of
+    low degree.”—_St. Luke_.
+
+WE have already referred to some illustrious Commoners raised from humble
+to elevated positions by the power of application and industry; and we
+might point to even the Peerage itself as affording equally instructive
+examples.  One reason why the Peerage of England has succeeded so well in
+holding its own, arises from the fact that, unlike the peerages of other
+countries, it has been fed, from time to time, by the best industrial
+blood of the country—the very “liver, heart, and brain of Britain.”  Like
+the fabled Antæus, it has been invigorated and refreshed by touching its
+mother earth, and mingling with that most ancient order of nobility—the
+working order.
+
+The blood of all men flows from equally remote sources; and though some
+are unable to trace their line directly beyond their grandfathers, all
+are nevertheless justified in placing at the head of their pedigree the
+great progenitors of the race, as Lord Chesterfield did when he wrote,
+“ADAM _de Stanhope_—EVE _de Stanhope_.”  No class is ever long
+stationary.  The mighty fall, and the humble are exalted.  New families
+take the place of the old, who disappear among the ranks of the common
+people.  Burke’s ‘Vicissitudes of Families’ strikingly exhibit this rise
+and fall of families, and show that the misfortunes which overtake the
+rich and noble are greater in proportion than those which overwhelm the
+poor.  This author points out that of the twenty-five barons selected to
+enforce the observance of Magna Charta, there is not now in the House of
+Peers a single male descendant.  Civil wars and rebellions ruined many of
+the old nobility and dispersed their families.  Yet their descendants in
+many cases survive, and are to be found among the ranks of the people.
+Fuller wrote in his ‘Worthies,’ that “some who justly hold the surnames
+of Bohuns, Mortimers, and Plantagenets, are hid in the heap of common
+men.”  Thus Burke shows that two of the lineal descendants of the Earl of
+Kent, sixth son of Edward I., were discovered in a butcher and a
+toll-gatherer; that the great grandson of Margaret Plantagenet, daughter
+of the Duke of Clarance, sank to the condition of a cobbler at Newport,
+in Shropshire; and that among the lineal descendants of the Duke of
+Gloucester, son of Edward III., was the late sexton of St. George’s,
+Hanover Square.  It is understood that the lineal descendant of Simon de
+Montfort, England’s premier baron, is a saddler in Tooley Street.  One of
+the descendants of the “Proud Percys,” a claimant of the title of Duke of
+Northumberland, was a Dublin trunk-maker; and not many years since one of
+the claimants for the title of Earl of Perth presented himself in the
+person of a labourer in a Northumberland coal-pit.  Hugh Miller, when
+working as a stone-mason near Edinburgh, was served by a hodman, who was
+one of the numerous claimants for the earldom of Crauford—all that was
+wanted to establish his claim being a missing marriage certificate; and
+while the work was going on, the cry resounded from the walls many times
+in the day, of—“John, Yearl Crauford, bring us anither hod o’lime.”  One
+of Oliver Cromwell’s great grandsons was a grocer on Snow Hill, and
+others of his descendants died in great poverty.  Many barons of proud
+names and titles have perished, like the sloth, upon their family tree,
+after eating up all the leaves; while others have been overtaken by
+adversities which they have been unable to retrieve, and sunk at last
+into poverty and obscurity.  Such are the mutabilities of rank and
+fortune.
+
+The great bulk of our peerage is comparatively modern, so far as the
+titles go; but it is not the less noble that it has been recruited to so
+large an extent from the ranks of honourable industry.  In olden times,
+the wealth and commerce of London, conducted as it was by energetic and
+enterprising men, was a prolific source of peerages.  Thus, the earldom
+of Cornwallis was founded by Thomas Cornwallis, the Cheapside merchant;
+that of Essex by William Capel, the draper; and that of Craven by William
+Craven, the merchant tailor.  The modern Earl of Warwick is not descended
+from the “King-maker,” but from William Greville, the woolstapler; whilst
+the modern dukes of Northumberland find their head, not in the Percies,
+but in Hugh Smithson, a respectable London apothecary.  The founders of
+the families of Dartmouth, Radnor, Ducie, and Pomfret, were respectively
+a skinner, a silk manufacturer, a merchant tailor, and a Calais merchant;
+whilst the founders of the peerages of Tankerville, Dormer, and Coventry,
+were mercers.  The ancestors of Earl Romney, and Lord Dudley and Ward,
+were goldsmiths and jewellers; and Lord Dacres was a banker in the reign
+of Charles I., as Lord Overstone is in that of Queen Victoria.  Edward
+Osborne, the founder of the Dukedom of Leeds, was apprentice to William
+Hewet, a rich clothworker on London Bridge, whose only daughter he
+courageously rescued from drowning, by leaping into the Thames after her,
+and eventually married.  Among other peerages founded by trade are those
+of Fitzwilliam, Leigh, Petre, Cowper, Darnley, Hill, and Carrington.  The
+founders of the houses of Foley and Normanby were remarkable men in many
+respects, and, as furnishing striking examples of energy of character,
+the story of their lives is worthy of preservation.
+
+The father of Richard Foley, the founder of the family, was a small
+yeoman living in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge in the time of Charles
+I.  That place was then the centre of the iron manufacture of the midland
+districts, and Richard was brought up to work at one of the branches of
+the trade—that of nail-making.  He was thus a daily observer of the great
+labour and loss of time caused by the clumsy process then adopted for
+dividing the rods of iron in the manufacture of nails.  It appeared that
+the Stourbridge nailers were gradually losing their trade in consequence
+of the importation of nails from Sweden, by which they were undersold in
+the market.  It became known that the Swedes were enabled to make their
+nails so much cheaper, by the use of splitting mills and machinery, which
+had completely superseded the laborious process of preparing the rods for
+nail-making then practised in England.
+
+Richard Foley, having ascertained this much, determined to make himself
+master of the new process.  He suddenly disappeared from the
+neighbourhood of Stourbridge, and was not heard of for several years.  No
+one knew whither he had gone, not even his own family; for he had not
+informed them of his intention, lest he should fail.  He had little or no
+money in his pocket, but contrived to get to Hull, where he engaged
+himself on board a ship bound for a Swedish port, and worked his passage
+there.  The only article of property which he possessed was his fiddle,
+and on landing in Sweden he begged and fiddled his way to the Dannemora
+mines, near Upsala.  He was a capital musician, as well as a pleasant
+fellow, and soon ingratiated himself with the iron-workers.  He was
+received into the works, to every part of which he had access; and he
+seized the opportunity thus afforded him of storing his mind with
+observations, and mastering, as he thought, the mechanism of iron
+splitting.  After a continued stay for this purpose, he suddenly
+disappeared from amongst his kind friends the miners—no one knew whither.
+
+Returned to England, he communicated the results of his voyage to Mr.
+Knight and another person at Stourbridge, who had sufficient confidence
+in him to advance the requisite funds for the purpose of erecting
+buildings and machinery for splitting iron by the new process.  But when
+set to work, to the great vexation and disappointment of all, and
+especially of Richard Foley, it was found that the machinery would not
+act—at all events it would not split the bars of iron.  Again Foley
+disappeared.  It was thought that shame and mortification at his failure
+had driven him away for ever.  Not so!  Foley had determined to master
+this secret of iron-splitting, and he would yet do it.  He had again set
+out for Sweden, accompanied by his fiddle as before, and found his way to
+the iron works, where he was joyfully welcomed by the miners; and, to
+make sure of their fiddler, they this time lodged him in the very
+splitting-mill itself.  There was such an apparent absence of
+intelligence about the man, except in fiddle-playing, that the miners
+entertained no suspicions as to the object of their minstrel, whom they
+thus enabled to attain the very end and aim of his life.  He now
+carefully examined the works, and soon discovered the cause of his
+failure.  He made drawings or tracings of the machinery as well as he
+could, though this was a branch of art quite new to him; and after
+remaining at the place long enough to enable him to verify his
+observations, and to impress the mechanical arrangements clearly and
+vividly on his mind, he again left the miners, reached a Swedish port,
+and took ship for England.  A man of such purpose could not but succeed.
+Arrived amongst his surprised friends, he now completed his arrangements,
+and the results were entirely successful.  By his skill and his industry
+he soon laid the foundations of a large fortune, at the same time that he
+restored the business of an extensive district.  He himself continued,
+during his life, to carry on his trade, aiding and encouraging all works
+of benevolence in his neighbourhood.  He founded and endowed a school at
+Stourbridge; and his son Thomas (a great benefactor of Kidderminster),
+who was High Sheriff of Worcestershire in the time of “The Rump,” founded
+and endowed an hospital, still in existence, for the free education of
+children at Old Swinford.  All the early Foleys were Puritans.  Richard
+Baxter seems to have been on familiar and intimate terms with various
+members of the family, and makes frequent mention of them in his ‘Life
+and Times.’  Thomas Foley, when appointed high sheriff of the county,
+requested Baxter to preach the customary sermon before him; and Baxter in
+his ‘Life’ speaks of him as “of so just and blameless dealing, that all
+men he ever had to do with magnified his great integrity and honesty,
+which were questioned by none.”  The family was ennobled in the reign of
+Charles the Second.
+
+William Phipps, the founder of the Mulgrave or Normanby family, was a man
+quite as remarkable in his way as Richard Foley.  His father was a
+gunsmith—a robust Englishman settled at Woolwich, in Maine, then forming
+part of our English colonies in America.  He was born in 1651, one of a
+family of not fewer than twenty-six children (of whom twenty-one were
+sons), whose only fortune lay in their stout hearts and strong arms.
+William seems to have had a dash of the Danish-sea blood in his veins,
+and did not take kindly to the quiet life of a shepherd in which he spent
+his early years.  By nature bold and adventurous, he longed to become a
+sailor and roam through the world.  He sought to join some ship; but not
+being able to find one, he apprenticed himself to a shipbuilder, with
+whom he thoroughly learnt his trade, acquiring the arts of reading and
+writing during his leisure hours.  Having completed his apprenticeship
+and removed to Boston, he wooed and married a widow of some means, after
+which he set up a little shipbuilding yard of his own, built a ship, and,
+putting to sea in her, he engaged in the lumber trade, which he carried
+on in a plodding and laborious way for the space of about ten years.
+
+It happened that one day, whilst passing through the crooked streets of
+old Boston, he overheard some sailors talking to each other of a wreck
+which had just taken place off the Bahamas; that of a Spanish ship,
+supposed to have much money on board.  His adventurous spirit was at once
+kindled, and getting together a likely crew without loss of time, he set
+sail for the Bahamas.  The wreck being well in-shore, he easily found it,
+and succeeded in recovering a great deal of its cargo, but very little
+money; and the result was, that he barely defrayed his expenses.  His
+success had been such, however, as to stimulate his enterprising spirit;
+and when he was told of another and far more richly laden vessel which
+had been wrecked near Port de la Plata more than half a century before,
+he forthwith formed the resolution of raising the wreck, or at all events
+of fishing up the treasure.
+
+Being too poor, however, to undertake such an enterprise without powerful
+help, he set sail for England in the hope that he might there obtain it.
+The fame of his success in raising the wreck off the Bahamas had already
+preceded him.  He applied direct to the Government.  By his urgent
+enthusiasm, he succeeded in overcoming the usual inertia of official
+minds; and Charles II. eventually placed at his disposal the “Rose
+Algier,” a ship of eighteen guns and ninety-five men, appointing him to
+the chief command.
+
+Phipps then set sail to find the Spanish ship and fish up the treasure.
+He reached the coast of Hispaniola in safety; but how to find the sunken
+ship was the great difficulty.  The fact of the wreck was more than fifty
+years old; and Phipps had only the traditionary rumours of the event to
+work upon.  There was a wide coast to explore, and an outspread ocean
+without any trace whatever of the argosy which lay somewhere at its
+bottom.  But the man was stout in heart and full of hope.  He set his
+seamen to work to drag along the coast, and for weeks they went on
+fishing up sea-weed, shingle, and bits of rock.  No occupation could be
+more trying to seamen, and they began to grumble one to another, and to
+whisper that the man in command had brought them on a fool’s errand.
+
+At length the murmurers gained head, and the men broke into open mutiny.
+A body of them rushed one day on to the quarter-deck, and demanded that
+the voyage should be relinquished.  Phipps, however, was not a man to be
+intimidated; he seized the ringleaders, and sent the others back to their
+duty.  It became necessary to bring the ship to anchor close to a small
+island for the purpose of repairs; and, to lighten her, the chief part of
+the stores was landed.  Discontent still increasing amongst the crew, a
+new plot was laid amongst the men on shore to seize the ship, throw
+Phipps overboard, and start on a piratical cruize against the Spaniards
+in the South Seas.  But it was necessary to secure the services of the
+chief ship carpenter, who was consequently made privy to the pilot.  This
+man proved faithful, and at once told the captain of his danger.
+Summoning about him those whom he knew to be loyal, Phipps had the ship’s
+guns loaded which commanded the shore, and ordered the bridge
+communicating with the vessel to be drawn up.  When the mutineers made
+their appearance, the captain hailed them, and told the men he would fire
+upon them if they approached the stores (still on land),—when they drew
+back; on which Phipps had the stores reshipped under cover of his guns.
+The mutineers, fearful of being left upon the barren island, threw down
+their arms and implored to be permitted to return to their duty.  The
+request was granted, and suitable precautions were taken against future
+mischief.  Phipps, however, took the first opportunity of landing the
+mutinous part of the crew, and engaging other men in their places; but,
+by the time that he could again proceed actively with his explorations,
+he found it absolutely necessary to proceed to England for the purpose of
+repairing the ship.  He had now, however, gained more precise information
+as to the spot where the Spanish treasure ship had sunk; and, though as
+yet baffled, he was more confident than ever of the eventual success of
+his enterprise.
+
+Returned to London, Phipps reported the result of his voyage to the
+Admiralty, who professed to be pleased with his exertions; but he had
+been unsuccessful, and they would not entrust him with another king’s
+ship.  James II. was now on the throne, and the Government was in
+trouble; so Phipps and his golden project appealed to them in vain.  He
+next tried to raise the requisite means by a public subscription.  At
+first he was laughed at; but his ceaseless importunity at length
+prevailed, and after four years’ dinning of his project into the ears of
+the great and influential—during which time he lived in poverty—he at
+length succeeded.  A company was formed in twenty shares, the Duke of
+Albermarle, son of General Monk, taking the chief interest in it, and
+subscribing the principal part of the necessary fund for the prosecution
+of the enterprise.
+
+Like Foley, Phipps proved more fortunate in his second voyage than in his
+first.  The ship arrived without accident at Port de la Plata, in the
+neighbourhood of the reef of rocks supposed to have been the scene of the
+wreck.  His first object was to build a stout boat capable of carrying
+eight or ten oars, in constructing which Phipps used the adze himself.
+It is also said that he constructed a machine for the purpose of
+exploring the bottom of the sea similar to what is now known as the
+Diving Bell.  Such a machine was found referred to in books, but Phipps
+knew little of books, and may be said to have re-invented the apparatus
+for his own use.  He also engaged Indian divers, whose feats of diving
+for pearls, and in submarine operations, were very remarkable.  The
+tender and boat having been taken to the reef, the men were set to work,
+the diving bell was sunk, and the various modes of dragging the bottom of
+the sea were employed continuously for many weeks, but without any
+prospect of success.  Phipps, however, held on valiantly, hoping almost
+against hope.  At length, one day, a sailor, looking over the boat’s side
+down into the clear water, observed a curious sea-plant growing in what
+appeared to be a crevice of the rock; and he called upon an Indian diver
+to go down and fetch it for him.  On the red man coming up with the weed,
+he reported that a number of ships guns were lying in the same place.
+The intelligence was at first received with incredulity, but on further
+investigation it proved to be correct.  Search was made, and presently a
+diver came up with a solid bar of silver in his arms.  When Phipps was
+shown it, he exclaimed, “Thanks be to God! we are all made men.”  Diving
+bell and divers now went to work with a will, and in a few days, treasure
+was brought up to the value of about £300,000, with which Phipps set sail
+for England.  On his arrival, it was urged upon the king that he should
+seize the ship and its cargo, under the pretence that Phipps, when
+soliciting his Majesty’s permission, had not given accurate information
+respecting the business.  But the king replied, that he knew Phipps to be
+an honest man, and that he and his friends should divide the whole
+treasure amongst them, even though he had returned with double the value.
+Phipps’s share was about £20,000, and the king, to show his approval of
+his energy and honesty in conducting the enterprise, conferred upon him
+the honour of knighthood.  He was also made High Sheriff of New England;
+and during the time he held the office, he did valiant service for the
+mother country and the colonists against the French, by expeditions
+against Port Royal and Quebec.  He also held the post of Governor of
+Massachusetts, from which he returned to England, and died in London in
+1695.
+
+Phipps throughout the latter part of his career, was not ashamed to
+allude to the lowness of his origin, and it was matter of honest pride to
+him that he had risen from the condition of common ship carpenter to the
+honours of knighthood and the government of a province.  When perplexed
+with public business, he would often declare that it would be easier for
+him to go back to his broad axe again.  He left behind him a character
+for probity, honesty, patriotism, and courage, which is certainly not the
+least noble inheritance of the house of Normanby.
+
+William Petty, the founder of the house of Lansdowne, was a man of like
+energy and public usefulness in his day.  He was the son of a clothier in
+humble circumstances, at Romsey, in Hampshire, where he was born in 1623.
+In his boyhood he obtained a tolerable education at the grammar school of
+his native town; after which he determined to improve himself by study at
+the University of Caen, in Normandy.  Whilst there he contrived to
+support himself unassisted by his father, carrying on a sort of small
+pedler’s trade with “a little stock of merchandise.”  Returning to
+England, he had himself bound apprentice to a sea captain, who “drubbed
+him with a rope’s end” for the badness of his sight.  He left the navy in
+disgust, taking to the study of medicine.  When at Paris he engaged in
+dissection, during which time he also drew diagrams for Hobbes, who was
+then writing his treatise on Optics.  He was reduced to such poverty that
+he subsisted for two or three weeks entirely on walnuts.  But again he
+began to trade in a small way, turning an honest penny, and he was
+enabled shortly to return to England with money in his pocket.  Being of
+an ingenious mechanical turn, we find him taking out a patent for a
+letter-copying machine.  He began to write upon the arts and sciences,
+and practised chemistry and physic with such success that his reputation
+shortly became considerable.  Associating with men of science, the
+project of forming a Society for its prosecution was discussed, and the
+first meetings of the infant Royal Society were held at his lodgings.  At
+Oxford he acted for a time as deputy to the anatomical professor there,
+who had a great repugnance to dissection.  In 1652 his industry was
+rewarded by the appointment of physician to the army in Ireland, whither
+he went; and whilst there he was the medical attendant of three
+successive lords-lieutenant, Lambert, Fleetwood, and Henry Cromwell.
+Large grants of forfeited land having been awarded to the Puritan
+soldiery, Petty observed that the lands were very inaccurately measured;
+and in the midst of his many avocations he undertook to do the work
+himself.  His appointments became so numerous and lucrative that he was
+charged by the envious with corruption, and removed from them all; but he
+was again taken into favour at the Restoration.
+
+Petty was a most indefatigable contriver, inventor, and organizer of
+industry.  One of his inventions was a double-bottomed ship, to sail
+against wind and tide.  He published treatises on dyeing, on naval
+philosophy, on woollen cloth manufacture, on political arithmetic, and
+many other subjects.  He founded iron works, opened lead mines, and
+commenced a pilchard fishery and a timber trade; in the midst of which he
+found time to take part in the discussions of the Royal Society, to which
+he largely contributed.  He left an ample fortune to his sons, the eldest
+of whom was created Baron Shelburne.  His will was a curious document,
+singularly illustrative of his character; containing a detail of the
+principal events of his life, and the gradual advancement of his fortune.
+His sentiments on pauperism are characteristic: “As for legacies for the
+poor,” said he, “I am at a stand; as for beggars by trade and election, I
+give them nothing; as for impotents by the hand of God, the public ought
+to maintain them; as for those who have been bred to no calling nor
+estate, they should be put upon their kindred;” . . .  “wherefore I am
+contented that I have assisted all my poor relations, and put many into a
+way of getting their own bread; have laboured in public works; and by
+inventions have sought out real objects of charity; and I do hereby
+conjure all who partake of my estate, from time to time, to do the same
+at their peril.  Nevertheless to answer custom, and to take the surer
+side, I give 20_l._ to the most wanting of the parish wherein I die.”  He
+was interred in the fine old Norman church of Romsey—the town wherein he
+was born a poor man’s son—and on the south side of the choir is still to
+be seen a plain slab, with the inscription, cut by an illiterate workman,
+“Here Layes Sir William Petty.”
+
+Another family, ennobled by invention and trade in our own day, is that
+of Strutt of Belper.  Their patent of nobility was virtually secured by
+Jedediah Strutt in 1758, when he invented his machine for making ribbed
+stockings, and thereby laid the foundations of a fortune which the
+subsequent bearers of the name have largely increased and nobly employed.
+The father of Jedediah was a farmer and malster, who did but little for
+the education of his children; yet they all prospered.  Jedediah was the
+second son, and when a boy assisted his father in the work of the farm.
+At an early age he exhibited a taste for mechanics, and introduced
+several improvements in the rude agricultural implements of the period.
+On the death of his uncle he succeeded to a farm at Blackwall, near
+Normanton, long in the tenancy of the family, and shortly after he
+married Miss Wollatt, the daughter of a Derby hosier.  Having learned
+from his wife’s brother that various unsuccessful attempts had been made
+to manufacture ribbed-stockings, he proceeded to study the subject with a
+view to effect what others had failed in accomplishing.  He accordingly
+obtained a stocking-frame, and after mastering its construction and mode
+of action, he proceeded to introduce new combinations, by means of which
+he succeeded in effecting a variation in the plain looped-work of the
+frame, and was thereby enabled to turn out “ribbed” hosiery.  Having
+secured a patent for the improved machine, he removed to Derby, and there
+entered largely on the manufacture of ribbed-stockings, in which he was
+very successful.  He afterwards joined Arkwright, of the merits of whose
+invention he fully satisfied himself, and found the means of securing his
+patent, as well as erecting a large cotton-mill at Cranford, in
+Derbyshire.  After the expiry of the partnership with Arkwright, the
+Strutts erected extensive cotton-mills at Milford, near Belper, which
+worthily gives its title to the present head of the family.  The sons of
+the founder were, like their father, distinguished for their mechanical
+ability.  Thus William Strutt, the eldest, is said to have invented a
+self-acting mule, the success of which was only prevented by the
+mechanical skill of that day being unequal to its manufacture.  Edward,
+the son of William, was a man of eminent mechanical genius, having early
+discovered the principle of suspension-wheels for carriages: he had a
+wheelbarrow and two carts made on the principle, which were used on his
+farm near Belper.  It may be added that the Strutts have throughout been
+distinguished for their noble employment of the wealth which their
+industry and skill have brought them; that they have sought in all ways
+to improve the moral and social condition of the work-people in their
+employment; and that they have been liberal donors in every good cause—of
+which the presentation, by Mr. Joseph Strutt, of the beautiful park or
+Arboretum at Derby, as a gift to the townspeople for ever, affords only
+one of many illustrations.  The concluding words of the short address
+which he delivered on presenting this valuable gift are worthy of being
+quoted and remembered:—“As the sun has shone brightly on me through life,
+it would be ungrateful in me not to employ a portion of the fortune I
+possess in promoting the welfare of those amongst whom I live, and by
+whose industry I have been aided in its organisation.”
+
+No less industry and energy have been displayed by the many brave men,
+both in present and past times, who have earned the peerage by their
+valour on land and at sea.  Not to mention the older feudal lords, whose
+tenure depended upon military service, and who so often led the van of
+the English armies in great national encounters, we may point to Nelson,
+St. Vincent, and Lyons—to Wellington, Hill, Hardinge, Clyde, and many
+more in recent times, who have nobly earned their rank by their
+distinguished services.  But plodding industry has far oftener worked its
+way to the peerage by the honourable pursuit of the legal profession,
+than by any other.  No fewer than seventy British peerages, including two
+dukedoms, have been founded by successful lawyers.  Mansfield and Erskine
+were, it is true, of noble family; but the latter used to thank God that
+out of his own family he did not know a lord. {216}  The others were, for
+the most part, the sons of attorneys, grocers, clergymen, merchants, and
+hardworking members of the middle class.  Out of this profession have
+sprung the peerages of Howard and Cavendish, the first peers of both
+families having been judges; those of Aylesford, Ellenborough, Guildford,
+Shaftesbury, Hardwicke, Cardigan, Clarendon, Camden, Ellesmere, Rosslyn;
+and others nearer our own day, such as Tenterden, Eldon, Brougham,
+Denman, Truro, Lyndhurst, St. Leonards, Cranworth, Campbell, and
+Chelmsford.
+
+Lord Lyndhurst’s father was a portrait painter, and that of St. Leonards
+a perfumer and hairdresser in Burlington Street.  Young Edward Sugden was
+originally an errand-boy in the office of the late Mr. Groom, of
+Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, a certificated conveyancer; and it
+was there that the future Lord Chancellor of Ireland obtained his first
+notions of law.  The origin of the late Lord Tenterden was perhaps the
+humblest of all, nor was he ashamed of it; for he felt that the industry,
+study, and application, by means of which he achieved his eminent
+position, were entirely due to himself.  It is related of him, that on
+one occasion he took his son Charles to a little shed, then standing
+opposite the western front of Canterbury Cathedral, and pointing it out
+to him, said, “Charles, you see this little shop; I have brought you here
+on purpose to show it you.  In that shop your grandfather used to shave
+for a penny: that is the proudest reflection of my life.”  When a boy,
+Lord Tenterden was a singer in the Cathedral, and it is a curious
+circumstance that his destination in life was changed by a
+disappointment.  When he and Mr. Justice Richards were going the Home
+Circuit together, they went to service in the cathedral; and on Richards
+commending the voice of a singing man in the choir, Lord Tenterden said,
+“Ah! that is the only man I ever envied!  When at school in this town, we
+were candidates for a chorister’s place, and he obtained it.”
+
+Not less remarkable was the rise to the same distinguished office of Lord
+Chief Justice, of the rugged Kenyon and the robust Ellenborough; nor was
+he a less notable man who recently held the same office—the astute Lord
+Campbell, late Lord Chancellor of England, son of a parish minister in
+Fifeshire.  For many years he worked hard as a reporter for the press,
+while diligently preparing himself for the practice of his profession.
+It is said of him, that at the beginning of his career, he was accustomed
+to walk from county town to county town when on circuit, being as yet too
+poor to afford the luxury of posting.  But step by step he rose slowly
+but surely to that eminence and distinction which ever follow a career of
+industry honourably and energetically pursued, in the legal, as in every
+other profession.
+
+There have been other illustrious instances of Lords Chancellors who have
+plodded up the steep of fame and honour with equal energy and success.
+The career of the late Lord Eldon is perhaps one of the most remarkable
+examples.  He was the son of a Newcastle coal-fitter; a mischievous
+rather than a studious boy; a great scapegrace at school, and the subject
+of many terrible thrashings,—for orchard-robbing was one of the favourite
+exploits of the future Lord Chancellor.  His father first thought of
+putting him apprentice to a grocer, and afterwards had almost made up his
+mind to bring him up to his own trade of a coal-fitter.  But by this time
+his eldest son William (afterwards Lord Stowell) who had gained a
+scholarship at Oxford, wrote to his father, “Send Jack up to me, I can do
+better for him.”  John was sent up to Oxford accordingly, where, by his
+brother’s influence and his own application, he succeeded in obtaining a
+fellowship.  But when at home during the vacation, he was so
+unfortunate—or rather so fortunate, as the issue proved—as to fall in
+love; and running across the Border with his eloped bride, he married,
+and as his friends thought, ruined himself for life.  He had neither
+house nor home when he married, and had not yet earned a penny.  He lost
+his fellowship, and at the same time shut himself out from preferment in
+the Church, for which he had been destined.  He accordingly turned his
+attention to the study of the law.  To a friend he wrote, “I have married
+rashly; but it is my determination to work hard to provide for the woman
+I love.”
+
+John Scott came up to London, and took a small house in Cursitor Lane,
+where he settled down to the study of the law.  He worked with great
+diligence and resolution; rising at four every morning and studying till
+late at night, binding a wet towel round his head to keep himself awake.
+Too poor to study under a special pleader, he copied out three folio
+volumes from a manuscript collection of precedents.  Long after, when
+Lord Chancellor, passing down Cursitor Lane one day, he said to his
+secretary, “Here was my first perch: many a time do I recollect coming
+down this street with sixpence in my hand to buy sprats for supper.”
+When at length called to the bar, he waited long for employment.  His
+first year’s earnings amounted to only nine shillings.  For four years he
+assiduously attended the London Courts and the Northern Circuit, with
+little better success.  Even in his native town, he seldom had other than
+pauper cases to defend.  The results were indeed so discouraging, that he
+had almost determined to relinquish his chance of London business, and
+settle down in some provincial town as a country barrister.  His brother
+William wrote home, “Business is dull with poor Jack, very dull indeed!”
+But as he had escaped being a grocer, a coal-fitter, and a country parson
+so did he also escape being a country lawyer.
+
+An opportunity at length occurred which enabled John Scott to exhibit the
+large legal knowledge which he had so laboriously acquired.  In a case in
+which he was engaged, he urged a legal point against the wishes both of
+the attorney and client who employed him.  The Master of the Rolls
+decided against him, but on an appeal to the House of Lords, Lord Thurlow
+reversed the decision on the very point that Scott had urged.  On leaving
+the House that day, a solicitor tapped him on the shoulder and said,
+“Young man, your bread and butter’s cut for life.”  And the prophecy
+proved a true one.  Lord Mansfield used to say that he knew no interval
+between no business and 3000_l._ a-year, and Scott might have told the
+same story; for so rapid was his progress, that in 1783, when only
+thirty-two, he was appointed King’s Counsel, was at the head of the
+Northern Circuit, and sat in Parliament for the borough of Weobley.  It
+was in the dull but unflinching drudgery of the early part of his career
+that he laid the foundation of his future success.  He won his spurs by
+perseverance, knowledge, and ability, diligently cultivated.  He was
+successively appointed to the offices of solicitor and attorney-general,
+and rose steadily upwards to the highest office that the Crown had to
+bestow—that of Lord Chancellor of England, which he held for a quarter of
+a century.
+
+Henry Bickersteth was the son of a surgeon at Kirkby Lonsdale, in
+Westmoreland, and was himself educated to that profession.  As a student
+at Edinburgh, he distinguished himself by the steadiness with which he
+worked, and the application which he devoted to the science of medicine.
+Returned to Kirkby Lonsdale, he took an active part in his father’s
+practice; but he had no liking for the profession, and grew discontented
+with the obscurity of a country town.  He went on, nevertheless,
+diligently improving himself, and engaged on speculations in the higher
+branches of physiology.  In conformity with his own wish, his father
+consented to send him to Cambridge, where it was his intention to take a
+medical degree with the view of practising in the metropolis.  Close
+application to his studies, however, threw him out of health, and with a
+view to re-establishing his strength he accepted the appointment of
+travelling physician to Lord Oxford.  While abroad he mastered Italian,
+and acquired a great admiration for Italian literature, but no greater
+liking for medicine than before.  On the contrary, he determined to
+abandon it; but returning to Cambridge, he took his degree; and that he
+worked hard may be inferred from the fact that he was senior wrangler of
+his year.  Disappointed in his desire to enter the army, he turned to the
+bar, and entered a student of the Inner Temple.  He worked as hard at law
+as he had done at medicine.  Writing to his father, he said, “Everybody
+says to me, ‘You are certain of success in the end—only persevere;’ and
+though I don’t well understand how this is to happen, I try to believe it
+as much as I can, and I shall not fail to do everything in my power.”  At
+twenty-eight he was called to the bar, and had every step in life yet to
+make.  His means were straitened, and he lived upon the contributions of
+his friends.  For years he studied and waited.  Still no business came.
+He stinted himself in recreation, in clothes, and even in the necessaries
+of life; struggling on indefatigably through all.  Writing home, he
+“confessed that he hardly knew how he should be able to struggle on till
+he had fair time and opportunity to establish himself.”  After three
+years’ waiting, still without success, he wrote to his friends that
+rather than be a burden upon them longer, he was willing to give the
+matter up and return to Cambridge, “where he was sure of support and some
+profit.”  The friends at home sent him another small remittance, and he
+persevered.  Business gradually came in.  Acquitting himself creditably
+in small matters, he was at length entrusted with cases of greater
+importance.  He was a man who never missed an opportunity, nor allowed a
+legitimate chance of improvement to escape him.  His unflinching industry
+soon began to tell upon his fortunes; a few more years and he was not
+only enabled to do without assistance from home, but he was in a position
+to pay back with interest the debts which he had incurred.  The clouds
+had dispersed, and the after career of Henry Bickersteth was one of
+honour, of emolument, and of distinguished fame.  He ended his career as
+Master of the Rolls, sitting in the House of Peers as Baron Langdale.
+His life affords only another illustration of the power of patience,
+perseverance, and conscientious working, in elevating the character of
+the individual, and crowning his labours with the most complete success.
+
+Such are a few of the distinguished men who have honourably worked their
+way to the highest position, and won the richest rewards of their
+profession, by the diligent exercise of qualities in many respects of an
+ordinary character, but made potent by the force of application and
+industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+ENERGY AND COURAGE.
+
+
+    “A cœur vaillant rien d’impossible.”—_Jacques Cœur_.
+
+    “Den Muthigen gehört die Welt.”—_German Proverb_.
+
+    “In every work that he began . . . he did it with all his heart, and
+    prospered.”—_II. Chron._ xxxi. 21.
+
+THERE is a famous speech recorded of an old Norseman, thoroughly
+characteristic of the Teuton.  “I believe neither in idols nor demons,”
+said he, “I put my sole trust in my own strength of body and soul.”  The
+ancient crest of a pickaxe with the motto of “Either I will find a way or
+make one,” was an expression of the same sturdy independence which to
+this day distinguishes the descendants of the Northmen.  Indeed nothing
+could be more characteristic of the Scandinavian mythology, than that it
+had a god with a hammer.  A man’s character is seen in small matters; and
+from even so slight a test as the mode in which a man wields a hammer,
+his energy may in some measure be inferred.  Thus an eminent Frenchman
+hit off in a single phrase the characteristic quality of the inhabitants
+of a particular district, in which a friend of his proposed to settle and
+buy land.  “Beware,” said he, “of making a purchase there; I know the men
+of that department; the pupils who come from it to our veterinary school
+at Paris _do nor strike hard upon the anvil_; they want energy; and you
+will not get a satisfactory return on any capital you may invest there.”
+A fine and just appreciation of character, indicating the thoughtful
+observer; and strikingly illustrative of the fact that it is the energy
+of the individual men that gives strength to a State, and confers a value
+even upon the very soil which they cultivate.  As the French proverb has
+it: “Tant vaut l’homme, tant vaut sa terre.”
+
+The cultivation of this quality is of the greatest importance; resolute
+determination in the pursuit of worthy objects being the foundation of
+all true greatness of character.  Energy enables a man to force his way
+through irksome drudgery and dry details, and carries him onward and
+upward in every station in life.  It accomplishes more than genius, with
+not one-half the disappointment and peril.  It is not eminent talent that
+is required to ensure success in any pursuit, so much as purpose,—not
+merely the power to achieve, but the will to labour energetically and
+perseveringly.  Hence energy of will may be defined to be the very
+central power of character in a man—in a word, it is the Man himself.  It
+gives impulse to his every action, and soul to every effort.  True hope
+is based on it,—and it is hope that gives the real perfume to life.
+There is a fine heraldic motto on a broken helmet in Battle Abbey,
+“L’espoir est ma force,” which might be the motto of every man’s life.
+“Woe unto him that is fainthearted,” says the son of Sirach.  There is,
+indeed, no blessing equal to the possession of a stout heart.  Even if a
+man fail in his efforts, it will be a satisfaction to him to enjoy the
+consciousness of having done his best.  In humble life nothing can be
+more cheering and beautiful than to see a man combating suffering by
+patience, triumphing in his integrity, and who, when his feet are
+bleeding and his limbs failing him, still walks upon his courage.
+
+Mere wishes and desires but engender a sort of green sickness in young
+minds, unless they are promptly embodied in act and deed.  It will not
+avail merely to wait as so many do, “until Blucher comes up,” but they
+must struggle on and persevere in the mean time, as Wellington did.  The
+good purpose once formed must be carried out with alacrity and without
+swerving.  In most conditions of life, drudgery and toil are to be
+cheerfully endured as the best and most wholesome discipline.  “In life,”
+said Ary Scheffer, “nothing bears fruit except by labour of mind or body.
+To strive and still strive—such is life; and in this respect mine is
+fulfilled; but I dare to say, with just pride, that nothing has ever
+shaken my courage.  With a strong soul, and a noble aim, one can do what
+one wills, morally speaking.”
+
+Hugh Miller said the only school in which he was properly taught was
+“that world-wide school in which toil and hardship are the severe but
+noble teachers.”  He who allows his application to falter, or shirks his
+work on frivolous pretexts, is on the sure road to ultimate failure.  Let
+any task be undertaken as a thing not possible to be evaded, and it will
+soon come to be performed with alacrity and cheerfulness.  Charles IX. of
+Sweden was a firm believer in the power of will, even in youth.  Laying
+his hand on the head of his youngest son when engaged on a difficult
+task, he exclaimed, “He _shall_ do it! he _shall_ do it!”  The habit of
+application becomes easy in time, like every other habit.  Thus persons
+with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much, if they apply
+themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time.  Fowell
+Buxton placed his confidence in ordinary means and extraordinary
+application; realizing the scriptural injunction, “Whatsoever thy hand
+findeth to do, do it with all thy might;” and he attributed his own
+success in life to his practice of “being a whole man to one thing at a
+time.”
+
+Nothing that is of real worth can be achieved without courageous working.
+Man owes his growth chiefly to that active striving of the will, that
+encounter with difficulty, which we call effort; and it is astonishing to
+find how often results apparently impracticable are thus made possible.
+An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our
+desires being often but the precursors of the things which we are capable
+of performing.  On the contrary, the timid and hesitating find everything
+impossible, chiefly because it seems so.  It is related of a young French
+officer, that he used to walk about his apartment exclaiming, “I _will_
+be Marshal of France and a great general.”  His ardent desire was the
+presentiment of his success; for the young officer did become a
+distinguished commander, and he died a Marshal of France.
+
+Mr. Walker, author of the ‘Original,’ had so great a faith in the power
+of will, that he says on one occasion he _determined_ to be well, and he
+was so.  This may answer once; but, though safer to follow than many
+prescriptions, it will not always succeed.  The power of mind over body
+is no doubt great, but it may be strained until the physical power breaks
+down altogether.  It is related of Muley Moluc, the Moorish leader, that,
+when lying ill, almost worn out by an incurable disease, a battle took
+place between his troops and the Portuguese; when, starting from his
+litter at the great crisis of the fight, he rallied his army, led them to
+victory, and instantly afterwards sank exhausted and expired.
+
+It is will,—force of purpose,—that enables a man to do or be whatever he
+sets his mind on being or doing.  A holy man was accustomed to say,
+“Whatever you wish, that you are: for such is the force of our will,
+joined to the Divine, that whatever we wish to be, seriously, and with a
+true intention, that we become.  No one ardently wishes to be submissive,
+patient, modest, or liberal, who does not become what he wishes.”  The
+story is told of a working carpenter, who was observed one day planing a
+magistrate’s bench which he was repairing, with more than usual
+carefulness; and when asked the reason, he replied, “Because I wish to
+make it easy against the time when I come to sit upon it myself.”  And
+singularly enough, the man actually lived to sit upon that very bench as
+a magistrate.
+
+Whatever theoretical conclusions logicians may have formed as to the
+freedom of the will, each individual feels that practically he is free to
+choose between good and evil—that he is not as a mere straw thrown upon
+the water to mark the direction of the current, but that he has within
+him the power of a strong swimmer, and is capable of striking out for
+himself, of buffeting with the waves, and directing to a great extent his
+own independent course.  There is no absolute constraint upon our
+volitions, and we feel and know that we are not bound, as by a spell,
+with reference to our actions.  It would paralyze all desire of
+excellence were we to think otherwise.  The entire business and conduct
+of life, with its domestic rules, its social arrangements, and its public
+institutions, proceed upon the practical conviction that the will is
+free.  Without this where would be responsibility?—and what the advantage
+of teaching, advising, preaching, reproof, and correction?  What were the
+use of laws, were it not the universal belief, as it is the universal
+fact, that men obey them or not, very much as they individually
+determine?  In every moment of our life, conscience is proclaiming that
+our will is free.  It is the only thing that is wholly ours, and it rests
+solely with ourselves individually, whether we give it the right or the
+wrong direction.  Our habits or our temptations are not our masters, but
+we of them.  Even in yielding, conscience tells us we might resist; and
+that were we determined to master them, there would not be required for
+that purpose a stronger resolution than we know ourselves to be capable
+of exercising.
+
+“You are now at the age,” said Lamennais once, addressing a gay youth,
+“at which a decision must be formed by you; a little later, and you may
+have to groan within the tomb which you yourself have dug, without the
+power of rolling away the stone.  That which the easiest becomes a habit
+in us is the will.  Learn then to will strongly and decisively; thus fix
+your floating life, and leave it no longer to be carried hither and
+thither, like a withered leaf, by every wind that blows.”
+
+Buxton held the conviction that a young man might be very much what he
+pleased, provided he formed a strong resolution and held to it.  Writing
+to one of his sons, he said to him, “You are now at that period of life,
+in which you must make a turn to the right or the left.  You must now
+give proofs of principle, determination, and strength of mind; or you
+must sink into idleness, and acquire the habits and character of a
+desultory, ineffective young man; and if once you fall to that point, you
+will find it no easy matter to rise again.  I am sure that a young man
+may be very much what he pleases.  In my own case it was so. . . . Much
+of my happiness, and all my prosperity in life, have resulted from the
+change I made at your age.  If you seriously resolve to be energetic and
+industrious, depend upon it that you will for your whole life have reason
+to rejoice that you were wise enough to form and to act upon that
+determination.”  As will, considered without regard to direction, is
+simply constancy, firmness, perseverance, it will be obvious that
+everything depends upon right direction and motives.  Directed towards
+the enjoyment of the senses, the strong will may be a demon, and the
+intellect merely its debased slave; but directed towards good, the strong
+will is a king, and the intellect the minister of man’s highest
+well-being.
+
+“Where there is a will there is a way,” is an old and true saying.  He
+who resolves upon doing a thing, by that very resolution often scales the
+barriers to it, and secures its achievement.  To think we are able, is
+almost to be so—to determine upon attainment is frequently attainment
+itself.  Thus, earnest resolution has often seemed to have about it
+almost a savour of omnipotence.  The strength of Suwarrow’s character lay
+in his power of willing, and, like most resolute persons, he preached it
+up as a system.  “You can only half will,” he would say to people who
+failed.  Like Richelieu and Napoleon, he would have the word “impossible”
+banished from the dictionary.  “I don’t know,” “I can’t,” and
+“impossible,” were words which he detested above all others.  “Learn!
+Do!  Try!” he would exclaim.  His biographer has said of him, that he
+furnished a remarkable illustration of what may be effected by the
+energetic development and exercise of faculties, the germs of which at
+least are in every human heart.
+
+One of Napoleon’s favourite maxims was, “The truest wisdom is a resolute
+determination.”  His life, beyond most others, vividly showed what a
+powerful and unscrupulous will could accomplish.  He threw his whole
+force of body and mind direct upon his work.  Imbecile rulers and the
+nations they governed went down before him in succession.  He was told
+that the Alps stood in the way of his armies—“There shall be no Alps,” he
+said, and the road across the Simplon was constructed, through a district
+formerly almost inaccessible.  “Impossible,” said he, “is a word only to
+be found in the dictionary of fools.”  He was a man who toiled terribly;
+sometimes employing and exhausting four secretaries at a time.  He spared
+no one, not even himself.  His influence inspired other men, and put a
+new life into them.  “I made my generals out of mud,” he said.  But all
+was of no avail; for Napoleon’s intense selfishness was his ruin, and the
+ruin of France, which he left a prey to anarchy.  His life taught the
+lesson that power, however energetically wielded, without beneficence, is
+fatal to its possessor and its subjects; and that knowledge, or
+knowingness, without goodness, is but the incarnate principle of Evil.
+
+Our own Wellington was a far greater man.  Not less resolute, firm, and
+persistent, but more self-denying, conscientious, and truly patriotic.
+Napoleon’s aim was “Glory;” Wellington’s watchword, like Nelson’s, was
+“Duty.”  The former word, it is said, does not once occur in his
+despatches; the latter often, but never accompanied by any high-sounding
+professions.  The greatest difficulties could neither embarrass nor
+intimidate Wellington; his energy invariably rising in proportion to the
+obstacles to be surmounted.  The patience, the firmness, the resolution,
+with which he bore through the maddening vexations and gigantic
+difficulties of the Peninsular campaigns, is, perhaps, one of the
+sublimest things to be found in history.  In Spain, Wellington not only
+exhibited the genius of the general, but the comprehensive wisdom of the
+statesman.  Though his natural temper was irritable in the extreme, his
+high sense of duty enabled him to restrain it; and to those about him his
+patience seemed absolutely inexhaustible.  His great character stands
+untarnished by ambition, by avarice, or any low passion.  Though a man of
+powerful individuality, he yet displayed a great variety of endowment.
+The equal of Napoleon in generalship, he was as prompt, vigorous, and
+daring as Clive; as wise a statesman as Cromwell; and as pure and
+high-minded as Washington.  The great Wellington left behind him an
+enduring reputation, founded on toilsome campaigns won by skilful
+combination, by fortitude which nothing could exhaust, by sublime daring,
+and perhaps by still sublimer patience.
+
+Energy usually displays itself in promptitude and decision.  When Ledyard
+the traveller was asked by the African Association when he would be ready
+to set out for Africa, he immediately answered, “To-morrow morning.”
+Blucher’s promptitude obtained for him the cognomen of “Marshal Forwards”
+throughout the Prussian army.  When John Jervis, afterwards Earl St.
+Vincent, was asked when he would be ready to join his ship, he replied,
+“Directly.”  And when Sir Colin Campbell, appointed to the command of the
+Indian army, was asked when he could set out, his answer was,
+“To-morrow,”—an earnest of his subsequent success.  For it is rapid
+decision, and a similar promptitude in action, such as taking instant
+advantage of an enemy’s mistakes, that so often wins battles.  “At
+Arcola,” said Napoleon, “I won the battle with twenty-five horsemen.  I
+seized a moment of lassitude, gave every man a trumpet, and gained the
+day with this handful.  Two armies are two bodies which meet and
+endeavour to frighten each other: a moment of panic occurs, and _that
+moment_ must be turned to advantage.”  “Every moment lost,” said he at
+another time, “gives an opportunity for misfortune;” and he declared that
+he beat the Austrians because they never knew the value of time: while
+they dawdled, he overthrew them.
+
+India has, during the last century, been a great field for the display of
+British energy.  From Clive to Havelock and Clyde there is a long and
+honourable roll of distinguished names in Indian legislation and
+warfare,—such as Wellesley, Metcalfe, Outram, Edwardes, and the
+Lawrences.  Another great but sullied name is that of Warren Hastings—a
+man of dauntless will and indefatigable industry.  His family was ancient
+and illustrious; but their vicissitudes of fortune and ill-requited
+loyalty in the cause of the Stuarts, brought them to poverty, and the
+family estate at Daylesford, of which they had been lords of the manor
+for hundreds of years, at length passed from their hands.  The last
+Hastings of Daylesford had, however, presented the parish living to his
+second son; and it was in his house, many years later, that Warren
+Hastings, his grandson, was born.  The boy learnt his letters at the
+village school, on the same bench with the children of the peasantry.  He
+played in the fields which his fathers had owned; and what the loyal and
+brave Hastings of Daylesford _had_ been, was ever in the boy’s thoughts.
+His young ambition was fired, and it is said that one summer’s day, when
+only seven years old, as he laid him down on the bank of the stream which
+flowed through the domain, he formed in his mind the resolution that he
+would yet recover possession of the family lands.  It was the romantic
+vision of a boy; yet he lived to realize it.  The dream became a passion,
+rooted in his very life; and he pursued his determination through youth
+up to manhood, with that calm but indomitable force of will which was the
+most striking peculiarity of his character.  The orphan boy became one of
+the most powerful men of his time; he retrieved the fortunes of his line;
+bought back the old estate, and rebuilt the family mansion.  “When, under
+a tropical sun,” says Macaulay, “he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics, his
+hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance, and legislation, still
+pointed to Daylesford.  And when his long public life, so singularly
+chequered with good and evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length
+closed for ever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die.”
+
+Sir Charles Napier was another Indian leader of extraordinary courage and
+determination.  He once said of the difficulties with which he was
+surrounded in one of his campaigns, “They only make my feet go deeper
+into the ground.”  His battle of Meeanee was one of the most
+extraordinary feats in history.  With 2000 men, of whom only 400 were
+Europeans, he encountered an army of 35,000 hardy and well-armed
+Beloochees.  It was an act, apparently, of the most daring temerity, but
+the general had faith in himself and in his men.  He charged the Belooch
+centre up a high bank which formed their rampart in front, and for three
+mortal hours the battle raged.  Each man of that small force, inspired by
+the chief, became for the time a hero.  The Beloochees, though twenty to
+one, were driven back, but with their faces to the foe.  It is this sort
+of pluck, tenacity, and determined perseverance which wins soldiers’
+battles, and, indeed, every battle.  It is the one neck nearer that wins
+the race and shows the blood; it is the one march more that wins the
+campaign; the five minutes’ more persistent courage that wins the fight.
+Though your force be less than another’s, you equal and outmaster your
+opponent if you continue it longer and concentrate it more.  The reply of
+the Spartan father, who said to his son, when complaining that his sword
+was too short, “Add a step to it,” is applicable to everything in life.
+
+Napier took the right method of inspiring his men with his own heroic
+spirit.  He worked as hard as any private in the ranks.  “The great art
+of commanding,” he said, “is to take a fair share of the work.  The man
+who leads an army cannot succeed unless his whole mind is thrown into his
+work.  The more trouble, the more labour must be given; the more danger,
+the more pluck must be shown, till all is overpowered.”  A young officer
+who accompanied him in his campaign in the Cutchee Hills, once said,
+“When I see that old man incessantly on his horse, how can I be idle who
+am young and strong?  I would go into a loaded cannon’s mouth if he
+ordered me.”  This remark, when repeated to Napier, he said was ample
+reward for his toils.  The anecdote of his interview with the Indian
+juggler strikingly illustrates his cool courage as well as his remarkable
+simplicity and honesty of character.  On one occasion, after the Indian
+battles, a famous juggler visited the camp and performed his feats before
+the General, his family, and staff.  Among other performances, this man
+cut in two with a stroke of his sword a lime or lemon placed in the hand
+of his assistant.  Napier thought there was some collusion between the
+juggler and his retainer.  To divide by a sweep of the sword on a man’s
+hand so small an object without touching the flesh he believed to be
+impossible, though a similar incident is related by Scott in his romance
+of the ‘Talisman.’  To determine the point, the General offered his own
+hand for the experiment, and he stretched out his right arm.  The juggler
+looked attentively at the hand, and said he would not make the trial.  “I
+thought I would find you out!” exclaimed Napier.  “But stop,” added the
+other, “let me see your left hand.”  The left hand was submitted, and the
+man then said firmly, “If you will hold your arm steady I will perform
+the feat.”  “But why the left hand and not the right?”  “Because the
+right hand is hollow in the centre, and there is a risk of cutting off
+the thumb; the left is high, and the danger will be less.”  Napier was
+startled.  “I got frightened,” he said; “I saw it was an actual feat of
+delicate swordsmanship, and if I had not abused the man as I did before
+my staff, and challenged him to the trial, I honestly acknowledge I would
+have retired from the encounter.  However, I put the lime on my hand, and
+held out my arm steadily.  The juggler balanced himself, and, with a
+swift stroke cut the lime in two pieces.  I felt the edge of the sword on
+my hand as if a cold thread had been drawn across it.  So much (he added)
+for the brave swordsmen of India, whom our fine fellows defeated at
+Meeanee.”
+
+The recent terrible struggle in India has served to bring out, perhaps
+more prominently than any previous event in our history, the determined
+energy and self-reliance of the national character.  Although English
+officialism may often drift stupidly into gigantic blunders, the men of
+the nation generally contrive to work their way out of them with a
+heroism almost approaching the sublime.  In May, 1857, when the revolt
+burst upon India like a thunder-clap, the British forces had been allowed
+to dwindle to their extreme minimum, and were scattered over a wide
+extent of country, many of them in remote cantonments.  The Bengal
+regiments, one after another, rose against their officers, broke away,
+and rushed to Delhi.  Province after province was lapped in mutiny and
+rebellion; and the cry for help rose from east to west.  Everywhere the
+English stood at bay in small detachments, beleaguered and surrounded,
+apparently incapable of resistance.  Their discomfiture seemed so
+complete, and the utter ruin of the British cause in India so certain,
+that it might be said of them then, as it had been said before, “These
+English never know when they are beaten.”  According to rule, they ought
+then and there to have succumbed to inevitable fate.
+
+While the issue of the mutiny still appeared uncertain, Holkar, one of
+the native princes, consulted his astrologer for information.  The reply
+was, “If all the Europeans save one are slain, that one will remain to
+fight and reconquer.”  In their very darkest moment—even where, as at
+Lucknow, a mere handful of British soldiers, civilians, and women, held
+out amidst a city and province in arms against them—there was no word of
+despair, no thought of surrender.  Though cut off from all communication
+with their friends for months, and not knowing whether India was lost or
+held, they never ceased to have perfect faith in the courage and
+devotedness of their countrymen.  They knew that while a body of men of
+English race held together in India, they would not be left unheeded to
+perish.  They never dreamt of any other issue but retrieval of their
+misfortune and ultimate triumph; and if the worst came to the worst, they
+could but fall at their post, and die in the performance of their duty.
+Need we remind the reader of the names of Havelock, Inglis, Neill, and
+Outram—men of truly heroic mould—of each of whom it might with truth be
+said that he had the heart of a chevalier, the soul of a believer, and
+the temperament of a martyr.  Montalembert has said of them that “they do
+honour to the human race.”  But throughout that terrible trial almost all
+proved equally great—women, civilians and soldiers—from the general down
+through all grades to the private and bugleman.  The men were not picked:
+they belonged to the same ordinary people whom we daily meet at home—in
+the streets, in workshops, in the fields, at clubs; yet when sudden
+disaster fell upon them, each and all displayed a wealth of personal
+resources and energy, and became as it were individually heroic.  “Not
+one of them,” says Montalembert, “shrank or trembled—all, military and
+civilians, young and old, generals and soldiers, resisted, fought, and
+perished with a coolness and intrepidity which never faltered.  It is in
+this circumstance that shines out the immense value of public education,
+which invites the Englishman from his youth to make use of his strength
+and his liberty, to associate, resist, fear nothing, to be astonished at
+nothing, and to save himself, by his own sole exertions, from every sore
+strait in life.”
+
+It has been said that Delhi was taken and India saved by the personal
+character of Sir John Lawrence.  The very name of “Lawrence” represented
+power in the North-West Provinces.  His standard of duty, zeal, and
+personal effort, was of the highest; and every man who served under him
+seemed to be inspired by his spirit.  It was declared of him that his
+character alone was worth an army.  The same might be said of his brother
+Sir Henry, who organised the Punjaub force that took so prominent a part
+in the capture of Delhi.  Both brothers inspired those who were about
+them with perfect love and confidence.  Both possessed that quality of
+tenderness, which is one of the true elements of the heroic character.
+Both lived amongst the people, and powerfully influenced them for good.
+Above all as Col. Edwardes says, “they drew models on young fellows’
+minds, which they went forth and copied in their several administrations:
+they sketched a _faith_, and begot a _school_, which are both living
+things at this day.”  Sir John Lawrence had by his side such men as
+Montgomery, Nicholson, Cotton, and Edwardes, as prompt, decisive, and
+high-souled as himself.  John Nicholson was one of the finest, manliest,
+and noblest of men—“every inch a hakim,” the natives said of him—“a tower
+of strength,” as he was characterised by Lord Dalhousie.  In whatever
+capacity he acted he was great, because he acted with his whole strength
+and soul.  A brotherhood of fakeers—borne away by their enthusiastic
+admiration of the man—even began the worship of Nikkil Seyn: he had some
+of them punished for their folly, but they continued their worship
+nevertheless.  Of his sustained energy and persistency an illustration
+may be cited in his pursuit of the 55th Sepoy mutineers, when he was in
+the saddle for twenty consecutive hours, and travelled more than seventy
+miles.  When the enemy set up their standard at Delhi, Lawrence and
+Montgomery, relying on the support of the people of the Punjaub, and
+compelling their admiration and confidence, strained every nerve to keep
+their own province in perfect order, whilst they hurled every available
+soldier, European and Sikh, against that city.  Sir John wrote to the
+commander-in-chief to “hang on to the rebels’ noses before Delhi,” while
+the troops pressed on by forced marches under Nicholson, “the tramp of
+whose war-horse might be heard miles off,” as was afterwards said of him
+by a rough Sikh who wept over his grave.
+
+The siege and storming of Delhi was the most illustrious event which
+occurred in the course of that gigantic struggle, although the leaguer of
+Lucknow, during which the merest skeleton of a British regiment—the
+32nd—held out, under the heroic Inglis, for six months against two
+hundred thousand armed enemies, has perhaps excited more intense
+interest.  At Delhi, too, the British were really the besieged, though
+ostensibly the besiegers; they were a mere handful of men “in the
+open”—not more than 3,700 bayonets, European and native—and they were
+assailed from day to day by an army of rebels numbering at one time as
+many as 75,000 men, trained to European discipline by English officers,
+and supplied with all but exhaustless munitions of war.  The heroic
+little band sat down before the city under the burning rays of a tropical
+sun.  Death, wounds, and fever failed to turn them from their purpose.
+Thirty times they were attacked by overwhelming numbers, and thirty times
+did they drive back the enemy behind their defences.  As Captain
+Hodson—himself one of the bravest there—has said, “I venture to aver that
+no other nation in the world would have remained here, or avoided defeat
+if they had attempted to do so.”  Never for an instant did these heroes
+falter at their work; with sublime endurance they held on, fought on, and
+never relaxed until, dashing through the “imminent deadly breach,” the
+place was won, and the British flag was again unfurled on the walls of
+Delhi.  All were great—privates, officers, and generals.  Common soldiers
+who had been inured to a life of hardship, and young officers who had
+been nursed in luxurious homes, alike proved their manhood, and emerged
+from that terrible trial with equal honour.  The native strength and
+soundness of the English race, and of manly English training and
+discipline, were never more powerfully exhibited; and it was there
+emphatically proved that the Men of England are, after all, its greatest
+products.  A terrible price was paid for this great chapter in our
+history, but if those who survive, and those who come after, profit by
+the lesson and example, it may not have been purchased at too great a
+cost.
+
+But not less energy and courage have been displayed in India and the East
+by men of various nations, in other lines of action more peaceful and
+beneficent than that of war.  And while the heroes of the sword are
+remembered, the heroes of the gospel ought not to be forgotten.  From
+Xavier to Martyn and Williams, there has been a succession of illustrious
+missionary labourers, working in a spirit of sublime self-sacrifice,
+without any thought of worldly honour, inspired solely by the hope of
+seeking out and rescuing the lost and fallen of their race.  Borne up by
+invincible courage and never-failing patience, these men have endured
+privations, braved dangers, walked through pestilence, and borne all
+toils, fatigues, and sufferings, yet held on their way rejoicing,
+glorying even in martyrdom itself.  Of these one of the first and most
+illustrious was Francis Xavier.  Born of noble lineage, and with
+pleasure, power, and honour within his reach, he proved by his life that
+there are higher objects in the world than rank, and nobler aspirations
+than the accumulation of wealth.  He was a true gentleman in manners and
+sentiment; brave, honourable, generous; easily led, yet capable of
+leading; easily persuaded, yet himself persuasive; a most patient,
+resolute and energetic man.  At the age of twenty-two he was earning his
+living as a public teacher of philosophy at the University of Paris.
+There Xavier became the intimate friend and associate of Loyola, and
+shortly afterwards he conducted the pilgrimage of the first little band
+of proselytes to Rome.
+
+When John III. of Portugal resolved to plant Christianity in the Indian
+territories subject to his influence, Bobadilla was first selected as his
+missionary; but being disabled by illness, it was found necessary to make
+another selection, and Xavier was chosen.  Repairing his tattered
+cassock, and with no other baggage than his breviary, he at once started
+for Lisbon and embarked for the East.  The ship in which he set sail for
+Goa had the Governor on board, with a reinforcement of a thousand men for
+the garrison of the place.  Though a cabin was placed at his disposal,
+Xavier slept on deck throughout the voyage with his head on a coil of
+ropes, messing with the sailors.  By ministering to their wants,
+inventing innocent sports for their amusement, and attending them in
+their sickness, he wholly won their hearts, and they regarded him with
+veneration.
+
+Arrived at Goa, Xavier was shocked at the depravity of the people,
+settlers as well as natives; for the former had imported the vices
+without the restraints of civilization, and the latter had only been too
+apt to imitate their bad example.  Passing along the streets of the city,
+sounding his handbell as he went, he implored the people to send him
+their children to be instructed.  He shortly succeeded in collecting a
+large number of scholars, whom he carefully taught day by day, at the
+same time visiting the sick, the lepers, and the wretched of all classes,
+with the object of assuaging their miseries, and bringing them to the
+Truth.  No cry of human suffering which reached him was disregarded.
+Hearing of the degradation and misery of the pearl fishers of Manaar, he
+set out to visit them, and his bell again rang out the invitation of
+mercy.  He baptized and he taught, but the latter he could only do
+through interpreters.  His most eloquent teaching was his ministration to
+the wants and the sufferings of the wretched.
+
+On he went, his hand-bell sounding along the coast of Comorin, among the
+towns and villages, the temples and the bazaars, summoning the natives to
+gather about him and be instructed.  He had translations made of the
+Catechism, the Apostles’ Creed, the Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and
+some of the devotional offices of the Church.  Committing these to memory
+in their own tongue he recited them to the children, until they had them
+by heart; after which he sent them forth to teach the words to their
+parents and neighbours.  At Cape Comorin, he appointed thirty teachers,
+who under himself presided over thirty Christian Churches, though the
+Churches were but humble, in most cases consisting only of a cottage
+surmounted by a cross.  Thence he passed to Travancore, sounding his way
+from village to village, baptizing until his hands dropped with
+weariness, and repeating his formulas until his voice became almost
+inaudible.  According to his own account, the success of his mission
+surpassed his highest expectations.  His pure, earnest, and beautiful
+life, and the irresistible eloquence of his deeds, made converts wherever
+he went; and by sheer force of sympathy, those who saw him and listened
+to him insensibly caught a portion of his ardour.
+
+Burdened with the thought that “the harvest is great and the labourers
+are few,” Xavier next sailed to Malacca and Japan, where he found himself
+amongst entirely new races speaking other tongues.  The most that he
+could do here was to weep and pray, to smooth the pillow and watch by the
+sick-bed, sometimes soaking the sleeve of his surplice in water, from
+which to squeeze out a few drops and baptize the dying.  Hoping all
+things, and fearing nothing, this valiant soldier of the truth was borne
+onward throughout by faith and energy.  “Whatever form of death or
+torture,” said he, “awaits me, I am ready to suffer it ten thousand times
+for the salvation of a single soul.”  He battled with hunger, thirst,
+privations and dangers of all kinds, still pursuing his mission of love,
+unresting and unwearying.  At length, after eleven years’ labour, this
+great good man, while striving to find a way into China, was stricken
+with fever in the Island of Sanchian, and there received his crown of
+glory.  A hero of nobler mould, more pure, self-denying, and courageous,
+has probably never trod this earth.
+
+Other missionaries have followed Xavier in the same field of work, such
+as Schwartz, Carey, and Marshman in India; Gutzlaff and Morrison in
+China; Williams in the South Seas; Campbell, Moffatt and Livingstone in
+Africa.  John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga, was originally
+apprenticed to a furnishing ironmonger.  Though considered a dull boy, he
+was handy at his trade, in which he acquired so much skill that his
+master usually entrusted him with any blacksmiths work that required the
+exercise of more than ordinary care.  He was also fond of bell-hanging
+and other employments which took him away from the shop.  A casual sermon
+which he heard gave his mind a serious bias, and he became a
+Sunday-school teacher.  The cause of missions having been brought under
+his notice at some of his society’s meetings, he determined to devote
+himself to this work.  His services were accepted by the London
+Missionary Society; and his master allowed him to leave the ironmonger’s
+shop before the expiry of his indentures.  The islands of the Pacific
+Ocean were the principal scene of his labours—more particularly Huahine
+in Tahiti, Raiatea, and Rarotonga.  Like the Apostles he worked with his
+hands,—at blacksmith work, gardening, shipbuilding; and he endeavoured to
+teach the islanders the art of civilised life, at the same time that he
+instructed them in the truths of religion.  It was in the course of his
+indefatigable labours that he was massacred by savages on the shore of
+Erromanga—none worthier than he to wear the martyr’s crown.
+
+The career of Dr. Livingstone is one of the most interesting of all.  He
+has told the story of his life in that modest and unassuming manner which
+is so characteristic of the man himself.  His ancestors were poor but
+honest Highlanders, and it is related of one of them, renowned in his
+district for wisdom and prudence, that when on his death-bed he called
+his children round him and left them these words, the only legacy he had
+to bequeath—“In my life-time,” said he, “I have searched most carefully
+through all the traditions I could find of our family, and I never could
+discover that there was a dishonest man among our forefathers: if,
+therefore, any of you or any of your children should take to dishonest
+ways, it will not be because it runs in our blood; it does not belong to
+you: I leave this precept with you—Be honest.”  At the age of ten
+Livingstone was sent to work in a cotton factory near Glasgow as a
+“piecer.”  With part of his first week’s wages he bought a Latin grammar,
+and began to learn that language, pursuing the study for years at a night
+school.  He would sit up conning his lessons till twelve or later, when
+not sent to bed by his mother, for he had to be up and at work in the
+factory every morning by six.  In this way he plodded through Virgil and
+Horace, also reading extensively all books, excepting novels, that came
+in his way, but more especially scientific works and books of travels.
+He occupied his spare hours, which were but few, in the pursuit of
+botany, scouring the neighbourhood to collect plants.  He even carried on
+his reading amidst the roar of the factory machinery, so placing the book
+upon the spinning jenny which he worked that he could catch sentence
+after sentence as he passed it.  In this way the persevering youth
+acquired much useful knowledge; and as he grew older, the desire
+possessed him of becoming a missionary to the heathen.  With this object
+he set himself to obtain a medical education, in order the better to be
+qualified for the work.  He accordingly economised his earnings, and
+saved as much money as enabled him to support himself while attending the
+Medical and Greek classes, as well as the Divinity Lectures, at Glasgow,
+for several winters, working as a cotton spinner during the remainder of
+each year.  He thus supported himself, during his college career,
+entirely by his own earnings as a factory workman, never having received
+a farthing of help from any other source.  “Looking back now,” he
+honestly says, “at that life of toil, I cannot but feel thankful that it
+formed such a material part of my early education; and, were it possible,
+I should like to begin life over again in the same lowly style, and to
+pass through the same hardy training.”  At length he finished his medical
+curriculum, wrote his Latin thesis, passed his examinations, and was
+admitted a licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons.  At
+first he thought of going to China, but the war then waging with that
+country prevented his following out the idea; and having offered his
+services to the London Missionary Society, he was by them sent out to
+Africa, which he reached in 1840.  He had intended to proceed to China by
+his own efforts; and he says the only pang he had in going to Africa at
+the charge of the London Missionary Society was, because “it was not
+quite agreeable to one accustomed to work his own way to become, in a
+manner, dependent upon others.”  Arrived in Africa he set to work with
+great zeal.  He could not brook the idea of merely entering upon the
+labours of others, but cut out a large sphere of independent work,
+preparing himself for it by undertaking manual labour in building and
+other handicraft employment, in addition to teaching, which, he says,
+“made me generally as much exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings
+as ever I had been when a cotton-spinner.”  Whilst labouring amongst the
+Bechuanas, he dug canals, built houses, cultivated fields, reared cattle,
+and taught the natives to work as well as worship.  When he first started
+with a party of them on foot upon a long journey, he overheard their
+observations upon his appearance and powers—“He is not strong,” said
+they; “he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts himself
+into those bags (trowsers): he will soon knock up.”  This caused the
+missionary’s Highland blood to rise, and made him despise the fatigue of
+keeping them all at the top of their speed for days together, until he
+heard them expressing proper opinions of his pedestrian powers.  What he
+did in Africa, and how he worked, may be learnt from his own ‘Missionary
+Travels,’ one of the most fascinating books of its kind that has ever
+been given to the public.  One of his last known acts is thoroughly
+characteristic of the man.  The ‘Birkenhead’ steam launch, which he took
+out with him to Africa, having proved a failure, he sent home orders for
+the construction of another vessel at an estimated cost of 2000_l._  This
+sum he proposed to defray out of the means which he had set aside for his
+children arising from the profits of his books of travels.  “The children
+must make it up themselves,” was in effect his expression in sending home
+the order for the appropriation of the money.
+
+The career of John Howard was throughout a striking illustration of the
+same power of patient purpose.  His sublime life proved that even
+physical weakness could remove mountains in the pursuit of an end
+recommended by duty.  The idea of ameliorating the condition of prisoners
+engrossed his whole thoughts and possessed him like a passion; and no
+toil, nor danger, nor bodily suffering could turn him from that great
+object of his life.  Though a man of no genius and but moderate talent,
+his heart was pure and his will was strong.  Even in his own time he
+achieved a remarkable degree of success; and his influence did not die
+with him, for it has continued powerfully to affect not only the
+legislation of England, but of all civilised nations, down to the present
+hour.
+
+Jonas Hanway was another of the many patient and persevering men who have
+made England what it is—content simply to do with energy the work they
+have been appointed to do, and go to their rest thankfully when it is
+done—
+
+    “Leaving no memorial but a world
+    Made better by their lives.”
+
+He was born in 1712, at Portsmouth, where his father, a storekeeper in
+the dockyard, being killed by an accident, he was left an orphan at an
+early age.  His mother removed with her children to London, where she had
+them put to school, and struggled hard to bring them up respectably.  At
+seventeen Jonas was sent to Lisbon to be apprenticed to a merchant, where
+his close attention to business, his punctuality, and his strict honour
+and integrity, gained for him the respect and esteem of all who knew him.
+Returning to London in 1743, he accepted the offer of a partnership in an
+English mercantile house at St. Petersburg engaged in the Caspian trade,
+then in its infancy.  Hanway went to Russia for the purpose of extending
+the business; and shortly after his arrival at the capital he set out for
+Persia, with a caravan of English bales of cloth making twenty carriage
+loads.  At Astracan he sailed for Astrabad, on the south-eastern shore of
+the Caspian; but he had scarcely landed his bales, when an insurrection
+broke out, his goods were seized, and though he afterwards recovered the
+principal part of them, the fruits of his enterprise were in a great
+measure lost.  A plot was set on foot to seize himself and his party; so
+he took to sea and, after encountering great perils, reached Ghilan in
+safety.  His escape on this occasion gave him the first idea of the words
+which he afterwards adopted as the motto of his life—“_Never Despair_.”
+He afterwards resided in St. Petersburg for five years, carrying on a
+prosperous business.  But a relative having left him some property, and
+his own means being considerable, he left Russia, and arrived in his
+native country in 1755.  His object in returning to England was, as he
+himself expressed it, “to consult his own health (which was extremely
+delicate), and do as much good to himself and others as he was able.”
+The rest of his life was spent in deeds of active benevolence and
+usefulness to his fellow men.  He lived in a quiet style, in order that
+he might employ a larger share of his income in works of benevolence.
+One of the first public improvements to which he devoted himself was that
+of the highways of the metropolis, in which he succeeded to a large
+extent.  The rumour of a French invasion being prevalent in 1755, Mr.
+Hanway turned his attention to the best mode of keeping up the supply of
+seamen.  He summoned a meeting of merchants and shipowners at the Royal
+Exchange, and there proposed to them to form themselves into a society
+for fitting out landsmen volunteers and boys, to serve on board the
+king’s ships.  The proposal was received with enthusiasm: a society was
+formed, and officers were appointed, Mr. Hanway directing its entire
+operations.  The result was the establishment in 1756 of The Marine
+Society, an institution which has proved of much national advantage, and
+is to this day of great and substantial utility.  Within six years from
+its formation, 5451 boys and 4787 landsmen volunteers had been trained
+and fitted out by the society and added to the navy, and to this day it
+is in active operation, about 600 poor boys, after a careful education,
+being annually apprenticed as sailors, principally in the merchant
+service.
+
+Mr. Hanway devoted the other portions of his spare time to improving or
+establishing important public institutions in the metropolis.  From an
+early period he took an active interest in the Foundling Hospital, which
+had been started by Thomas Coram many years before, but which, by
+encouraging parents to abandon their children to the charge of a charity,
+was threatening to do more harm than good.  He determined to take steps
+to stem the evil, entering upon the work in the face of the fashionable
+philanthropy of the time; but by holding to his purpose he eventually
+succeeded in bringing the charity back to its proper objects; and time
+and experience have proved that he was right.  The Magdalen Hospital was
+also established in a great measure through Mr. Hanway’s exertions.  But
+his most laborious and persevering efforts were in behalf of the infant
+parish poor.  The misery and neglect amidst which the children of the
+parish poor then grew up, and the mortality which prevailed amongst them,
+were frightful; but there was no fashionable movement on foot to abate
+the suffering, as in the case of the foundlings.  So Jonas Hanway
+summoned his energies to the task.  Alone and unassisted he first
+ascertained by personal inquiry the extent of the evil.  He explored the
+dwellings of the poorest classes in London, and visited the poorhouse
+sick wards, by which he ascertained the management in detail of every
+workhouse in and near the metropolis.  He next made a journey into France
+and through Holland, visiting the houses for the reception of the poor,
+and noting whatever he thought might be adopted at home with advantage.
+He was thus employed for five years; and on his return to England he
+published the results of his observations.  The consequence was that many
+of the workhouses were reformed and improved.  In 1761 he obtained an Act
+obliging every London parish to keep an annual register of all the
+infants received, discharged, and dead; and he took care that the Act
+should work, for he himself superintended its working with indefatigable
+watchfulness.  He went about from workhouse to workhouse in the morning,
+and from one member of parliament to another in the afternoon, for day
+after day, and for year after year, enduring every rebuff, answering
+every objection, and accommodating himself to every humour.  At length,
+after a perseverance hardly to be equalled, and after nearly ten years’
+labour, he obtained another Act, at his sole expense (7 Geo. III. c. 39),
+directing that all parish infants belonging to the parishes within the
+bills of mortality should not be nursed in the workhouses, but be sent to
+nurse a certain number of miles out of town, until they were six years
+old, under the care of guardians to be elected triennially.  The poor
+people called this “the Act for keeping children alive;” and the
+registers for the years which followed its passing, as compared with
+those which preceded it, showed that thousands of lives had been
+preserved through the judicious interference of this good and sensible
+man.
+
+Wherever a philanthropic work was to be done in London, be sure that
+Jonas Hanway’s hand was in it.  One of the first Acts for the protection
+of chimney-sweepers’ boys was obtained through his influence.  A
+destructive fire at Montreal, and another at Bridgetown, Barbadoes,
+afforded him the opportunity for raising a timely subscription for the
+relief of the sufferers.  His name appeared in every list, and his
+disinterestedness and sincerity were universally recognized.  But he was
+not suffered to waste his little fortune entirely in the service of
+others.  Five leading citizens of London, headed by Mr. Hoare, the
+banker, without Mr. Hanway’s knowledge, waited on Lord Bute, then prime
+minister, in a body, and in the names of their fellow-citizens requested
+that some notice might be taken of this good man’s disinterested services
+to his country.  The result was, his appointment shortly after, as one of
+the commissioners for victualling the navy.
+
+Towards the close of his life Mr. Hanway’s health became very feeble, and
+although he found it necessary to resign his office at the Victualling
+Board, he could not be idle; but laboured at the establishment of Sunday
+Schools,—a movement then in its infancy,—or in relieving poor blacks,
+many of whom wandered destitute about the streets of the metropolis,—or,
+in alleviating the sufferings of some neglected and destitute class of
+society.  Notwithstanding his familiarity with misery in all its shapes,
+he was one of the most cheerful of beings; and, but for his cheerfulness
+he could never, with so delicate a frame, have got through so vast an
+amount of self-imposed work.  He dreaded nothing so much as inactivity.
+Though fragile, he was bold and indefatigable; and his moral courage was
+of the first order.  It may be regarded as a trivial matter to mention
+that he was the first who ventured to walk the streets of London with an
+umbrella over his head.  But let any modern London merchant venture to
+walk along Cornhill in a peaked Chinese hat, and he will find it takes
+some degree of moral courage to persevere in it.  After carrying an
+umbrella for thirty years, Mr. Hanway saw the article at length come into
+general use.
+
+Hanway was a man of strict honour, truthfulness, and integrity; and every
+word he said might be relied upon.  He had so great a respect, amounting
+almost to a reverence, for the character of the honest merchant, that it
+was the only subject upon which he was ever seduced into a eulogium.  He
+strictly practised what he professed, and both as a merchant, and
+afterwards as a commissioner for victualling the navy, his conduct was
+without stain.  He would not accept the slightest favour of any sort from
+a contractor; and when any present was sent to him whilst at the
+Victualling Office, he would politely return it, with the intimation that
+“he had made it a rule not to accept anything from any person engaged
+with the office.”  When he found his powers failing, he prepared for
+death with as much cheerfulness as he would have prepared himself for a
+journey into the country.  He sent round and paid all his tradesmen, took
+leave of his friends, arranged his affairs, had his person neatly
+disposed of, and parted with life serenely and peacefully in his 74th
+year.  The property which he left did not amount to two thousand pounds,
+and, as he had no relatives who wanted it, he divided it amongst sundry
+orphans and poor persons whom he had befriended during his lifetime.
+Such, in brief, was the beautiful life of Jonas Hanway,—as honest,
+energetic, hard-working, and true-hearted a man as ever lived.
+
+The life of Granville Sharp is another striking example of the same power
+of individual energy—a power which was afterwards transfused into the
+noble band of workers in the cause of Slavery Abolition, prominent among
+whom were Clarkson, Wilberforce, Buxton, and Brougham.  But, giants
+though these men were in this cause, Granville Sharp was the first, and
+perhaps the greatest of them all, in point of perseverance, energy, and
+intrepidity.  He began life as apprentice to a linen-draper on Tower
+Hill; but, leaving that business after his apprenticeship was out, he
+next entered as a clerk in the Ordnance Office; and it was while engaged
+in that humble occupation that he carried on in his spare hours the work
+of Negro Emancipation.  He was always, even when an apprentice, ready to
+undertake any amount of volunteer labour where a useful purpose was to be
+served.  Thus, while learning the linen-drapery business, a fellow
+apprentice who lodged in the same house, and was a Unitarian, led him
+into frequent discussions on religious subjects.  The Unitarian youth
+insisted that Granville’s Trinitarian misconception of certain passages
+of Scripture arose from his want of acquaintance with the Greek tongue;
+on which he immediately set to work in his evening hours, and shortly
+acquired an intimate knowledge of Greek.  A similar controversy with
+another fellow-apprentice, a Jew, as to the interpretation of the
+prophecies, led him in like manner to undertake and overcome the
+difficulties of Hebrew.
+
+But the circumstance which gave the bias and direction to the main
+labours of his life originated in his generosity and benevolence.  His
+brother William, a surgeon in Mincing Lane, gave gratuitous advice to the
+poor, and amongst the numerous applicants for relief at his surgery was a
+poor African named Jonathan Strong.  It appeared that the negro had been
+brutally treated by his master, a Barbadoes lawyer then in London, and
+became lame, almost blind, and unable to work; on which his owner,
+regarding him as of no further value as a chattel, cruelly turned him
+adrift into the streets to starve.  This poor man, a mass of disease,
+supported himself by begging for a time, until he found his way to
+William Sharp, who gave him some medicine, and shortly after got him
+admitted to St. Bartholomew’s hospital, where he was cured.  On coming
+out of the hospital, the two brothers supported the negro in order to
+keep him off the streets, but they had not the least suspicion at the
+time that any one had a claim upon his person.  They even succeeded in
+obtaining a situation for Strong with an apothecary, in whose service he
+remained for two years; and it was while he was attending his mistress
+behind a hackney coach, that his former owner, the Barbadoes lawyer,
+recognized him, and determined to recover possession of the slave, again
+rendered valuable by the restoration of his health.  The lawyer employed
+two of the Lord Mayor’s officers to apprehend Strong, and he was lodged
+in the Compter, until he could be shipped off to the West Indies.  The
+negro, bethinking him in his captivity of the kind services which
+Granville Sharp had rendered him in his great distress some years before,
+despatched a letter to him requesting his help.  Sharp had forgotten the
+name of Strong, but he sent a messenger to make inquiries, who returned
+saying that the keepers denied having any such person in their charge.
+His suspicions were roused, and he went forthwith to the prison, and
+insisted upon seeing Jonathan Strong.  He was admitted, and recognized
+the poor negro, now in custody as a recaptured slave.  Mr. Sharp charged
+the master of the prison at his own peril not to deliver up Strong to any
+person whatever, until he had been carried before the Lord Mayor, to whom
+Sharp immediately went, and obtained a summons against those persons who
+had seized and imprisoned Strong without a warrant.  The parties appeared
+before the Lord Mayor accordingly, and it appeared from the proceedings
+that Strong’s former master had already sold him to a new one, who
+produced the bill of sale and claimed the negro as his property.  As no
+charge of offence was made against Strong, and as the Lord Mayor was
+incompetent to deal with the legal question of Strong’s liberty or
+otherwise, he discharged him, and the slave followed his benefactor out
+of court, no one daring to touch him.  The man’s owner immediately gave
+Sharp notice of an action to recover possession of his negro slave, of
+whom he declared he had been robbed.
+
+About that time (1767), the personal liberty of the Englishman, though
+cherished as a theory, was subject to grievous infringements, and was
+almost daily violated.  The impressment of men for the sea service was
+constantly practised, and, besides the press-gangs, there were regular
+bands of kidnappers employed in London and all the large towns of the
+kingdom, to seize men for the East India Company’s service.  And when the
+men were not wanted for India, they were shipped off to the planters in
+the American colonies.  Negro slaves were openly advertised for sale in
+the London and Liverpool newspapers.  Rewards were offered for recovering
+and securing fugitive slaves, and conveying them down to certain
+specified ships in the river.
+
+The position of the reputed slave in England was undefined and doubtful.
+The judgments which had been given in the courts of law were fluctuating
+and various, resting on no settled principle.  Although it was a popular
+belief that no slave could breathe in England, there were legal men of
+eminence who expressed a directly contrary opinion.  The lawyers to whom
+Mr. Sharp resorted for advice, in defending himself in the action raised
+against him in the case of Jonathan Strong, generally concurred in this
+view, and he was further told by Jonathan Strong’s owner, that the
+eminent Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, and all the leading counsel, were
+decidedly of opinion that the slave, by coming into England, did not
+become free, but might legally be compelled to return again to the
+plantations.  Such information would have caused despair in a mind less
+courageous and earnest than that of Granville Sharp; but it only served
+to stimulate his resolution to fight the battle of the negroes’ freedom,
+at least in England.  “Forsaken,” he said, “by my professional defenders,
+I was compelled, through the want of regular legal assistance, to make a
+hopeless attempt at self-defence, though I was totally unacquainted
+either with the practice of the law or the foundations of it, having
+never opened a law book (except the Bible) in my life, until that time,
+when I most reluctantly undertook to search the indexes of a law library,
+which my bookseller had lately purchased.”
+
+The whole of his time during the day was occupied with the business of
+the ordnance department, where he held the most laborious post in the
+office; he was therefore under the necessity of conducting his new
+studies late at night or early in the morning.  He confessed that he was
+himself becoming a sort of slave.  Writing to a clerical friend to excuse
+himself for delay in replying to a letter, he said, “I profess myself
+entirely incapable of holding a literary correspondence.  What little
+time I have been able to save from sleep at night, and early in the
+morning, has been necessarily employed in the examination of some points
+of law, which admitted of no delay, and yet required the most diligent
+researches and examination in my study.”
+
+Mr. Sharp gave up every leisure moment that he could command during the
+next two years, to the close study of the laws of England affecting
+personal liberty,—wading through an immense mass of dry and repulsive
+literature, and making extracts of all the most important Acts of
+Parliament, decisions of the courts, and opinions of eminent lawyers, as
+he went along.  In this tedious and protracted inquiry he had no
+instructor, nor assistant, nor adviser.  He could not find a single
+lawyer whose opinion was favourable to his undertaking.  The results of
+his inquiries were, however, as gratifying to himself, as they were
+surprising to the gentlemen of the law.  “God be thanked,” he wrote,
+“there is nothing in any English law or statute—at least that I am able
+to find out—that can justify the enslaving of others.”  He had planted
+his foot firm, and now he doubted nothing.  He drew up the result of his
+studies in a summary form; it was a plain, clear, and manly statement,
+entitled, ‘On the Injustice of Tolerating Slavery in England;’ and
+numerous copies, made by himself, were circulated by him amongst the most
+eminent lawyers of the time.  Strong’s owner, finding the sort of man he
+had to deal with, invented various pretexts for deferring the suit
+against Sharp, and at length offered a compromise, which was rejected.
+Granville went on circulating his manuscript tract among the lawyers,
+until at length those employed against Jonathan Strong were deterred from
+proceeding further, and the result was, that the plaintiff was compelled
+to pay treble costs for not bringing forward his action.  The tract was
+then printed in 1769.
+
+In the mean time other cases occurred of the kidnapping of negroes in
+London, and their shipment to the West Indies for sale.  Wherever Sharp
+could lay hold of any such case, he at once took proceedings to rescue
+the negro.  Thus the wife of one Hylas, an African, was seized, and
+despatched to Barbadoes; on which Sharp, in the name of Hylas, instituted
+legal proceedings against the aggressor, obtained a verdict with damages,
+and Hylas’s wife was brought back to England free.
+
+Another forcible capture of a negro, attended with great cruelty, having
+occurred in 1770, he immediately set himself on the track of the
+aggressors.  An African, named Lewis, was seized one dark night by two
+watermen employed by the person who claimed the negro as his property,
+dragged into the water, hoisted into a boat, where he was gagged, and his
+limbs were tied; and then rowing down river, they put him on board a ship
+bound for Jamaica, where he was to be sold for a slave upon his arrival
+in the island.  The cries of the poor negro had, however, attracted the
+attention of some neighbours; one of whom proceeded direct to Mr.
+Granville Sharp, now known as the negro’s friend, and informed him of the
+outrage.  Sharp immediately got a warrant to bring back Lewis, and he
+proceeded to Gravesend, but on arrival there the ship had sailed for the
+Downs.  A writ of Habeas Corpus was obtained, sent down to Spithead, and
+before the ship could leave the shores of England the writ was served.
+The slave was found chained to the main-mast bathed in tears, casting
+mournful looks on the land from which he was about to be torn.  He was
+immediately liberated, brought back to London, and a warrant was issued
+against the author of the outrage.  The promptitude of head, heart, and
+hand, displayed by Mr. Sharp in this transaction could scarcely have been
+surpassed, and yet he accused himself of slowness.  The case was tried
+before Lord Mansfield—whose opinion, it will be remembered, had already
+been expressed as decidedly opposed to that entertained by Granville
+Sharp.  The judge, however, avoided bringing the question to an issue, or
+offering any opinion on the legal question as to the slave’s personal
+liberty or otherwise, but discharged the negro because the defendant
+could bring no evidence that Lewis was even nominally his property.
+
+The question of the personal liberty of the negro in England was
+therefore still undecided; but in the mean time Mr. Sharp continued
+steady in his benevolent course, and by his indefatigable exertions and
+promptitude of action, many more were added to the list of the rescued.
+At length the important case of James Somerset occurred; a case which is
+said to have been selected, at the mutual desire of Lord Mansfield and
+Mr. Sharp, in order to bring the great question involved to a clear legal
+issue.  Somerset had been brought to England by his master, and left
+there.  Afterwards his master sought to apprehend him and send him off to
+Jamaica, for sale.  Mr. Sharp, as usual, at once took the negro’s case in
+hand, and employed counsel to defend him.  Lord Mansfield intimated that
+the case was of such general concern, that he should take the opinion of
+all the judges upon it.  Mr. Sharp now felt that he would have to contend
+with all the force that could be brought against him, but his resolution
+was in no wise shaken.  Fortunately for him, in this severe struggle, his
+exertions had already begun to tell: increasing interest was taken in the
+question, and many eminent legal gentlemen openly declared themselves to
+be upon his side.
+
+The cause of personal liberty, now at stake, was fairly tried before Lord
+Mansfield, assisted by the three justices,—and tried on the broad
+principle of the essential and constitutional right of every man in
+England to the liberty of his person, unless forfeited by the law.  It is
+unnecessary here to enter into any account of this great trial; the
+arguments extended to a great length, the cause being carried over to
+another term,—when it was adjourned and re-adjourned,—but at length
+judgment was given by Lord Mansfield, in whose powerful mind so gradual a
+change had been worked by the arguments of counsel, based mainly on
+Granville Sharp’s tract, that he now declared the court to be so clearly
+of one opinion, that there was no necessity for referring the case to the
+twelve judges.  He then declared that the claim of slavery never can be
+supported; that the power claimed never was in use in England, nor
+acknowledged by the law; therefore the man James Somerset must be
+discharged.  By securing this judgment Granville Sharp effectually
+abolished the Slave Trade until then carried on openly in the streets of
+Liverpool and London.  But he also firmly established the glorious axiom,
+that as soon as any slave sets his foot on English ground, that moment he
+becomes free; and there can be no doubt that this great decision of Lord
+Mansfield was mainly owing to Mr. Sharp’s firm, resolute, and intrepid
+prosecution of the cause from the beginning to the end.
+
+It is unnecessary further to follow the career of Granville Sharp.  He
+continued to labour indefatigably in all good works.  He was instrumental
+in founding the colony of Sierra Leone as an asylum for rescued negroes.
+He laboured to ameliorate the condition of the native Indians in the
+American colonies.  He agitated the enlargement and extension of the
+political rights of the English people; and he endeavoured to effect the
+abolition of the impressment of seamen.  Granville held that the British
+seamen, as well as the African negro, was entitled to the protection of
+the law; and that the fact of his choosing a seafaring life did not in
+any way cancel his rights and privileges as an Englishman—first amongst
+which he ranked personal freedom.  Mr. Sharp also laboured, but
+ineffectually, to restore amity between England and her colonies in
+America; and when the fratricidal war of the American Revolution was
+entered on, his sense of integrity was so scrupulous that, resolving not
+in any way to be concerned in so unnatural a business, he resigned his
+situation at the Ordnance Office.
+
+To the last he held to the great object of his life—the abolition of
+slavery.  To carry on this work, and organize the efforts of the growing
+friends of the cause, the Society for the Abolition of Slavery was
+founded, and new men, inspired by Sharp’s example and zeal, sprang
+forward to help him.  His energy became theirs, and the self-sacrificing
+zeal in which he had so long laboured single-handed, became at length
+transfused into the nation itself.  His mantle fell upon Clarkson, upon
+Wilberforce, upon Brougham, and upon Buxton, who laboured as he had done,
+with like energy and stedfastness of purpose, until at length slavery was
+abolished throughout the British dominions.  But though the names last
+mentioned may be more frequently identified with the triumph of this
+great cause, the chief merit unquestionably belongs to Granville Sharp.
+He was encouraged by none of the world’s huzzas when he entered upon his
+work.  He stood alone, opposed to the opinion of the ablest lawyers and
+the most rooted prejudices of the times; and alone he fought out, by his
+single exertions, and at his individual expense, the most memorable
+battle for the constitution of this country and the liberties of British
+subjects, of which modern times afford a record.  What followed was
+mainly the consequence of his indefatigable constancy.  He lighted the
+torch which kindled other minds, and it was handed on until the
+illumination became complete.
+
+Before the death of Granville Sharp, Clarkson had already turned his
+attention to the question of Negro Slavery.  He had even selected it for
+the subject of a college Essay; and his mind became so possessed by it
+that he could not shake it off.  The spot is pointed out near Wade’s
+Mill, in Hertfordshire, where, alighting from his horse one day, he sat
+down disconsolate on the turf by the road side, and after long thinking,
+determined to devote himself wholly to the work.  He translated his Essay
+from Latin into English, added fresh illustrations, and published it.
+Then fellow labourers gathered round him.  The Society for Abolishing the
+Slave Trade, unknown to him, had already been formed, and when he heard
+of it he joined it.  He sacrificed all his prospects in life to prosecute
+this cause.  Wilberforce was selected to lead in parliament; but upon
+Clarkson chiefly devolved the labour of collecting and arranging the
+immense mass of evidence offered in support of the abolition.  A
+remarkable instance of Clarkson’s sleuth-hound sort of perseverance may
+be mentioned.  The abettors of slavery, in the course of their defence of
+the system, maintained that only such negroes as were captured in battle
+were sold as slaves, and if not so sold, then they were reserved for a
+still more frightful doom in their own country.  Clarkson knew of the
+slave-hunts conducted by the slave-traders, but had no witnesses to prove
+it.  Where was one to be found?  Accidentally, a gentleman whom he met on
+one of his journeys informed him of a young sailor, in whose company he
+had been about a year before, who had been actually engaged in one of
+such slave-hunting expeditions.  The gentleman did not know his name, and
+could but indefinitely describe his person.  He did not know where he
+was, further than that he belonged to a ship of war in ordinary, but at
+what port he could not tell.  With this mere glimmering of information,
+Clarkson determined to produce this man as a witness.  He visited
+personally all the seaport towns where ships in ordinary lay; boarded and
+examined every ship without success, until he came to the very _last_
+port, and found the young man, his prize, in the very _last_ ship that
+remained to be visited.  The young man proved to be one of his most
+valuable and effective witnesses.
+
+During several years Clarkson conducted a correspondence with upwards of
+four hundred persons, travelling more than thirty-five thousand miles
+during the same time in search of evidence.  He was at length disabled
+and exhausted by illness, brought on by his continuous exertions; but he
+was not borne from the field until his zeal had fully awakened the public
+mind, and excited the ardent sympathies of all good men on behalf of the
+slave.
+
+After years of protracted struggle, the slave trade was abolished.  But
+still another great achievement remained to be accomplished—the abolition
+of slavery itself throughout the British dominions.  And here again
+determined energy won the day.  Of the leaders in the cause, none was
+more distinguished than Fowell Buxton, who took the position formerly
+occupied by Wilberforce in the House of Commons.  Buxton was a dull,
+heavy boy, distinguished for his strong self-will, which first exhibited
+itself in violent, domineering, and headstrong obstinacy.  His father
+died when he was a child; but fortunately he had a wise mother, who
+trained his will with great care, constraining him to obey, but
+encouraging the habit of deciding and acting for himself in matters which
+might safely be left to him.  His mother believed that a strong will,
+directed upon worthy objects, was a valuable manly quality if properly
+guided, and she acted accordingly.  When others about her commented on
+the boy’s self-will, she would merely say, “Never mind—he is self-willed
+now—you will see it will turn out well in the end.”  Fowell learnt very
+little at school, and was regarded as a dunce and an idler.  He got other
+boys to do his exercises for him, while he romped and scrambled about.
+He returned home at fifteen, a great, growing, awkward lad, fond only of
+boating, shooting, riding, and field sports,—spending his time
+principally with the gamekeeper, a man possessed of a good heart,—an
+intelligent observer of life and nature, though he could neither read nor
+write.  Buxton had excellent raw material in him, but he wanted culture,
+training, and development.  At this juncture of his life, when his habits
+were being formed for good or evil, he was happily thrown into the
+society of the Gurney family, distinguished for their fine social
+qualities not less than for their intellectual culture and
+public-spirited philanthropy.  This intercourse with the Gurneys, he used
+afterwards to say, gave the colouring to his life.  They encouraged his
+efforts at self-culture; and when he went to the University of Dublin and
+gained high honours there, the animating passion in his mind, he said,
+“was to carry back to them the prizes which they prompted and enabled me
+to win.”  He married one of the daughters of the family, and started in
+life, commencing as a clerk to his uncles Hanbury, the London brewers.
+His power of will, which made him so difficult to deal with as a boy, now
+formed the backbone of his character, and made him most indefatigable and
+energetic in whatever he undertook.  He threw his whole strength and bulk
+right down upon his work; and the great giant—“Elephant Buxton” they
+called him, for he stood some six feet four in height—became one of the
+most vigorous and practical of men.  “I could brew,” he said, “one
+hour,—do mathematics the next,—and shoot the next,—and each with my whole
+soul.”  There was invincible energy and determination in whatever he did.
+Admitted a partner, he became the active manager of the concern; and the
+vast business which he conducted felt his influence through every fibre,
+and prospered far beyond its previous success.  Nor did he allow his mind
+to lie fallow, for he gave his evenings diligently to self-culture,
+studying and digesting Blackstone, Montesquieu, and solid commentaries on
+English law.  His maxims in reading were, “never to begin a book without
+finishing it;” “never to consider a book finished until it is mastered;”
+and “to study everything with the whole mind.”
+
+When only thirty-two, Buxton entered parliament, and at once assumed that
+position of influence there, of which every honest, earnest,
+well-informed man is secure, who enters that assembly of the first
+gentlemen in the world.  The principal question to which he devoted
+himself was the complete emancipation of the slaves in the British
+colonies.  He himself used to attribute the interest which he early felt
+in this question to the influence of Priscilla Gurney, one of the Earlham
+family,—a woman of a fine intellect and warm heart, abounding in
+illustrious virtues.  When on her deathbed, in 1821, she repeatedly sent
+for Buxton, and urged him “to make the cause of the slaves the great
+object of his life.”  Her last act was to attempt to reiterate the solemn
+charge, and she expired in the ineffectual effort.  Buxton never forgot
+her counsel; he named one of his daughters after her; and on the day on
+which she was married from his house, on the 1st of August, 1834,—the day
+of Negro emancipation—after his Priscilla had been manumitted from her
+filial service, and left her father’s home in the company of her husband,
+Buxton sat down and thus wrote to a friend: “The bride is just gone;
+everything has passed off to admiration; and _there is not a slave in the
+British colonies_!”
+
+Buxton was no genius—not a great intellectual leader nor discoverer, but
+mainly an earnest, straightforward, resolute, energetic man.  Indeed, his
+whole character is most forcibly expressed in his own words, which every
+young man might well stamp upon his soul: “The longer I live,” said he,
+“the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the
+feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is
+_energy_—_invincible determination_—a purpose once fixed, and then death
+or victory!  That quality will do anything that can be done in this
+world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a
+two-legged creature a Man without it.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+MEN OF BUSINESS.
+
+
+    “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before
+    kings.”—_Proverbs of Solomon_.
+
+    “That man is but of the lower part of the world that is not brought
+    up to business and affairs.”—_Owen Feltham_.
+
+HAZLITT, in one of his clever essays, represents the man of business as a
+mean sort of person put in a go-cart, yoked to a trade or profession;
+alleging that all he has to do is, not to go out of the beaten track, but
+merely to let his affairs take their own course.  “The great requisite,”
+he says, “for the prosperous management of ordinary business is the want
+of imagination, or of any ideas but those of custom and interest on the
+narrowest scale.” {263}  But nothing could be more one-sided, and in
+effect untrue, than such a definition.  Of course, there are
+narrow-minded men of business, as there are narrow-minded scientific men,
+literary men, and legislators; but there are also business men of large
+and comprehensive minds, capable of action on the very largest scale.  As
+Burke said in his speech on the India Bill, he knew statesmen who were
+pedlers, and merchants who acted in the spirit of statesmen.
+
+If we take into account the qualities necessary for the successful
+conduct of any important undertaking,—that it requires special aptitude,
+promptitude of action on emergencies, capacity for organizing the labours
+often of large numbers of men, great tact and knowledge of human nature,
+constant self-culture, and growing experience in the practical affairs of
+life,—it must, we think, be obvious that the school of business is by no
+means so narrow as some writers would have us believe.  Mr. Helps had
+gone much nearer the truth when he said that consummate men of business
+are as rare almost as great poets,—rarer, perhaps, than veritable saints
+and martyrs.  Indeed, of no other pursuit can it so emphatically be said,
+as of this, that “Business makes men.”
+
+It has, however, been a favourite fallacy with dunces in all times, that
+men of genius are unfitted for business, as well as that business
+occupations unfit men for the pursuits of genius.  The unhappy youth who
+committed suicide a few years since because he had been “born to be a man
+and condemned to be a grocer,” proved by the act that his soul was not
+equal even to the dignity of grocery.  For it is not the calling that
+degrades the man, but the man that degrades the calling.  All work that
+brings honest gain is honourable, whether it be of hand or mind.  The
+fingers may be soiled, yet the heart remain pure; for it is not material
+so much as moral dirt that defiles—greed far more than grime, and vice
+than verdigris.
+
+The greatest have not disdained to labour honestly and usefully for a
+living, though at the same time aiming after higher things.  Thales, the
+first of the seven sages, Solon, the second founder of Athens, and
+Hyperates, the mathematician, were all traders.  Plato, called the Divine
+by reason of the excellence of his wisdom, defrayed his travelling
+expenses in Egypt by the profits derived from the oil which he sold
+during his journey.  Spinoza maintained himself by polishing glasses
+while he pursued his philosophical investigations.  Linnæus, the great
+botanist, prosecuted his studies while hammering leather and making
+shoes.  Shakespeare was a successful manager of a theatre—perhaps priding
+himself more upon his practical qualities in that capacity than on his
+writing of plays and poetry.  Pope was of opinion that Shakespeare’s
+principal object in cultivating literature was to secure an honest
+independence.  Indeed he seems to have been altogether indifferent to
+literary reputation.  It is not known that he superintended the
+publication of a single play, or even sanctioned the printing of one; and
+the chronology of his writings is still a mystery.  It is certain,
+however, that he prospered in his business, and realized sufficient to
+enable him to retire upon a competency to his native town of
+Stratford-upon-Avon.
+
+Chaucer was in early life a soldier, and afterwards an effective
+Commissioner of Customs, and Inspector of Woods and Crown Lands.  Spencer
+was Secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, was afterwards Sheriff of
+Cork, and is said to have been shrewd and attentive in matters of
+business.  Milton, originally a schoolmaster, was elevated to the post of
+Secretary to the Council of State during the Commonwealth; and the extant
+Order-book of the Council, as well as many of Milton’s letters which are
+preserved, give abundant evidence of his activity and usefulness in that
+office.  Sir Isaac Newton proved himself an efficient Master of the Mint;
+the new coinage of 1694 having been carried on under his immediate
+personal superintendence.  Cowper prided himself upon his business
+punctuality, though he confessed that he “never knew a poet, except
+himself, who was punctual in anything.”  But against this we may set the
+lives of Wordsworth and Scott—the former a distributor of stamps, the
+latter a clerk to the Court of Session,—both of whom, though great poets,
+were eminently punctual and practical men of business.  David Ricardo,
+amidst the occupations of his daily business as a London stock-jobber, in
+conducting which he acquired an ample fortune, was able to concentrate
+his mind upon his favourite subject—on which he was enabled to throw
+great light—the principles of political economy; for he united in himself
+the sagacious commercial man and the profound philosopher.  Baily, the
+eminent astronomer, was another stockbroker; and Allen, the chemist, was
+a silk manufacturer.
+
+We have abundant illustrations, in our own day, of the fact that the
+highest intellectual power is not incompatible with the active and
+efficient performance of routine duties.  Grote, the great historian of
+Greece, was a London banker.  And it is not long since John Stuart Mill,
+one of our greatest living thinkers, retired from the Examiner’s
+department of the East India Company, carrying with him the admiration
+and esteem of his fellow officers, not on account of his high views of
+philosophy, but because of the high standard of efficiency which he had
+established in his office, and the thoroughly satisfactory manner in
+which he had conducted the business of his department.
+
+The path of success in business is usually the path of common sense.
+Patient labour and application are as necessary here as in the
+acquisition of knowledge or the pursuit of science.  The old Greeks said,
+“to become an able man in any profession, three things are
+necessary—nature, study, and practice.”  In business, practice, wisely
+and diligently improved, is the great secret of success.  Some may make
+what are called “lucky hits,” but like money earned by gambling, such
+“hits” may only serve to lure one to ruin.  Bacon was accustomed to say
+that it was in business as in ways—the nearest way was commonly the
+foulest, and that if a man would go the fairest way he must go somewhat
+about.  The journey may occupy a longer time, but the pleasure of the
+labour involved by it, and the enjoyment of the results produced, will be
+more genuine and unalloyed.  To have a daily appointed task of even
+common drudgery to do makes the rest of life feel all the sweeter.
+
+The fable of the labours of Hercules is the type of all human doing and
+success.  Every youth should be made to feel that his happiness and
+well-doing in life must necessarily rely mainly on himself and the
+exercise of his own energies, rather than upon the help and patronage of
+others.  The late Lord Melbourne embodied a piece of useful advice in a
+letter which he wrote to Lord John Russell, in reply to an application
+for a provision for one of Moore the poet’s sons: “My dear John,” he
+said, “I return you Moore’s letter.  I shall be ready to do what you like
+about it when we have the means.  I think whatever is done should be done
+for Moore himself.  This is more distinct, direct, and intelligible.
+Making a small provision for young men is hardly justifiable; and it is
+of all things the most prejudicial to themselves.  They think what they
+have much larger than it really is; and they make no exertion.  The young
+should never hear any language but this: ‘You have your own way to make,
+and it depends upon your own exertions whether you starve or not.’
+Believe me, &c., MELBOURNE.”
+
+Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, always produces its
+due effects.  It carries a man onward, brings out his individual
+character, and stimulates the action of others.  All may not rise
+equally, yet each, on the whole, very much according to his deserts.
+“Though all cannot live on the piazza,” as the Tuscan proverb has it,
+“every one may feel the sun.”
+
+On the whole, it is not good that human nature should have the road of
+life made too easy.  Better to be under the necessity of working hard and
+faring meanly, than to have everything done ready to our hand and a
+pillow of down to repose upon.  Indeed, to start in life with
+comparatively small means seems so necessary as a stimulus to work, that
+it may almost be set down as one of the conditions essential to success
+in life.  Hence, an eminent judge, when asked what contributed most to
+success at the bar, replied, “Some succeed by great talent, some by high
+connexions, some by miracle, but the majority by commencing without a
+shilling.”
+
+We have heard of an architect of considerable accomplishments,—a man who
+had improved himself by long study, and travel in the classical lands of
+the East,—who came home to commence the practice of his profession.  He
+determined to begin anywhere, provided he could be employed; and he
+accordingly undertook a business connected with dilapidations,—one of the
+lowest and least remunerative departments of the architect’s calling.
+But he had the good sense not to be above his trade, and he had the
+resolution to work his way upward, so that he only got a fair start.  One
+hot day in July a friend found him sitting astride of a house roof
+occupied with his dilapidation business.  Drawing his hand across his
+perspiring countenance, he exclaimed, “Here’s a pretty business for a man
+who has been all over Greece!”  However, he did his work, such as it was,
+thoroughly and well; he persevered until he advanced by degrees to more
+remunerative branches of employment, and eventually he rose to the
+highest walks of his profession.
+
+The necessity of labour may, indeed, be regarded as the main root and
+spring of all that we call progress in individuals, and civilization in
+nations; and it is doubtful whether any heavier curse could be imposed on
+man than the complete gratification of all his wishes without effort on
+his part, leaving nothing for his hopes, desires or struggles.  The
+feeling that life is destitute of any motive or necessity for action,
+must be of all others the most distressing and insupportable to a
+rational being.  The Marquis de Spinola asking Sir Horace Vere what his
+brother died of, Sir Horace replied, “He died, Sir, of having nothing to
+do.”  “Alas!” said Spinola, “that is enough to kill any general of us
+all.”
+
+Those who fail in life are however very apt to assume a tone of injured
+innocence, and conclude too hastily that everybody excepting themselves
+has had a hand in their personal misfortunes.  An eminent writer lately
+published a book, in which he described his numerous failures in
+business, naively admitting, at the same time, that he was ignorant of
+the multiplication table; and he came to the conclusion that the real
+cause of his ill-success in life was the money-worshipping spirit of the
+age.  Lamartine also did not hesitate to profess his contempt for
+arithmetic; but, had it been less, probably we should not have witnessed
+the unseemly spectacle of the admirers of that distinguished personage
+engaged in collecting subscriptions for his support in his old age.
+
+Again, some consider themselves born to ill luck, and make up their minds
+that the world invariably goes against them without any fault on their
+own part.  We have heard of a person of this sort, who went so far as to
+declare his belief that if he had been a hatter people would have been
+born without heads!  There is however a Russian proverb which says that
+Misfortune is next door to Stupidity; and it will often be found that men
+who are constantly lamenting their luck, are in some way or other reaping
+the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, improvidence, or
+want of application.  Dr. Johnson, who came up to London with a single
+guinea in his pocket, and who once accurately described himself in his
+signature to a letter addressed to a noble lord, as _Impransus_, or
+Dinnerless, has honestly said, “All the complaints which are made of the
+world are unjust; I never knew a man of merit neglected; it was generally
+by his own fault that he failed of success.”
+
+Washington Irying, the American author, held like views.  “As for the
+talk,” said he, “about modest merit being neglected, it is too often a
+cant, by which indolent and irresolute men seek to lay their want of
+success at the door of the public.  Modest merit is, however, too apt to
+be inactive, or negligent, or uninstructed merit.  Well matured and well
+disciplined talent is always sure of a market, provided it exerts itself;
+but it must not cower at home and expect to be sought for.  There is a
+good deal of cant too about the success of forward and impudent men,
+while men of retiring worth are passed over with neglect.  But it usually
+happens that those forward men have that valuable quality of promptness
+and activity without which worth is a mere inoperative property.  A
+barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.”
+
+Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, and despatch, are
+the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of
+any sort.  These, at first sight, may appear to be small matters; and yet
+they are of essential importance to human happiness, well-being, and
+usefulness.  They are little things, it is true; but human life is made
+up of comparative trifles.  It is the repetition of little acts which
+constitute not only the sum of human character, but which determine the
+character of nations.  And where men or nations have broken down, it will
+almost invariably be found that neglect of little things was the rock on
+which they split.  Every human being has duties to be performed, and,
+therefore, has need of cultivating the capacity for doing them; whether
+the sphere of action be the management of a household, the conduct of a
+trade or profession, or the government of a nation.
+
+The examples we have already given of great workers in various branches
+of industry, art, and science, render it unnecessary further to enforce
+the importance of persevering application in any department of life.  It
+is the result of every-day experience that steady attention to matters of
+detail lies at the root of human progress; and that diligence, above all,
+is the mother of good luck.  Accuracy is also of much importance, and an
+invariable mark of good training in a man.  Accuracy in observation,
+accuracy in speech, accuracy in the transaction of affairs.  What is done
+in business must be well done; for it is better to accomplish perfectly a
+small amount of work, than to half-do ten times as much.  A wise man used
+to say, “Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.”
+
+Too little attention, however, is paid to this highly important quality
+of accuracy.  As a man eminent in practical science lately observed to
+us, “It is astonishing how few people I have met with in the course of my
+experience, who can _define a fact_ accurately.”  Yet in business
+affairs, it is the manner in which even small matters are transacted,
+that often decides men for or against you.  With virtue, capacity, and
+good conduct in other respects, the person who is habitually inaccurate
+cannot be trusted; his work has to be gone over again; and he thus causes
+an infinity of annoyance, vexation, and trouble.
+
+It was one of the characteristic qualities of Charles James Fox, that he
+was thoroughly pains-taking in all that he did.  When appointed Secretary
+of State, being piqued at some observation as to his bad writing, he
+actually took a writing-master, and wrote copies like a schoolboy until
+he had sufficiently improved himself.  Though a corpulent man, he was
+wonderfully active at picking up cut tennis balls, and when asked how he
+contrived to do so, he playfully replied, “Because I am a very
+pains-taking man.”  The same accuracy in trifling matters was displayed
+by him in things of greater importance; and he acquired his reputation,
+like the painter, by “neglecting nothing.”
+
+Method is essential, and enables a larger amount of work to be got
+through with satisfaction.  “Method,” said the Reverend Richard Cecil,
+“is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much
+again as a bad one.”  Cecil’s despatch of business was extraordinary, his
+maxim being, “The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing
+at once;” and he never left a thing undone with a view of recurring to it
+at a period of more leisure.  When business pressed, he rather chose to
+encroach on his hours of meals and rest than omit any part of his work.
+De Witt’s maxim was like Cecil’s: “One thing at a time.”  “If,” said he,
+“I have any necessary despatches to make, I think of nothing else till
+they are finished; if any domestic affairs require my attention, I give
+myself wholly up to them till they are set in order.”
+
+A French minister, who was alike remarkable for his despatch of business
+and his constant attendance at places of amusement, being asked how he
+contrived to combine both objects, replied, “Simply by never postponing
+till to-morrow what should be done to-day.”  Lord Brougham has said that
+a certain English statesman reversed the process, and that his maxim was,
+never to transact to-day what could be postponed till to-morrow.
+Unhappily, such is the practice of many besides that minister, already
+almost forgotten; the practice is that of the indolent and the
+unsuccessful.  Such men, too, are apt to rely upon agents, who are not
+always to be relied upon.  Important affairs must be attended to in
+person.  “If you want your business done,” says the proverb, “go and do
+it; if you don’t want it done, send some one else.”
+
+An indolent country gentleman had a freehold estate producing about five
+hundred a-year.  Becoming involved in debt, he sold half the estate, and
+let the remainder to an industrious farmer for twenty years.  About the
+end of the term the farmer called to pay his rent, and asked the owner
+whether he would sell the farm.  “Will _you_ buy it?” asked the owner,
+surprised.  “Yes, if we can agree about the price.”  “That is exceedingly
+strange,” observed the gentleman; “pray, tell me how it happens that,
+while I could not live upon twice as much land for which I paid no rent,
+you are regularly paying me two hundred a-year for your farm, and are
+able, in a few years, to purchase it.”  “The reason is plain,” was the
+reply; “you sat still and said _Go_, I got up and said _Come_; you laid
+in bed and enjoyed your estate, I rose in the morning and minded my
+business.”
+
+Sir Walter Scott, writing to a youth who had obtained a situation and
+asked for his advice, gave him in reply this sound counsel: “Beware of
+stumbling over a propensity which easily besets you from not having your
+time fully employed—I mean what the women call _dawdling_.  Your motto
+must be, _Hoc age_.  Do instantly whatever is to be done, and take the
+hours of recreation after business, never before it.  When a regiment is
+under march, the rear is often thrown into confusion because the front do
+not move steadily and without interruption.  It is the same with
+business.  If that which is first in hand is not instantly, steadily, and
+regularly despatched, other things accumulate behind, till affairs begin
+to press all at once, and no human brain can stand the confusion.”
+
+Promptitude in action may be stimulated by a due consideration of the
+value of time.  An Italian philosopher was accustomed to call time his
+estate: an estate which produces nothing of value without cultivation,
+but, duly improved, never fails to recompense the labours of the diligent
+worker.  Allowed to lie waste, the product will be only noxious weeds and
+vicious growths of all kinds.  One of the minor uses of steady employment
+is, that it keeps one out of mischief, for truly an idle brain is the
+devil’s workshop, and a lazy man the devil’s bolster.  To be occupied is
+to be possessed as by a tenant, whereas to be idle is to be empty; and
+when the doors of the imagination are opened, temptation finds a ready
+access, and evil thoughts come trooping in.  It is observed at sea, that
+men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least
+employed.  Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would
+issue the order to “scour the anchor!”
+
+Men of business are accustomed to quote the maxim that Time is money; but
+it is more; the proper improvement of it is self-culture,
+self-improvement, and growth of character.  An hour wasted daily on
+trifles or in indolence, would, if devoted to self-improvement, make an
+ignorant man wise in a few years, and employed in good works, would make
+his life fruitful, and death a harvest of worthy deeds.  Fifteen minutes
+a day devoted to self-improvement, will be felt at the end of the year.
+Good thoughts and carefully gathered experience take up no room, and may
+be carried about as our companions everywhere, without cost or
+incumbrance.  An economical use of time is the true mode of securing
+leisure: it enables us to get through business and carry it forward,
+instead of being driven by it.  On the other hand, the miscalculation of
+time involves us in perpetual hurry, confusion, and difficulties; and
+life becomes a mere shuffle of expedients, usually followed by disaster.
+Nelson once said, “I owe all my success in life to having been always a
+quarter of an hour before my time.”
+
+Some take no thought of the value of money until they have come to an end
+of it, and many do the same with their time.  The hours are allowed to
+flow by unemployed, and then, when life is fast waning, they bethink
+themselves of the duty of making a wiser use of it.  But the habit of
+listlessness and idleness may already have become confirmed, and they are
+unable to break the bonds with which they have permitted themselves to
+become bound.  Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by
+study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone for
+ever.
+
+A proper consideration of the value of time, will also inspire habits of
+punctuality.  “Punctuality,” said Louis XIV., “is the politeness of
+kings.”  It is also the duty of gentlemen, and the necessity of men of
+business.  Nothing begets confidence in a man sooner than the practice of
+this virtue, and nothing shakes confidence sooner than the want of it.
+He who holds to his appointment and does not keep you waiting for him,
+shows that he has regard for your time as well as for his own.  Thus
+punctuality is one of the modes by which we testify our personal respect
+for those whom we are called upon to meet in the business of life.  It is
+also conscientiousness in a measure; for an appointment is a contract,
+express or implied, and he who does not keep it breaks faith, as well as
+dishonestly uses other people’s time, and thus inevitably loses
+character.  We naturally come to the conclusion that the person who is
+careless about time will be careless about business, and that he is not
+the one to be trusted with the transaction of matters of importance.
+When Washington’s secretary excused himself for the lateness of his
+attendance and laid the blame upon his watch, his master quietly said,
+“Then you must get another watch, or I another secretary.”
+
+The person who is negligent of time and its employment is usually found
+to be a general disturber of others’ peace and serenity.  It was wittily
+said by Lord Chesterfield of the old Duke of Newcastle—“His Grace loses
+an hour in the morning, and is looking for it all the rest of the day.”
+Everybody with whom the unpunctual man has to do is thrown from time to
+time into a state of fever: he is systematically late; regular only in
+his irregularity.  He conducts his dawdling as if upon system; arrives at
+his appointment after time; gets to the railway station after the train
+has started; posts his letter when the box has closed.  Thus business is
+thrown into confusion, and everybody concerned is put out of temper.  It
+will generally be found that the men who are thus habitually behind time
+are as habitually behind success; and the world generally casts them
+aside to swell the ranks of the grumblers and the railers against
+fortune.
+
+In addition to the ordinary working qualities the business man of the
+highest class requires quick perception and firmness in the execution of
+his plans.  Tact is also important; and though this is partly the gift of
+nature, it is yet capable of being cultivated and developed by
+observation and experience.  Men of this quality are quick to see the
+right mode of action, and if they have decision of purpose, are prompt to
+carry out their undertakings to a successful issue.  These qualities are
+especially valuable, and indeed indispensable, in those who direct the
+action of other men on a large scale, as for instance, in the case of the
+commander of an army in the field.  It is not merely necessary that the
+general should be great as a warrior but also as a man of business.  He
+must possess great tact, much knowledge of character, and ability to
+organize the movements of a large mass of men, whom he has to feed,
+clothe, and furnish with whatever may be necessary in order that they may
+keep the field and win battles.  In these respects Napoleon and
+Wellington were both first-rate men of business.
+
+Though Napoleon had an immense love for details, he had also a vivid
+power of imagination, which enabled him to look along extended lines of
+action, and deal with those details on a large scale, with judgment and
+rapidity.  He possessed such knowledge of character as enabled him to
+select, almost unerringly, the best agents for the execution of his
+designs.  But he trusted as little as possible to agents in matters of
+great moment, on which important results depended.  This feature in his
+character is illustrated in a remarkable degree by the ‘Napoleon
+Correspondence,’ now in course of publication, and particularly by the
+contents of the 15th volume, {277} which include the letters, orders, and
+despatches, written by the Emperor at Finkenstein, a little chateau on
+the frontier of Poland in the year 1807, shortly after the victory of
+Eylau.
+
+The French army was then lying encamped along the river Passarge with the
+Russians before them, the Austrians on their right flank, and the
+conquered Prussians in their rear.  A long line of communications had to
+be maintained with France, through a hostile country; but so carefully,
+and with such foresight was this provided for, that it is said Napoleon
+never missed a post.  The movements of armies, the bringing up of
+reinforcements from remote points in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany,
+the opening of canals and the levelling of roads to enable the produce of
+Poland and Prussia to be readily transported to his encampments, had his
+unceasing attention, down to the minutest details.  We find him directing
+where horses were to be obtained, making arrangements for an adequate
+supply of saddles, ordering shoes for the soldiers, and specifying the
+number of rations of bread, biscuit, and spirits, that were to be brought
+to camp, or stored in magazines for the use of the troops.  At the same
+time we find him writing to Paris giving directions for the
+reorganization of the French College, devising a scheme of public
+education, dictating bulletins and articles for the ‘Moniteur,’ revising
+the details of the budgets, giving instructions to architects as to
+alterations to be made at the Tuileries and the Church of the Madelaine,
+throwing an occasional sarcasm at Madame de Stael and the Parisian
+journals, interfering to put down a squabble at the Grand Opera, carrying
+on a correspondence with the Sultan of Turkey and the Schah of Persia, so
+that while his body was at Finkenstein, his mind seemed to be working at
+a hundred different places in Paris, in Europe, and throughout the world.
+
+We find him in one letter asking Ney if he has duly received the muskets
+which have been sent him; in another he gives directions to Prince Jerome
+as to the shirts, greatcoats, clothes, shoes, shakos, and arms, to be
+served out to the Wurtemburg regiments; again he presses Cambacérès to
+forward to the army a double stock of corn—“The _ifs_ and the _buts_,”
+said he, “are at present out of season, and above all it must be done
+with speed.”  Then he informs Daru that the army want shirts, and that
+they don’t come to hand.  To Massena he writes, “Let me know if your
+biscuit and bread arrangements are yet completed.”  To the Grand due de
+Berg, he gives directions as to the accoutrements of the
+cuirassiers—“They complain that the men want sabres; send an officer to
+obtain them at Posen.  It is also said they want helmets; order that they
+be made at Ebling. . . . It is not by sleeping that one can accomplish
+anything.”  Thus no point of detail was neglected, and the energies of
+all were stimulated into action with extraordinary power.  Though many of
+the Emperor’s days were occupied by inspections of his troops,—in the
+course of which he sometimes rode from thirty to forty leagues a day,—and
+by reviews, receptions, and affairs of state, leaving but little time for
+business matters, he neglected nothing on that account; but devoted the
+greater part of his nights, when necessary, to examining budgets,
+dictating dispatches, and attending to the thousand matters of detail in
+the organization and working of the Imperial Government; the machinery of
+which was for the most part concentrated in his own head.
+
+Like Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington was a first-rate man of business;
+and it is not perhaps saying too much to aver that it was in no small
+degree because of his possession of a business faculty amounting to
+genius, that the Duke never lost a battle.
+
+While a subaltern, he became dissatisfied with the slowness of his
+promotion, and having passed from the infantry to the cavalry twice, and
+back again, without advancement, he applied to Lord Camden, then Viceroy
+of Ireland, for employment in the Revenue or Treasury Board.  Had he
+succeeded, no doubt he would have made a first-rate head of a department,
+as he would have made a first-rate merchant or manufacturer.  But his
+application failed, and he remained with the army to become the greatest
+of British generals.
+
+The Duke began his active military career under the Duke of York and
+General Walmoden, in Flanders and Holland, where he learnt, amidst
+misfortunes and defeats, how bad business arrangements and bad
+generalship serve to ruin the _morale_ of an army.  Ten years after
+entering the army we find him a colonel in India, reported by his
+superiors as an officer of indefatigable energy and application.  He
+entered into the minutest details of the service, and sought to raise the
+discipline of his men to the highest standard.  “The regiment of Colonel
+Wellesley,” wrote General Harris in 1799, “is a model regiment; on the
+score of soldierly bearing, discipline, instruction, and orderly
+behaviour it is above all praise.”  Thus qualifying himself for posts of
+greater confidence, he was shortly after nominated governor of the
+capital of Mysore.  In the war with the Mahrattas he was first called
+upon to try his hand at generalship; and at thirty-four he won the
+memorable battle of Assaye, with an army composed of 1500 British and
+5000 sepoys, over 20,000 Mahratta infantry and 30,000 cavalry.  But so
+brilliant a victory did not in the least disturb his equanimity, or
+affect the perfect honesty of his character.
+
+Shortly after this event the opportunity occurred for exhibiting his
+admirable practical qualities as an administrator.  Placed in command of
+an important district immediately after the capture of Seringapatam, his
+first object was to establish rigid order and discipline among his own
+men.  Flushed with victory, the troops were found riotous and disorderly.
+“Send me the provost marshal,” said he, “and put him under my orders:
+till some of the marauders are hung, it is impossible to expect order or
+safety.”  This rigid severity of Wellington in the field, though it was
+the dread, proved the salvation of his troops in many campaigns.  His
+next step was to re-establish the markets and re-open the sources of
+supply.  General Harris wrote to the Governor-general, strongly
+commending Colonel Wellesley for the perfect discipline he had
+established, and for his “judicious and masterly arrangements in respect
+to supplies, which opened an abundant free market, and inspired
+confidence into dealers of every description.”  The same close attention
+to, and mastery of details, characterized him throughout his Indian
+career; and it is remarkable that one of his ablest despatches to Lord
+Clive, full of practical information as to the conduct of the campaign,
+was written whilst the column he commanded was crossing the Toombuddra,
+in the face of the vastly superior army of Dhoondiah, posted on the
+opposite bank, and while a thousand matters of the deepest interest were
+pressing upon the commander’s mind.  But it was one of his most
+remarkable characteristics, thus to be able to withdraw himself
+temporarily from the business immediately in hand, and to bend his full
+powers upon the consideration of matters totally distinct; even the most
+difficult circumstances on such occasions failing to embarrass or
+intimidate him.
+
+Returned to England with a reputation for generalship, Sir Arthur
+Wellesley met with immediate employment.  In 1808 a corps of 10,000 men
+destined to liberate Portugal was placed under his charge.  He landed,
+fought, and won two battles, and signed the Convention of Cintra.  After
+the death of Sir John Moore he was entrusted with the command of a new
+expedition to Portugal.  But Wellington was fearfully overmatched
+throughout his Peninsular campaigns.  From 1809 to 1813 he never had more
+than 30,000 British troops under his command, at a time when there stood
+opposed to him in the Peninsula some 350,000 French, mostly veterans, led
+by some of Napoleon’s ablest generals.  How was he to contend against
+such immense forces with any fair prospect of success?  His clear
+discernment and strong common sense soon taught him that he must adopt a
+different policy from that of the Spanish generals, who were invariably
+beaten and dispersed whenever they ventured to offer battle in the open
+plains.  He perceived he had yet to create the army that was to contend
+against the French with any reasonable chance of success.  Accordingly,
+after the battle of Talavera in 1809, when he found himself encompassed
+on all sides by superior forces of French, he retired into Portugal,
+there to carry out the settled policy on which he had by this time
+determined.  It was, to organise a Portuguese army under British
+officers, and teach them to act in combination with his own troops, in
+the mean time avoiding the peril of a defeat by declining all
+engagements.  He would thus, he conceived, destroy the _morale_ of the
+French, who could not exist without victories; and when his army was ripe
+for action, and the enemy demoralized, he would then fall upon them with
+all his might.
+
+The extraordinary qualities displayed by Lord Wellington throughout these
+immortal campaigns, can only be appreciated after a perusal of his
+despatches, which contain the unvarnished tale of the manifold ways and
+means by which he laid the foundations of his success.  Never was man
+more tried by difficulty and opposition, arising not less from the
+imbecility, falsehoods and intrigues of the British Government of the
+day, than from the selfishness, cowardice, and vanity of the people he
+went to save.  It may, indeed, be said of him, that he sustained the war
+in Spain by his individual firmness and self-reliance, which never failed
+him even in the midst of his great discouragements.  He had not only to
+fight Napoleon’s veterans, but also to hold in check the Spanish juntas
+and the Portuguese regency.  He had the utmost difficulty in obtaining
+provisions and clothing for his troops; and it will scarcely be credited
+that, while engaged with the enemy in the battle of Talavera, the
+Spaniards, who ran away, fell upon the baggage of the British army, and
+the ruffians actually plundered it!  These and other vexations the Duke
+bore with a sublime patience and self-control, and held on his course, in
+the face of ingratitude, treachery, and opposition, with indomitable
+firmness.  He neglected nothing, and attended to every important detail
+of business himself.  When he found that food for his troops was not to
+be obtained from England, and that he must rely upon his own resources
+for feeding them, he forthwith commenced business as a corn merchant on a
+large scale, in copartnery with the British Minister at Lisbon.
+Commissariat bills were created, with which grain was bought in the ports
+of the Mediterranean and in South America.  When he had thus filled his
+magazines, the overplus was sold to the Portuguese, who were greatly in
+want of provisions.  He left nothing whatever to chance, but provided for
+every contingency.  He gave his attention to the minutest details of the
+service; and was accustomed to concentrate his whole energies, from time
+to time, on such apparently ignominious matters as soldiers’ shoes,
+camp-kettles, biscuits and horse fodder.  His magnificent business
+qualities were everywhere felt, and there can be no doubt that, by the
+care with which he provided for every contingency, and the personal
+attention which he gave to every detail, he laid the foundations of his
+great success. {283}  By such means he transformed an army of raw levies
+into the best soldiers in Europe, with whom he declared it to be possible
+to go anywhere and do anything.
+
+We have already referred to his remarkable power of abstracting himself
+from the work, no matter how engrossing, immediately in hand, and
+concentrating his energies upon the details of some entirely different
+business.  Thus Napier relates that it was while he was preparing to
+fight the battle of Salamanca that he had to expose to the Ministers at
+home the futility of relying upon a loan; it was on the heights of San
+Christoval, on the field of battle itself, that he demonstrated the
+absurdity of attempting to establish a Portuguese bank; it was in the
+trenches of Burgos that he dissected Funchal’s scheme of finance, and
+exposed the folly of attempting the sale of church property; and on each
+occasion, he showed himself as well acquainted with these subjects as
+with the minutest detail in the mechanism of armies.
+
+Another feature in his character, showing the upright man of business,
+was his thorough honesty.  Whilst Soult ransacked and carried away with
+him from Spain numerous pictures of great value, Wellington did not
+appropriate to himself a single farthing’s worth of property.  Everywhere
+he paid his way, even when in the enemy’s country.  When he had crossed
+the French frontier, followed by 40,000 Spaniards, who sought to “make
+fortunes” by pillage and plunder, he first rebuked their officers, and
+then, finding his efforts to restrain them unavailing, he sent them back
+into their own country.  It is a remarkable fact, that, even in France
+the peasantry fled from their own countrymen, and carried their valuables
+within the protection of the British lines!  At the very same time,
+Wellington was writing home to the British Ministry, “We are overwhelmed
+with debts, and I can scarcely stir out of my house on account of public
+creditors waiting to demand payment of what is due to them.”  Jules
+Maurel, in his estimate of the Duke’s character, says, “Nothing can be
+grander or more nobly original than this admission.  This old soldier,
+after thirty years’ service, this iron man and victorious general,
+established in an enemy’s country at the head of an immense army, is
+afraid of his creditors!  This is a kind of fear that has seldom troubled
+the mind of conquerors and invaders; and I doubt if the annals of war
+could present anything comparable to this sublime simplicity.”  But the
+Duke himself, had the matter been put to him, would most probably have
+disclaimed any intention of acting even grandly or nobly in the matter;
+merely regarding the punctual payment of his debts as the best and most
+honourable mode of conducting his business.
+
+The truth of the good old maxim, that “Honesty is the best policy,” is
+upheld by the daily experience of life; uprightness and integrity being
+found as successful in business as in everything else.  As Hugh Miller’s
+worthy uncle used to advise him, “In all your dealings give your
+neighbour the cast of the bank—‘good measure, heaped up, and running
+over,’—and you will not lose by it in the end.”  A well-known brewer of
+beer attributed his success to the liberality with which he used his
+malt.  Going up to the vat and tasting it, he would say, “Still rather
+poor, my lads; give it another cast of the malt.”  The brewer put his
+character into his beer, and it proved generous accordingly, obtaining a
+reputation in England, India, and the colonies, which laid the foundation
+of a large fortune.  Integrity of word and deed ought to be the very
+cornerstone of all business transactions.  To the tradesman, the
+merchant, and manufacturer, it should be what honour is to the soldier,
+and charity to the Christian.  In the humblest calling there will always
+be found scope for the exercise of this uprightness of character.  Hugh
+Miller speaks of the mason with whom he served his apprenticeship, as one
+who “_put his conscience into every stone that he laid_.”  So the true
+mechanic will pride himself upon the thoroughness and solidity of his
+work, and the high-minded contractor upon the honesty of performance of
+his contract in every particular.  The upright manufacturer will find not
+only honour and reputation, but substantial success, in the genuineness
+of the article which he produces, and the merchant in the honesty of what
+he sells, and that it really is what it seems to be.  Baron Dupin,
+speaking of the general probity of Englishmen, which he held to be a
+principal cause of their success, observed, “We may succeed for a time by
+fraud, by surprise, by violence; but we can succeed permanently only by
+means directly opposite.  It is not alone the courage, the intelligence,
+the activity, of the merchant and manufacturer which maintain the
+superiority of their productions and the character of their country; it
+is far more their wisdom, their economy, and, above all, their probity.
+If ever in the British Islands the useful citizen should lose these
+virtues, we may be sure that, for England, as for every other country,
+the vessels of a degenerate commerce, repulsed from every shore, would
+speedily disappear from those seas whose surface they now cover with the
+treasures of the universe, bartered for the treasures of the industry of
+the three kingdoms.”
+
+It must be admitted, that Trade tries character perhaps more severely
+than any other pursuit in life.  It puts to the severest tests honesty,
+self-denial, justice, and truthfulness; and men of business who pass
+through such trials unstained are perhaps worthy of as great honour as
+soldiers who prove their courage amidst the fire and perils of battle.
+And, to the credit of the multitudes of men engaged in the various
+departments of trade, we think it must be admitted that on the whole they
+pass through their trials nobly.  If we reflect but for a moment on the
+vast amount of wealth daily entrusted even to subordinate persons, who
+themselves probably earn but a bare competency—the loose cash which is
+constantly passing through the hands of shopmen, agents, brokers, and
+clerks in banking houses,—and note how comparatively few are the breaches
+of trust which occur amidst all this temptation, it will probably be
+admitted that this steady daily honesty of conduct is most honourable to
+human nature, if it do not even tempt us to be proud of it.  The same
+trust and confidence reposed by men of business in each other, as implied
+by the system of Credit, which is mainly based upon the principle of
+honour, would be surprising if it were not so much a matter of ordinary
+practice in business transactions.  Dr. Chalmers has well said, that the
+implicit trust with which merchants are accustomed to confide in distant
+agents, separated from them perhaps by half the globe—often consigning
+vast wealth to persons, recommended only by their character, whom perhaps
+they have never seen—is probably the finest act of homage which men can
+render to one another.
+
+Although common honesty is still happily in the ascendant amongst common
+people, and the general business community of England is still sound at
+heart, putting their honest character into their respective
+callings,—there are unhappily, as there have been in all times, but too
+many instances of flagrant dishonesty and fraud, exhibited by the
+unscrupulous, the over-speculative, and the intensely selfish in their
+haste to be rich.  There are tradesmen who adulterate, contractors who
+“scamp,” manufacturers who give us shoddy instead of wool, “dressing”
+instead of cotton, cast-iron tools instead of steel, needles without
+eyes, razors made only “to sell,” and swindled fabrics in many shapes.
+But these we must hold to be the exceptional cases, of low-minded and
+grasping men, who, though they may gain wealth which they probably cannot
+enjoy, will never gain an honest character, nor secure that without which
+wealth is nothing—a heart at peace.  “The rogue cozened not me, but his
+own conscience,” said Bishop Latimer of a cutler who made him pay
+twopence for a knife not worth a penny.  Money, earned by screwing,
+cheating, and overreaching, may for a time dazzle the eyes of the
+unthinking; but the bubbles blown by unscrupulous rogues, when
+full-blown, usually glitter only to burst.  The Sadleirs, Dean Pauls, and
+Redpaths, for the most part, come to a sad end even in this world; and
+though the successful swindles of others may not be “found out,” and the
+gains of their roguery may remain with them, it will be as a curse and
+not as a blessing.
+
+It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast
+as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer
+kind, earned without fraud or injustice.  And even though a man should
+for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and
+save character.  For character is itself a fortune; and if the
+high-principled man will but hold on his way courageously, success will
+surely come,—nor will the highest reward of all be withheld from him.
+Wordsworth well describes the “Happy Warrior,” as he
+
+    “Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
+    Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
+    And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
+    For wealth, or honour, or for worldly state;
+    Whom they must follow, on whose head must fall,
+    Like showers of manna, if they come at all.”
+
+As an example of the high-minded mercantile man trained in upright habits
+of business, and distinguished for justice, truthfulness, and honesty of
+dealing in all things, the career of the well-known David Barclay,
+grandson of Robert Barclay, of Ury, the author of the celebrated ‘Apology
+for the Quakers,’ may be briefly referred to.  For many years he was the
+head of an extensive house in Cheapside, chiefly engaged in the American
+trade; but like Granville Sharp, he entertained so strong an opinion
+against the war with our American colonies, that he determined to retire
+altogether from the trade.  Whilst a merchant, he was as much
+distinguished for his talents, knowledge, integrity, and power, as he
+afterwards was for his patriotism and munificent philanthropy.  He was a
+mirror of truthfulness and honesty; and, as became the good Christian and
+true gentleman, his word was always held to be as good as his bond.  His
+position, and his high character, induced the Ministers of the day on
+many occasions to seek his advice; and, when examined before the House of
+Commons on the subject of the American dispute, his views were so clearly
+expressed, and his advice was so strongly justified by the reasons stated
+by him, that Lord North publicly acknowledged that he had derived more
+information from David Barclay than from all others east of Temple Bar.
+On retiring from business, it was not to rest in luxurious ease, but to
+enter upon new labours of usefulness for others.  With ample means, he
+felt that he still owed to society the duty of a good example.  He
+founded a house of industry near his residence at Walthamstow, which he
+supported at a heavy outlay for several years, until at length he
+succeeded in rendering it a source of comfort as well as independence to
+the well-disposed families of the poor in that neighbourhood.  When an
+estate in Jamaica fell to him, he determined, though at a cost of some
+10,000_l._, at once to give liberty to the whole of the slaves on the
+property.  He sent out an agent, who hired a ship, and he had the little
+slave community transported to one of the free American states, where
+they settled down and prospered.  Mr. Barclay had been assured that the
+negroes were too ignorant and too barbarous for freedom, and it was thus
+that he determined practically to demonstrate the fallacy of the
+assertion.  In dealing with his accumulated savings, he made himself the
+executor of his own will, and instead of leaving a large fortune to be
+divided among his relatives at his death, he extended to them his
+munificent aid during his life, watched and aided them in their
+respective careers, and thus not only laid the foundation, but lived to
+see the maturity, of some of the largest and most prosperous business
+concerns in the metropolis.  We believe that to this day some of our most
+eminent merchants—such as the Gurneys, Hanburys, and Buxtons—are proud to
+acknowledge with gratitude the obligations they owe to David Barclay for
+the means of their first introduction to life, and for the benefits of
+his counsel and countenance in the early stages of their career.  Such a
+man stands as a mark of the mercantile honesty and integrity of his
+country, and is a model and example for men of business in all time to
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+MONEY—ITS USE AND ABUSE.
+
+
+    “Not for to hide it in a hedge,
+       Nor for a train attendant,
+    But for the glorious privilege
+       Of being independent.”—_Burns_.
+
+    “Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
+    For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
+    And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”—_Shakepeare_.
+
+    Never treat money affairs with levity—Money is character.—_Sir E. L.
+    Bulwer Lytton_.
+
+HOW a man uses money—makes it, saves it, and spends it—is perhaps one of
+the best tests of practical wisdom.  Although money ought by no means to
+be regarded as a chief end of man’s life, neither is it a trifling
+matter, to be held in philosophic contempt, representing as it does to so
+large an extent, the means of physical comfort and social well-being.
+Indeed, some of the finest qualities of human nature are intimately
+related to the right use of money; such as generosity, honesty, justice,
+and self-sacrifice; as well as the practical virtues of economy and
+providence.  On the other hand, there are their counterparts of avarice,
+fraud, injustice, and selfishness, as displayed by the inordinate lovers
+of gain; and the vices of thriftlessness, extravagance, and improvidence,
+on the part of those who misuse and abuse the means entrusted to them.
+“So that,” as is wisely observed by Henry Taylor in his thoughtful ‘Notes
+from Life,’ “a right measure and manner in getting, saving, spending,
+giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing, would almost argue a
+perfect man.”
+
+Comfort in worldly circumstances is a con ion which every man is
+justified in striving to attain by all worthy means.  It secures that
+physical satisfaction, which is necessary for the culture of the better
+part of his nature; and enables him to provide for those of his own
+household, without which, says the Apostle, a man is “worse than an
+infidel.”  Nor ought the duty to be any the less indifferent to us, that
+the respect which our fellow-men entertain for us in no slight degree
+depends upon the manner in which we exercise the opportunities which
+present themselves for our honourable advancement in life.  The very
+effort required to be made to succeed in life with this object, is of
+itself an education; stimulating a man’s sense of self-respect, bringing
+out his practical qualities, and disciplining him in the exercise of
+patience, perseverance, and such like virtues.  The provident and careful
+man must necessarily be a thoughtful man, for he lives not merely for the
+present, but with provident forecast makes arrangements for the future.
+He must also be a temperate man, and exercise the virtue of self-denial,
+than which nothing is so much calculated to give strength to the
+character.  John Sterling says truly, that “the worst education which
+teaches self denial, is better than the best which teaches everything
+else, and not that.”  The Romans rightly employed the same word (virtus)
+to designate courage, which is in a physical sense what the other is in a
+moral; the highest virtue of all being victory over ourselves.
+
+Hence the lesson of self-denial—the sacrificing of a present
+gratification for a future good—is one of the last that is learnt.  Those
+classes which work the hardest might naturally be expected to value the
+most the money which they earn.  Yet the readiness with which so many are
+accustomed to eat up and drink up their earnings as they go, renders them
+to a great extent helpless and dependent upon the frugal.  There are
+large numbers of persons among us who, though enjoying sufficient means
+of comfort and independence, are often found to be barely a day’s march
+ahead of actual want when a time of pressure occurs; and hence a great
+cause of social helplessness and suffering.  On one occasion a deputation
+waited on Lord John Russell, respecting the taxation levied on the
+working classes of the country, when the noble lord took the opportunity
+of remarking, “You may rely upon it that the Government of this country
+durst not tax the working classes to anything like the extent to which
+they tax themselves in their expenditure upon intoxicating drinks alone!”
+Of all great public questions, there is perhaps none more important than
+this,—no great work of reform calling more loudly for labourers.  But it
+must be admitted that “self-denial and self-help” would make a poor
+rallying cry for the hustings; and it is to be feared that the patriotism
+of this day has but little regard for such common things as individual
+economy and providence, although it is by the practice of such virtues
+only that the genuine independence of the industrial classes is to be
+secured.  “Prudence, frugality, and good management,” said Samuel Drew,
+the philosophical shoemaker, “are excellent artists for mending bad
+times: they occupy but little room in any dwelling, but would furnish a
+more effectual remedy for the evils of life than any Reform Bill that
+ever passed the Houses of Parliament.”  Socrates said, “Let him that
+would move the world move first himself.  ” Or as the old rhyme runs—
+
+    “If every one would see
+    To his own reformation,
+    How very easily
+    You might reform a nation.”
+
+It is, however, generally felt to be a far easier thing to reform the
+Church and the State than to reform the least of our own bad habits; and
+in such matters it is usually found more agreeable to our tastes, as it
+certainly is the common practice, to begin with our neighbours rather
+than with ourselves.
+
+Any class of men that lives from hand to mouth will ever be an inferior
+class.  They will necessarily remain impotent and helpless, hanging on to
+the skirts of society, the sport of times and seasons.  Having no respect
+for themselves, they will fail in securing the respect of others.  In
+commercial crises, such men must inevitably go to the wall.  Wanting that
+husbanded power which a store of savings, no matter how small, invariably
+gives them, they will be at every man’s mercy, and, if possessed of right
+feelings, they cannot but regard with fear and trembling the future
+possible fate of their wives and children.  “The world,” once said Mr.
+Cobden to the working men of Huddersfield, “has always been divided into
+two classes,—those who have saved, and those who have spent—the thrifty
+and the extravagant.  The building of all the houses, the mills, the
+bridges, and the ships, and the accomplishment of all other great works
+which have rendered man civilized and happy, has been done by the savers,
+the thrifty; and those who have wasted their resources have always been
+their slaves.  It has been the law of nature and of Providence that this
+should be so; and I were an impostor if I promised any class that they
+would advance themselves if they were improvident, thoughtless, and
+idle.”
+
+Equally sound was the advice given by Mr. Bright to an assembly of
+working men at Rochdale, in 1847, when, after expressing his belief that,
+“so far as honesty was concerned, it was to be found in pretty equal
+amount among all classes,” he used the following words:—“There is only
+one way that is safe for any man, or any number of men, by which they can
+maintain their present position if it be a good one, or raise themselves
+above it if it be a bad one,—that is, by the practice of the virtues of
+industry, frugality, temperance, and honesty.  There is no royal road by
+which men can raise themselves from a position which they feel to be
+uncomfortable and unsatisfactory, as regards their mental or physical
+condition, except by the practice of those virtues by which they find
+numbers amongst them are continually advancing and bettering themselves.”
+
+There is no reason why the condition of the average workman should not be
+a useful, honourable, respectable, and happy one.  The whole body of the
+working classes might, (with few exceptions) be as frugal, virtuous,
+well-informed, and well-conditioned as many individuals of the same class
+have already made themselves.  What some men are, all without difficulty
+might be.  Employ the same means, and the same results will follow.  That
+there should be a class of men who live by their daily labour in every
+state is the ordinance of God, and doubtless is a wise and righteous one;
+but that this class should be otherwise than frugal, contented,
+intelligent, and happy, is not the design of Providence, but springs
+solely from the weakness, self-indulgence, and perverseness of man
+himself.  The healthy spirit of self-help created amongst working people
+would more than any other measure serve to raise them as a class, and
+this, not by pulling down others, but by levelling them up to a higher
+and still advancing standard of religion, intelligence, and virtue.  “All
+moral philosophy,” says Montaigne, “is as applicable to a common and
+private life as to the most splendid.  Every man carries the entire form
+of the human condition within him.”
+
+When a man casts his glance forward, he will find that the three chief
+temporal contingencies for which he has to provide are want of
+employment, sickness, and death.  The two first he may escape, but the
+last is inevitable.  It is, however, the duty of the prudent man so to
+live, and so to arrange, that the pressure of suffering, in event of
+either contingency occurring, shall be mitigated to as great an extent as
+possible, not only to himself, but also to those who are dependent upon
+him for their comfort and subsistence.  Viewed in this light the honest
+earning and the frugal use of money are of the greatest importance.
+Rightly earned, it is the representative of patient industry and untiring
+effort, of temptation resisted, and hope rewarded; and rightly used, it
+affords indications of prudence, forethought and self-denial—the true
+basis of manly character.  Though money represents a crowd of objects
+without any real worth or utility, it also represents many things of
+great value; not only food, clothing, and household satisfaction, but
+personal self-respect and independence.  Thus a store of savings is to
+the working man as a barricade against want; it secures him a footing,
+and enables him to wait, it may be in cheerfulness and hope, until better
+days come round.  The very endeavour to gain a firmer position in the
+world has a certain dignity in it, and tends to make a man stronger and
+better.  At all events it gives him greater freedom of action, and
+enables him to husband his strength for future effort.
+
+But the man who is always hovering on the verge of want is in a state not
+far removed from that of slavery.  He is in no sense his own master, but
+is in constant peril of falling under the bondage of others, and
+accepting the terms which they dictate to him.  He cannot help being, in
+a measure, servile, for he dares not look the world boldly in the face;
+and in adverse times he must look either to alms or the poor’s rates.  If
+work fails him altogether, he has not the means of moving to another
+field of employment; he is fixed to his parish like a limpet to its rock,
+and can neither migrate nor emigrate.
+
+To secure independence, the practice of simple economy is all that is
+necessary.  Economy requires neither superior courage nor eminent virtue;
+it is satisfied with ordinary energy, and the capacity of average minds.
+Economy, at bottom, is but the spirit of order applied in the
+administration of domestic affairs: it means management, regularity,
+prudence, and the avoidance of waste.  The spirit of economy was
+expressed by our Divine Master in the words ‘Gather up the fragments that
+remain, so that nothing may be lost.’  His omnipotence did not disdain
+the small things of life; and even while revealing His infinite power to
+the multitude, he taught the pregnant lesson of carefulness of which all
+stand so much in need.
+
+Economy also means the power of resisting present gratification for the
+purpose of securing a future good, and in this light it represents the
+ascendancy of reason over the animal instincts.  It is altogether
+different from penuriousness: for it is economy that can always best
+afford to be generous.  It does not make money an idol, but regards it as
+a useful agent.  As Dean Swift observes, “we must carry money in the
+head, not in the heart.”  Economy may be styled the daughter of Prudence,
+the sister of Temperance, and the mother of Liberty.  It is evidently
+conservative—conservative of character, of domestic happiness, and social
+well-being.  It is, in short, the exhibition of self-help in one of its
+best forms.
+
+Francis Horner’s father gave him this advice on entering life:—“Whilst I
+wish you to be comfortable in every respect, I cannot too strongly
+inculcate economy.  It is a necessary virtue to all; and however the
+shallow part of mankind may despise it, it certainly leads to
+independence, which is a grand object to every man of a high spirit.”
+Burns’ lines, quoted at the head of this chapter, contain the right idea;
+but unhappily his strain of song was higher than his practice; his ideal
+better than his habit.  When laid on his death-bed he wrote to a friend,
+“Alas! Clarke, I begin to feel the worst.  Burns’ poor widow, and half a
+dozen of his dear little ones helpless orphans;—there I am weak as a
+woman’s tear.  Enough of this;—’tis half my disease.”
+
+Every man ought so to contrive as to live within his means.  This
+practice is of the very essence of honesty.  For if a man do not manage
+honestly to live within his own means, he must necessarily be living
+dishonestly upon the means of somebody else.  Those who are careless
+about personal expenditure, and consider merely their own gratification,
+without regard for the comfort of others, generally find out the real
+uses of money when it is too late.  Though by nature generous, these
+thriftless persons are often driven in the end to do very shabby things.
+They waste their money as they do their time; draw bills upon the future;
+anticipate their earnings; and are thus under the necessity of dragging
+after them a load of debts and obligations which seriously affect their
+action as free and independent men.
+
+It was a maxim of Lord Bacon, that when it was necessary to economize, it
+was better to look after petty savings than to descend to petty gettings.
+The loose cash which many persons throw away uselessly, and worse, would
+often form a basis of fortune and independence for life.  These wasters
+are their own worst enemies, though generally found amongst the ranks of
+those who rail at the injustice of “the world.”  But if a man will not be
+his own friend, how can he expect that others will?  Orderly men of
+moderate means have always something left in their pockets to help
+others; whereas your prodigal and careless fellows who spend all never
+find an opportunity for helping anybody.  It is poor economy, however, to
+be a scrub.  Narrowmindedness in living and in dealing is generally
+short-sighted, and leads to failure.  The penny soul, it is said, never
+came to twopence.  Generosity and liberality, like honesty, prove the
+best policy after all.  Though Jenkinson, in the ‘Vicar of Wakefield,’
+cheated his kind-hearted neighbour Flamborough in one way or another
+every year, “Flamborough,” said he, “has been regularly growing in
+riches, while I have come to poverty and a gaol.”  And practical life
+abounds in cases of brilliant results from a course of generous and
+honest policy.
+
+The proverb says that “an empty bag cannot stand upright;” neither can a
+man who is in debt.  It is also difficult for a man who is in debt to be
+truthful; hence it is said that lying rides on debt’s back.  The debtor
+has to frame excuses to his creditor for postponing payment of the money
+he owes him; and probably also to contrive falsehoods.  It is easy enough
+for a man who will exercise a healthy resolution, to avoid incurring the
+first obligation; but the facility with which that has been incurred
+often becomes a temptation to a second; and very soon the unfortunate
+borrower becomes so entangled that no late exertion of industry can set
+him free.  The first step in debt is like the first step in falsehood;
+almost involving the necessity of proceeding in the same course, debt
+following debt, as lie follows lie.  Haydon, the painter, dated his
+decline from the day on which he first borrowed money.  He realized the
+truth of the proverb, “Who goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing.”  The
+significant entry in his diary is: “Here began debt and obligation, out
+of which I have never been and never shall be extricated as long as I
+live.”  His Autobiography shows but too painfully how embarrassment in
+money matters produces poignant distress of mind, utter incapacity for
+work, and constantly recurring humiliations.  The written advice which he
+gave to a youth when entering the navy was as follows: “Never purchase
+any enjoyment if it cannot be procured without borrowing of others.
+Never borrow money: it is degrading.  I do not say never lend, but never
+lend if by lending you render yourself unable to pay what you owe; but
+under any circumstances never borrow.”  Fichte, the poor student, refused
+to accept even presents from his still poorer parents.
+
+Dr. Johnson held that early debt is ruin.  His words on the subject are
+weighty, and worthy of being held in remembrance.  “Do not,” said he,
+“accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will
+find it a calamity.  Poverty takes away so many means of doing good, and
+produces so much inability to resist evil, both natural and moral, that
+it is by all virtuous means to be avoided. . . . Let it be your first
+care, then, not to be in any man’s debt.  Resolve not to be poor;
+whatever you have spend less.  Poverty is a great enemy to human
+happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues
+impracticable and others extremely difficult.  Frugality is not only the
+basis of quiet, but of beneficence.  No man can help others that wants
+help himself; we must have enough before we have to spare.”
+
+It is the bounden duty of every man to look his affairs in the face, and
+to keep an account of his incomings and outgoings in money matters.  The
+exercise of a little simple arithmetic in this way will be found of great
+value.  Prudence requires that we shall pitch our scale of living a
+degree below our means, rather than up to them; but this can only be done
+by carrying out faithfully a plan of living by which both ends may be
+made to meet.  John Locke strongly advised this course: “Nothing,” said
+he, “is likelier to keep a man within compass than having constantly
+before his eyes the state of his affairs in a regular course of account.”
+The Duke of Wellington kept an accurate detailed account of all the
+moneys received and expended by him.  “I make a point,” said he to Mr.
+Gleig, “of paying my own bills, and I advise every one to do the same;
+formerly I used to trust a confidential servant to pay them, but I was
+cured of that folly by receiving one morning, to my great surprise, duns
+of a year or two’s standing.  The fellow had speculated with my money,
+and left my bills unpaid.”  Talking of debt his remark was, “It makes a
+slave of a man.  I have often known what it was to be in want of money,
+but I never got into debt.”  Washington was as particular as Wellington
+was, in matters of business detail; and it is a remarkable fact, that he
+did not disdain to scrutinize the smallest outgoings of his
+household—determined as he was to live honestly within his means—even
+while holding the high office of President of the American Union.
+
+Admiral Jervis, Earl St. Vincent, has told the story of his early
+struggles, and, amongst other things, of his determination to keep out of
+debt.  “My father had a very large family,” said he, “with limited means.
+He gave me twenty pounds at starting, and that was all he ever gave me.
+After I had been a considerable time at the station [at sea], I drew for
+twenty more, but the bill came back protested.  I was mortified at this
+rebuke, and made a promise, which I have ever kept, that I would never
+draw another bill without a certainty of its being paid.  I immediately
+changed my mode of living, quitted my mess, lived alone, and took up the
+ship’s allowance, which I found quite sufficient; washed and mended my
+own clothes; made a pair of trousers out of the ticking of my bed; and
+having by these means saved as much money as would redeem my honour, I
+took up my bill, and from that time to this I have taken care to keep
+within my means.”  Jervis for six years endured pinching privation, but
+preserved his integrity, studied his profession with success, and
+gradually and steadily rose by merit and bravery to the highest rank.
+
+Mr. Hume hit the mark when he once stated in the House of Commons—though
+his words were followed by “laughter”—that the tone of living in England
+is altogether too high.  Middle-class people are too apt to live up to
+their incomes, if not beyond them: affecting a degree of “style” which is
+most unhealthy in its effects upon society at large.  There is an
+ambition to bring up boys as gentlemen, or rather “genteel” men; though
+the result frequently is, only to make them gents.  They acquire a taste
+for dress, style, luxuries, and amusements, which can never form any
+solid foundation for manly or gentlemanly character; and the result is,
+that we have a vast number of gingerbread young gentry thrown upon the
+world, who remind one of the abandoned hulls sometimes picked up at sea,
+with only a monkey on board.
+
+There is a dreadful ambition abroad for being “genteel.”  We keep up
+appearances, too often at the expense of honesty; and, though we may not
+be rich, yet we must seem to be so.  We must be “respectable,” though
+only in the meanest sense—in mere vulgar outward show.  We have not the
+courage to go patiently onward in the condition of life in which it has
+pleased God to call us; but must needs live in some fashionable state to
+which we ridiculously please to call ourselves, and all to gratify the
+vanity of that unsubstantial genteel world of which we form a part.
+There is a constant struggle and pressure for front seats in the social
+amphitheatre; in the midst of which all noble self-denying resolve is
+trodden down, and many fine natures are inevitably crushed to death.
+What waste, what misery, what bankruptcy, come from all this ambition to
+dazzle others with the glare of apparent worldly success, we need not
+describe.  The mischievous results show themselves in a thousand ways—in
+the rank frauds committed by men who dare to be dishonest, but do not
+dare to seem poor; and in the desperate dashes at fortune, in which the
+pity is not so much for those who fail, as for the hundreds of innocent
+families who are so often involved in their ruin.
+
+The late Sir Charles Napier, in taking leave of his command in India, did
+a bold and honest thing in publishing his strong protest, embodied in his
+last General Order to the officers of the Indian army, against the “fast”
+life led by so many young officers in that service, involving them in
+ignominious obligations.  Sir Charles strongly urged, in that famous
+document—what had almost been lost sight of that “honesty is inseparable
+from the character of a thorough-bred gentleman;” and that “to drink
+unpaid-for champagne and unpaid-for beer, and to ride unpaid-for horses,
+is to be a cheat, and not a gentleman.”  Men who lived beyond their means
+and were summoned, often by their own servants, before Courts of Requests
+for debts contracted in extravagant living, might be officers by virtue
+of their commissions, but they were not gentlemen.  The habit of being
+constantly in debt, the Commander-in-chief held, made men grow callous to
+the proper feelings of a gentleman.  It was not enough that an officer
+should be able to fight: that any bull-dog could do.  But did he hold his
+word inviolate?—did he pay his debts?  These were among the points of
+honour which, he insisted, illuminated the true gentleman’s and soldier’s
+career.  As Bayard was of old, so would Sir Charles Napier have all
+British officers to be.  He knew them to be “without fear,” but he would
+also have them “without reproach.”  There are, however, many gallant
+young fellows, both in India and at home, capable of mounting a breach on
+an emergency amidst belching fire, and of performing the most desperate
+deeds of valour, who nevertheless cannot or will not exercise the moral
+courage necessary to enable them to resist a petty temptation presented
+to their senses.  They cannot utter their valiant “No,” or “I can’t
+afford it,” to the invitations of pleasure and self-enjoyment; and they
+are found ready to brave death rather than the ridicule of their
+companions.
+
+The young man, as he passes through life, advances through a long line of
+tempters ranged on either side of him; and the inevitable effect of
+yielding, is degradation in a greater or a less degree.  Contact with
+them tends insensibly to draw away from him some portion of the divine
+electric element with which his nature is charged; and his only mode of
+resisting them is to utter and to act out his “no” manfully and
+resolutely.  He must decide at once, not waiting to deliberate and
+balance reasons; for the youth, like “the woman who deliberates, is
+lost.”  Many deliberate, without deciding; but “not to resolve, _is_ to
+resolve.”  A perfect knowledge of man is in the prayer, “Lead us not into
+temptation.”  But temptation will come to try the young man’s strength;
+and once yielded to, the power to resist grows weaker and weaker.  Yield
+once, and a portion of virtue has gone.  Resist manfully, and the first
+decision will give strength for life; repeated, it will become a habit.
+It is in the outworks of the habits formed in early life that the real
+strength of the defence must lie; for it has been wisely ordained, that
+the machinery of moral existence should be carried on principally through
+the medium of the habits, so as to save the wear and tear of the great
+principles within.  It is good habits, which insinuate themselves into
+the thousand inconsiderable acts of life, that really constitute by far
+the greater part of man’s moral conduct.
+
+Hugh Miller has told how, by an act of youthful decision, he saved
+himself from one of the strong temptations so peculiar to a life of toil.
+When employed as a mason, it was usual for his fellow-workmen to have an
+occasional treat of drink, and one day two glasses of whisky fell to his
+share, which he swallowed.  When he reached home, he found, on opening
+his favourite book—‘Bacon’s Essays’—that the letters danced before his
+eyes, and that he could no longer master the sense.  “The condition,” he
+says, “into which I had brought myself was, I felt, one of degradation.
+I had sunk, by my own act, for the time, to a lower level of intelligence
+than that on which it was my privilege to be placed; and though the state
+could have been no very favourable one for forming a resolution, I in
+that hour determined that I should never again sacrifice my capacity of
+intellectual enjoyment to a drinking usage; and, with God’s help, I was
+enabled to hold by the determination.”  It is such decisions as this that
+often form the turning-points in a man’s life, and furnish the foundation
+of his future character.  And this rock, on which Hugh Miller might have
+been wrecked, if he had not at the right moment put forth his moral
+strength to strike away from it, is one that youth and manhood alike need
+to be constantly on their guard against.  It is about one of the worst
+and most deadly, as well as extravagant, temptations which lie in the way
+of youth.  Sir Walter Scott used to say that “of all vices drinking is
+the most incompatible with greatness.”  Not only so, but it is
+incompatible with economy, decency, health, and honest living.  When a
+youth cannot restrain, he must abstain.  Dr. Johnson’s case is the case
+of many.  He said, referring to his own habits, “Sir, I can abstain; but
+I can’t be moderate.”
+
+But to wrestle vigorously and successfully with any vicious habit, we
+must not merely be satisfied with contending on the low ground of worldly
+prudence, though that is of use, but take stand upon a higher moral
+elevation.  Mechanical aids, such as pledges, may be of service to some,
+but the great thing is to set up a high standard of thinking and acting,
+and endeavour to strengthen and purify the principles as well as to
+reform the habits.  For this purpose a youth must study himself, watch
+his steps, and compare his thoughts and acts with his rule.  The more
+knowledge of himself he gains, the more humble will he be, and perhaps
+the less confident in his own strength.  But the discipline will be
+always found most valuable which is acquired by resisting small present
+gratifications to secure a prospective greater and higher one.  It is the
+noblest work in self-education—for
+
+    “Real glory
+    Springs from the silent conquest of ourselves,
+    And without that the conqueror is nought
+    But the first slave.”
+
+Many popular books have been written for the purpose of communicating to
+the public the grand secret of making money.  But there is no secret
+whatever about it, as the proverbs of every nation abundantly testify.
+“Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.”
+“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”  “No pains no gains.”  “No sweat
+no sweet.”  “Work and thou shalt have.”  “The world is his who has
+patience and industry.”  “Better go to bed supperless than rise in debt.”
+Such are specimens of the proverbial philosophy, embodying the hoarded
+experience of many generations, as to the best means of thriving in the
+world.  They were current in people’s mouths long before books were
+invented; and like other popular proverbs they were the first codes of
+popular morals.  Moreover they have stood the test of time, and the
+experience of every day still bears witness to their accuracy, force, and
+soundness.  The proverbs of Solomon are full of wisdom as to the force of
+industry, and the use and abuse of money:—“He that is slothful in work is
+brother to him that is a great waster.”  “Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
+consider her ways, and be wise.”  Poverty, says the preacher, shall come
+upon the idler, “as one that travelleth, and want as an armed man;” but
+of the industrious and upright, “the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”
+“The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall
+clothe a man with rags.”  “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he
+shall stand before kings.”  But above all, “It is better to get wisdom
+than gold; for wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that may
+be desired are not to be compared to it.”
+
+Simple industry and thrift will go far towards making any person of
+ordinary working faculty comparatively independent in his means.  Even a
+working man may be so, provided he will carefully husband his resources,
+and watch the little outlets of useless expenditure.  A penny is a very
+small matter, yet the comfort of thousands of families depends upon the
+proper spending and saving of pennies.  If a man allows the little
+pennies, the results of his hard work, to slip out of his fingers—some to
+the beershop, some this way and some that—he will find that his life is
+little raised above one of mere animal drudgery.  On the other hand, if
+he take care of the pennies—putting some weekly into a benefit society or
+an insurance fund, others into a savings’ bank, and confiding the rest to
+his wife to be carefully laid out, with a view to the comfortable
+maintenance and education of his family—he will soon find that this
+attention to small matters will abundantly repay him, in increasing
+means, growing comfort at home, and a mind comparatively free from fears
+as to the future.  And if a working man have high ambition and possess
+richness in spirit,—a kind of wealth which far transcends all mere
+worldly possessions—he may not only help himself, but be a profitable
+helper of others in his path through life.  That this is no impossible
+thing even for a common labourer in a workshop, may be illustrated by the
+remarkable career of Thomas Wright of Manchester, who not only attempted
+but succeeded in the reclamation of many criminals while working for
+weekly wages in a foundry.
+
+Accident first directed Thomas Wright’s attention to the difficulty
+encountered by liberated convicts in returning to habits of honest
+industry.  His mind was shortly possessed by the subject; and to remedy
+the evil became the purpose of his life.  Though he worked from six in
+the morning till six at night, still there were leisure minutes that he
+could call his own—more especially his Sundays—and these he employed in
+the service of convicted criminals; a class then far more neglected than
+they are now.  But a few minutes a day, well employed, can effect a great
+deal; and it will scarcely be credited, that in ten years this working
+man, by steadfastly holding to his purpose, succeeded in rescuing not
+fewer than three hundred felons from continuance in a life of villany!
+He came to be regarded as the moral physician of the Manchester Old
+Bailey; and where the Chaplain and all others failed, Thomas Wright often
+succeeded.  Children he thus restored reformed to their parents; sons and
+daughters otherwise lost, to their homes; and many a returned convict did
+he contrive to settle down to honest and industrious pursuits.  The task
+was by no means easy.  It required money, time, energy, prudence, and
+above all, character, and the confidence which character invariably
+inspires.  The most remarkable circumstance was that Wright relieved many
+of these poor outcasts out of the comparatively small wages earned by him
+at foundry work.  He did all this on an income which did not average,
+during his working career, 100_l._ per annum; and yet, while he was able
+to bestow substantial aid on criminals, to whom he owed no more than the
+service of kindness which every human being owes to another, he also
+maintained his family in comfort, and was, by frugality and carefulness,
+enabled to lay by a store of savings against his approaching old age.
+Every week he apportioned his income with deliberate care; so much for
+the indispensable necessaries of food and clothing, so much for the
+landlord, so much for the schoolmaster, so much for the poor and needy;
+and the lines of distribution were resolutely observed.  By such means
+did this humble workman pursue his great work, with the results we have
+so briefly described.  Indeed, his career affords one of the most
+remarkable and striking illustrations of the force of purpose in a man,
+of the might of small means carefully and sedulously applied, and, above
+all, of the power which an energetic and upright character invariably
+exercises upon the lives and conduct of others.
+
+There is no discredit, but honour, in every right walk of industry,
+whether it be in tilling the ground, making tools, weaving fabrics, or
+selling the products behind a counter.  A youth may handle a yard-stick,
+or measure a piece of ribbon; and there will be no discredit in doing so,
+unless he allows his mind to have no higher range than the stick and
+ribbon; to be as short as the one, and as narrow as the other.  “Let not
+those blush who _have_,” said Fuller, “but those who _have not_ a lawful
+calling.”  And Bishop Hall said, “Sweet is the destiny of all trades,
+whether of the brow or of the mind.”  Men who have raised themselves from
+a humble calling, need not be ashamed, but rather ought to be proud of
+the difficulties they have surmounted.  An American President, when asked
+what was his coat-of-arms, remembering that he had been a hewer of wood
+in his youth, replied, “A pair of shirt sleeves.”  A French doctor once
+taunted Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, who had been a tallow-chandler in his
+youth, with the meanness of his origin, to which Flechier replied, “If
+you had been born in the same condition that I was, you would still have
+been but a maker of candles.”
+
+Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of
+any higher object than its accumulation.  A man who devotes himself to
+this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich.  Very
+little brains will do; spend less than you earn; add guinea to guinea;
+scrape and save; and the pile of gold will gradually rise.  Osterwald,
+the Parisian banker, began life a poor man.  He was accustomed every
+evening to drink a pint of beer for supper at a tavern which he visited,
+during which he collected and pocketed all the corks that he could lay
+his hands on.  In eight years he had collected as many corks as sold for
+eight louis d’ors.  With that sum he laid the foundations of his
+fortune—gained mostly by stock-jobbing; leaving at his death some three
+millions of francs.  John Foster has cited a striking illustration of
+what this kind of determination will do in money-making.  A young man who
+ran through his patrimony, spending it in profligacy, was at length
+reduced to utter want and despair.  He rushed out of his house intending
+to put an end to his life, and stopped on arriving at an eminence
+overlooking what were once his estates.  He sat down, ruminated for a
+time, and rose with the determination that he would recover them.  He
+returned to the streets, saw a load of coals which had been shot out of a
+cart on to the pavement before a house, offered to carry them in, and was
+employed.  He thus earned a few pence, requested some meat and drink as a
+gratuity, which was given him, and the pennies were laid by.  Pursuing
+this menial labour, he earned and saved more pennies; accumulated
+sufficient to enable him to purchase some cattle, the value of which he
+understood, and these he sold to advantage.  He proceeded by degrees to
+undertake larger transactions, until at length he became rich.  The
+result was, that he more than recovered his possessions, and died an
+inveterate miser.  When he was buried, mere earth went to earth.  With a
+nobler spirit, the same determination might have enabled such a man to be
+a benefactor to others as well as to himself.  But the life and its end
+in this case were alike sordid.
+
+To provide for others and for our own comfort and independence in old
+age, is honourable, and greatly to be commended; but to hoard for mere
+wealth’s sake is the characteristic of the narrow-souled and the miserly.
+It is against the growth of this habit of inordinate saving that the wise
+man needs most carefully to guard himself: else, what in youth was simple
+economy, may in old age grow into avarice, and what was a duty in the one
+case, may become a vice in the other.  It is the _love_ of money—not
+money itself—which is “the root of evil,”—a love which narrows and
+contracts the soul, and closes it against generous life and action.
+Hence, Sir Walter Scott makes one of his characters declare that “the
+penny siller slew more souls than the naked sword slew bodies.”  It is
+one of the defects of business too exclusively followed, that it
+insensibly tends to a mechanism of character.  The business man gets into
+a rut, and often does not look beyond it.  If he lives for himself only,
+he becomes apt to regard other human beings only in so far as they
+minister to his ends.  Take a leaf from such men’s ledger and you have
+their life.
+
+Worldly success, measured by the accumulation of money, is no doubt a
+very dazzling thing; and all men are naturally more or less the admirers
+of worldly success.  But though men of persevering, sharp, dexterous, and
+unscrupulous habits, ever on the watch to push opportunities, may and do
+“get on” in the world, yet it is quite possible that they may not possess
+the slightest elevation of character, nor a particle of real goodness.
+He who recognizes no higher logic than that of the shilling, may become a
+very rich man, and yet remain all the while an exceedingly poor creature.
+For riches are no proof whatever of moral worth; and their glitter often
+serves only to draw attention to the worthlessness of their possessor, as
+the light of the glowworm reveals the grub.
+
+The manner in which many allow themselves to be sacrificed to their love
+of wealth reminds one of the cupidity of the monkey—that caricature of
+our species.  In Algiers, the Kabyle peasant attaches a gourd, well
+fixed, to a tree, and places within it some rice.  The gourd has an
+opening merely sufficient to admit the monkey’s paw.  The creature comes
+to the tree by night, inserts his paw, and grasps his booty.  He tries to
+draw it back, but it is clenched, and he has not the wisdom to unclench
+it.  So there he stands till morning, when he is caught, looking as
+foolish as may be, though with the prize in his grasp.  The moral of this
+little story is capable of a very extensive application in life.
+
+The power of money is on the whole over-estimated.  The greatest things
+which have been done for the world have not been accomplished by rich
+men, nor by subscription lists, but by men generally of small pecuniary
+means.  Christianity was propagated over half the world by men of the
+poorest class; and the greatest thinkers, discoverers, inventors, and
+artists, have been men of moderate wealth, many of them little raised
+above the condition of manual labourers in point of worldly
+circumstances.  And it will always be so.  Riches are oftener an
+impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as
+much a misfortune as a blessing.  The youth who inherits wealth is apt to
+have life made too easy for him, and he soon grows sated with it, because
+he has nothing left to desire.  Having no special object to struggle for,
+he finds time hang heavy on his hands; he remains morally and spiritually
+asleep; and his position in society is often no higher than that of a
+polypus over which the tide floats.
+
+    “His only labour is to kill the time,
+    And labour dire it is, and weary woe.”
+
+Yet the rich man, inspired by a right spirit, will spurn idleness as
+unmanly; and if he bethink himself of the responsibilities which attach
+to the possession of wealth and property he will feel even a higher call
+to work than men of humbler lot.  This, however, must be admitted to be
+by no means the practice of life.  The golden mean of Agur’s perfect
+prayer is, perhaps, the best lot of all, did we but know it: “Give me
+neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.”  The
+late Joseph Brotherton, M.P., left a fine motto to be recorded upon his
+monument in the Peel Park at Manchester,—the declaration in his case
+being strictly true: “My richness consisted not in the greatness of my
+possessions, but in the smallness of my wants.”  He rose from the
+humblest station, that of a factory boy, to an eminent position of
+usefulness, by the simple exercise of homely honesty, industry,
+punctuality, and self-denial.  Down to the close of his life, when not
+attending Parliament, he did duty as minister in a small chapel in
+Manchester to which he was attached; and in all things he made it appear,
+to those who knew him in private life, that the glory he sought was _not_
+“to be seen of men,” or to excite their praise, but to earn the
+consciousness of discharging the every-day duties of life, down to the
+smallest and humblest of them, in an honest, upright, truthful, and
+loving spirit.
+
+“Respectability,” in its best sense, is good.  The respectable man is one
+worthy of regard, literally worth turning to look at.  But the
+respectability that consists in merely keeping up appearances is not
+worth looking at in any sense.  Far better and more respectable is the
+good poor man than the bad rich one—better the humble silent man than the
+agreeable well-appointed rogue who keeps his gig.  A well balanced and
+well-stored mind, a life full of useful purpose, whatever the position
+occupied in it may be, is of far greater importance than average worldly
+respectability.  The highest object of life we take to be, to form a
+manly character, and to work out the best development possible, of body
+and spirit—of mind, conscience, heart, and soul.  This is the end: all
+else ought to be regarded but as the means.  Accordingly, that is not the
+most successful life in which a man gets the most pleasure, the most
+money, the most power or place, honour or fame; but that in which a man
+gets the most manhood, and performs the greatest amount of useful work
+and of human duty.  Money is power after its sort, it is true; but
+intelligence, public spirit, and moral virtue, are powers too, and far
+nobler ones.  “Let others plead for pensions,” wrote Lord Collingwood to
+a friend; “I can be rich without money, by endeavouring to be superior to
+everything poor.  I would have my services to my country unstained by any
+interested motive; and old Scott {313} and I can go on in our
+cabbage-garden without much greater expense than formerly.”  On another
+occasion he said, “I have motives for my conduct which I would not give
+in exchange for a hundred pensions.”
+
+The making of a fortune may no doubt enable some people to “enter
+society,” as it is called; but to be esteemed there, they must possess
+qualities of mind, manners, or heart, else they are merely rich people,
+nothing more.  There are men “in society” now, as rich as Croesus, who
+have no consideration extended towards them, and elicit no respect.  For
+why?  They are but as money-bags: their only power is in their till.  The
+men of mark in society—the guides and rulers of opinion—the really
+successful and useful men—are not necessarily rich men; but men of
+sterling character, of disciplined experience, and of moral excellence.
+Even the poor man, like Thomas Wright, though he possess but little of
+this world’s goods, may, in the enjoyment of a cultivated nature, of
+opportunities used and not abused, of a life spent to the best of his
+means and ability, look down, without the slightest feeling of envy, upon
+the person of mere worldly success, the man of money-bags and acres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+SELF-CULTURE—FACILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+    “Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others,
+    and one, more important, which he gives to himself.”—_Gibbon_.
+
+    “Is there one whom difficulties dishearten—who bends to the storm?
+    He will do little.  Is there one who will conquer?  That kind of man
+    never fails.”—_John Hunter_.
+
+    “The wise and active conquer difficulties,
+    By daring to attempt them: sloth and folly
+    Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and danger,
+    And _make_ the impossibility they fear.”—_Rowe_.
+
+“THE best part of every man’s education,” said Sir Walter Scott, “is that
+which he gives to himself.”  The late Sir Benjamin Brodie delighted to
+remember this saying, and he used to congratulate himself on the fact
+that professionally he was self-taught.  But this is necessarily the case
+with all men who have acquired distinction in letters, science, or art.
+The education received at school or college is but a beginning, and is
+valuable mainly inasmuch as it trains the mind and habituates it to
+continuous application and study.  That which is put into us by others is
+always far less ours than that which we acquire by our own diligent and
+persevering effort.  Knowledge conquered by labour becomes a possession—a
+property entirely our own.  A greater vividness and permanency of
+impression is secured; and facts thus acquired become registered in the
+mind in a way that mere imparted information can never effect.  This kind
+of self-culture also calls forth power and cultivates strength.  The
+solution of one problem helps the mastery of another; and thus knowledge
+is carried into faculty.  Our own active effort is the essential thing;
+and no facilities, no books, no teachers, no amount of lessons learnt by
+rote will enable us to dispense with it.
+
+The best teachers have been the readiest to recognize the importance of
+self-culture, and of stimulating the student to acquire knowledge by the
+active exercise of his own faculties.  They have relied more upon
+_training_ than upon telling, and sought to make their pupils themselves
+active parties to the work in which they were engaged; thus making
+teaching something far higher than the mere passive reception of the
+scraps and details of knowledge.  This was the spirit in which the great
+Dr. Arnold worked; he strove to teach his pupils to rely upon themselves,
+and develop their powers by their own active efforts, himself merely
+guiding, directing, stimulating, and encouraging them.  “I would far
+rather,” he said, “send a boy to Van Diemen’s Land, where he must work
+for his bread, than send him to Oxford to live in luxury, without any
+desire in his mind to avail himself of his advantages.”  “If there be one
+thing on earth,” he observed on another occasion, “which is truly
+admirable, it is to see God’s wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural
+powers, when they have been honestly, truly, and zealously cultivated.”
+Speaking of a pupil of this character, he said, “I would stand to that
+man hat in hand.”  Once at Laleham, when teaching a rather dull boy,
+Arnold spoke somewhat sharply to him, on which the pupil looked up in his
+face and said, “Why do you speak angrily, sir? _indeed_, I am doing the
+best I can.”  Years afterwards, Arnold used to tell the story to his
+children, and added, “I never felt so much in my life—that look and that
+speech I have never forgotten.”
+
+From the numerous instances already cited of men of humble station who
+have risen to distinction in science and literature, it will be obvious
+that labour is by no means incompatible with the highest intellectual
+culture.  Work in moderation is healthy, as well as agreeable to the
+human constitution.  Work educates the body, as study educates the mind;
+and that is the best state of society in which there is some work for
+every man’s leisure, and some leisure for every man’s work.  Even the
+leisure classes are in a measure compelled to work, sometimes as a relief
+from _ennui_, but in most cases to gratify an instinct which they cannot
+resist.  Some go foxhunting in the English counties, others
+grouse-shooting on the Scotch hills, while many wander away every summer
+to climb mountains in Switzerland.  Hence the boating, running,
+cricketing, and athletic sports of the public schools, in which our young
+men at the same time so healthfully cultivate their strength both of mind
+and body.  It is said that the Duke of Wellington, when once looking on
+at the boys engaged in their sports in the play-ground at Eton, where he
+had spent many of his own younger days, made the remark, “It was there
+that the battle of Waterloo was won!”
+
+Daniel Malthus urged his son when at college to be most diligent in the
+cultivation of knowledge, but he also enjoined him to pursue manly sports
+as the best means of keeping up the full working power of his mind, as
+well as of enjoying the pleasures of intellect.  “Every kind of
+knowledge,” said he, “every acquaintance with nature and art, will amuse
+and strengthen your mind, and I am perfectly pleased that cricket should
+do the same by your arms and legs; I love to see you excel in exercises
+of the body, and I think myself that the better half, and much the most
+agreeable part, of the pleasures of the mind is best enjoyed while one is
+upon one’s legs.”  But a still more important use of active employment is
+that referred to by the great divine, Jeremy Taylor.  “Avoid idleness,”
+he says, “and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful
+employment; for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where the soul
+is unemployed and the body is at ease; for no easy, healthful, idle
+person was ever chaste if he could be tempted; but of all employments
+bodily labour is the most useful, and of the greatest benefit for driving
+away the devil.”
+
+Practical success in life depends more upon physical health than is
+generally imagined.  Hodson, of Hodson’s Horse, writing home to a friend
+in England, said, “I believe, if I get on well in India, it will be
+owing, physically speaking, to a sound digestion.”  The capacity for
+continuous working in any calling must necessarily depend in a great
+measure upon this; and hence the necessity for attending to health, even
+as a means of intellectual labour.  It is perhaps to the neglect of
+physical exercise that we find amongst students so frequent a tendency
+towards discontent, unhappiness, inaction, and reverie,—displaying itself
+in contempt for real life and disgust at the beaten tracks of men,—a
+tendency which in England has been called Byronism, and in Germany
+Wertherism.  Dr. Channing noted the same growth in America, which led him
+to make the remark, that “too many of our young men grow up in a school
+of despair.”  The only remedy for this green-sickness in youth is
+physical exercise—action, work, and bodily occupation.
+
+The use of early labour in self-imposed mechanical employments may be
+illustrated by the boyhood of Sir Isaac Newton.  Though a comparatively
+dull scholar, he was very assiduous in the use of his saw, hammer, and
+hatchet—“knocking and hammering in his lodging room”—making models of
+windmills, carriages, and machines of all sorts; and as he grew older, he
+took delight in making little tables and cupboards for his friends.
+Smeaton, Watt, and Stephenson, were equally handy with tools when mere
+boys; and but for such kind of self-culture in their youth, it is
+doubtful whether they would have accomplished so much in their manhood.
+Such was also the early training of the great inventors and mechanics
+described in the preceding pages, whose contrivance and intelligence were
+practically trained by the constant use of their hands in early life.
+Even where men belonging to the manual labour class have risen above it,
+and become more purely intellectual labourers, they have found the
+advantages of their early training in their later pursuits.  Elihu
+Burritt says he found hard labour _necessary_ to enable him to study with
+effect; and more than once he gave up school-teaching and study, and,
+taking to his leather-apron again, went back to his blacksmith’s forge
+and anvil for his health of body and mind’s sake.
+
+The training of young men in the use of tools would, at the same time
+that it educated them in “common things,” teach them the use of their
+hands and arms, familiarize them with healthy work, exercise their
+faculties upon things tangible and actual, give them some practical
+acquaintance with mechanics, impart to them the ability of being useful,
+and implant in them the habit of persevering physical effort.  This is an
+advantage which the working classes, strictly so called, certainly
+possess over the leisure classes,—that they are in early life under the
+necessity of applying themselves laboriously to some mechanical pursuit
+or other,—thus acquiring manual dexterity and the use of their physical
+powers.  The chief disadvantage attached to the calling of the laborious
+classes is, not that they are employed in physical work, but that they
+are too exclusively so employed, often to the neglect of their moral and
+intellectual faculties.  While the youths of the leisure classes, having
+been taught to associate labour with servility, have shunned it, and been
+allowed to grow up practically ignorant, the poorer classes, confining
+themselves within the circle of their laborious callings, have been
+allowed to grow up in a large proportion of cases absolutely illiterate.
+It seems possible, however, to avoid both these evils by combining
+physical training or physical work with intellectual culture: and there
+are various signs abroad which seem to mark the gradual adoption of this
+healthier system of education.
+
+The success of even professional men depends in no slight degree on their
+physical health; and a public writer has gone so far as to say that “the
+greatness of our great men is quite as much a bodily affair as a mental
+one.” {319}  A healthy breathing apparatus is as indispensable to the
+successful lawyer or politician as a well-cultured intellect.  The
+thorough aëration of the blood by free exposure to a large breathing
+surface in the lungs, is necessary to maintain that full vital power on
+which the vigorous working of the brain in so large a measure depends.
+The lawyer has to climb the heights of his profession through close and
+heated courts, and the political leader has to bear the fatigue and
+excitement of long and anxious debates in a crowded House.  Hence the
+lawyer in full practice and the parliamentary leader in full work are
+called upon to display powers of physical endurance and activity even
+more extraordinary than those of the intellect,—such powers as have been
+exhibited in so remarkable a degree by Brougham, Lyndhurst, and Campbell;
+by Peel, Graham, and Palmerston—all full-chested men.
+
+Though Sir Walter Scott, when at Edinburgh College, went by the name of
+“The Greek Blockhead,” he was, notwithstanding his lameness, a remarkably
+healthy youth: he could spear a salmon with the best fisher on the Tweed,
+and ride a wild horse with any hunter in Yarrow.  When devoting himself
+in after life to literary pursuits, Sir Walter never lost his taste for
+field sports; but while writing ‘Waverley’ in the morning, he would in
+the afternoon course hares.  Professor Wilson was a very athlete, as
+great at throwing the hammer as in his flights of eloquence and poetry;
+and Burns, when a youth, was remarkable chiefly for his leaping, putting,
+and wrestling.  Some of our greatest divines were distinguished in their
+youth for their physical energies.  Isaac Barrow, when at the
+Charterhouse School, was notorious for his pugilistic encounters, in
+which he got many a bloody nose; Andrew Fuller, when working as a
+farmer’s lad at Soham, was chiefly famous for his skill in boxing; and
+Adam Clarke, when a boy, was only remarkable for the strength displayed
+by him in “rolling large stones about,”—the secret, possibly, of some of
+the power which he subsequently displayed in rolling forth large thoughts
+in his manhood.
+
+While it is necessary, then, in the first place to secure this solid
+foundation of physical health, it must also be observed that the
+cultivation of the habit of mental application is quite indispensable for
+the education of the student.  The maxim that “Labour conquers all
+things” holds especially true in the case of the conquest of knowledge.
+The road into learning is alike free to all who will give the labour and
+the study requisite to gather it; nor are there any difficulties so great
+that the student of resolute purpose may not surmount and overcome them.
+It was one of the characteristic expressions of Chatterton, that God had
+sent his creatures into the world with arms long enough to reach anything
+if they chose to be at the trouble.  In study, as in business, energy is
+the great thing.  There must be the “fervet opus”: we must not only
+strike the iron while it is hot, but strike it till it is made hot.  It
+is astonishing how much may be accomplished in self-culture by the
+energetic and the persevering, who are careful to avail themselves of
+opportunities, and use up the fragments of spare time which the idle
+permit to run to waste.  Thus Ferguson learnt astronomy from the heavens,
+while wrapt in a sheep-skin on the highland hills.  Thus Stone learnt
+mathematics while working as a journeyman gardener; thus Drew studied the
+highest philosophy in the intervals of cobbling shoes; and thus Miller
+taught himself geology while working as a day labourer in a quarry.
+
+Sir Joshua Reynolds, as we have already observed, was so earnest a
+believer in the force of industry that he held that all men might achieve
+excellence if they would but exercise the power of assiduous and patient
+working.  He held that drudgery lay on the road to genius, and that there
+was no limit to the proficiency of an artist except the limit of his own
+painstaking.  He would not believe in what is called inspiration, but
+only in study and labour.  “Excellence,” he said, “is never granted to
+man but as the reward of labour.”  “If you have great talents, industry
+will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will
+supply their deficiency.  Nothing is denied to well-directed labour;
+nothing is to be obtained without it.”  Sir Fowell Buxton was an equal
+believer in the power of study; and he entertained the modest idea that
+he could do as well as other men if he devoted to the pursuit double the
+time and labour that they did.  He placed his great confidence in
+ordinary means and extraordinary application.
+
+“I have known several men in my life,” says Dr. Ross, “who may be
+recognized in days to come as men of genius, and they were all plodders,
+hard-working, _intent_ men.  Genius is known by its works; genius without
+works is a blind faith, a dumb oracle.  But meritorious works are the
+result of time and labour, and cannot be accomplished by intention or by
+a wish. . . . Every great work is the result of vast preparatory
+training.  Facility comes by labour.  Nothing seems easy, not even
+walking, that was not difficult at first.  The orator whose eye flashes
+instantaneous fire, and whose lips pour out a flood of noble thoughts,
+startling by their unexpectedness, and elevating by their wisdom and
+truth, has learned his secret by patient repetition, and after many
+bitter disappointments.” {321}
+
+Thoroughness and accuracy are two principal points to be aimed at in
+study.  Francis Horner, in laying down rules for the cultivation of his
+mind, placed great stress upon the habit of continuous application to one
+subject for the sake of mastering it thoroughly; he confined himself,
+with this object, to only a few books, and resisted with the greatest
+firmness “every approach to a habit of desultory reading.”  The value of
+knowledge to any man consists not in its quantity, but mainly in the good
+uses to which he can apply it.  Hence a little knowledge, of an exact and
+perfect character, is always found more valuable for practical purposes
+than any extent of superficial learning.
+
+One of Ignatius Loyola’s maxims was, “He who does well one work at a
+time, does more than all.”  By spreading our efforts over too large a
+surface we inevitably weaken our force, hinder our progress, and acquire
+a habit of fitfulness and ineffective working.  Lord St. Leonards once
+communicated to Sir Fowell Buxton the mode in which he had conducted his
+studies, and thus explained the secret of his success.  “I resolved,”
+said he, “when beginning to read law, to make everything I acquired
+perfectly my own, and never to go to a second thing till I had entirely
+accomplished the first.  Many of my competitors read as much in a day as
+I read in a week; but, at the end of twelve months, my knowledge was as
+fresh as the day it was acquired, while theirs had glided away from
+recollection.”
+
+It is not the quantity of study that one gets through, or the amount of
+reading, that makes a wise man; but the appositeness of the study to the
+purpose for which it is pursued; the concentration of the mind for the
+time being on the subject under consideration; and the habitual
+discipline by which the whole system of mental application is regulated.
+Abernethy was even of opinion that there was a point of saturation in his
+own mind, and that if he took into it something more than it could hold,
+it only had the effect of pushing something else out.  Speaking of the
+study of medicine, he said, “If a man has a clear idea of what he desires
+to do, he will seldom fail in selecting the proper means of accomplishing
+it.”
+
+The most profitable study is that which is conducted with a definite aim
+and object.  By thoroughly mastering any given branch of knowledge we
+render it more available for use at any moment.  Hence it is not enough
+merely to have books, or to know where to read for information as we want
+it.  Practical wisdom, for the purposes of life, must be carried about
+with us, and be ready for use at call.  It is not sufficient that we have
+a fund laid up at home, but not a farthing in the pocket: we must carry
+about with us a store of the current coin of knowledge ready for exchange
+on all occasions, else we are comparatively helpless when the opportunity
+for using it occurs.
+
+Decision and promptitude are as requisite in self-culture as in business.
+The growth of these qualities may be encouraged by accustoming young
+people to rely upon their own resources, leaving them to enjoy as much
+freedom of action in early life as is practicable.  Too much guidance and
+restraint hinder the formation of habits of self-help.  They are like
+bladders tied under the arms of one who has not taught himself to swim.
+Want of confidence is perhaps a greater obstacle to improvement than is
+generally imagined.  It has been said that half the failures in life
+arise from pulling in one’s horse while he is leaping.  Dr. Johnson was
+accustomed to attribute his success to confidence in his own powers.
+True modesty is quite compatible with a due estimate of one’s own merits,
+and does not demand the abnegation of all merit.  Though there are those
+who deceive themselves by putting a false figure before their ciphers,
+the want of confidence, the want of faith in one’s self, and consequently
+the want of promptitude in action, is a defect of character which is
+found to stand very much in the way of individual progress; and the
+reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is
+attempted.
+
+There is usually no want of desire on the part of most persons to arrive
+at the results of self-culture, but there is a great aversion to pay the
+inevitable price for it, of hard work.  Dr. Johnson held that “impatience
+of study was the mental disease of the present generation;” and the
+remark is still applicable.  We may not believe that there is a royal
+road to learning, but we seem to believe very firmly in a “popular” one.
+In education, we invent labour-saving processes, seek short cuts to
+science, learn French and Latin “in twelve lessons,” or “without a
+master.”  We resemble the lady of fashion, who engaged a master to teach
+her on condition that he did not plague her with verbs and participles.
+We get our smattering of science in the same way; we learn chemistry by
+listening to a short course of lectures enlivened by experiments, and
+when we have inhaled laughing gas, seen green water turned to red, and
+phosphorus burnt in oxygen, we have got our smattering, of which the most
+that can be said is, that though it may be better than nothing, it is yet
+good for nothing.  Thus we often imagine we are being educated while we
+are only being amused.
+
+The facility with which young people are thus induced to acquire
+knowledge, without study and labour, is not education.  It occupies but
+does not enrich the mind.  It imparts a stimulus for the time, and
+produces a sort of intellectual keenness and cleverness; but, without an
+implanted purpose and a higher object than mere pleasure, it will bring
+with it no solid advantage.  In such cases knowledge produces but a
+passing impression; a sensation, but no more; it is, in fact, the merest
+epicurism of intelligence—sensuous, but certainly not intellectual.  Thus
+the best qualities of many minds, those which are evoked by vigorous
+effort and independent action, sleep a deep sleep, and are often never
+called to life, except by the rough awakening of sudden calamity or
+suffering, which, in such cases, comes as a blessing, if it serves to
+rouse up a courageous spirit that, but for it, would have slept on.
+
+Accustomed to acquire information under the guise of amusement, young
+people will soon reject that which is presented to them under the aspect
+of study and labour.  Learning their knowledge and science in sport, they
+will be too apt to make sport of both; while the habit of intellectual
+dissipation, thus engendered, cannot fail, in course of time, to produce
+a thoroughly emasculating effect both upon their mind and character.
+“Multifarious reading,” said Robertson of Brighton, “weakens the mind
+like smoking, and is an excuse for its lying dormant.  It is the idlest
+of all idlenesses, and leaves more of impotency than any other.”
+
+The evil is a growing one, and operates in various ways.  Its least
+mischief is shallowness; its greatest, the aversion to steady labour
+which it induces, and the low and feeble tone of mind which it
+encourages.  If we would be really wise, we must diligently apply
+ourselves, and confront the same continuous application which our
+forefathers did; for labour is still, and ever will be, the inevitable
+price set upon everything which is valuable.  We must be satisfied to
+work with a purpose, and wait the results with patience.  All progress,
+of the best kind, is slow; but to him who works faithfully and zealously
+the reward will, doubtless, be vouchsafed in good time.  The spirit of
+industry, embodied in a man’s daily life, will gradually lead him to
+exercise his powers on objects outside himself, of greater dignity and
+more extended usefulness.  And still we must labour on; for the work of
+self-culture is never finished.  “To be employed,” said the poet Gray,
+“is to be happy.”  “It is better to wear out than rust out,” said Bishop
+Cumberland.  “Have we not all eternity to rest in?” exclaimed Arnauld.
+“Repos ailleurs” was the motto of Marnix de St. Aldegonde, the energetic
+and ever-working friend of William the Silent.
+
+It is the use we make of the powers entrusted to us, which constitutes
+our only just claim to respect.  He who employs his one talent aright is
+as much to be honoured as he to whom ten talents have been given.  There
+is really no more personal merit attaching to the possession of superior
+intellectual powers than there is in the succession to a large estate.
+How are those powers used—how is that estate employed?  The mind may
+accumulate large stores of knowledge without any useful purpose; but the
+knowledge must be allied to goodness and wisdom, and embodied in upright
+character, else it is naught.  Pestalozzi even held intellectual training
+by itself to be pernicious; insisting that the roots of all knowledge
+must strike and feed in the soil of the rightly-governed will.  The
+acquisition of knowledge may, it is true, protect a man against the
+meaner felonies of life; but not in any degree against its selfish vices,
+unless fortified by sound principles and habits.  Hence do we find in
+daily life so many instances of men who are well-informed in intellect,
+but utterly deformed in character; filled with the learning of the
+schools, yet possessing little practical wisdom, and offering examples
+for warning rather than imitation.  An often quoted expression at this
+day is that “Knowledge is power;” but so also are fanaticism, despotism,
+and ambition.  Knowledge of itself, unless wisely directed, might merely
+make bad men more dangerous, and the society in which it was regarded as
+the highest good, little better than a pandemonium.
+
+It is possible that at this day we may even exaggerate the importance of
+literary culture.  We are apt to imagine that because we possess many
+libraries, institutes, and museums, we are making great progress.  But
+such facilities may as often be a hindrance as a help to individual
+self-culture of the highest kind.  The possession of a library, or the
+free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of
+wealth constitutes generosity.  Though we undoubtedly possess great
+facilities it is nevertheless true, as of old, that wisdom and
+understanding can only become the possession of individual men by
+travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and
+industry.  The possession of the mere materials of knowledge is something
+very different from wisdom and understanding, which are reached through a
+higher kind of discipline than that of reading,—which is often but a mere
+passive reception of other men’s thoughts; there being little or no
+active effort of mind in the transaction.  Then how much of our reading
+is but the indulgence of a sort of intellectual dram-drinking, imparting
+a grateful excitement for the moment, without the slightest effect in
+improving and enriching the mind or building up the character.  Thus many
+indulge themselves in the conceit that they are cultivating their minds,
+when they are only employed in the humbler occupation of killing time, of
+which perhaps the best that can be said is that it keeps them from doing
+worse things.
+
+It is also to be borne in mind that the experience gathered from books,
+though often valuable, is but of the nature of _learning_; whereas the
+experience gained from actual life is of the nature of _wisdom_; and a
+small store of the latter is worth vastly more than any stock of the
+former.  Lord Bolingbroke truly said that “Whatever study tends neither
+directly nor indirectly to make us better men and citizens, is at best
+but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness, and the knowledge we
+acquire by it, only a creditable kind of ignorance—nothing more.”
+
+Useful and instructive though good reading may be, it is yet only one
+mode of cultivating the mind; and is much less influential than practical
+experience and good example in the formation of character.  There were
+wise, valiant, and true-hearted men bred in England, long before the
+existence of a reading public.  Magna Charta was secured by men who
+signed the deed with their marks.  Though altogether unskilled in the art
+of deciphering the literary signs by which principles were denominated
+upon paper, they yet understood and appreciated, and boldly contended
+for, the things themselves.  Thus the foundations of English liberty were
+laid by men, who, though illiterate, were nevertheless of the very
+highest stamp of character.  And it must be admitted that the chief
+object of culture is, not merely to fill the mind with other men’s
+thoughts, and to be the passive recipient of their impressions of things,
+but to enlarge our individual intelligence, and render us more useful and
+efficient workers in the sphere of life to which we may be called.  Many
+of our most energetic and useful workers have been but sparing readers.
+Brindley and Stephenson did not learn to read and write until they
+reached manhood, and yet they did great works and lived manly lives; John
+Hunter could barely read or write when he was twenty years old, though he
+could make tables and chairs with any carpenter in the trade.  “I never
+read,” said the great physiologist when lecturing before his class;
+“this”—pointing to some part of the subject before him—“this is the work
+that you must study if you wish to become eminent in your profession.”
+When told that one of his contemporaries had charged him with being
+ignorant of the dead languages, he said, “I would undertake to teach him
+that on the dead body which he never knew in any language, dead or
+living.”
+
+It is not then how much a man may know, that is of importance, but the
+end and purpose for which he knows it.  The object of knowledge should be
+to mature wisdom and improve character, to render us better, happier, and
+more useful; more benevolent, more energetic, and more efficient in the
+pursuit of every high purpose in life.  “When people once fall into the
+habit of admiring and encouraging ability as such, without reference to
+moral character—and religious and political opinions are the concrete
+form of moral character—they are on the highway to all sorts of
+degradation.” {329}  We must ourselves _be_ and _do_, and not rest
+satisfied merely with reading and meditating over what other men have
+been and done.  Our best light must be made life, and our best thought
+action.  At least we ought to be able to say, as Richter did, “I have
+made as much out of myself as could be made of the stuff, and no man
+should require more;” for it is every man’s duty to discipline and guide
+himself, with God’s help, according to his responsibilities and the
+faculties with which he has been endowed.
+
+Self-discipline and self-control are the beginnings of practical wisdom;
+and these must have their root in self-respect.  Hope springs from
+it—hope, which is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for
+whoso hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.  The humblest
+may say, “To respect myself, to develop myself—this is my true duty in
+life.  An integral and responsible part of the great system of society, I
+owe it to society and to its Author not to degrade or destroy either my
+body, mind, or instincts.  On the contrary, I am bound to the best of my
+power to give to those parts of my constitution the highest degree of
+perfection possible.  I am not only to suppress the evil, but to evoke
+the good elements in my nature.  And as I respect myself, so am I equally
+bound to respect others, as they on their part are bound to respect me.”
+Hence mutual respect, justice, and order, of which law becomes the
+written record and guarantee.
+
+Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man may clothe
+himself—the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired.
+One of Pythagoras’s wisest maxims, in his ‘Golden Verses,’ is that with
+which he enjoins the pupil to “reverence himself.”  Borne up by this high
+idea, he will not defile his body by sensuality, nor his mind by servile
+thoughts.  This sentiment, carried into daily life, will be found at the
+root of all the virtues—cleanliness, sobriety, chastity, morality, and
+religion.  “The pious and just honouring of ourselves,” said Milton, “may
+be thought the radical moisture and fountain-head from whence every
+laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.”  To think meanly of one’s
+self, is to sink in one’s own estimation as well as in the estimation of
+others.  And as the thoughts are, so will the acts be.  Man cannot aspire
+if he look down; if he will rise, he must look up.  The very humblest may
+be sustained by the proper indulgence of this feeling.  Poverty itself
+may be lifted and lighted up by self-respect; and it is truly a noble
+sight to see a poor man hold himself upright amidst his temptations, and
+refuse to demean himself by low actions.
+
+One way in which self-culture may be degraded is by regarding it too
+exclusively as a means of “getting on.”  Viewed in this light, it is
+unquestionable that education is one of the best investments of time and
+labour.  In any line of life, intelligence will enable a man to adapt
+himself more readily to circumstances, suggest improved methods of
+working, and render him more apt, skilled and effective in all respects.
+He who works with his head as well as his hands, will come to look at his
+business with a clearer eye; and he will become conscious of increasing
+power—perhaps the most cheering consciousness the human mind can cherish.
+The power of self-help will gradually grow; and in proportion to a man’s
+self-respect, will he be armed against the temptation of low indulgences.
+Society and its action will be regarded with quite a new interest, his
+sympathies will widen and enlarge, and he will thus be attracted to work
+for others as well as for himself.
+
+Self-culture may not, however, end in eminence, as in the numerous
+instances above cited.  The great majority of men, in all times, however
+enlightened, must necessarily be engaged in the ordinary avocations of
+industry; and no degree of culture which can be conferred upon the
+community at large will ever enable them—even were it desirable, which it
+is not—to get rid of the daily work of society, which must be done.  But
+this, we think, may also be accomplished.  We can elevate the condition
+of labour by allying it to noble thoughts, which confer a grace upon the
+lowliest as well as the highest rank.  For no matter how poor or humble a
+man may be, the great thinker of this and other days may come in and sit
+down with him, and be his companion for the time, though his dwelling be
+the meanest hut.  It is thus that the habit of well-directed reading may
+become a source of the greatest pleasure and self-improvement, and
+exercise a gentle coercion, with the most beneficial results, over the
+whole tenour of a man’s character and conduct.  And even though
+self-culture may not bring wealth, it will at all events give one the
+companionship of elevated thoughts.  A nobleman once contemptuously asked
+of a sage, “What have you got by all your philosophy?”  “At least I have
+got society in myself,” was the wise man’s reply.
+
+But many are apt to feel despondent, and become discouraged in the work
+of self-culture, because they do not “get on” in the world so fast as
+they think they deserve to do.  Having planted their acorn, they expect
+to see it grow into an oak at once.  They have perhaps looked upon
+knowledge in the light of a marketable commodity, and are consequently
+mortified because it does not sell as they expected it would do.  Mr.
+Tremenheere, in one of his ‘Education Reports’ (for 1840–1), states that
+a schoolmaster in Norfolk, finding his school rapidly falling off, made
+inquiry into the cause, and ascertained that the reason given by the
+majority of the parents for withdrawing their children was, that they had
+expected “education was to make them better off than they were before,”
+but that having found it had “done them no good,” they had taken their
+children from school, and would give themselves no further trouble about
+education!
+
+The same low idea of self-culture is but too prevalent in other classes,
+and is encouraged by the false views of life which are always more or
+less current in society.  But to regard self-culture either as a means of
+getting past others in the world, or of intellectual dissipation and
+amusement, rather than as a power to elevate the character and expand the
+spiritual nature, is to place it on a very low level.  To use the words
+of Bacon, “Knowledge is not a shop for profit or sale, but a rich
+storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man’s estate.”
+It is doubtless most honourable for a man to labour to elevate himself,
+and to better his condition in society, but this is not to be done at the
+sacrifice of himself.  To make the mind the mere drudge of the body, is
+putting it to a very servile use; and to go about whining and bemoaning
+our pitiful lot because we fail in achieving that success in life which,
+after all, depends rather upon habits of industry and attention to
+business details than upon knowledge, is the mark of a small, and often
+of a sour mind.  Such a temper cannot better be reproved than in the
+words of Robert Southey, who thus wrote to a friend who sought his
+counsel: “I would give you advice if it could be of use; but there is no
+curing those who choose to be diseased.  A good man and a wise man may at
+times be angry with the world, at times grieved for it; but be sure no
+man was ever discontented with the world if he did his duty in it.  If a
+man of education, who has health, eyes, hands, and leisure, wants an
+object, it is only because God Almighty has bestowed all those blessings
+upon a man who does not deserve them.”
+
+Another way in which education may be prostituted is by employing it as a
+mere means of intellectual dissipation and amusement.  Many are the
+ministers to this taste in our time.  There is almost a mania for
+frivolity and excitement, which exhibits itself in many forms in our
+popular literature.  To meet the public taste, our books and periodicals
+must now be highly spiced, amusing, and comic, not disdaining slang, and
+illustrative of breaches of all laws, human and divine.  Douglas Jerrold
+once observed of this tendency, “I am convinced the world will get tired
+(at least I hope so) of this eternal guffaw about all things.  After all,
+life has something serious in it.  It cannot be all a comic history of
+humanity.  Some men would, I believe, write a Comic Sermon on the Mount.
+Think of a Comic History of England, the drollery of Alfred, the fun of
+Sir Thomas More, the farce of his daughter begging the dead head and
+clasping it in her coffin on her bosom.  Surely the world will be sick of
+this blasphemy.”  John Sterling, in a like spirit, said:—“Periodicals and
+novels are to all in this generation, but more especially to those whose
+minds are still unformed and in the process of formation, a new and more
+effectual substitute for the plagues of Egypt, vermin that corrupt the
+wholesome waters and infest our chambers.”
+
+As a rest from toil and a relaxation from graver pursuits, the perusal of
+a well-written story, by a writer of genius, is a high intellectual
+pleasure; and it is a description of literature to which all classes of
+readers, old and young, are attracted as by a powerful instinct; nor
+would we have any of them debarred from its enjoyment in a reasonable
+degree.  But to make it the exclusive literary diet, as some do,—to
+devour the garbage with which the shelves of circulating libraries are
+filled,—and to occupy the greater portion of the leisure hours in
+studying the preposterous pictures of human life which so many of them
+present, is worse than waste of time: it is positively pernicious.  The
+habitual novel-reader indulges in fictitious feelings so much, that there
+is great risk of sound and healthy feeling becoming perverted or
+benumbed.  “I never go to hear a tragedy,” said a gay man once to the
+Archbishop of York, “it wears my heart out.”  The literary pity evoked by
+fiction leads to no corresponding action; the susceptibilities which it
+excites involve neither inconvenience nor self-sacrifice; so that the
+heart that is touched too often by the fiction may at length become
+insensible to the reality.  The steel is gradually rubbed out of the
+character, and it insensibly loses its vital spring.  “Drawing fine
+pictures of virtue in one’s mind,” said Bishop Butler, “is so far from
+necessarily or certainly conducive to form a _habit_ of it in him who
+thus employs himself, that it may even harden the mind in a contrary
+course, and render it gradually more insensible.”
+
+Amusement in moderation is wholesome, and to be commended; but amusement
+in excess vitiates the whole nature, and is a thing to be carefully
+guarded against.  The maxim is often quoted of “All work and no play
+makes Jack a dull boy;” but all play and no work makes him something
+greatly worse.  Nothing can be more hurtful to a youth than to have his
+soul sodden with pleasure.  The best qualities of his mind are impaired;
+common enjoyments become tasteless; his appetite for the higher kind of
+pleasures is vitiated; and when he comes to face the work and the duties
+of life, the result is usually aversion and disgust.  “Fast” men waste
+and exhaust the powers of life, and dry up the sources of true happiness.
+Having forestalled their spring, they can produce no healthy growth of
+either character or intellect.  A child without simplicity, a maiden
+without innocence, a boy without truthfulness, are not more piteous
+sights than the man who has wasted and thrown away his youth in
+self-indulgence.  Mirabeau said of himself, “My early years have already
+in a great measure disinherited the succeeding ones, and dissipated a
+great part of my vital powers.”  As the wrong done to another to-day
+returns upon ourselves to-morrow, so the sins of our youth rise up in our
+age to scourge us.  When Lord Bacon says that “strength of nature in
+youth passeth over many excesses which are owing a man until he is old,”
+he exposes a physical as well as a moral fact which cannot be too well
+weighed in the conduct of life.  “I assure you,” wrote Giusti the Italian
+to a friend, “I pay a heavy price for existence.  It is true that our
+lives are not at our own disposal.  Nature pretends to give them gratis
+at the beginning, and then sends in her account.”  The worst of youthful
+indiscretions is, not that they destroy health, so much as that they
+sully manhood.  The dissipated youth becomes a tainted man; and often he
+cannot be pure, even if he would.  If cure there be, it is only to be
+found in inoculating the mind with a fervent spirit of duty, and in
+energetic application to useful work.
+
+One of the most gifted of Frenchmen, in point of great intellectual
+endowments, was Benjamin Constant; but, _blasé_ at twenty, his life was
+only a prolonged wail, instead of a harvest of the great deeds which he
+was capable of accomplishing with ordinary diligence and self-control.
+He resolved upon doing so many things, which he never did, that people
+came to speak of him as Constant the Inconstant.  He was a fluent and
+brilliant writer, and cherished the ambition of writing works, “which the
+world would not willingly let die.”  But whilst Constant affected the
+highest thinking, unhappily he practised the lowest living; nor did the
+transcendentalism of his books atone for the meanness of his life.  He
+frequented the gaming-tables while engaged in preparing his work upon
+religion, and carried on a disreputable intrigue while writing his
+‘Adolphe.’  With all his powers of intellect, he was powerless, because
+he had no faith in virtue.  “Bah!” said he, “what are honour and dignity?
+The longer I live, the more clearly I see there is nothing in them.”  It
+was the howl of a miserable man.  He described himself as but “ashes and
+dust.”  “I pass,” said he, “like a shadow over the earth, accompanied by
+misery and _ennui_.”  He wished for Voltaire’s energy, which he would
+rather have possessed than his genius.  But he had no strength of
+purpose—nothing but wishes: his life, prematurely exhausted, had become
+but a heap of broken links.  He spoke of himself as a person with one
+foot in the air.  He admitted that he had no principles, and no moral
+consistency.  Hence, with his splendid talents, he contrived to do
+nothing; and, after living many years miserable, he died worn out and
+wretched.
+
+The career of Augustin Thierry, the author of the ‘History of the Norman
+Conquest,’ affords an admirable contrast to that of Constant.  His entire
+life presented a striking example of perseverance, diligence, self
+culture, and untiring devotion to knowledge.  In the pursuit he lost his
+eyesight, lost his health, but never lost his love of truth.  When so
+feeble that he was carried from room to room, like a helpless infant, in
+the arms of a nurse, his brave spirit never failed him; and blind and
+helpless though he was, he concluded his literary career in the following
+noble words:—“If, as I think, the interest of science is counted in the
+number of great national interests, I have given my country all that the
+soldier, mutilated on the field of battle, gives her.  Whatever may be
+the fate of my labours, this example, I hope, will not be lost.  I would
+wish it to serve to combat the species of moral weakness which is _the
+disease_ of our present generation; to bring back into the straight road
+of life some of those enervated souls that complain of wanting faith,
+that know not what to do, and seek everywhere, without finding it, an
+object of worship and admiration.  Why say, with so much bitterness, that
+in the world, constituted as it is, there is no air for all lungs—no
+employment for all minds?  Is not calm and serious study there? and is
+not that a refuge, a hope, a field within the reach of all of us?  With
+it, evil days are passed over without their weight being felt.  Every one
+can make his own destiny—every one employ his life nobly.  This is what I
+have done, and would do again if I had to recommence my career; I would
+choose that which has brought me where I am.  Blind, and suffering
+without hope, and almost without intermission, I may give this testimony,
+which from me will not appear suspicious.  There is something in the
+world better than sensual enjoyments, better than fortune, better than
+health itself—it is devotion to knowledge.”
+
+Coleridge, in many respects, resembled Constant.  He possessed equally
+brilliant powers, but was similarly infirm of purpose.  With all his
+great intellectual gifts, he wanted the gift of industry, and was averse
+to continuous labour.  He wanted also the sense of independence, and
+thought it no degradation to leave his wife and children to be maintained
+by the brain-work of the noble Southey, while he himself retired to
+Highgate Grove to discourse transcendentalism to his disciples, looking
+down contemptuously upon the honest work going forward beneath him amidst
+the din and smoke of London.  With remunerative employment at his command
+he stooped to accept the charity of friends; and, notwithstanding his
+lofty ideas of philosophy, he condescended to humiliations from which
+many a day-labourer would have shrunk.  How different in spirit was
+Southey! labouring not merely at work of his own choice, and at taskwork
+often tedious and distasteful, but also unremittingly and with the utmost
+eagerness seeking and storing knowledge purely for the love of it.  Every
+day, every hour had its allotted employment: engagements to publishers
+requiring punctual fulfilment; the current expenses of a large household
+duty to provide: for Southey had no crop growing while his pen was idle.
+“My ways,” he used to say, “are as broad as the king’s high-road, and my
+means lie in an inkstand.”
+
+Robert Nicoll wrote to a friend, after reading the ‘Recollections of
+Coleridge,’ “What a mighty intellect was lost in that man for want of a
+little energy—a little determination!”  Nicoll himself was a true and
+brave spirit, who died young, but not before he had encountered and
+overcome great difficulties in life.  At his outset, while carrying on a
+small business as a bookseller, he found himself weighed down with a debt
+of only twenty pounds, which he said he felt “weighing like a millstone
+round his neck,” and that, “if he had it paid he never would borrow again
+from mortal man.”  Writing to his mother at the time he said, “Fear not
+for me, dear mother, for I feel myself daily growing firmer and more
+hopeful in spirit.  The more I think and reflect—and thinking, not
+reading, is now my occupation—I feel that, whether I be growing richer or
+not, I am growing a wiser man, which is far better.  Pain, poverty, and
+all the other wild beasts of life which so affrighten others, I am so
+bold as to think I could look in the face without shrinking, without
+losing respect for myself, faith in man’s high destinies, or trust in
+God.  There is a point which it costs much mental toil and struggling to
+gain, but which, when once gained, a man can look down from, as a
+traveller from a lofty mountain, on storms raging below, while he is
+walking in sunshine.  That I have yet gained this point in life I will
+not say, but I feel myself daily nearer to it.”
+
+It is not ease, but effort—not facility, but difficulty, that makes men.
+There is, perhaps, no station in life, in which difficulties have not to
+be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be
+achieved.  Those difficulties are, however, our best instructors, as our
+mistakes often form our best experience.  Charles James Fox was
+accustomed to say that he hoped more from a man who failed, and yet went
+on in spite of his failure, than from the buoyant career of the
+successful.  “It is all very well,” said he, “to tell me that a young man
+has distinguished himself by a brilliant first speech.  He may go on, or
+he may be satisfied with his first triumph; but show me a young man who
+has _not_ succeeded at first, and nevertheless has gone on, and I will
+back that young man to do better than most of those who have succeeded at
+the first trial.”
+
+We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.  We often
+discover what _will_ do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he
+who never made a mistake never made a discovery.  It was the failure in
+the attempt to make a sucking-pump act, when the working bucket was more
+than thirty-three feet above the surface of the water to be raised, that
+led observant men to study the law of atmospheric pressure, and opened a
+new field of research to the genius of Galileo, Torrecelli, and Boyle.
+John Hunter used to remark that the art of surgery would not advance
+until professional men had the courage to publish their failures as well
+as their successes.  Watt the engineer said, of all things most wanted in
+mechanical engineering was a history of failures: “We want,” he said, “a
+book of blots.”  When Sir Humphry Davy was once shown a dexterously
+manipulated experiment, he said—“I thank God I was not made a dexterous
+manipulator, for the most important of my discoveries have been suggested
+to me by failures.”  Another distinguished investigator in physical
+science has left it on record that, whenever in the course of his
+researches he encountered an apparently insuperable obstacle, he
+generally found himself on the brink of some discovery.  The very
+greatest things—great thoughts, discoveries, inventions—have usually been
+nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length
+established with difficulty.
+
+Beethoven said of Rossini, that he had in him the stuff to have made a
+good musician if he had only, when a boy, been well flogged; but that he
+had been spoilt by the facility with which he produced.  Men who feel
+their strength within them need not fear to encounter adverse opinions;
+they have far greater reason to fear undue praise and too friendly
+criticism.  When Mendelssohn was about to enter the orchestra at
+Birmingham, on the first performance of his ‘Elijah,’ he said laughingly
+to one of his friends and critics, “Stick your claws into me!  Don’t tell
+me what you like, but what you don’t like!”
+
+It has been said, and truly, that it is the defeat that tries the general
+more than the victory.  Washington lost more battles than he gained; but
+he succeeded in the end.  The Romans, in their most victorious campaigns,
+almost invariably began with defeats.  Moreau used to be compared by his
+companions to a drum, which nobody hears of except it be beaten.
+Wellington’s military genius was perfected by encounter with difficulties
+of apparently the most overwhelming character, but which only served to
+nerve his resolution, and bring out more prominently his great qualities
+as a man and a general.  So the skilful mariner obtains his best
+experience amidst storms and tempests, which train him to self-reliance,
+courage, and the highest discipline; and we probably own to rough seas
+and wintry nights the best training of our race of British seamen, who
+are, certainly, not surpassed by any in the world.
+
+Necessity may be a hard schoolmistress, but she is generally found the
+best.  Though the ordeal of adversity is one from which we naturally
+shrink, yet, when it comes, we must bravely and manfully encounter it.
+Burns says truly,
+
+    “Though losses and crosses
+    Be lessons right severe,
+    There’s wit there, you’ll get there,
+    You’ll find no other where.”
+
+“Sweet indeed are the uses of adversity.”  They reveal to us our powers,
+and call forth our energies.  If there be real worth in the character,
+like sweet herbs, it will give forth its finest fragrance when pressed.
+“Crosses,” says the old proverb, “are the ladders that lead to heaven.”
+“What is even poverty itself,” asks Richter, “that a man should murmur
+under it?  It is but as the pain of piercing a maiden’s ear, and you hang
+precious jewels in the wound.”  In the experience of life it is found
+that the wholesome discipline of adversity in strong natures usually
+carries with it a self-preserving influence.  Many are found capable of
+bravely bearing up under privations, and cheerfully encountering
+obstructions, who are afterwards found unable to withstand the more
+dangerous influences of prosperity.  It is only a weak man whom the wind
+deprives of his cloak: a man of average strength is more in danger of
+losing it when assailed by the beams of a too genial sun.  Thus it often
+needs a higher discipline and a stronger character to bear up under good
+fortune than under adverse.  Some generous natures kindle and warm with
+prosperity, but there are many on whom wealth has no such influence.
+Base hearts it only hardens, making those who were mean and servile, mean
+and proud.  But while prosperity is apt to harden the heart to pride,
+adversity in a man of resolution will serve to ripen it into fortitude.
+To use the words of Burke, “Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over
+us by the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian and instructor, who
+knows us better than we know ourselves, as He loves us better too.  He
+that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill: our
+antagonist is thus our helper.”  Without the necessity of encountering
+difficulty, life might be easier, but men would be worth less.  For
+trials, wisely improved, train the character, and teach self-help; thus
+hardship itself may often prove the wholesomest discipline for us, though
+we recognise it not.  When the gallant young Hodson, unjustly removed
+from his Indian command, felt himself sore pressed down by unmerited
+calumny and reproach, he yet preserved the courage to say to a friend, “I
+strive to look the worst boldly in the face, as I would an enemy in the
+field, and to do my appointed work resolutely and to the best of my
+ability, satisfied that there is a reason for all; and that even irksome
+duties well done bring their own reward, and that, if not, still they
+_are_ duties.”
+
+The battle of life is, in most cases, fought up-hill; and to win it
+without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honour.  If there were
+no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to
+struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.  Difficulties may
+intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of
+resolution and valour.  All experience of life indeed serves to prove
+that the impediments thrown in the way of human advancement may for the
+most part be overcome by steady good conduct, honest zeal, activity,
+perseverance, and above all by a determined resolution to surmount
+difficulties, and stand up manfully against misfortune.
+
+The school of Difficulty is the best school of moral discipline, for
+nations as for individuals.  Indeed, the history of difficulty would be
+but a history of all the great and good things that have yet been
+accomplished by men.  It is hard to say how much northern nations owe to
+their encounter with a comparatively rude and changeable climate and an
+originally sterile soil, which is one of the necessities of their
+condition,—involving a perennial struggle with difficulties such as the
+natives of sunnier climes know nothing of.  And thus it may be, that
+though our finest products are exotic, the skill and industry which have
+been necessary to rear them, have issued in the production of a native
+growth of men not surpassed on the globe.
+
+Wherever there is difficulty, the individual man must come out for better
+for worse.  Encounter with it will train his strength, and discipline his
+skill; heartening him for future effort, as the racer, by being trained
+to run against the hill, at length courses with facility.  The road to
+success may be steep to climb, and it puts to the proof the energies of
+him who would reach the summit.  But by experience a man soon learns that
+obstacles are to be overcome by grappling with them,—that the nettle
+feels as soft as silk when it is boldly grasped,—and that the most
+effective help towards realizing the object proposed is the moral
+conviction that we can and will accomplish it.  Thus difficulties often
+fall away of themselves before the determination to overcome them.
+
+Much will be done if we do but try.  Nobody knows what he can do till he
+has tried; and few try their best till they have been forced to do it.
+“_If_ I could do such and such a thing,” sighs the desponding youth.  But
+nothing will be done if he only wishes.  The desire must ripen into
+purpose and effort; and one energetic attempt is worth a thousand
+aspirations.  It is these thorny “ifs”—the mutterings of impotence and
+despair—which so often hedge round the field of possibility, and prevent
+anything being done or even attempted.  “A difficulty,” said Lord
+Lyndhurst, “is a thing to be overcome;” grapple with it at once; facility
+will come with practice, and strength and fortitude with repeated effort.
+Thus the mind and character may be trained to an almost perfect
+discipline, and enabled to act with a grace, spirit, and liberty, almost
+incomprehensible to those who have not passed through a similar
+experience.
+
+Everything that we learn is the mastery of a difficulty; and the mastery
+of one helps to the mastery of others.  Things which may at first sight
+appear comparatively valueless in education—such as the study of the dead
+languages, and the relations of lines and surfaces which we call
+mathematics—are really of the greatest practical value, not so much
+because of the information which they yield, as because of the
+development which they compel.  The mastery of these studies evokes
+effort, and cultivates powers of application, which otherwise might have
+lain dormant, Thus one thing leads to another, and so the work goes on
+through life—encounter with difficulty ending only when life and culture
+end.  But indulging in the feeling of discouragement never helped any one
+over a difficulty, and never will.  D’Alembert’s advice to the student
+who complained to him about his want of success in mastering the first
+elements of mathematics was the right one—“Go on, sir, and faith and
+strength will come to you.”
+
+The danseuse who turns a pirouette, the violinist who plays a sonata,
+have acquired their dexterity by patient repetition and after many
+failures.  Carissimi, when praised for the ease and grace of his
+melodies, exclaimed, “Ah! you little know with what difficulty this ease
+has been acquired.”  Sir Joshua Reynolds, when once asked how long it had
+taken him to paint a certain picture, replied, “All my life.”  Henry
+Clay, the American orator, when giving advice to young men, thus
+described to them the secret of his success in the cultivation of his
+art: “I owe my success in life,” said he, “chiefly to one
+circumstance—that at the age of twenty-seven I commenced, and continued
+for years, the process of daily reading and speaking upon the contents of
+some historical or scientific book.  These off-hand efforts were made,
+sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the forest, and not unfrequently
+in some distant barn, with the horse and the ox for my auditors.  It is
+to this early practice of the art of all arts that I am indebted for the
+primary and leading impulses that stimulated me onward and have shaped
+and moulded my whole subsequent destiny.”
+
+Curran, the Irish orator, when a youth, had a strong defect in his
+articulation, and at school he was known as “stuttering Jack Curran.”
+While he was engaged in the study of the law, and still struggling to
+overcome his defect, he was stung into eloquence by the sarcasms of a
+member of a debating club, who characterised him as “Orator Mum;” for,
+like Cowper, when he stood up to speak on a previous occasion, Curran had
+not been able to utter a word.  The taunt stung him and he replied in a
+triumphant speech.  This accidental discovery in himself of the gift of
+eloquence encouraged him to proceed in his studies with renewed energy.
+He corrected his enunciation by reading aloud, emphatically and
+distinctly, the best passages in literature, for several hours every day,
+studying his features before a mirror, and adopting a method of
+gesticulation suited to his rather awkward and ungraceful figure.  He
+also proposed cases to himself, which he argued with as much care as if
+he had been addressing a jury.  Curran began business with the
+qualification which Lord Eldon stated to be the first requisite for
+distinction, that is, “to be not worth a shilling.”  While working his
+way laboriously at the bar, still oppressed by the diffidence which had
+overcome him in his debating club, he was on one occasion provoked by the
+Judge (Robinson) into making a very severe retort.  In the case under
+discussion, Curran observed “that he had never met the law as laid down
+by his lordship in any book in his library.”  “That may be, sir,” said
+the judge, in a contemptuous tone, “but I suspect that _your_ library is
+very small.”  His lordship was notoriously a furious political partisan,
+the author of several anonymous pamphlets characterised by unusual
+violence and dogmatism.  Curran, roused by the allusion to his straitened
+circumstances, replied thus; “It is very true, my lord, that I am poor,
+and the circumstance has certainly curtailed my library; my books are not
+numerous, but they are select, and I hope they have been perused with
+proper dispositions.  I have prepared myself for this high profession by
+the study of a few good works, rather than by the composition of a great
+many bad ones.  I am not ashamed of my poverty; but I should be ashamed
+of my wealth, could I have stooped to acquire it by servility and
+corruption.  If I rise not to rank, I shall at least be honest; and
+should I ever cease to be so, many an example shows me that an ill-gained
+elevation, by making me the more conspicuous, would only make me the more
+universally and the more notoriously contemptible.”
+
+The extremest poverty has been no obstacle in the way of men devoted to
+the duty of self-culture.  Professor Alexander Murray, the linguist,
+learnt to write by scribbling his letters on an old wool-card with the
+end of a burnt heather stem.  The only book which his father, who was a
+poor shepherd, possessed, was a penny Shorter Catechism; but that, being
+thought too valuable for common use, was carefully preserved in a
+cupboard for the Sunday catechisings.  Professor Moor, when a young man,
+being too poor to purchase Newton’s ‘Principia,’ borrowed the book, and
+copied the whole of it with his own hand.  Many poor students, while
+labouring daily for their living, have only been able to snatch an atom
+of knowledge here and there at intervals, as birds do their food in
+winter time when the fields are covered with snow.  They have struggled
+on, and faith and hope have come to them.  A well-known author and
+publisher, William Chambers, of Edinburgh, speaking before an assemblage
+of young men in that city, thus briefly described to them his humble
+beginnings, for their encouragement: “I stand before you,” he said, “a
+self-educated man.  My education was that which is supplied at the humble
+parish schools of Scotland; and it was only when I went to Edinburgh, a
+poor boy, that I devoted my evenings, after the labours of the day, to
+the cultivation of that intellect which the Almighty has given me.  From
+seven or eight in the morning till nine or ten at night was I at my
+business as a bookseller’s apprentice, and it was only during hours after
+these, stolen from sleep, that I could devote myself to study.  I did not
+read novels: my attention was devoted to physical science, and other
+useful matters.  I also taught myself French.  I look back to those times
+with great pleasure, and am almost sorry I have not to go through the
+same experience again; for I reaped more pleasure when I had not a
+sixpence in my pocket, studying in a garret in Edinburgh, then I now find
+when sitting amidst all the elegancies and comforts of a parlour.”
+
+William Cobbett’s account of how he learnt English Grammar is full of
+interest and instruction for all students labouring under difficulties.
+“I learned grammar,” said he, “when I was a private soldier on the pay of
+sixpence a day.  The edge of my berth, or that of my guard-bed, was my
+seat to study in; my knapsack was my book-case; a bit of board lying on
+my lap was my writing-table; and the task did not demand anything like a
+year of my life.  I had no money to purchase candle or oil; in winter
+time it was rarely that I could get any evening light but that of the
+fire, and only my turn even of that.  And if I, under such circumstances,
+and without parent or friend to advise or encourage me, accomplished this
+undertaking, what excuse can there be for any youth, however poor,
+however pressed with business, or however circumstanced as to room or
+other conveniences?  To buy a pen or a sheet of paper I was compelled to
+forego some portion of food, though in a state of half-starvation: I had
+no moment of time that I could call my own; and I had to read and to
+write amidst the talking, laughing, singing, whistling, and brawling of
+at least half a score of the most thoughtless of men, and that, too, in
+the hours of their freedom from all control.  Think not lightly of the
+farthing that I had to give, now and then, for ink, pen, or paper!  That
+farthing was, alas! a great sum to me!  I was as tall as I am now; I had
+great health and great exercise.  The whole of the money, not expended
+for us at market, was two-pence a week for each man.  I remember, and
+well I may! that on one occasion I, after all necessary expenses, had, on
+a Friday, made shifts to have a halfpenny in reserve, which I had
+destined for the purchase of a redherring in the morning; but, when I
+pulled off my clothes at night, so hungry then as to be hardly able to
+endure life, I found that I had lost my halfpenny!  I buried my head
+under the miserable sheet and rug, and cried like a child!  And again I
+say, if, I, under circumstances like these, could encounter and overcome
+this task, is there, can there be, in the whole world, a youth to find an
+excuse for the non-performance?”
+
+We have been informed of an equally striking instance of perseverance and
+application in learning on the part of a French political exile in
+London.  His original occupation was that of a stonemason, at which he
+found employment for some time; but work becoming slack, he lost his
+place, and poverty stared him in the face.  In his dilemma he called upon
+a fellow exile profitably engaged in teaching French, and consulted him
+what he ought to do to earn a living.  The answer was, “Become a
+professor!”  “A professor?” answered the mason—“I, who am only a workman,
+speaking but a patois!  Surely you are jesting?”  “On the contrary, I am
+quite serious,” said the other, “and again I advise you—become a
+professor; place yourself under me, and I will undertake to teach you how
+to teach others.”  “No, no!” replied the mason, “it is impossible; I am
+too old to learn; I am too little of a scholar; I cannot be a professor.”
+He went away, and again he tried to obtain employment at his trade.  From
+London he went into the provinces, and travelled several hundred miles in
+vain; he could not find a master.  Returning to London, he went direct to
+his former adviser, and said, “I have tried everywhere for work, and
+failed; I will now try to be a professor!”  He immediately placed himself
+under instruction; and being a man of close application, of quick
+apprehension, and vigorous intelligence, he speedily mastered the
+elements of grammar, the rules of construction and composition, and (what
+he had still in a great measure to learn) the correct pronunciation of
+classical French.  When his friend and instructor thought him
+sufficiently competent to undertake the teaching of others, an
+appointment, advertised as vacant, was applied for and obtained; and
+behold our artisan at length become professor!  It so happened, that the
+seminary to which he was appointed was situated in a suburb of London
+where he had formerly worked as a stonemason; and every morning the first
+thing which met his eyes on looking out of his dressing-room window was a
+stack of cottage chimneys which he had himself built!  He feared for a
+time lest he should be recognised in the village as the quondam workman,
+and thus bring discredit on his seminary, which was of high standing.
+But he need have been under no such apprehension, as he proved a most
+efficient teacher, and his pupils were on more than one occasion publicly
+complimented for their knowledge of French.  Meanwhile, he secured the
+respect and friendship of all who knew him—fellow-professors as well as
+pupils; and when the story of his struggles, his difficulties, and his
+past history, became known to them, they admired him more than ever.
+
+Sir Samuel Romilly was not less indefatigable as a self-cultivator.  The
+son of a jeweller, descended from a French refugee, he received little
+education in his early years, but overcame all his disadvantages by
+unwearied application, and by efforts constantly directed towards the
+same end.  “I determined,” he says, in his autobiography, “when I was
+between fifteen and sixteen years of age, to apply myself seriously to
+learning Latin, of which I, at that time, knew little more than some of
+the most familiar rules of grammar.  In the course of three or four
+years, during which I thus applied myself, I had read almost every prose
+writer of the age of pure Latinity, except those who have treated merely
+of technical subjects, such as Varro, Columella, and Celsus.  I had gone
+three times through the whole of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus.  I had
+studied the most celebrated orations of Cicero, and translated a great
+deal of Homer.  Terence, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Juvenal, I had read
+over and over again.”  He also studied geography, natural history, and
+natural philosophy, and obtained a considerable acquaintance with general
+knowledge.  At sixteen he was articled to a clerk in Chancery; worked
+hard; was admitted to the bar; and his industry and perseverance ensured
+success.  He became Solicitor-General under the Fox administration in
+1806, and steadily worked his way to the highest celebrity in his
+profession.  Yet he was always haunted by a painful and almost oppressive
+sense of his own disqualifications, and never ceased labouring to remedy
+them.  His autobiography is a lesson of instructive facts, worth volumes
+of sentiment, and well deserves a careful perusal.
+
+Sir Walter Scott was accustomed to cite the case of his young friend John
+Leyden as one of the most remarkable illustrations of the power of
+perseverance which he had ever known.  The son of a shepherd in one of
+the wildest valleys of Roxburghshire, he was almost entirely self
+educated.  Like many Scotch shepherds’ sons—like Hogg, who taught himself
+to write by copying the letters of a printed book as he lay watching his
+flock on the hill-side—like Cairns, who from tending sheep on the
+Lammermoors, raised himself by dint of application and industry to the
+professor’s chair which he now so worthily holds—like Murray, Ferguson,
+and many more, Leyden was early inspired by a thirst for knowledge.  When
+a poor barefooted boy, he walked six or eight miles across the moors
+daily to learn reading at the little village schoolhouse of Kirkton; and
+this was all the education he received; the rest he acquired for himself.
+He found his way to Edinburgh to attend the college there, setting the
+extremest penury at defiance.  He was first discovered as a frequenter of
+a small bookseller’s shop kept by Archibald Constable, afterwards so well
+known as a publisher.  He would pass hour after hour perched on a ladder
+in mid-air, with some great folio in his hand, forgetful of the scanty
+meal of bread and water which awaited him at his miserable lodging.
+Access to books and lectures comprised all within the bounds of his
+wishes.  Thus he toiled and battled at the gates of science until his
+unconquerable perseverance carried everything before it.  Before he had
+attained his nineteenth year he had astonished all the professors in
+Edinburgh by his profound knowledge of Greek and Latin, and the general
+mass of information he had acquired.  Having turned his views to India,
+he sought employment in the civil service, but failed.  He was however
+informed that a surgeon’s assistant’s commission was open to him.  But he
+was no surgeon, and knew no more of the profession than a child.  He
+could however learn.  Then he was told that he must be ready to pass in
+six months!  Nothing daunted, he set to work, to acquire in six months
+what usually required three years.  At the end of six months he took his
+degree with honour.  Scott and a few friends helped to fit him out; and
+he sailed for India, after publishing his beautiful poem ‘The Scenes of
+Infancy.’  In India he promised to become one of the greatest of oriental
+scholars, but was unhappily cut off by fever caught by exposure, and died
+at an early age.
+
+The life of the late Dr. Lee, Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, furnishes
+one of the most remarkable instances in modern times of the power of
+patient perseverance and resolute purpose in working out an honourable
+career in literature.  He received his education at a charity school at
+Lognor, near Shrewsbury, but so little distinguished himself there, that
+his master pronounced him one of the dullest boys that ever passed
+through his hands.  He was put apprentice to a carpenter, and worked at
+that trade until he arrived at manhood.  To occupy his leisure hours he
+took to reading; and, some of the books containing Latin quotations, he
+became desirous of ascertaining what they meant.  He bought a Latin
+grammar, and proceeded to learn Latin.  As Stone, the Duke of Argyle’s
+gardener, said, long before, “Does one need to know anything more than
+the twenty-four letters in order to learn everything else that one
+wishes?”  Lee rose early and sat up late, and he succeeded in mastering
+the Latin before his apprenticeship was out.  Whilst working one day in
+some place of worship, a copy of a Greek Testament fell in his way, and
+he was immediately filled with the desire to learn that language.  He
+accordingly sold some of his Latin books, and purchased a Greek Grammar
+and Lexicon.  Taking pleasure in learning, he soon mastered the language.
+Then he sold his Greek books, and bought Hebrew ones, and learnt that
+language, unassisted by any instructor, without any hope of fame or
+reward, but simply following the bent of his genius.  He next proceeded
+to learn the Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan dialects.  But his studies
+began to tell upon his health, and brought on disease in his eyes through
+his long night watchings with his books.  Having laid them aside for a
+time and recovered his health, he went on with his daily work.  His
+character as a tradesman being excellent, his business improved, and his
+means enabled him to marry, which he did when twenty-eight years old.  He
+determined now to devote himself to the maintenance of his family, and to
+renounce the luxury of literature; accordingly he sold all his books.  He
+might have continued a working carpenter all his life, had not the chest
+of tools upon which he depended for subsistence been destroyed by fire,
+and destitution stared him in the face.  He was too poor to buy new
+tools, so he bethought him of teaching children their letters,—a
+profession requiring the least possible capital.  But though he had
+mastered many languages, he was so defective in the common branches of
+knowledge, that at first he could not teach them.  Resolute of purpose,
+however, he assiduously set to work, and taught himself arithmetic and
+writing to such a degree as to be able to impart the knowledge of these
+branches to little children.  His unaffected, simple, and beautiful
+character gradually attracted friends, and the acquirements of the
+“learned carpenter” became bruited abroad.  Dr. Scott, a neighbouring
+clergyman, obtained for him the appointment of master of a charity school
+in Shrewsbury, and introduced him to a distinguished Oriental scholar.
+These friends supplied him with books, and Lee successively mastered
+Arabic, Persic, and Hindostanee.  He continued to pursue his studies
+while on duty as a private in the local militia of the county; gradually
+acquiring greater proficiency in languages.  At length his kind patron,
+Dr. Scott, enabled Lee to enter Queen’s College, Cambridge; and after a
+course of study, in which he distinguished himself by his mathematical
+acquirements, a vacancy occurring in the professorship of Arabic and
+Hebrew, he was worthily elected to fill the honourable office.  Besides
+ably performing his duties as a professor, he voluntarily gave much of
+his time to the instruction of missionaries going forth to preach the
+Gospel to eastern tribes in their own tongue.  He also made translations
+of the Bible into several Asiatic dialects; and having mastered the New
+Zealand language, he arranged a grammar and vocabulary for two New
+Zealand chiefs who were then in England, which books are now in daily use
+in the New Zealand schools.  Such, in brief, is the remarkable history of
+Dr. Samuel Lee; and it is but the counterpart of numerous similarly
+instructive examples of the power of perseverance in self-culture, as
+displayed in the lives of many of the most distinguished of our literary
+and scientific men.
+
+There are many other illustrious names which might be cited to prove the
+truth of the common saying that “it is never too late to learn.”  Even at
+advanced years men can do much, if they will determine on making a
+beginning.  Sir Henry Spelman did not begin the study of science until he
+was between fifty and sixty years of age.  Franklin was fifty before he
+fully entered upon the study of Natural Philosophy.  Dryden and Scott
+were not known as authors until each was in his fortieth year.  Boccaccio
+was thirty-five when he commenced his literary career, and Alfieri was
+forty-six when he began the study of Greek.  Dr. Arnold learnt German at
+an advanced age, for the purpose of reading Niebuhr in the original; and
+in like manner James Watt, when about forty, while working at his trade
+of an instrument maker in Glasgow, learnt French, German, and Italian, to
+enable himself to peruse the valuable works on mechanical philosophy
+which existed in those languages.  Thomas Scott was fifty-six before he
+began to learn Hebrew.  Robert Hall was once found lying upon the floor,
+racked by pain, learning Italian in his old age, to enable him to judge
+of the parallel drawn by Macaulay between Milton and Dante.  Handel was
+forty-eight before he published any of his great works.  Indeed hundreds
+of instances might be given of men who struck out an entirely new path,
+and successfully entered on new studies, at a comparatively advanced time
+of life.  None but the frivolous or the indolent will say, “I am too old
+to learn.” {354}
+
+And here we would repeat what we have said before, that it is not men of
+genius who move the world and take the lead in it, so much as men of
+steadfastness, purpose, and indefatigable industry.  Notwithstanding the
+many undeniable instances of the precocity of men of genius, it is
+nevertheless true that early cleverness gives no indication of the height
+to which the grown man will reach.  Precocity is sometimes a symptom of
+disease rather than of intellectual vigour.  What becomes of all the
+“remarkably clever children?”  Where are the duxes and prize boys?  Trace
+them through life, and it will frequently be found that the dull boys,
+who were beaten at school, have shot ahead of them.  The clever boys are
+rewarded, but the prizes which they gain by their greater quickness and
+facility do not always prove of use to them.  What ought rather to be
+rewarded is the endeavour, the struggle, and the obedience; for it is the
+youth who does his best, though endowed with an inferiority of natural
+powers, that ought above all others to be encouraged.
+
+An interesting chapter might be written on the subject of illustrious
+dunces—dull boys, but brilliant men.  We have room, however, for only a
+few instances.  Pietro di Cortona, the painter, was thought so stupid
+that he was nicknamed “Ass’s Head” when a boy; and Tomaso Guidi was
+generally known as “Heavy Tom” (Massaccio Tomasaccio), though by
+diligence he afterwards raised himself to the highest eminence.  Newton,
+when at school, stood at the bottom of the lowest form but one.  The boy
+above Newton having kicked him, the dunce showed his pluck by challenging
+him to a fight, and beat him.  Then he set to work with a will, and
+determined also to vanquish his antagonist as a scholar, which he did,
+rising to the top of his class.  Many of our greatest divines have been
+anything but precocious.  Isaac Barrow, when a boy at the Charterhouse
+School, was notorious chiefly for his strong temper, pugnacious habits,
+and proverbial idleness as a scholar; and he caused such grief to his
+parents that his father used to say that, if it pleased God to take from
+him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaac, the least promising
+of them all.  Adam Clarke, when a boy, was proclaimed by his father to be
+“a grievous dunce;” though he could roll large stones about.  Dean Swift
+was “plucked” at Dublin University, and only obtained his recommendation
+to Oxford “speciali gratia.”  The well-known Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Cook
+{356a} were boys together at the parish school of St. Andrew’s; and they
+were found so stupid and mischievous, that the master, irritated beyond
+measure, dismissed them both as incorrigible dunces.
+
+The brilliant Sheridan showed so little capacity as a boy, that he was
+presented to a tutor by his mother with the complimentary accompaniment
+that he was an incorrigible dunce.  Walter Scott was all but a dunce when
+a boy, always much readier for a “bicker,” than apt at his lessons.  At
+the Edinburgh University, Professor Dalzell pronounced upon him the
+sentence that “Dunce he was, and dunce he would remain.”  Chatterton was
+returned on his mother’s hands as “a fool, of whom nothing could be
+made.”  Burns was a dull boy, good only at athletic exercises.  Goldsmith
+spoke of himself, as a plant that flowered late.  Alfieri left college no
+wiser than he entered it, and did not begin the studies by which he
+distinguished himself, until he had run half over Europe.  Robert Clive
+was a dunce, if not a reprobate, when a youth; but always full of energy,
+even in badness.  His family, glad to get rid of him, shipped him off to
+Madras; and he lived to lay the foundations of the British power in
+India.  Napoleon and Wellington were both dull boys, not distinguishing
+themselves in any way at school. {356b}  Of the former the Duchess
+d’Abrantes says, “he had good health, but was in other respects like
+other boys.”
+
+Ulysses Grant, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States, was called
+“Useless Grant” by his mother—he was so dull and unhandy when a boy; and
+Stonewall Jackson, Lee’s greatest lieutenant, was, in his youth, chiefly
+noted for his slowness.  While a pupil at West Point Military Academy he
+was, however, equally remarkable for his indefatigable application and
+perseverance.  When a task was set him, he never left it until he had
+mastered it; nor did he ever feign to possess knowledge which he had not
+entirely acquired.  “Again and again,” wrote one who knew him, “when
+called upon to answer questions in the recitation of the day, he would
+reply, ‘I have not yet looked at it; I have been engaged in mastering the
+recitation of yesterday or the day before.’  The result was that he
+graduated seventeenth in a class of seventy.  There was probably in the
+whole class not a boy to whom Jackson at the outset was not inferior in
+knowledge and attainments; but at the end of the race he had only sixteen
+before him, and had outstripped no fewer than fifty-three.  It used to be
+said of him by his contemporaries, that if the course had been for ten
+years instead of four, Jackson would have graduated at the head of his
+class.” {357}
+
+John Howard, the philanthropist, was another illustrious dunce, learning
+next to nothing during the seven years that he was at school.
+Stephenson, as a youth, was distinguished chiefly for his skill at
+putting and wrestling, and attention to his work.  The brilliant Sir
+Humphry Davy was no cleverer than other boys: his teacher, Dr. Cardew,
+once said of him, “While he was with me I could not discern the faculties
+by which he was so much distinguished.”  Indeed, Davy himself in after
+life considered it fortunate that he had been left to “enjoy so much
+idleness” at school.  Watt was a dull scholar, notwithstanding the
+stories told about his precocity; but he was, what was better, patient
+and perseverant, and it was by such qualities, and by his carefully
+cultivated inventiveness, that he was enabled to perfect his
+steam-engine.
+
+What Dr. Arnold said of boys is equally true of men—that the difference
+between one boy and another consists not so much in talent as in energy.
+Given perseverance and energy soon becomes habitual.  Provided the dunce
+has persistency and application he will inevitably head the cleverer
+fellow without those qualities.  Slow but sure wins the race.  It is
+perseverance that explains how the position of boys at school is so often
+reversed in real life; and it is curious to note how some who were then
+so clever have since become so commonplace; whilst others, dull boys, of
+whom nothing was expected, slow in their faculties but sure in their
+pace, have assumed the position of leaders of men.  The author of this
+book, when a boy, stood in the same class with one of the greatest of
+dunces.  One teacher after another had tried his skill upon him and
+failed.  Corporal punishment, the fool’s cap, coaxing, and earnest
+entreaty, proved alike fruitless.  Sometimes the experiment was tried of
+putting him at the top of his class, and it was curious to note the
+rapidity with which he gravitated to the inevitable bottom.  The youth
+was given up by his teachers as an incorrigible dunce—one of them
+pronouncing him to be a “stupendous booby.”  Yet, slow though he was,
+this dunce had a sort of dull energy of purpose in him, which grew with
+his muscles and his manhood; and, strange to say, when he at length came
+to take part in the practical business of life, he was found heading most
+of his school companions, and eventually left the greater number of them
+far behind.  The last time the author heard of him, he was chief
+magistrate of his native town.
+
+The tortoise in the right road will beat a racer in the wrong.  It
+matters not though a youth be slow, if he be but diligent.  Quickness of
+parts may even prove a defect, inasmuch as the boy who learns readily
+will often forget as readily; and also because he finds no need of
+cultivating that quality of application and perseverance which the slower
+youth is compelled to exercise, and which proves so valuable an element
+in the formation of every character.  Davy said “What I am I have made
+myself;” and the same holds true universally.
+
+To conclude: the best culture is not obtained from teachers when at
+school or college, so much as by our own diligent self-education when we
+have become men.  Hence parents need not be in too great haste to see
+their children’s talents forced into bloom.  Let them watch and wait
+patiently, letting good example and quiet training do their work, and
+leave the rest to Providence.  Let them see to it that the youth is
+provided, by free exercise of his bodily powers, with a full stock of
+physical health; set him fairly on the road of self-culture; carefully
+train his habits of application and perseverance; and as he grows older,
+if the right stuff be in him, he will be enabled vigorously and
+effectively to cultivate himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+EXAMPLE—MODELS.
+
+
+    “Ever their phantoms rise before us,
+       Our loftier brothers, but one in blood;
+    By bed and table they lord it o’er us,
+       With looks of beauty and words of good.”—_John Sterling_.
+
+    “Children may be strangled, but Deeds never; they have an
+    indestructible life, both in and out of our consciousness.”—_George
+    Eliot_.
+
+    “There is no action of man in this life, which is not the beginning
+    of so long a chain of consequences, as that no human providence is
+    high enough to give us a prospect to the end.”—_Thomas of
+    Malmesbury_.
+
+EXAMPLE is one of the most potent of instructors, though it teaches
+without a tongue.  It is the practical school of mankind, working by
+action, which is always more forcible than words.  Precept may point to
+us the way, but it is silent continuous example, conveyed to us by
+habits, and living with us in fact, that carries us along.  Good advice
+has its weight: but without the accompaniment of a good example it is of
+comparatively small influence; and it will be found that the common
+saying of “Do as I say, not as I do,” is usually reversed in the actual
+experience of life.
+
+All persons are more or less apt to learn through the eye rather than the
+ear; and, whatever is seen in fact, makes a far deeper impression than
+anything that is merely read or heard.  This is especially the case in
+early youth, when the eye is the chief inlet of knowledge.  Whatever
+children see they unconsciously imitate.  They insensibly come to
+resemble those who are about them—as insects take the colour of the
+leaves they feed on.  Hence the vast importance of domestic training.
+For whatever may be the efficiency of schools, the examples set in our
+Homes must always be of vastly greater influence in forming the
+characters of our future men and women.  The Home is the crystal of
+society—the nucleus of national character; and from that source, be it
+pure or tainted, issue the habits, principles and maxims, which govern
+public as well as private life.  The nation comes from the nursery.
+Public opinion itself is for the most part the outgrowth of the home; and
+the best philanthropy comes from the fireside.  “To love the little
+platoon we belong to in society,” says Burke, “is the germ of all public
+affections.”  From this little central spot, the human sympathies may
+extend in an ever widening circle, until the world is embraced; for,
+though true philanthropy, like charity, begins at home, assuredly it does
+not end there.
+
+Example in conduct, therefore, even in apparently trivial matters, is of
+no light moment, inasmuch as it is constantly becoming inwoven with the
+lives of others, and contributing to form their natures for better or for
+worse.  The characters of parents are thus constantly repeated in their
+children; and the acts of affection, discipline, industry, and
+self-control, which they daily exemplify, live and act when all else
+which may have been learned through the ear has long been forgotten.
+Hence a wise man was accustomed to speak of his children as his “future
+state.”  Even the mute action and unconscious look of a parent may give a
+stamp to the character which is never effaced; and who can tell how much
+evil act has been stayed by the thought of some good parent, whose memory
+their children may not sully by the commission of an unworthy deed, or
+the indulgence of an impure thought?  The veriest trifles thus become of
+importance in influencing the characters of men.  “A kiss from my
+mother,” said West, “made me a painter.”  It is on the direction of such
+seeming trifles when children that the future happiness and success of
+men mainly depend.  Fowell Buxton, when occupying an eminent and
+influential station in life, wrote to his mother, “I constantly feel,
+especially in action and exertion for others, the effects of principles
+early implanted by you in my mind.”  Buxton was also accustomed to
+remember with gratitude the obligations which he owed to an illiterate
+man, a gamekeeper, named Abraham Plastow, with whom he played, and rode,
+and sported—a man who could neither read nor write, but was full of
+natural good sense and mother-wit.  “What made him particularly
+valuable,” says Buxton, “were his principles of integrity and honour.  He
+never said or did a thing in the absence of my mother of which she would
+have disapproved.  He always held up the highest standard of integrity,
+and filled our youthful minds with sentiments as pure and as generous as
+could be found in the writings of Seneca or Cicero.  Such was my first
+instructor, and, I must add, my best.”
+
+Lord Langdale, looking back upon the admirable example set him by his
+mother, declared, “If the whole world were put into one scale, and my
+mother into the other, the world would kick the beam.”  Mrs. Schimmel
+Penninck, in her old age, was accustomed to call to mind the personal
+influence exercised by her mother upon the society amidst which she
+moved.  When she entered a room it had the effect of immediately raising
+the tone of the conversation, and as if purifying the moral
+atmosphere—all seeming to breathe more freely, and stand more erectly.
+“In her presence,” says the daughter, “I became for the time transformed
+into another person.”  So much does she moral health depend upon the
+moral atmosphere that is breathed, and so great is the influence daily
+exercised by parents over their children by living a life before their
+eyes, that perhaps the best system of parental instruction might be
+summed up in these two words: “Improve thyself.”
+
+There is something solemn and awful in the thought that there is not an
+act done or a word uttered by a human being but carries with it a train
+of consequences, the end of which we may never trace.  Not one but, to a
+certain extent, gives a colour to our life, and insensibly influences the
+lives of those about us.  The good deed or word will live, even though we
+may not see it fructify, but so will the bad; and no person is so
+insignificant as to be sure that his example will not do good on the one
+hand, or evil on the other.  The spirits of men do not die: they still
+live and walk abroad among us.  It was a fine and a true thought uttered
+by Mr. Disraeli in the House of Commons on the death of Richard Cobden,
+that “he was one of those men who, though not present, were still members
+of that House, who were independent of dissolutions, of the caprices of
+constituencies, and even of the course of time.”
+
+There is, indeed, an essence of immortality in the life of man, even in
+this world.  No individual in the universe stands alone; he is a
+component part of a system of mutual dependencies; and by his several
+acts he either increases or diminishes the sum of human good now and for
+ever.  As the present is rooted in the past, and the lives and examples
+of our forefathers still to a great extent influence us, so are we by our
+daily acts contributing to form the condition and character of the
+future.  Man is a fruit formed and ripened by the culture of all the
+foregoing centuries; and the living generation continues the magnetic
+current of action and example destined to bind the remotest past with the
+most distant future.  No man’s acts die utterly; and though his body may
+resolve into dust and air, his good or his bad deeds will still be
+bringing forth fruit after their kind, and influencing future generations
+for all time to come.  It is in this momentous and solemn fact that the
+great peril and responsibility of human existence lies.
+
+Mr. Babbage has so powerfully expressed this idea in a noble passage in
+one of his writings that we here venture to quote his words: “Every
+atom,” he says, “impressed with good or ill, retains at once the motions
+which philosophers and sages have imparted to it, mixed and combined in
+ten thousand ways with all that is worthless and base; the air itself is
+one vast library, on whose pages are written _for ever_ all that man has
+ever said or whispered.  There, in their immutable but unerring
+characters, mixed with the earliest as well as the latest sighs of
+mortality, stand for ever recorded vows unredeemed, promises unfulfilled;
+perpetuating, in the united movements of each particle, the testimony of
+man’s changeful will.  But, if the air we breathe is the never-failing
+historian of the sentiments we have uttered, earth, air, and ocean, are,
+in like manner, the eternal witnesses of the acts we have done; the same
+principle of the equality of action and reaction applies to them.  No
+motion impressed by natural causes, or by human agency, is ever
+obliterated. . . . If the Almighty stamped on the brow of the first
+murderer the indelible and visible mark of his guilt, He has also
+established laws by which every succeeding criminal is not less
+irrevocably chained to the testimony of his crime; for every atom of his
+mortal frame, through whatever changes its severed particles may migrate,
+will still retain adhering to it, through every combination, some
+movement derived from that very muscular effort by which the crime itself
+was perpetrated.”
+
+Thus, every act we do or word we utter, as well as every act we witness
+or word we hear, carries with it an influence which extends over, and
+gives a colour, not only to the whole of our future life, but makes
+itself felt upon the whole frame of society.  We may not, and indeed
+cannot, possibly, trace the influence working itself into action in its
+various ramifications amongst our children, our friends, or associates;
+yet there it is assuredly, working on for ever.  And herein lies the
+great significance of setting forth a good example,—a silent teaching
+which even the poorest and least significant person can practise in his
+daily life.  There is no one so humble, but that he owes to others this
+simple but priceless instruction.  Even the meanest condition may thus be
+made useful; for the light set in a low place shines as faithfully as
+that set upon a hill.  Everywhere, and under almost all circumstances,
+however externally adverse—in moorland shielings, in cottage hamlets, in
+the close alleys of great towns—the true man may grow.  He who tills a
+space of earth scarce bigger than is needed for his grave, may work as
+faithfully, and to as good purpose, as the heir to thousands.  The
+commonest workshop may thus be a school of industry, science, and good
+morals, on the one hand; or of idleness, folly, and depravity, on the
+other.  It all depends on the individual men, and the use they make of
+the opportunities for good which offer themselves.
+
+A life well spent, a character uprightly sustained, is no slight legacy
+to leave to one’s children, and to the world; for it is the most eloquent
+lesson of virtue and the severest reproof of vice, while it continues an
+enduring source of the best kind of riches.  Well for those who can say,
+as Pope did, in rejoinder to the sarcasm of Lord Hervey, “I think it
+enough that my parents, such as they were, never cost me a blush, and
+that their son, such as he is, never cost them a tear.”
+
+It is not enough to tell others what they are to do, but to exhibit the
+actual example of doing.  What Mrs. Chisholm described to Mrs. Stowe as
+the secret of her success, applies to all life.  “I found,” she said,
+“that if we want anything _done_, we must go to work and _do_: it is of
+no use merely to talk—none whatever.”  It is poor eloquence that only
+shows how a person can talk.  Had Mrs. Chisholm rested satisfied with
+lecturing, her project, she was persuaded, would never have got beyond
+the region of talk; but when people saw what she was doing and had
+actually accomplished, they fell in with her views and came forward to
+help her.  Hence the most beneficent worker is not he who says the most
+eloquent things, or even who thinks the most loftily, but he who does the
+most eloquent acts.
+
+True-hearted persons, even in the humblest station in life, who are
+energetic doers, may thus give an impulse to good works out of all
+proportion, apparently, to their actual station in society.  Thomas
+Wright might have talked about the reclamation of criminals, and John
+Pounds about the necessity for Ragged Schools, and yet done nothing;
+instead of which they simply set to work without any other idea in their
+minds than that of doing, not talking.  And how the example of even the
+poorest man may tell upon society, hear what Dr. Guthrie, the apostle of
+the Ragged School movement, says of the influence which the example of
+John Pounds, the humble Portsmouth cobbler, exercised upon his own
+working career:—
+
+“The interest I have been led to take in this cause is an example of how,
+in Providence, a man’s destiny—his course of life, like that of a
+river—may be determined and affected by very trivial circumstances.  It
+is rather curious—at least it is interesting to me to remember—that it
+was by a picture I was first led to take an interest in ragged schools—by
+a picture in an old, obscure, decaying burgh that stands on the shores of
+the Frith of Forth, the birthplace of Thomas Chalmers.  I went to see
+this place many years ago; and, going into an inn for refreshment, I
+found the room covered with pictures of shepherdesses with their crooks,
+and sailors in holiday attire, not particularly interesting.  But above
+the chimney-piece there was a large print, more respectable than its
+neighbours, which represented a cobbler’s room.  The cobbler was there
+himself, spectacles on nose, an old shoe between his knees—the massive
+forehead and firm mouth indicating great determination of character, and,
+beneath his bushy eyebrows, benevolence gleamed out on a number of poor
+ragged boys and girls who stood at their lessons round the busy cobbler.
+My curiosity was awakened; and in the inscription I read how this man,
+John Pounds, a cobbler in Portsmouth, taking pity on the multitude of
+poor ragged children left by ministers and magistrates, and ladies and
+gentlemen, to go to ruin on the streets—how, like a good shepherd, he
+gathered in these wretched outcasts—how he had trained them to God and to
+the world—and how, while earning his daily bread by the sweat of his
+brow, he had rescued from misery and saved to society not less than five
+hundred of these children.  I felt ashamed of myself.  I felt reproved
+for the little I had done.  My feelings were touched.  I was astonished
+at this man’s achievements; and I well remember, in the enthusiasm of the
+moment, saying to my companion (and I have seen in my cooler and calmer
+moments no reason for unsaying the saying)—‘That man is an honour to
+humanity, and deserves the tallest monument ever raised within the shores
+of Britain.’  I took up that man’s history, and I found it animated by
+the spirit of Him who ‘had compassion on the multitude.’  John Pounds was
+a clever man besides; and, like Paul, if he could not win a poor boy any
+other way, he won him by art.  He would be seen chasing a ragged boy
+along the quays, and compelling him to come to school, not by the power
+of a policeman, but by the power of a hot potato.  He knew the love an
+Irishman had for a potato; and John Pounds might be seen running holding
+under the boy’s nose a potato, like an Irishman, very hot, and with a
+coat as ragged as himself.  When the day comes when honour will be done
+to whom honour is due, I can fancy the crowd of those whose fame poets
+have sung, and to whose memory monuments have been raised, dividing like
+the wave, and, passing the great, and the noble, and the mighty of the
+land, this poor, obscure old man stepping forward and receiving the
+especial notice of Him who said ‘Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the
+least of these, ye did it also to Me.’”
+
+The education of character is very much a question of models; we mould
+ourselves so unconsciously after the characters, manners, habits, and
+opinions of those who are about us.  Good rules may do much, but good
+models far more; for in the latter we have instruction in action—wisdom
+at work.  Good admonition and bad example only build with one hand to
+pull down with the other.  Hence the vast importance of exercising great
+care in the selection of companions, especially in youth.  There is a
+magnetic affinity in young persons which insensibly tends to assimilate
+them to each other’s likeness.  Mr. Edgeworth was so strongly convinced
+that from sympathy they involuntarily imitated or caught the tone of the
+company they frequented, that he held it to be of the most essential
+importance that they should be taught to select the very best models.
+“No company, or good company,” was his motto.  Lord Collingwood, writing
+to a young friend, said, “Hold it as a maxim that you had better be alone
+than in mean company.  Let your companions be such as yourself, or
+superior; for the worth of a man will always be ruled by that of his
+company.”  It was a remark of the famous Dr. Sydenham that everybody some
+time or other would be the better or the worse for having but spoken to a
+good or a bad man.  As Sir Peter Lely made it a rule never to look at a
+bad picture if he could help it, believing that whenever he did so his
+pencil caught a taint from it, so, whoever chooses to gaze often upon a
+debased specimen of humanity and to frequent his society, cannot help
+gradually assimilating himself to that sort of model.
+
+It is therefore advisable for young men to seek the fellowship of the
+good, and always to aim at a higher standard than themselves.  Francis
+Horner, speaking of the advantages to himself of direct personal
+intercourse with high-minded, intelligent men, said, “I cannot hesitate
+to decide that I have derived more intellectual improvement from them
+than from all the books I have turned over.”  Lord Shelburne (afterwards
+Marquis of Lansdowne), when a young man, paid a visit to the venerable
+Malesherbes, and was so much impressed by it, that he said,—“I have
+travelled much, but I have never been so influenced by personal contact
+with any man; and if I ever accomplish any good in the course of my life,
+I am certain that the recollection of M. de Malesherbes will animate my
+soul.”  So Fowell Buxton was always ready to acknowledge the powerful
+influence exercised upon the formation of his character in early life by
+the example of the Gurney family: “It has given a colour to my life,” he
+used to say.  Speaking of his success at the Dublin University, he
+confessed, “I can ascribe it to nothing but my Earlham visits.”  It was
+from the Gurneys he “caught the infection” of self-improvement.
+
+Contact with the good never fails to impart good, and we carry away with
+us some of the blessing, as travellers’ garments retain the odour of the
+flowers and shrubs through which they have passed.  Those who knew the
+late John Sterling intimately, have spoken of the beneficial influence
+which he exercised on all with whom he came into personal contact.  Many
+owed to him their first awakening to a higher being; from him they learnt
+what they were, and what they ought to be.  Mr. Trench says of him:—“It
+was impossible to come in contact with his noble nature without feeling
+one’s self in some measure _ennobled_ and _lifted up_, as I ever felt
+when I left him, into a higher region of objects and aims than that in
+which one is tempted habitually to dwell.”  It is thus that the noble
+character always acts; we become insensibly elevated by him, and cannot
+help feeling as he does and acquiring the habit of looking at things in
+the same light.  Such is the magical action and reaction of minds upon
+each other.
+
+Artists, also, feel themselves elevated by contact with artists greater
+than themselves.  Thus Haydn’s genius was first fired by Handel.  Hearing
+him play, Haydn’s ardour for musical composition was at once excited, and
+but for this circumstance, he himself believed that he would never have
+written the ‘Creation.’  Speaking of Handel, he said, “When he chooses,
+he strikes like the thunderbolt;” and at another time, “There is not a
+note of him but draws blood.”  Scarlatti was another of Handel’s ardent
+admirers, following him all over Italy; afterwards, when speaking of the
+great master, he would cross himself in token of admiration.  True
+artists never fail generously to recognise each other’s greatness.  Thus
+Beethoven’s admiration for Cherubini was regal: and he ardently hailed
+the genius of Schubert: “Truly,” said he, “in Schubert dwells a divine
+fire.”  When Northcote was a mere youth he had such an admiration for
+Reynolds that, when the great painter was once attending a public meeting
+down in Devonshire, the boy pushed through the crowd, and got so near
+Reynolds as to touch the skirt of his coat, “which I did,” says
+Northcote, “with great satisfaction to my mind,”—a true touch of youthful
+enthusiasm in its admiration of genius.
+
+The example of the brave is an inspiration to the timid, their presence
+thrilling through every fibre.  Hence the miracles of valour so often
+performed by ordinary men under the leadership of the heroic.  The very
+recollection of the deeds of the valiant stirs men’s blood like the sound
+of a trumpet.  Ziska bequeathed his skin to be used as a drum to inspire
+the valour of the Bohemians.  When Scanderbeg, prince of Epirus, was
+dead, the Turks wished to possess his bones, that each might wear a piece
+next his heart, hoping thus to secure some portion of the courage he had
+displayed while living, and which they had so often experienced in
+battle.  When the gallant Douglas, bearing the heart of Bruce to the Holy
+Land, saw one of his knights surrounded and sorely pressed by the
+Saracens, he took from his neck the silver case containing the hero’s
+bequest, and throwing it amidst the thickest press of his foes, cried,
+“Pass first in fight, as thou wert wont to do, and Douglas will follow
+thee, or die;” and so saying, he rushed forward to the place where it
+fell, and was there slain.
+
+The chief use of biography consists in the noble models of character in
+which it abounds.  Our great forefathers still live among us in the
+records of their lives, as well as in the acts they have done, which live
+also; still sit by us at table, and hold us by the hand; furnishing
+examples for our benefit, which we may still study, admire and imitate.
+Indeed, whoever has left behind him the record of a noble life, has
+bequeathed to posterity an enduring source of good, for it serves as a
+model for others to form themselves by in all time to come; still
+breathing fresh life into men, helping them to reproduce his life anew,
+and to illustrate his character in other forms.  Hence a book containing
+the life of a true man is full of precious seed.  It is a still living
+voice; it is an intellect.  To use Milton’s words, “it is the precious
+life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a
+life beyond life.”  Such a book never ceases to exercise an elevating and
+ennobling influence.  But, above all, there is the Book containing the
+very highest Example set before us to shape our lives by in this
+world—the most suitable for all the necessities of our mind and heart—an
+example which we can only follow afar off and feel after,
+
+    “Like plants or vines which never saw the sun,
+    But dream of him and guess where he may be,
+    And do their best to climb and get to him.”
+
+Again, no young man can rise from the perusal of such lives as those of
+Buxton and Arnold, without feeling his mind and heart made better, and
+his best resolves invigorated.  Such biographies increase a man’s
+self-reliance by demonstrating what men can be, and what they can do;
+fortifying his hopes and elevating his aims in life.  Sometimes a young
+man discovers himself in a biography, as Correggio felt within him the
+risings of genius on contemplating the works of Michael Angelo: “And I
+too, am a painter,” he exclaimed.  Sir Samuel Romilly, in his
+autobiography, confessed himself to have been powerfully influenced by
+the life of the great and noble-minded French Chancellor Daguesseau:—“The
+works of Thomas,” says he, “had fallen into my hands, and I had read with
+admiration his ‘Eloge of Daguesseau;’ and the career of honour which he
+represented that illustrious magistrate to have run, excited to a great
+degree my ardour and ambition, and opened to my imagination new paths of
+glory.”
+
+Franklin was accustomed to attribute his usefulness and eminence to his
+having early read Cotton Mather’s ‘Essays to do Good’—a book which grew
+out of Mather’s own life.  And see how good example draws other men after
+it, and propagates itself through future generations in all lands.  For
+Samuel Drew avers that he framed his own life, and especially his
+business habits, after the model left on record by Benjamin Franklin.
+Thus it is impossible to say where a good example may not reach, or where
+it will end, if indeed it have an end.  Hence the advantage, in
+literature as in life, of keeping the best society, reading the best
+books, and wisely admiring and imitating the best things we find in them.
+“In literature,” said Lord Dudley, “I am fond of confining myself to the
+best company, which consists chiefly of my old acquaintance, with whom I
+am desirous of becoming more intimate; and I suspect that nine times out
+of ten it is more profitable, if not more agreeable, to read an old book
+over again, than to read a new one for the first time.”
+
+Sometimes a book containing a noble exemplar of life, taken up at random,
+merely with the object of reading it as a pastime, has been known to call
+forth energies whose existence had not before been suspected.  Alfieri
+was first drawn with passion to literature by reading ‘Plutarch’s Lives.’
+Loyola, when a soldier serving at the siege of Pampeluna, and laid up by
+a dangerous wound in his leg, asked for a book to divert his thoughts:
+the ‘Lives of the Saints’ was brought to him, and its perusal so inflamed
+his mind, that he determined thenceforth to devote himself to the
+founding of a religious order.  Luther, in like manner, was inspired to
+undertake the great labours of his life by a perusal of the ‘Life and
+Writings of John Huss.’  Dr. Wolff was stimulated to enter upon his
+missionary career by reading the ‘Life of Francis Xavier;’ and the book
+fired his youthful bosom with a passion the most sincere and ardent to
+devote himself to the enterprise of his life.  William Carey, also, got
+the first idea of entering upon his sublime labours as a missionary from
+a perusal of the Voyages of Captain Cook.
+
+Francis Horner was accustomed to note in his diary and letters the books
+by which he was most improved and influenced.  Amongst these were
+Condorcet’s ‘Eloge of Haller,’ Sir Joshua Reynolds’ ‘Discourses,’ the
+writings of Bacon, and ‘Burnet’s Account of Sir Matthew Hale.’  The
+perusal of the last-mentioned book—the portrait of a prodigy of
+labour—Horner says, filled him with enthusiasm.  Of Condorcet’s ‘Eloge of
+Haller,’ he said: “I never rise from the account of such men without a
+sort of thrilling palpitation about me, which I know not whether I should
+call admiration, ambition, or despair.”  And speaking of the ‘Discourses’
+of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he said: “Next to the writings of Bacon, there is
+no book which has more powerfully impelled me to self-culture.  He is one
+of the first men of genius who has condescended to inform the world of
+the steps by which greatness is attained.  The confidence with which he
+asserts the omnipotence of human labour has the effect of familiarising
+his reader with the idea that genius is an acquisition rather than a
+gift; whilst with all there is blended so naturally and eloquently the
+most elevated and passionate admiration of excellence, that upon the
+whole there is no book of a more _inflammatory_ effect.”  It is
+remarkable that Reynolds himself attributed his first passionate impulse
+towards the study of art, to reading Richardson’s account of a great
+painter; and Haydon was in like manner afterwards inflamed to follow the
+same pursuit by reading of the career of Reynolds.  Thus the brave and
+aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like
+faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous efforts like
+distinction and success will almost surely follow.  Thus the chain of
+example is carried down through time in an endless succession of
+links,—admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true
+aristocracy of genius.
+
+One of the most valuable, and one of the most infectious examples which
+can be set before the young, is that of cheerful working.  Cheerfulness
+gives elasticity to the spirit.  Spectres fly before it; difficulties
+cause no despair, for they are encountered with hope, and the mind
+acquires that happy disposition to improve opportunities which rarely
+fails of success.  The fervent spirit is always a healthy and happy
+spirit; working cheerfully itself, and stimulating others to work.  It
+confers a dignity on even the most ordinary occupations.  The most
+effective work, also, is usually the full-hearted work—that which passes
+through the hands or the head of him whose heart is glad.  Hume was
+accustomed to say that he would rather possess a cheerful
+disposition—inclined always to look at the bright side of things—than
+with a gloomy mind to be the master of an estate of ten thousand a year.
+Granville Sharp, amidst his indefatigable labours on behalf of the slave,
+solaced himself in the evenings by taking part in glees and instrumental
+concerts at his brother’s house, singing, or playing on the flute, the
+clarionet or the oboe; and, at the Sunday evening oratorios, when Handel
+was played, he beat the kettle-drums.  He also indulged, though
+sparingly, in caricature drawing.  Fowell Buxton also was an eminently
+cheerful man; taking special pleasure in field sports, in riding about
+the country with his children, and in mixing in all their domestic
+amusements.
+
+In another sphere of action, Dr. Arnold was a noble and a cheerful
+worker, throwing himself into the great business of his life, the
+training and teaching of young men, with his whole heart and soul.  It is
+stated in his admirable biography, that “the most remarkable thing in the
+Laleham circle was the wonderful healthiness of tone which prevailed
+there.  It was a place where a new comer at once felt that a great and
+earnest work was going forward.  Every pupil was made to feel that there
+was a work for him to do; that his happiness, as well as his duty, lay in
+doing that work well.  Hence an indescribable zest was communicated to a
+young man’s feeling about life; a strange joy came over him on discerning
+that he had the means of being useful, and thus of being happy; and a
+deep respect and ardent attachment sprang up towards him who had taught
+him thus to value life and his own self, and his work and mission in the
+world.  All this was founded on the breadth and comprehensiveness of
+Arnold’s character, as well as its striking truth and reality; on the
+unfeigned regard he had for work of all kinds, and the sense he had of
+its value, both for the complex aggregate of society and the growth and
+protection of the individual.  In all this there was no excitement; no
+predilection for one class of work above another; no enthusiasm for any
+one-sided object: but a humble, profound, and most religious
+consciousness that work is the appointed calling of man on earth; the end
+for which his various faculties were given; the element in which his
+nature is ordained to develop itself, and in which his progressive
+advance towards heaven is to lie.”  Among the many valuable men trained
+for public life and usefulness by Arnold, was the gallant Hodson, of
+Hodson’s Horse, who, writing home from India, many years after, thus
+spoke of his revered master: “The influence he produced has been most
+lasting and striking in its effects.  It is felt even in India; I cannot
+say more than _that_.”
+
+The useful influence which a right-hearted man of energy and industry may
+exercise amongst his neighbours and dependants, and accomplish for his
+country, cannot, perhaps, be better illustrated than by the career of Sir
+John Sinclair; characterized by the Abbé Gregoire as “the most
+indefatigable man in Europe.”  He was originally a country laird, born to
+a considerable estate situated near John o’ Groat’s House, almost beyond
+the beat of civilization, in a bare wild country fronting the stormy
+North Sea.  His father dying while he was a youth of sixteen, the
+management of the family property thus early devolved upon him; and at
+eighteen he began a course of vigorous improvement in the county of
+Caithness, which eventually spread all over Scotland.  Agriculture then
+was in a most backward state; the fields were unenclosed, the lands
+undrained; the small farmers of Caithness were so poor that they could
+scarcely afford to keep a horse or shelty; the hard work was chiefly
+done, and the burdens borne, by the women; and if a cottier lost a horse
+it was not unusual for him to marry a wife as the cheapest substitute.
+The country was without roads or bridges; and drovers driving their
+cattle south had to swim the rivers along with their beasts.  The chief
+track leading into Caithness lay along a high shelf on a mountain side,
+the road being some hundred feet of clear perpendicular height above the
+sea which dashed below.  Sir John, though a mere youth, determined to
+make a new road over the hill of Ben Cheilt, the old let-alone
+proprietors, however, regarding his scheme with incredulity and derision.
+But he himself laid out the road, assembled some twelve hundred workmen
+early one summer’s morning, set them simultaneously to work,
+superintending their labours, and stimulating them by his presence and
+example; and before night, what had been a dangerous sheep track, six
+miles in length, hardly passable for led horses, was made practicable for
+wheel-carriages as if by the power of magic.  It was an admirable example
+of energy and well-directed labour, which could not fail to have a most
+salutary influence upon the surrounding population.  He then proceeded to
+make more roads, to erect mills, to build bridges, and to enclose and
+cultivate the waste lands.  He introduced improved methods of culture,
+and regular rotation of crops, distributing small premiums to encourage
+industry; and he thus soon quickened the whole frame of society within
+reach of his influence, and infused an entirely new spirit into the
+cultivators of the soil.  From being one of the most inaccessible
+districts of the north—the very _ultima Thule_ of civilization—Caithness
+became a pattern county for its roads, its agriculture, and its
+fisheries.  In Sinclair’s youth, the post was carried by a runner only
+once a week, and the young baronet then declared that he would never rest
+till a coach drove daily to Thurso.  The people of the neighbourhood
+could not believe in any such thing, and it became a proverb in the
+county to say of an utterly impossible scheme, “Ou, ay, that will come to
+pass when Sir John sees the daily mail at Thurso!”  But Sir John lived to
+see his dream realized, and the daily mail established to Thurso.
+
+The circle of his benevolent operation gradually widened.  Observing the
+serious deterioration which had taken place in the quality of British
+wool,—one of the staple commodities of the country,—he forthwith, though
+but a private and little-known country gentleman, devoted himself to its
+improvement.  By his personal exertions he established the British Wool
+Society for the purpose, and himself led the way to practical improvement
+by importing 800 sheep from all countries, at his own expense.  The
+result was, the introduction into Scotland of the celebrated Cheviot
+breed.  Sheep farmers scouted the idea of south country flocks being able
+to thrive in the far north.  But Sir John persevered; and in a few years
+there were not fewer than 300,000 Cheviots diffused over the four
+northern counties alone.  The value of all grazing land was thus
+enormously increased; and Scotch estates, which before were comparatively
+worthless, began to yield large rentals.
+
+Returned by Caithness to Parliament, in which he remained for thirty
+years, rarely missing a division, his position gave him farther
+opportunities of usefulness, which he did not neglect to employ.  Mr.
+Pitt, observing his persevering energy in all useful public projects,
+sent for him to Downing Street, and voluntarily proposed his assistance
+in any object he might have in view.  Another man might have thought of
+himself and his own promotion; but Sir John characteristically replied,
+that he desired no favour for himself, but intimated that the reward most
+gratifying to his feelings would be Mr. Pitt’s assistance in the
+establishment of a National Board of Agriculture.  Arthur Young laid a
+bet with the baronet that his scheme would never be established, adding,
+“Your Board of Agriculture will be in the moon!”  But vigorously setting
+to work, he roused public attention to the subject, enlisted a majority
+of Parliament on his side, and eventually established the Board, of which
+he was appointed President.  The result of its action need not be
+described, but the stimulus which it gave to agriculture and
+stock-raising was shortly felt throughout the whole United Kingdom, and
+tens of thousands of acres were redeemed from barrenness by its
+operation.  He was equally indefatigable in encouraging the establishment
+of fisheries; and the successful founding of these great branches of
+British industry at Thurso and Wick was mainly due to his exertions.  He
+urged for long years, and at length succeeded in obtaining the enclosure
+of a harbour for the latter place, which is perhaps the greatest and most
+prosperous fishing town in the world.
+
+Sir John threw his personal energy into every work in which he engaged,
+rousing the inert, stimulating the idle, encouraging the hopeful, and
+working with all.  When a French invasion was threatened, he offered to
+Mr. Pitt to raise a regiment on his own estate, and he was as good as his
+word.  He went down to the north, and raised a battalion of 600 men,
+afterwards increased to 1000; and it was admitted to be one of the finest
+volunteer regiments ever raised, inspired throughout by his own noble and
+patriotic spirit.  While commanding officer of the camp at Aberdeen he
+held the offices of a Director of the Bank of Scotland, Chairman of the
+British Wool Society, Provost of Wick, Director of the British Fishery
+Society, Commissioner for issuing Exchequer Bills, Member of Parliament
+for Caithness, and President of the Board of Agriculture.  Amidst all
+this multifarious and self-imposed work, he even found time to write
+books, enough of themselves to establish a reputation.  When Mr. Rush,
+the American Ambassador, arrived in England, he relates that he inquired
+of Mr. Coke of Holkham, what was the best work on Agriculture, and was
+referred to Sir John Sinclair’s; and when he further asked of Mr.
+Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the best work on
+British Finance, he was again referred to a work by Sir John Sinclair,
+his ‘History of the Public Revenue.’  But the great monument of his
+indefatigable industry, a work that would have appalled other men, but
+only served to rouse and sustain his energy, was his ‘Statistical Account
+of Scotland,’ in twenty-one volumes, one of the most valuable practical
+works ever published in any age or country.  Amid a host of other
+pursuits it occupied him nearly eight years of hard labour, during which
+he received, and attended to, upwards of 20,000 letters on the subject.
+It was a thoroughly patriotic undertaking, from which he derived no
+personal advantage whatever, beyond the honour of having completed it.
+The whole of the profits were assigned by him to the Society for the Sons
+of the Clergy in Scotland.  The publication of the book led to great
+public improvements; it was followed by the immediate abolition of
+several oppressive feudal rights, to which it called attention; the
+salaries of schoolmasters and clergymen in many parishes were increased;
+and an increased stimulus was given to agriculture throughout Scotland.
+Sir John then publicly offered to undertake the much greater labour of
+collecting and publishing a similar Statistical Account of England; but
+unhappily the then Archbishop of Canterbury refused to sanction it, lest
+it should interfere with the tithes of the clergy, and the idea was
+abandoned.
+
+A remarkable illustration of his energetic promptitude was the manner in
+which he once provided, on a great emergency, for the relief of the
+manufacturing districts.  In 1793 the stagnation produced by the war led
+to an unusual number of bankruptcies, and many of the first houses in
+Manchester and Glasgow were tottering, not so much from want of property,
+but because the usual sources of trade and credit were for the time
+closed up.  A period of intense distress amongst the labouring classes
+seemed imminent, when Sir John urged, in Parliament, that Exchequer notes
+to the amount of five millions should be issued immediately as a loan to
+such merchants as could give security.  This suggestion was adopted, and
+his offer to carry out his plan, in conjunction with certain members
+named by him, was also accepted.  The vote was passed late at night, and
+early next morning Sir John, anticipating the delays of officialism and
+red tape, proceeded to bankers in the city, and borrowed of them, on his
+own personal security, the sum of 70,000_l._, which he despatched the
+same evening to those merchants who were in the most urgent need of
+assistance.  Pitt meeting Sir John in the House, expressed his great
+regret that the pressing wants of Manchester and Glasgow could not be
+supplied so soon as was desirable, adding, “The money cannot be raised
+for some days.”  “It is already gone! it left London by to-night’s mail!”
+was Sir John’s triumphant reply; and in afterwards relating the anecdote
+he added, with a smile of pleasure, “Pitt was as much startled as if I
+had stabbed him.”  To the last this great, good man worked on usefully
+and cheerfully, setting a great example for his family and for his
+country.  In so laboriously seeking others’ good, it might be said that
+he found his own—not wealth, for his generosity seriously impaired his
+private fortune, but happiness, and self-satisfaction, and the peace that
+passes knowledge.  A great patriot, with magnificent powers of work, he
+nobly did his duty to his country; yet he was not neglectful of his own
+household and home.  His sons and daughters grew up to honour and
+usefulness; and it was one of the proudest things Sir John could say,
+when verging on his eightieth year, that he had lived to see seven sons
+grown up, not one of whom had incurred a debt he could not pay, or caused
+him a sorrow that could have been avoided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+CHARACTER—THE TRUE GENTLEMAN.
+
+
+    “For who can always act? but he,
+       To whom a thousand memories call,
+    Not being less but more than all
+       The gentleness he seemed to be,
+
+    But seemed the thing he was, and joined
+       Each office of the social hour
+    To noble manners, as the flower
+       And native growth of noble mind;
+
+    And thus he bore without abuse
+       The grand old name of Gentleman.”—_Tennyson_.
+
+    “Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,
+    Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt.”—_Goethe_.
+
+    “That which raises a country, that which strengthens a country, and
+    that which dignifies a country,—that which spreads her power, creates
+    her moral influence, and makes her respected and submitted to, bends
+    the hearts of millions, and bows down the pride of nations to her—the
+    instrument of obedience, the fountain of supremacy, the true throne,
+    crown, and sceptre of a nation;—this aristocracy is not an
+    aristocracy of blood, not an aristocracy of fashion, not an
+    aristocracy of talent only; it is an aristocracy of Character.  That
+    is the true heraldry of man.”—_The Times_.
+
+THE crown and glory of life is Character.  It is the noblest possession
+of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general
+goodwill; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in
+society.  It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the
+honour without the jealousies of fame.  It carries with it an influence
+which always tells; for it is the result of proved honour, rectitude, and
+consistency—qualities which, perhaps more than any other, command the
+general confidence and respect of mankind.
+
+Character is human nature in its best form.  It is moral order embodied
+in the individual.  Men of character are not only the conscience of
+society, but in every well-governed State they are its best motive power;
+for it is moral qualities in the main which rule the world.  Even in war,
+Napoleon said the moral is to the physical as ten to one.  The strength,
+the industry, and the civilisation of nations—all depend upon individual
+character; and the very foundations of civil security rest upon it.  Laws
+and institutions are but its outgrowth.  In the just balance of nature,
+individuals, nations, and races, will obtain just so much as they
+deserve, and no more.  And as effect finds its cause, so surely does
+quality of character amongst a people produce its befitting results.
+
+Though a man have comparatively little culture, slender abilities, and
+but small wealth, yet, if his character be of sterling worth, he will
+always command an influence, whether it be in the workshop, the
+counting-house, the mart, or the senate.  Canning wisely wrote in 1801,
+“My road must be through Character to power; I will try no other course;
+and I am sanguine enough to believe that this course, though not perhaps
+the quickest, is the surest.”  You may admire men of intellect; but
+something more is necessary before you will trust them.  Hence Lord John
+Russell once observed in a sentence full of truth, “It is the nature of
+party in England to ask the assistance of men of genius, but to follow
+the guidance of men of character.”  This was strikingly illustrated in
+the career of the late Francis Horner—a man of whom Sydney Smith said
+that the Ten Commandments were stamped upon his countenance.  “The
+valuable and peculiar light,” says Lord Cockburn, “in which his history
+is calculated to inspire every right-minded youth, is this.  He died at
+the age of thirty-eight; possessed of greater public influence than any
+other private man; and admired, beloved, trusted, and deplored by all,
+except the heartless or the base.  No greater homage was ever paid in
+Parliament to any deceased member.  Now let every young man ask—how was
+this attained?  By rank?  He was the son of an Edinburgh merchant.  By
+wealth?  Neither he, nor any of his relations, ever had a superfluous
+sixpence.  By office?  He held but one, and only for a few years, of no
+influence, and with very little pay.  By talents?  His were not splendid,
+and he had no genius.  Cautious and slow, his only ambition was to be
+right.  By eloquence?  He spoke in calm, good taste, without any of the
+oratory that either terrifies or seduces.  By any fascination of manner?
+His was only correct and agreeable.  By what, then, was it?  Merely by
+sense, industry, good principles, and a good heart—qualities which no
+well-constituted mind need ever despair of attaining.  It was the force
+of his character that raised him; and this character not impressed upon
+him by nature, but formed, out of no peculiarly fine elements, by
+himself.  There were many in the House of Commons of far greater ability
+and eloquence.  But no one surpassed him in the combination of an
+adequate portion of these with moral worth.  Horner was born to show what
+moderate powers, unaided by anything whatever except culture and
+goodness, may achieve, even when these powers are displayed amidst the
+competition and jealousy of public life.”
+
+Franklin, also, attributed his success as a public man, not to his
+talents or his powers of speaking—for these were but moderate—but to his
+known integrity of character.  Hence it was, he says, “that I had so much
+weight with my fellow citizens.  I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent,
+subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in
+language, and yet I generally carried my point.”  Character creates
+confidence in men in high station as well as in humble life.  It was said
+of the first Emperor Alexander of Russia, that his personal character was
+equivalent to a constitution.  During the wars of the Fronde, Montaigne
+was the only man amongst the French gentry who kept his castle gates
+unbarred; and it was said of him, that his personal character was a
+better protection for him than a regiment of horse would have been.
+
+That character is power, is true in a much higher sense than that
+knowledge is power.  Mind without heart, intelligence without conduct,
+cleverness without goodness, are powers in their way, but they may be
+powers only for mischief.  We may be instructed or amused by them; but it
+is sometimes as difficult to admire them as it would be to admire the
+dexterity of a pickpocket or the horsemanship of a highwayman.
+
+Truthfulness, integrity, and goodness—qualities that hang not on any
+man’s breath—form the essence of manly character, or, as one of our old
+writers has it, “that inbred loyalty unto Virtue which can serve her
+without a livery.”  He who possesses these qualities, united with
+strength of purpose, carries with him a power which is irresistible.  He
+is strong to do good, strong to resist evil, and strong to bear up under
+difficulty and misfortune.  When Stephen of Colonna fell into the hands
+of his base assailants, and they asked him in derision, “Where is now
+your fortress?”  “Here,” was his bold reply, placing his hand upon his
+heart.  It is in misfortune that the character of the upright man shines
+forth with the greatest lustre; and when all else fails, he takes stand
+upon his integrity and his courage.
+
+The rules of conduct followed by Lord Erskine—a man of sterling
+independence of principle and scrupulous adherence to truth—are worthy of
+being engraven on every young man’s heart.  “It was a first command and
+counsel of my earliest youth,” he said, “always to do what my conscience
+told me to be a duty, and to leave the consequence to God.  I shall carry
+with me the memory, and I trust the practice, of this parental lesson to
+the grave.  I have hitherto followed it, and I have no reason to complain
+that my obedience to it has been a temporal sacrifice.  I have found it,
+on the contrary, the road to prosperity and wealth, and I shall point out
+the same path to my children for their pursuit.”
+
+Every man is bound to aim at the possession of a good character as one of
+the highest objects of life.  The very effort to secure it by worthy
+means will furnish him with a motive for exertion; and his idea of
+manhood, in proportion as it is elevated, will steady and animate his
+motive.  It is well to have a high standard of life, even though we may
+not be able altogether to realize it.  “The youth,” says Mr. Disraeli,
+“who does not look up will look down; and the spirit that does not soar
+is destined perhaps to grovel.”  George Herbert wisely writes,
+
+    “Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high,
+    So shall thou humble and magnanimous be.
+    Sink not in spirit; who aimeth at the sky
+    Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.”
+
+He who has a high standard of living and thinking will certainly do
+better than he who has none at all.  “Pluck at a gown of gold,” says the
+Scotch proverb, “and you may get a sleeve o’t.”  Whoever tries for the
+highest results cannot fail to reach a point far in advance of that from
+which he started; and though the end attained may fall short of that
+proposed, still, the very effort to rise, of itself cannot fail to prove
+permanently beneficial.
+
+There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is
+difficult to be mistaken.  Some, knowing its money value, would assume
+its disguise for the purpose of imposing upon the unwary.  Colonel
+Charteris said to a man distinguished for his honesty, “I would give a
+thousand pounds for your good name.”  “Why?”  “Because I could make ten
+thousand by it,” was the knave’s reply.
+
+Integrity in word and deed is the backbone of character; and loyal
+adherence to veracity its most prominent characteristic.  One of the
+finest testimonies to the character of the late Sir Robert Peel was that
+borne by the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords, a few days after
+the great statesman’s death.  “Your lordships,” he said, “must all feel
+the high and honourable character of the late Sir Robert Peel.  I was
+long connected with him in public life.  We were both in the councils of
+our Sovereign together, and I had long the honour to enjoy his private
+friendship.  In all the course of my acquaintance with him I never knew a
+man in whose truth and justice I had greater confidence, or in whom I saw
+a more invariable desire to promote the public service.  In the whole
+course of my communication with him, I never knew an instance in which he
+did not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I never saw in the
+whole course of my life the smallest reason for suspecting that he stated
+anything which he did not firmly believe to be the fact.”  And this
+high-minded truthfulness of the statesman was no doubt the secret of no
+small part of his influence and power.
+
+There is a truthfulness in action as well as in words, which is essential
+to uprightness of character.  A man must really be what he seems or
+purposes to be.  When an American gentleman wrote to Granville Sharp,
+that from respect for his great virtues he had named one of his sons
+after him, Sharp replied: “I must request you to teach him a favourite
+maxim of the family whose name you have given him—_Always endeavour to be
+really what you would wish to appear_.  This maxim, as my father informed
+me, was carefully and humbly practised by _his_ father, whose sincerity,
+as a plain and honest man, thereby became the principal feature of his
+character, both in public and private life.”  Every man who respects
+himself, and values the respect of others, will carry out the maxim in
+act—doing honestly what he proposes to do—putting the highest character
+into his work, scamping nothing, but priding himself upon his integrity
+and conscientiousness.  Once Cromwell said to Bernard,—a clever but
+somewhat unscrupulous lawyer, “I understand that you have lately been
+vastly wary in your conduct; do not be too confident of this; subtlety
+may deceive you, integrity never will.”  Men whose acts are at direct
+variance with their words, command no respect, and what they say has but
+little weight; even truths, when uttered by them, seem to come blasted
+from their lips.
+
+The true character acts rightly, whether in secret or in the sight of
+men.  That boy was well trained who, when asked why he did not pocket
+some pears, for nobody was there to see, replied, “Yes, there was: I was
+there to see myself; and I don’t intend ever to see myself do a dishonest
+thing.”—This is a simple but not inappropriate illustration of principle,
+or conscience, dominating in the character, and exercising a noble
+protectorate over it; not merely a passive influence, but an active power
+regulating the life.  Such a principle goes on moulding the character
+hourly and daily, growing with a force that operates every moment.
+Without this dominating influence, character has no protection, but is
+constantly liable to fall away before temptation; and every such
+temptation succumbed to, every act of meanness or dishonesty, however
+slight, causes self-degradation.  It matters not whether the act be
+successful or not, discovered or concealed; the culprit is no longer the
+same, but another person; and he is pursued by a secret uneasiness, by
+self-reproach, or the workings of what we call conscience, which is the
+inevitable doom of the guilty.
+
+And here it may be observed how greatly the character may be strengthened
+and supported by the cultivation of good habits.  Man, it has been said,
+is a bundle of habits; and habit is second nature.  Metastasio
+entertained so strong an opinion as to the power of repetition in act and
+thought, that he said, “All is habit in mankind, even virtue itself.”
+Butler, in his ‘Analogy,’ impresses the importance of careful
+self-discipline and firm resistance to temptation, as tending to make
+virtue habitual, so that at length it may become more easy to be good
+than to give way to sin.  “As habits belonging to the body,” he says,
+“are produced by external acts, so habits of the mind are produced by the
+execution of inward practical purposes, i.e., carrying them into act, or
+acting upon them—the principles of obedience, veracity, justice, and
+charity.”  And again, Lord Brougham says, when enforcing the immense
+importance of training and example in youth, “I trust everything under
+God to habit, on which, in all ages, the lawgiver, as well as the
+schoolmaster, has mainly placed his reliance; habit, which makes
+everything easy, and casts the difficulties upon the deviation from a
+wonted course.”  Thus, make sobriety a habit, and intemperance will be
+hateful; make prudence a habit, and reckless profligacy will become
+revolting to every principle of conduct which regulates the life of the
+individual.  Hence the necessity for the greatest care and watchfulness
+against the inroad of any evil habit; for the character is always weakest
+at that point at which it has once given way; and it is long before a
+principle restored can become so firm as one that has never been moved.
+It is a fine remark of a Russian writer, that “Habits are a necklace of
+pearls: untie the knot, and the whole unthreads.”
+
+Wherever formed, habit acts involuntarily, and without effort; and, it is
+only when you oppose it, that you find how powerful it has become.  What
+is done once and again, soon gives facility and proneness.  The habit at
+first may seem to have no more strength than a spider’s web; but, once
+formed, it binds as with a chain of iron.  The small events of life,
+taken singly, may seem exceedingly unimportant, like snow that falls
+silently, flake by flake; yet accumulated, these snow-flakes form the
+avalanche.
+
+Self-respect, self-help, application, industry, integrity—all are of the
+nature of habits, not beliefs.  Principles, in fact, are but the names
+which we assign to habits; for the principles are words, but the habits
+are the things themselves: benefactors or tyrants, according as they are
+good or evil.  It thus happens that as we grow older, a portion of our
+free activity and individuality becomes suspended in habit; our actions
+become of the nature of fate; and we are bound by the chains which we
+have woven around ourselves.
+
+It is indeed scarcely possible to over-estimate the importance of
+training the young to virtuous habits.  In them they are the easiest
+formed, and when formed they last for life; like letters cut on the bark
+of a tree they grow and widen with age.  “Train up a child in the way he
+should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  The beginning
+holds within it the end; the first start on the road of life determines
+the direction and the destination of the journey; _ce n’est que le
+premier pas qui coûte_.  “Remember,” said Lord Collingwood to a young man
+whom he loved, “before you are five-and-twenty you must establish a
+character that will serve you all your life.”  As habit strengthens with
+age, and character becomes formed, any turning into a new path becomes
+more and more difficult.  Hence, it is often harder to unlearn than to
+learn; and for this reason the Grecian flute-player was justified who
+charged double fees to those pupils who had been taught by an inferior
+master.  To uproot an old habit is sometimes a more painful thing, and
+vastly more difficult, than to wrench out a tooth.  Try and reform a
+habitually indolent, or improvident, or drunken person, and in a large
+majority of cases you will fail.  For the habit in each case has wound
+itself in and through the life until it has become an integral part of
+it, and cannot be uprooted.  Hence, as Mr. Lynch observes, “the wisest
+habit of all is the habit of care in the formation of good habits.”
+
+Even happiness itself may become habitual.  There is a habit of looking
+at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.  Dr.
+Johnson has said that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is
+worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year.  And we possess the
+power, to a great extent, of so exercising the will as to direct the
+thoughts upon objects calculated to yield happiness and improvement
+rather than their opposites.  In this way the habit of happy thought may
+be made to spring up like any other habit.  And to bring up men or women
+with a genial nature of this sort, a good temper, and a happy frame of
+mind, is perhaps of even more importance, in many cases, than to perfect
+them in much knowledge and many accomplishments.
+
+As daylight can be seen through very small holes, so little things will
+illustrate a person’s character.  Indeed character consists in little
+acts, well and honourably performed; daily life being the quarry from
+which we build it up, and rough-hew the habits which form it.  One of the
+most marked tests of character is the manner in which we conduct
+ourselves towards others.  A graceful behaviour towards superiors,
+inferiors, and equals, is a constant source of pleasure.  It pleases
+others because it indicates respect for their personality; but it gives
+tenfold more pleasure to ourselves.  Every man may to a large extent be a
+self-educator in good behaviour, as in everything else; he can be civil
+and kind, if he will, though he have not a penny in his purse.
+Gentleness in society is like the silent influence of light, which gives
+colour to all nature; it is far more powerful than loudness or force, and
+far more fruitful.  It pushes its way quietly and persistently, like the
+tiniest daffodil in spring, which raises the clod and thrusts it aside by
+the simple persistency of growing.
+
+Even a kind look will give pleasure and confer happiness.  In one of
+Robertson of Brighton’s letters, he tells of a lady who related to him
+“the delight, the tears of gratitude, which she had witnessed in a poor
+girl to whom, in passing, I gave a kind look on going out of church on
+Sunday.  What a lesson!  How cheaply happiness can be given!  What
+opportunities we miss of doing an angel’s work!  I remember doing it,
+full of sad feelings, passing on, and thinking no more about it; and it
+gave an hour’s sunshine to a human life, and lightened the load of life
+to a human heart for a time!” {392}
+
+Morals and manners, which give colour to life, are of much greater
+importance than laws, which are but their manifestations.  The law
+touches us here and there, but manners are about us everywhere, pervading
+society like the air we breathe.  Good manners, as we call them, are
+neither more nor less than good behaviour; consisting of courtesy and
+kindness; benevolence being the preponderating element in all kinds of
+mutually beneficial and pleasant intercourse amongst human beings.
+“Civility,” said Lady Montague, “costs nothing and buys everything.”  The
+cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least
+possible trouble and self-sacrifice.  “Win hearts,” said Burleigh to
+Queen Elizabeth, “and you have all men’s hearts and purses.”  If we would
+only let nature act kindly, free from affectation and artifice, the
+results on social good humour and happiness would be incalculable.  The
+little courtesies which form the small change of life, may separately
+appear of little intrinsic value, but they acquire their importance from
+repetition and accumulation.  They are like the spare minutes, or the
+groat a day, which proverbially produce such momentous results in the
+course of a twelvemonth, or in a lifetime.
+
+Manners are the ornament of action; and there is a way of speaking a kind
+word, or of doing a kind thing, which greatly enhances their value.  What
+seems to be done with a grudge, or as an act of condescension, is
+scarcely accepted as a favour.  Yet there are men who pride themselves
+upon their gruffness; and though they may possess virtue and capacity,
+their manner is often such as to render them almost insupportable.  It is
+difficult to like a man who, though he may not pull your nose, habitually
+wounds your self-respect, and takes a pride in saying disagreeable things
+to you.  There are others who are dreadfully condescending, and cannot
+avoid seizing upon every small opportunity of making their greatness
+felt.  When Abernethy was canvassing for the office of surgeon to St.
+Bartholomew Hospital, he called upon such a person—a rich grocer, one of
+the governors.  The great man behind the counter seeing the great surgeon
+enter, immediately assumed the grand air towards the supposed suppliant
+for his vote.  “I presume, Sir, you want my vote and interest at this
+momentous epoch of your life?”  Abernethy, who hated humbugs, and felt
+nettled at the tone, replied: “No, I don’t: I want a pennyworth of figs;
+come, look sharp and wrap them up; I want to be off!”
+
+The cultivation of manner—though in excess it is foppish and foolish—is
+highly necessary in a person who has occasion to negociate with others in
+matters of business.  Affability and good breeding may even be regarded
+as essential to the success of a man in any eminent station and enlarged
+sphere of life; for the want of it has not unfrequently been found in a
+great measure to neutralise the results of much industry, integrity, and
+honesty of character.  There are, no doubt, a few strong tolerant minds
+which can bear with defects and angularities of manner, and look only to
+the more genuine qualities; but the world at large is not so forbearant,
+and cannot help forming its judgments and likings mainly according to
+outward conduct.
+
+Another mode of displaying true politeness is consideration for the
+opinions of others.  It has been said of dogmatism, that it is only
+puppyism come to its full growth; and certainly the worst form this
+quality can assume, is that of opinionativeness and arrogance.  Let men
+agree to differ, and, when they do differ, bear and forbear.  Principles
+and opinions may be maintained with perfect suavity, without coming to
+blows or uttering hard words; and there are circumstances in which words
+are blows, and inflict wounds far less easy to heal.  As bearing upon
+this point, we quote an instructive little parable spoken some time since
+by an itinerant preacher of the Evangelical Alliance on the borders of
+Wales:—“As I was going to the hills,” said he, “early one misty morning,
+I saw something moving on a mountain side, so strange looking that I took
+it for a monster.  When I came nearer to it I found it was a man.  When I
+came up to him I found he was my brother.”
+
+The inbred politeness which springs from right-heartedness and kindly
+feelings, is of no exclusive rank or station.  The mechanic who works at
+the bench may possess it, as well as the clergyman or the peer.  It is by
+no means a necessary condition of labour that it should, in any respect,
+be either rough or coarse.  The politeness and refinement which
+distinguish all classes of the people in many continental countries show
+that those qualities might become ours too—as doubtless they will become
+with increased culture and more general social intercourse—without
+sacrificing any of our more genuine qualities as men.  From the highest
+to the lowest, the richest to the poorest, to no rank or condition in
+life has nature denied her highest boon—the great heart.  There never yet
+existed a gentleman but was lord of a great heart.  And this may exhibit
+itself under the hodden grey of the peasant as well as under the laced
+coat of the noble.  Robert Burns was once taken to task by a young
+Edinburgh blood, with whom he was walking, for recognising an honest
+farmer in the open street.  “Why you fantastic gomeral,” exclaimed Burns,
+“it was not the great coat, the scone bonnet, and the saunders-boot hose
+that I spoke to, but _the man_ that was in them; and the man, sir, for
+true worth, would weigh down you and me, and ten more such, any day.”
+There may be a homeliness in externals, which may seem vulgar to those
+who cannot discern the heart beneath; but, to the right-minded, character
+will always have its clear insignia.
+
+William and Charles Grant were the sons of a farmer in Inverness-shire,
+whom a sudden flood stripped of everything, even to the very soil which
+he tilled.  The farmer and his sons, with the world before them where to
+choose, made their way southward in search of employment until they
+arrived in the neighbourhood of Bury in Lancashire.  From the crown of
+the hill near Walmesley they surveyed the wide extent of country which
+lay before them, the river Irwell making its circuitous course through
+the valley.  They were utter strangers in the neighbourhood, and knew not
+which way to turn.  To decide their course they put up a stick, and
+agreed to pursue the direction in which it fell.  Thus their decision was
+made, and they journeyed on accordingly until they reached the village of
+Ramsbotham, not far distant.  They found employment in a print-work, in
+which William served his apprenticeship; and they commanded themselves to
+their employers by their diligence, sobriety, and strict integrity.  They
+plodded on, rising from one station to another, until at length the two
+men themselves became employers, and after many long years of industry,
+enterprise, and benevolence, they became rich, honoured, and respected by
+all who knew them.  Their cotton-mills and print-works gave employment to
+a large population.  Their well-directed diligence made the valley teem
+with activity, joy, health, and opulence.  Out of their abundant wealth
+they gave liberally to all worthy objects, erecting churches, founding
+schools, and in all ways promoting the well-being of the class of
+working-men from which they had sprung.  They afterwards erected, on the
+top of the hill above Walmesley, a lofty tower in commemoration of the
+early event in their history which had determined the place of their
+settlement.  The brothers Grant became widely celebrated for their
+benevolence and their various goodness, and it is said that Mr. Dickens
+had them in his mind’s eye when delineating the character of the brothers
+Cheeryble.  One amongst many anecdotes of a similar kind may be cited to
+show that the character was by no means exaggerated.  A Manchester
+warehouseman published an exceedingly scurrilous pamphlet against the
+firm of Grant Brothers, holding up the elder partner to ridicule as
+“Billy Button.”  William was informed by some one of the nature of the
+pamphlet, and his observation was that the man would live to repent of
+it.  “Oh!” said the libeller, when informed of the remark, “he thinks
+that some time or other I shall be in his debt; but I will take good care
+of that.”  It happens, however, that men in business do not always
+foresee who shall be their creditor, and it so turned out that the
+Grants’ libeller became a bankrupt, and could not complete his
+certificate and begin business again without obtaining their signature.
+It seemed to him a hopeless case to call upon that firm for any favour,
+but the pressing claims of his family forced him to make the application.
+He appeared before the man whom he had ridiculed as “Billy Button”
+accordingly.  He told his tale and produced his certificate.  “You wrote
+a pamphlet against us once?” said Mr. Grant.  The supplicant expected to
+see his document thrown into the fire; instead of which Grant signed the
+name of the firm, and thus completed the necessary certificate.  “We make
+it a rule,” said he, handing it back, “never to refuse signing the
+certificate of an honest tradesman, and we have never heard that you were
+anything else.”  The tears started into the man’s eyes.  “Ah,” continued
+Mr. Grant, “you see my saying was true, that you would live to repent
+writing that pamphlet.  I did not mean it as a threat—I only meant that
+some day you would know us better, and repent having tried to injure us.”
+“I do, I do, indeed, repent it.”  “Well, well, you know us now.  But how
+do you get on—what are you going to do?”  The poor man stated that he had
+friends who would assist him when his certificate was obtained.  “But how
+are you off in the mean time?”  The answer was, that, having given up
+every farthing to his creditors, he had been compelled to stint his
+family in even the common necessaries of life, that he might be enabled
+to pay for his certificate.  “My good fellow, this will never do; your
+wife and family must not suffer in this way; be kind enough to take this
+ten-pound note to your wife from me: there, there, now—don’t cry, it will
+be all well with you yet; keep up your spirits, set to work like a man,
+and you will raise your head among the best of us yet.”  The overpowered
+man endeavoured with choking utterance to express his gratitude, but in
+vain; and putting his hand to his face, he went out of the room sobbing
+like a child.
+
+The True Gentleman is one whose nature has been fashioned after the
+highest models.  It is a grand old name, that of Gentleman, and has been
+recognized as a rank and power in all stages of society.  “The Gentleman
+is always the Gentleman,” said the old French General to his regiment of
+Scottish gentry at Rousillon, “and invariably proves himself such in need
+and in danger.”  To possess this character is a dignity of itself,
+commanding the instinctive homage of every generous mind, and those who
+will not bow to titular rank, will yet do homage to the gentleman.  His
+qualities depend not upon fashion or manners, but upon moral worth—not on
+personal possessions, but on personal qualities.  The Psalmist briefly
+describes him as one “that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,
+and speaketh the truth in his heart.”
+
+The gentleman is eminently distinguished for his self-respect.  He values
+his character,—not so much of it only as can be seen of others, but as he
+sees it himself; having regard for the approval of his inward monitor.
+And, as he respects himself, so, by the same law, does he respect others.
+Humanity is sacred in his eyes: and thence proceed politeness and
+forbearance, kindness and charity.  It is related of Lord Edward
+Fitzgerald that, while travelling in Canada, in company with the Indians,
+he was shocked by the sight of a poor squaw trudging along laden with her
+husband’s trappings, while the chief himself walked on unencumbered.
+Lord Edward at once relieved the squaw of her pack by placing it upon his
+own shoulders,—a beautiful instance of what the French call _politesse de
+cœur_—the inbred politeness of the true gentleman.
+
+The true gentleman has a keen sense of honour,—scrupulously avoiding mean
+actions.  His standard of probity in word and action is high.  He does
+not shuffle or prevaricate, dodge or skulk; but is honest, upright, and
+straightforward.  His law is rectitude—action in right lines.  When he
+says _yes_, it is a law: and he dares to say the valiant _no_ at the
+fitting season.  The gentleman will not be bribed; only the low-minded
+and unprincipled will sell themselves to those who are interested in
+buying them.  When the upright Jonas Hanway officiated as commissioner in
+the victualling department, he declined to receive a present of any kind
+from a contractor; refusing thus to be biassed in the performance of his
+public duty.  A fine trait of the same kind is to be noted in the life of
+the Duke of Wellington.  Shortly after the battle of Assaye, one morning
+the Prime Minister of the Court of Hyderabad waited upon him for the
+purpose of privately ascertaining what territory and what advantages had
+been reserved for his master in the treaty of peace between the Mahratta
+princes and the Nizam.  To obtain this information the minister offered
+the general a very large sum—considerably above 100,000_l._  Looking at
+him quietly for a few seconds, Sir Arthur said, “It appears, then, that
+you are capable of keeping a secret?”  “Yes, certainly,” replied the
+minister.  “_Then so am I_,” said the English general, smiling, and bowed
+the minister out.  It was to Wellington’s great honour, that though
+uniformly successful in India, and with the power of earning in such
+modes as this enormous wealth, he did not add a farthing to his fortune,
+and returned to England a comparatively poor man.
+
+A similar sensitiveness and high-mindedness characterised his noble
+relative, the Marquis of Wellesley, who, on one occasion, positively
+refused a present of 100,000_l._ proposed to be given him by the
+Directors of the East India Company on the conquest of Mysore.  “It is
+not necessary,” said he, “for me to allude to the independence of my
+character, and the proper dignity attaching to my office; other reasons
+besides these important considerations lead me to decline this testimony,
+which is not suitable to me.  _I think of nothing but our army_.  I
+should be much distressed to curtail the share of those brave soldiers.”
+And the Marquis’s resolution to refuse the present remained unalterable.
+
+Sir Charles Napier exhibited the same noble self-denial in the course of
+his Indian career.  He rejected all the costly gifts which barbaric
+princes were ready to lay at his feet, and said with truth, “Certainly I
+could have got 30,000_l._ since my coming to Scinde, but my hands do not
+want washing yet.  Our dear father’s sword which I wore in both battles
+(Meanee and Hyderabad) is unstained.”
+
+Riches and rank have no necessary connexion with genuine gentlemanly
+qualities.  The poor man may be a true gentleman,—in spirit and in daily
+life.  He may be honest, truthful, upright, polite, temperate,
+courageous, self-respecting, and self-helping,—that is, be a true
+gentleman.  The poor man with a rich spirit is in all ways superior to
+the rich man with a poor spirit.  To borrow St. Paul’s words, the former
+is as “having nothing, yet possessing all things,” while the other,
+though possessing all things, has nothing.  The first hopes everything,
+and fears nothing; the last hopes nothing, and fears everything.  Only
+the poor in spirit are really poor.  He who has lost all, but retains his
+courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self-respect, is still rich.
+For such a man, the world is, as it were, held in trust; his spirit
+dominating over its grosser cares, he can still walk erect, a true
+gentleman.
+
+Occasionally, the brave and gentle character may be found under the
+humblest garb.  Here is an old illustration, but a fine one.  Once on a
+time, when the Adige suddenly overflowed its banks, the bridge of Verona
+was carried away, with the exception of the centre arch, on which stood a
+house, whose inhabitants supplicated help from the windows, while the
+foundations were visibly giving way.  “I will give a hundred French
+louis,” said the Count Spolverini, who stood by, “to any person who will
+venture to deliver these unfortunate people.”  A young peasant came forth
+from the crowd, seized a boat, and pushed into the stream.  He gained the
+pier, received the whole family into the boat, and made for the shore,
+where he landed them in safety.  “Here is your money, my brave young
+fellow,” said the count.  “No,” was the answer of the young man, “I do
+not sell my life; give the money to this poor family, who have need of
+it.”  Here spoke the true spirit of the gentleman, though he was but in
+the garb of a peasant.
+
+Not less touching was the heroic conduct of a party of Deal boatmen in
+rescuing the crew of a collier-brig in the Downs but a short time ago.
+{400}  A sudden storm which set in from the north-east drove several
+ships from their anchors, and it being low water, one of them struck the
+ground at a considerable distance from the shore, when the sea made a
+clean breach over her.  There was not a vestige of hope for the vessel,
+such was the fury of the wind and the violence of the waves.  There was
+nothing to tempt the boatmen on shore to risk their lives in saving
+either ship or crew, for not a farthing of salvage was to be looked for.
+But the daring intrepidity of the Deal boatmen was not wanting at this
+critical moment.  No sooner had the brig grounded than Simon Pritchard,
+one of the many persons assembled along the beach, threw off his coat and
+called out, “Who will come with me and try to save that crew?”  Instantly
+twenty men sprang forward, with “I will,” “and I.”  But seven only were
+wanted; and running down a galley punt into the surf, they leaped in and
+dashed through the breakers, amidst the cheers of those on shore.  How
+the boat lived in such a sea seemed a miracle; but in a few minutes,
+impelled by the strong arms of these gallant men, she flew on and reached
+the stranded ship, “catching her on the top of a wave”; and in less than
+a quarter of an hour from the time the boat left the shore, the six men
+who composed the crew of the collier were landed safe on Walmer Beach.  A
+nobler instance of indomitable courage and disinterested heroism on the
+part of the Deal boatmen—brave though they are always known to be—perhaps
+cannot be cited; and we have pleasure in here placing it on record.
+
+Mr. Turnbull, in his work on ‘Austria,’ relates an anecdote of the late
+Emperor Francis, in illustration of the manner in which the Government of
+that country has been indebted, for its hold upon the people, to the
+personal qualities of its princes.  “At the time when the cholera was
+raging at Vienna, the emperor, with an aide-de-camp, was strolling about
+the streets of the city and suburbs, when a corpse was dragged past on a
+litter unaccompanied by a single mourner.  The unusual circumstance
+attracted his attention, and he learnt, on inquiry, that the deceased was
+a poor person who had died of cholera, and that the relatives had not
+ventured on what was then considered the very dangerous office of
+attending the body to the grave.  ‘Then,’ said Francis, ‘we will supply
+their place, for none of my poor people should go to the grave without
+that last mark of respect;’ and he followed the body to the distant place
+of interment, and, bare-headed, stood to see every rite and observance
+respectfully performed.”
+
+Fine though this illustration may be of the qualities of the gentleman,
+we can match it by another equally good, of two English navvies in Paris,
+as related in a morning paper a few years ago.  “One day a hearse was
+observed ascending the steep Rue de Clichy on its way to Montmartre,
+bearing a coffin of poplar wood with its cold corpse.  Not a soul
+followed—not even the living dog of the dead man, if he had one.  The day
+was rainy and dismal; passers by lifted the hat as is usual when a
+funeral passes, and that was all.  At length it passed two English
+navvies, who found themselves in Paris on their way from Spain.  A right
+feeling spoke from beneath their serge jackets.  ‘Poor wretch!’ said the
+one to the other, ‘no one follows him; let us two follow!’  And the two
+took off their hats, and walked bare-headed after the corpse of a
+stranger to the cemetery of Montmartre.”
+
+Above all, the gentleman is truthful.  He feels that truth is the “summit
+of being,” and the soul of rectitude in human affairs.  Lord Chesterfield
+declared that Truth made the success of a gentleman.  The Duke of
+Wellington, writing to Kellerman, on the subject of prisoners on parole,
+when opposed to that general in the peninsula, told him that if there was
+one thing on which an English officer prided himself more than another,
+excepting his courage, it was his truthfulness.  “When English officers,”
+said he, “have given their parole of honour not to escape, be sure they
+will not break it.  Believe me—trust to their word; the word of an
+English officer is a surer guarantee than the vigilance of sentinels.”
+
+True courage and gentleness go hand in hand.  The brave man is generous
+and forbearant, never unforgiving and cruel.  It was finely said of Sir
+John Franklin by his friend Parry, that “he was a man who never turned
+his back upon a danger, yet of that tenderness that he would not brush
+away a mosquito.”  A fine trait of character—truly gentle, and worthy of
+the spirit of Bayard—was displayed by a French officer in the cavalry
+combat of El Bodon in Spain.  He had raised his sword to strike Sir
+Felton Harvey, but perceiving his antagonist had only one arm, he
+instantly stopped, brought down his sword before Sir Felton in the usual
+salute, and rode past.  To this may be added a noble and gentle deed of
+Ney during the same Peninsular War.  Charles Napier was taken prisoner at
+Corunna, desperately wounded; and his friends at home did not know
+whether he was alive or dead.  A special messenger was sent out from
+England with a frigate to ascertain his fate.  Baron Clouet received the
+flag, and informed Ney of the arrival.  “Let the prisoner see his
+friends,” said Ney, “and tell them he is well, and well treated.”  Clouet
+lingered, and Ney asked, smiling, “what more he wanted”?  “He has an old
+mother, a widow, and blind.”  “Has he? then let him go himself and tell
+her he is alive.”  As the exchange of prisoners between the countries was
+not then allowed, Ney knew that he risked the displeasure of the Emperor
+by setting the young officer at liberty; but Napoleon approved the
+generous act.
+
+Notwithstanding the wail which we occasionally hear for the chivalry that
+is gone, our own age has witnessed deeds of bravery and gentleness—of
+heroic self-denial and manly tenderness—which are unsurpassed in history.
+The events of the last few years have shown that our countrymen are as
+yet an undegenerate race.  On the bleak plateau of Sebastopol, in the
+dripping perilous trenches of that twelvemonth’s leaguer, men of all
+classes proved themselves worthy of the noble inheritance of character
+which their forefathers have bequeathed to them.  But it was in the hour
+of the great trial in India that the qualities of our countrymen shone
+forth the brightest.  The march of Neill on Cawnpore, of Havelock on
+Lucknow—officers and men alike urged on by the hope of rescuing the women
+and the children—are events which the whole history of chivalry cannot
+equal.  Outram’s conduct to Havelock, in resigning to him, though his
+inferior officer, the honour of leading the attack on Lucknow, was a
+trait worthy of Sydney, and alone justifies the title which has been
+awarded to him of, “the Bayard of India.”  The death of Henry
+Lawrence—that brave and gentle spirit—his last words before dying, “Let
+there be no fuss about me; let me be buried _with the men_,”—the anxious
+solicitude of Sir Colin Campbell to rescue the beleaguered of Lucknow,
+and to conduct his long train of women and children by night from thence
+to Cawnpore, which he reached amidst the all but overpowering assault of
+the enemy,—the care with which he led them across the perilous bridge,
+never ceasing his charge over them until he had seen the precious convoy
+safe on the road to Allahabad, and then burst upon the Gwalior contingent
+like a thunder-clap;—such things make us feel proud of our countrymen and
+inspire the conviction that the best and purest glow of chivalry is not
+dead, but vigorously lives among us yet.
+
+Even the common soldiers proved themselves gentlemen under their trials.
+At Agra, where so many poor fellows had been scorched and wounded in
+their encounter with the enemy, they were brought into the fort, and
+tenderly nursed by the ladies; and the rough, gallant fellows proved
+gentle as any children.  During the weeks that the ladies watched over
+their charge, never a word was said by any soldier that could shock the
+ear of the gentlest.  And when all was over—when the mortally-wounded had
+died, and the sick and maimed who survived were able to demonstrate their
+gratitude—they invited their nurses and the chief people of Agra to an
+entertainment in the beautiful gardens of the Taj, where, amidst flowers
+and music, the rough veterans, all scarred and mutilated as they were,
+stood up to thank their gentle countrywomen who had clothed and fed them,
+and ministered to their wants during their time of sore distress.  In the
+hospitals at Scutari, too, many wounded and sick blessed the kind English
+ladies who nursed them; and nothing can be finer than the thought of the
+poor sufferers, unable to rest through pain, blessing the shadow of
+Florence Nightingale as it fell upon their pillow in the night watches.
+
+The wreck of the _Birkenhead_ off the coast of Africa on the 27th of
+February, 1852, affords another memorable illustration of the chivalrous
+spirit of common men acting in this nineteenth century, of which any age
+might be proud.  The vessel was steaming along the African coast with 472
+men and 166 women and children on board.  The men belonged to several
+regiments then serving at the Cape, and consisted principally of recruits
+who had been only a short time in the service.  At two o’clock in the
+morning, while all were asleep below, the ship struck with violence upon
+a hidden rock which penetrated her bottom; and it was at once felt that
+she must go down.  The roll of the drums called the soldiers to arms on
+the upper deck, and the men mustered as if on parade.  The word was
+passed to _save the women and children_; and the helpless creatures were
+brought from below, mostly undressed, and handed silently into the boats.
+When they had all left the ship’s side, the commander of the vessel
+thoughtlessly called out, “All those that can swim, jump overboard and
+make for the boats.”  But Captain Wright, of the 91st Highlanders, said,
+“No! if you do that, _the boats with the women must be swamped_;” and the
+brave men stood motionless.  There was no boat remaining, and no hope of
+safety; but not a heart quailed; no one flinched from his duty in that
+trying moment.  “There was not a murmur nor a cry amongst them,” said
+Captain Wright, a survivor, “until the vessel made her final plunge.”
+Down went the ship, and down went the heroic band, firing a _feu de joie_
+as they sank beneath the waves.  Glory and honour to the gentle and the
+brave!  The examples of such men never die, but, like their memories, are
+immortal.
+
+There are many tests by which a gentleman may be known; but there is one
+that never fails—How does he _exercise power_ over those subordinate to
+him?  How does he conduct himself towards women and children?  How does
+the officer treat his men, the employer his servants, the master his
+pupils, and man in every station those who are weaker than himself?  The
+discretion, forbearance, and kindliness, with which power in such cases
+is used, may indeed be regarded as the crucial test of gentlemanly
+character.  When La Motte was one day passing through a crowd, he
+accidentally trod upon the foot of a young fellow, who forthwith struck
+him on the face: “Ah, sire,” said La Motte, “you will surely be sorry for
+what you have done, when you know that _I am blind_.”  He who bullies
+those who are not in a position to resist may be a snob, but cannot be a
+gentleman.  He who tyrannizes over the weak and helpless may be a coward,
+but no true man.  The tyrant, it has been said, is but a slave turned
+inside out.  Strength, and the consciousness of strength, in a
+right-hearted man, imparts a nobleness to his character; but he will be
+most careful how he uses it; for
+
+    “It is excellent
+    To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous
+    To use it like a giant.”
+
+Gentleness is indeed the best test of gentlemanliness.  A consideration
+for the feelings of others, for his inferiors and dependants as well as
+his equals, and respect for their self-respect, will pervade the true
+gentleman’s whole conduct.  He will rather himself suffer a small injury,
+than by an uncharitable construction of another’s behaviour, incur the
+risk of committing a great wrong.  He will be forbearant of the
+weaknesses, the failings, and the errors, of those whose advantages in
+life have not been equal to his own.  He will be merciful even to his
+beast.  He will not boast of his wealth, or his strength, or his gifts.
+He will not be puffed up by success, or unduly depressed by failure.  He
+will not obtrude his views on others, but speak his mind freely when
+occasion calls for it.  He will not confer favours with a patronizing
+air.  Sir Walter Scott once said of Lord Lothian, “He is a man from whom
+one may receive a favour, and that’s saying a great deal in these days.”
+
+Lord Chatham has said that the gentleman is characterised by his
+sacrifice of self and preference of others to himself in the little daily
+occurrences of life.  In illustration of this ruling spirit of
+considerateness in a noble character, we may cite the anecdote of the
+gallant Sir Ralph Abercromby, of whom it is related, that when mortally
+wounded in the battle of Aboukir, he was carried in a litter on board the
+‘Foudroyant;’ and, to ease his pain, a soldier’s blanket was placed under
+his head, from which he experienced considerable relief.  He asked what
+it was.  “It’s only a soldier’s blanket,” was the reply.  “_Whose_
+blanket is it?” said he, half lifting himself up.  “Only one of the
+men’s.”  “I wish to know the name of the man whose blanket this is.”  “It
+is Duncan Roy’s, of the 42nd, Sir Ralph.”  “Then see that Duncan Roy gets
+his blanket this very night.” {408}  Even to ease his dying agony the
+general would not deprive the private soldier of his blanket for one
+night.  The incident is as good in its way as that of the dying Sydney
+handing his cup of water to the private soldier on the field of Zutphen.
+
+The quaint old Fuller sums up in a few words the character of the true
+gentleman and man of action in describing that of the great admiral, Sir
+Francis Drake: “Chaste in his life, just in his dealings, true of his
+word; merciful to those that were under him, and hating nothing so much
+as idlenesse; in matters especially of moment, he was never wont to rely
+on other men’s care, how trusty or skilful soever they might seem to be,
+but, always contemning danger, and refusing no toyl, he was wont himself
+to be one (whoever was a second) at every turn, where courage, skill, or
+industry, was to be employed.”
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+{4}  Napoleon III., ‘Life of Cæsar.’
+
+{15}  Soult received but little education in his youth, and learnt next
+to no geography until he became foreign minister of France, when the
+study of this branch of knowledge is said to have given him the greatest
+pleasure.—‘Œuvres, &c., d’Alexis de Tocqueville.  Par G. de Beaumont.’
+Paris, 1861. I. 52
+
+{25}  ‘Œuvres et Correspondance inédite d’Alexis de Tocqueville.  Par
+Gustave de Beaumont.’  I. 398.
+
+{26}  “I have seen,” said he, “a hundred times in the course of my life,
+a weak man exhibit genuine public virtue, because supported by a wife who
+sustained hint in his course, not so much by advising him to such and
+such acts, as by exercising a strengthening influence over the manner in
+which duty or even ambition was to be regarded.  Much oftener, however,
+it must be confessed, have I seen private and domestic life gradually
+transform a man to whom nature had given generosity, disinterestedness,
+and even some capacity for greatness, into an ambitious, mean-spirited,
+vulgar, and selfish creature who, in matters relating to his country,
+ended by considering them only in so far as they rendered his own
+particular condition more comfortable and easy.”—‘Œuvres de Tocqueville.’
+II. 349.
+
+{31}  Since the original publication of this book, the author has in
+another work, ‘The Lives of Boulton and Watt,’ endeavoured to portray in
+greater detail the character and achievements of these two remarkable
+men.
+
+{43a}  The following entry, which occurs in the account of monies
+disbursed by the burgesses of Sheffield in 1573 [?] is supposed by some
+to refer to the inventor of the stocking frame:—“Item gyven to Willm-Lee,
+a poore scholler in Sheafield, towards the settyng him to the Universitie
+of Chambrydge, and buying him bookes and other furnyture [which money was
+afterwards returned] xiii iiii [13s. 4d.].”—Hunter, ‘History of
+Hallamshire,’ 141.
+
+{43b}  ‘History of the Framework Knitters.’
+
+{44}  There are, however, other and different accounts.  One is to the
+effect that Lee set about studying the contrivance of the stocking-loom
+for the purpose of lessening the labour of a young country-girl to whom
+he was attached, whose occupation was knitting; another, that being
+married and poor, his wife was under the necessity of contributing to
+their joint support by knitting; and that Lee, while watching the motion
+of his wife’s fingers, conceived the idea of imitating their movements by
+a machine.  The latter story seems to have been invented by Aaron Hill,
+Esq., in his ‘Account of the Rise and Progress of the Beech Oil
+manufacture,’ London, 1715; but his statement is altogether unreliable.
+Thus he makes Lee to have been a Fellow of a college at Oxford, from
+which he was expelled for marrying an innkeeper’s daughter; whilst Lee
+neither studied at Oxford, nor married there, nor was a Fellow of any
+college; and he concludes by alleging that the result of his invention
+was to “make Lee and his family happy;” whereas the invention brought him
+only a heritage of misery, and he died abroad destitute.
+
+{45}  Blackner, ‘History of Nottingham.’  The author adds, “We have
+information, handed down in direct succession from father to son, that it
+was not till late in the seventeenth century that one man could manage
+the working of a frame.  The man who was considered the workman employed
+a labourer, who stood behind the frame to work the slur and pressing
+motions; but the application of traddles and of the feet eventually
+rendered the labour unnecessary.”
+
+{74}  Palissy’s own words are:—“Le bois m’ayant failli, je fus contraint
+brusler les estapes (étaies) qui soustenoyent les tailles de mon jardin,
+lesquelles estant bruslées, je fus constraint brusler les tables et
+plancher de la maison, afin de faire fondre la seconde composition.
+J’estois en une telle angoisse que je ne sçaurois dire: car j’estois tout
+tari et deseché à cause du labeur et de la chaleur du fourneau; il y
+avoit plus d’un mois que ma chemise n’avoit seiché sur moy, encores pour
+me consoler on se moquoit de moy, et mesme ceux qui me devoient secourir
+alloient crier par la ville que je faisois brusler le plancher: et par
+tel moyen l’on me faisoit perdre mon credit et m’estimoit-on estre fol.
+Les autres disoient que je cherchois à faire la fausse monnoye, qui
+estoit un mal qui me faisoit seicher sur les pieds; et m’en allois par
+les ruës tout baissé comme un homme honteux: . . . personne ne me
+secouroit: Mais au contraire ils se mocquoyent de moy, en disant: Il luy
+appartient bien de mourir de faim, par ce qu’il delaisse son mestier.
+Toutes ces nouvelles venoyent a mes aureilles quand je passois par la
+ruë.”  ‘Œuvres Complètes de Palissy.  Paris, 1844;’ De l’Art de Terre, p.
+315.
+
+{77}  “Toutes ces fautes m’ont causé un tel lasseur et tristesse
+d’esprit, qu’auparavant que j’aye rendu mes émaux fusible à un mesme
+degré de feu, j’ay cuidé entrer jusques à la porte du sepulchre: aussi en
+me travaillant à tels affaires je me suis trouvé l’espace de plus se dix
+ans si fort escoulé en ma personne, qu’il n’y avoit aucune forme ny
+apparence de bosse aux bras ny aux jambes: ains estoyent mes dites jambes
+toutes d’une venue: de sorte que les liens de quoy j’attachois mes bas de
+chausses estoyent, soudain que je cheminois, sur les talons avec le
+residu de mes chausses.”—‘Œuvres, 319–20.
+
+{78}  At the sale of Mr. Bernal’s articles of vertu in London a few years
+since, one of Palissy’s small dishes, 12 inches in diameter, with a
+lizard in the centre, sold for 162_l._
+
+{79}  Within the last few months, Mr. Charles Read, a gentleman curious
+in matters of Protestant antiquarianism in France, has discovered one of
+the ovens in which Palissy baked his chefs-d’œuvre.  Several moulds of
+faces, plants, animals, &c., were dug up in a good state of preservation,
+bearing his well-known stamp.  It is situated under the gallery of the
+Louvre, in the Place du Carrousel.
+
+{80a}  D’Aubigné, ‘Histoire Universelle.’  The historian adds, “Voyez
+l’impudence de ce bilistre! vous diriez qu’il auroit lu ce vers de
+Sénèque: ‘On ne peut contraindre celui qui sait mourir: _Qui mori scit_,
+cogi nescit.’”
+
+{80b}  The subject of Palissy’s life and labours has been ably and
+elaborately treated by Professor Morley in his well-known work.  In the
+above brief narrative we have for the most part followed Palissy’s own
+account of his experiments as given in his ‘Art de Terre.’
+
+{84}  “Almighty God, the great Creator,
+Has changed a goldmaker to a potter.”
+
+{85}  The whole of the Chinese and Japanese porcelain was formerly known
+as Indian porcelain—probably because it was first brought by the
+Portuguese from India to Europe, after the discovery of the Cape of Good
+Hope by Vasco da Gama.
+
+{89}  ‘Wedgwood: an Address delivered at Burslem, Oct. 26th, 1863.’  By
+the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.
+
+{115}  It was characteristic of Mr. Hume, that, during his professional
+voyages between England and India, he should diligently apply his spare
+time to the study of navigation and seamanship; and many years after, it
+proved of use to him in a remarkable manner.  In 1825, when on his
+passage from London to Leith by a sailing smack, the vessel had scarcely
+cleared the mouth of the Thames when a sudden storm came on, she was
+driven out of her course, and, in the darkness of the night, she struck
+on the Goodwin Sands.  The captain, losing his presence of mind, seemed
+incapable of giving coherent orders, and it is probable that the vessel
+would have become a total wreck, had not one of the passengers suddenly
+taken the command and directed the working of the ship, himself taking
+the helm while the danger lasted.  The vessel was saved, and the stranger
+was Mr. Hume.
+
+{149}  ‘Saturday Review,’ July 3rd, 1858.
+
+{173}  Mrs. Grote’s ‘Memoir of the Life of Ary Scheffer,’ p. 67.
+
+{201}  While the sheets of this revised edition are passing through the
+press, the announcement appears in the local papers of the death of Mr.
+Jackson at the age of fifty.  His last work, completed shortly before his
+death, was a cantata, entitled ‘The Praise of Music.’  The above
+particulars of his early life were communicated by himself to the author
+several years since, while he was still carrying on his business of a
+tallow-chandler at Masham.
+
+{216}  Mansfield owed nothing to his noble relations, who were poor and
+uninfluential.  His success was the legitimate and logical result of the
+means which he sedulously employed to secure it.  When a boy he rode up
+from Scotland to London on a pony—taking two months to make the journey.
+After a course of school and college, he entered upon the profession of
+the law, and he closed a career of patient and ceaseless labour as Lord
+Chief Justice of England—the functions of which he is universally
+admitted to have performed with unsurpassed ability, justice, and honour.
+
+{263}  On ‘Thought and Action.’
+
+{277}  ‘Correspondance de Napoléon Ier.,’ publiée par ordre de l’Empereur
+Napoléon III, Paris, 1864.
+
+{283}  The recently published correspondence of Napoleon with his brother
+Joseph, and the Memoirs of the Duke of Ragusa, abundantly confirm this
+view.  The Duke overthrew Napoleon’s generals by the superiority of his
+routine.  He used to say that, if he knew anything at all, he knew how to
+feed an army.
+
+{313}  His old gardener.  Collingwood’s favourite amusement was
+gardening.  Shortly after the battle of Trafalgar a brother admiral
+called upon him, and, after searching for his lordship all over the
+garden, he at last discovered him, with old Scott, in the bottom of a
+deep trench which they were busily employed in digging.
+
+{319}  Article in the ‘Times.’
+
+{321}  ‘Self-Development: an Address to Students,’ by George Ross, M.D.,
+pp. 1–20, reprinted from the ‘Medical Circular.’  This address, to which
+we acknowledge our obligations, contains many admirable thoughts on
+self-culture, is thoroughly healthy in its tone, and well deserves
+republication in an enlarged form.
+
+{329}  ‘Saturday Review.’
+
+{354}  See the admirable and well-known book, ‘The Pursuit of Knowledge
+under Difficulties.’
+
+{356a}  Late Professor of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrew’s.
+
+{356b}  A writer in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ (July, 1859) observes that
+“the Duke’s talents seem never to have developed themselves until some
+active and practical field for their display was placed immediately
+before him.  He was long described by his Spartan mother, who thought him
+a dunce, as only ‘food for powder.’  He gained no sort of distinction,
+either at Eton or at the French Military College of Angers.”  It is not
+improbable that a competitive examination, at this day, might have
+excluded him from the army.
+
+{357}  Correspondent of ‘The Times,’ 11th June, 1863.
+
+{392}  Robertson’s ‘Life and Letters,’ i. 258.
+
+{400}  On the 11th January, 1866.
+
+{408}  Brown’s ‘Horæ Subsecivæ.’
+
+
+
+
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