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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4529-h.zip b/4529-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..666cfdc --- /dev/null +++ b/4529-h.zip diff --git a/4529-h/4529-h.htm b/4529-h/4529-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..825385a --- /dev/null +++ b/4529-h/4529-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5304 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Biographies of Working Men, by Grant Allen +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Biographies of Working Men, by Grant Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: Biographies of Working Men + +Author: Grant Allen + +Posting Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #4529] +Release Date: October, 2003 +First Posted: February 2, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +GRANT ALLEN, B.A. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +1884 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THOMAS TELFORD, STONEMASON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINE-MAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">JOHN GIBSON, SCULPTOR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BANDSMAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET, PAINTER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">JAMES GARFIELD, CANAL BOY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THOMAS EDWARD, SHOEMAKER</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE. +</H3> + +<P> +My acknowledgments are due to Dr. Smiles's "Lives of the Engineers," +"Life of the Stephensons," and "Life of a Scotch Naturalist;" to Lady +Eastlake's "Life of Gibson;" to Mr. Holden's "Life of Sir William +Herschel;" to M. Seusier's "J. F. Millet, Sa Vie et Ses Oeuvres;" and +to Mr. Thayer's "Life of President Garfield;" from which most of the +facts here narrated have been derived. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +G.A. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THOMAS TELFORD, STONEMASON. +</H3> + +<P> +High up among the heather-clad hills which form the broad dividing +barrier between England and Scotland, the little river Esk brawls and +bickers over its stony bed through a wild land of barren braesides and +brown peat mosses, forming altogether some of the gloomiest and most +forbidding scenery in the whole expanse of northern Britain. Almost +the entire bulk of the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Ayr is +composed of just such solemn desolate upland wolds, with only a few +stray farms or solitary cottages sprinkled at wide distances over their +bare bleak surface, and with scarcely any sign of life in any part save +the little villages which cluster here and there at long intervals +around some stern and simple Scottish church. Yet the hardy people who +inhabit this wild and chilly moorland country may well be considered to +rank among the best raw material of society in the whole of Britain; +for from the peasant homes of these southern Scotch Highlands have come +forth, among a host of scarcely less distinguished natives, three men, +at least, who deserve to take their place in the very front line of +British thinkers or workers—Thomas Telford, Robert Burns, and Thomas +Carlyle. By origin, all three alike belonged in the very strictest +sense to the working classes; and the story of each is full of lessons +or of warnings for every one of us: but that of Telford is perhaps the +most encouraging and the most remarkable of all, as showing how much +may be accomplished by energy and perseverance, even under the most +absolutely adverse and difficult circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +Near the upper end of Eskdale, in the tiny village of Westerkirk, a +young shepherd's wife gave birth to a son on the 9th of August, 1757. +Her husband, John Telford, was employed in tending sheep on a +neighbouring farm, and he and his Janet occupied a small cottage close +by, with mud walls and rudely thatched roof, such as in southern +England even the humblest agricultural labourer would scarcely consent +willingly to inhabit. Before the child was three months old, his +father died; and Janet Telford was left alone in the world with her +unweaned baby. But in remote country districts, neighbours are often +more neighbourly than in great towns; and a poor widow can manage to +eke out a livelihood for herself with an occasional lift from the +helping hands of friendly fellow-villagers. Janet Telford had nothing +to live upon save her own ten fingers; but they were handy enough, +after the sturdy Scotch fashion, and they earned some sort of +livelihood in a humble way for herself and her fatherless boy. The +farmers about found her work on their farms at haymaking or milking, +and their wives took the child home with them while its mother was busy +labouring in the harvest fields. Amid such small beginnings did the +greatest of English engineers before the railway era receive his first +hard lessons in the art of life. +</P> + +<P> +After her husband's death, the poor widow removed from her old cottage +to a still more tiny hut, which she shared with a neighbour—a very +small hut, with a single door for both families; and here young Tam +Telford spent most of his boyhood in the quiet honourable poverty of +the uncomplaining rural poor. As soon as he was big enough to herd +sheep, he was turned out upon the hillside in summer like any other +ragged country laddie, and in winter he tended cows, receiving for +wages only his food and money enough to cover the cost of his scanty +clothing. He went to school, too; how, nobody now knows: but he DID +go, to the parish school of Westerkirk, and there he learnt with a +will, in the winter months, though he had to spend the summer on the +more profitable task of working in the fields. To a steady earnest boy +like young Tam Telford, however, it makes all the difference in the +world that he should have been to school, no matter how simply. Those +twenty-six letters of the alphabet, once fairly learnt, are the key, +after all, to all the book-learning in the whole world. Without them, +the shepherd-boy might remain an ignorant, unprogressive shepherd all +his life long, even his undeniable native energy using itself up on +nothing better than a wattled hurdle or a thatched roof; with them, the +path is open before him which led Tam Telford at last to the Menai +Bridge And Westminster Abbey. +</P> + +<P> +When Tam had gradually eaten his way through enough thin oatmeal +porridge (with very little milk, we fear) to make him into a hearty lad +of fifteen, it began to be high time for him to choose himself a final +profession in life, such as he was able. And here already the born +tastes of the boy began to show themselves: for he had no liking for +the homely shepherd's trade; he felt a natural desire for a chisel and +a hammer—the engineer was there already in the grain—and he was +accordingly apprenticed to a stonemason in the little town of +Lochmaben, beyond the purple hills to eastward. But his master was a +hard man; he had small mercy for the raw lad; and after trying to +manage with him for a few months, Tam gave it up, took the law into his +own hands, and ran away. Probably the provocation was severe, for in +after-life Telford always showed himself duly respectful to constituted +authority; and we know that petty self-made master-workmen are often +apt to be excessively severe to their own hired helpers, and especially +to helpless lads or young apprentices. At any rate, Tam wouldn't go +back; and in the end, a well-to-do cousin, who had risen to the proud +position of steward at the great hall of the parish, succeeded in +getting another mason at Langholm, the little capital of Eskdale, to +take over the runaway for the remainder of the term of his indentures. +</P> + +<P> +At Langholm, a Scotch country town of the quietest and sleepiest +description, Tam Telford passed the next eight years of his uneventful +early life, first as an apprentice, and afterwards as a journeyman +mason of the humblest type. He had a good mother, and he was a good +son. On Saturday nights he generally managed to walk over to the +cottage at Westerkirk, and accompany the poor widow to the Sunday +services at the parish kirk. As long as she lived, indeed, he never +forgot her; and one of the first tasks he set himself when he was out +of his indentures was to cut a neat headstone with a simple but +beautiful inscription for the grave of that shepherd father whom he had +practically never seen. At Langholm, an old maiden lady, Miss Pasley, +interested herself kindly in Janet Telford's rising boy. She lent him +what of all things the eager lad most needed—books; and the young +mason applied himself to them in all his spare moments with the +vigorous ardour and perseverance of healthy youth. The books he read +were not merely those which bore directly or indirectly upon his own +craft: if they had been, Tam Telford might have remained nothing more +than a journeyman mason all the days of his life. It is a great +mistake, even from the point of view of mere worldly success, for a +young man to read or learn only what "pays" in his particular calling; +the more he reads and learns, the more will he find that seemingly +useless things "pay" in the end, and that what apparently pays least, +often really pays most in the long run. This is not the only or the +best reason why every man should aim at the highest possible +cultivation of his own talents, be they what they may; but it is in +itself a very good reason, and it is a sufficient answer for those who +would deter us from study of any high kind on the ground that it "does +no good." Telford found in after-life that his early acquaintance with +sound English literature did do him a great deal of good: it opened and +expanded his mind; it trained his intelligence; it stored his brain +with images and ideas which were ever after to him a source of +unmitigated delight and unalloyed pleasure. He read whenever he had +nothing else to do. He read Milton with especial delight; and he also +read the verses that his fellow-countryman, Rob Burns, the Ayrshire +ploughman, was then just beginning to speak straight to the heart of +every aspiring Scotch peasant lad. With these things Tam Telford +filled the upper stories of his brain quite as much as with the trade +details of his own particular useful handicraft; and the result soon +showed that therein Tam Telford had not acted uncannily or unwisely. +</P> + +<P> +Nor did he read only; he wrote too—verses, not very good, nor yet very +bad, but well expressed, in fairly well chosen language, and with due +regard to the nice laws of metre and of grammar, which is in itself a +great point. Writing verse is an occupation at which only very few +even among men of literary education ever really succeed; and +nine-tenths of published verse is mere mediocre twaddle, quite unworthy +of being put into the dignity of print. Yet Telford did well for all +that in trying his hand, with but poor result, at this most difficult +and dangerous of all the arts. His rhymes were worth nothing as +rhymes; but they were worth a great deal as discipline and training: +they helped to form the man, and that in itself is always something. +Most men who have in them the power to do any great thing pass in early +life through a verse-making stage. The verses never come to much; but +they leave their stamp behind them; and the man is all the better in +the end for having thus taught himself the restraint, the command of +language, the careful choice of expressions, the exercise of deliberate +pains in composition, which even bad verse-making necessarily implies. +It is a common mistake of near-sighted minds to look only at the +immediate results of things, without considering their remoter effects. +When Tam Telford, stonemason of Langholm, began at twenty-two years of +age to pen poetical epistles to Robert Burns, most of his +fellow-workmen doubtless thought he was giving himself up to very +foolish and nonsensical practices; but he was really helping to educate +Thomas Telford, engineer of the Holyhead Road and the Caledonian Canal, +for all his future usefulness and greatness. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as Tam was out of his indentures, he began work as a journeyman +mason at Langholm on his own account, at the not very magnificent wages +of eighteenpence a day. That isn't much; but at any rate it is an +independence. Besides building many houses in his own town, Tam made +here his first small beginning in the matter of roads and highways, by +helping to build a bridge over the Esk at Langholm. He was very proud +of his part in this bridge, and to the end of his life he often +referred to it as his first serious engineering work. Many of the +stones still bear his private mark, hewn with the tool into their solid +surface, with honest workmanship which helps to explain his later +success. But the young mason was beginning to discover that Eskdale +was hardly a wide enough field for his budding ambition. He could +carve the most careful headstones; he could cut the most ornamental +copings for doors or windows; he could even build a bridge across the +roaring flooded Esk; but he wanted to see a little of the great world, +and learn how men and masons went about their work in the busy centres +of the world's activity. So, like a patriotic Scotchman that he was, +he betook himself straight to Edinburgh, tramping it on foot, of +course, for railways did not yet exist, and coaches were not for the +use of such as young Thomas Telford. +</P> + +<P> +He arrived in the grey old capital of Scotland in the very nick of +time. The Old Town, a tangle of narrow alleys and close courtyards, +surrounded by tall houses with endless tiers of floors, was just being +deserted by the rich and fashionable world for the New Town, which lies +beyond a broad valley on the opposite hillside, and contains numerous +streets of solid and handsome stone houses, such as are hardly to be +found in any other town in Britain, except perhaps Bath and Aberdeen. +Edinburgh is always, indeed, an interesting place for an enthusiastic +lover of building, be he architect or stonemason; for instead of being +built of brick like London and so many other English centres, it is +built partly of a fine hard local sandstone and partly of basaltic +greenstone; and besides its old churches and palaces, many of the +public buildings are particularly striking and beautiful architectural +works. But just at the moment when young Telford walked wearily into +Edinburgh at the end of his long tramp, there was plenty for a stout +strong mason to do in the long straight stone fronts of the rising New +Town. For two years, he worked away patiently at his trade in "the +grey metropolis of the North;" and he took advantage of the special +opportunities the place afforded him to learn drawing, and to make +minute sketches in detail of Holyrood Palace, Heriot's Hospital, Roslyn +Chapel, and all the other principal old buildings' in which the +neighbourhood of the capital is particularly rich. So anxious, indeed, +was the young mason to perfect himself by the study of the very best +models in his own craft, that when at the end of two years he walked +back to revisit his good mother in Eskdale, he took the opportunity of +making drawings of Melrose Abbey, the most exquisite and graceful +building that the artistic stone-cutters of the Middle Ages have handed +down to our time in all Scotland. +</P> + +<P> +This visit to Eskdale was really Telford's last farewell to his old +home, before setting out on a journey which was to form the +turning-point in his own history, and in the history of British +engineering as well. In Scotch phrase, he was going south. And after +taking leave of his mother (not quite for the last time) he went south +in good earnest, doing this journey on horseback; for his cousin the +steward had lent him a horse to make his way southward like a +gentleman. Telford turned where all enterprising young Scotchmen of +his time always turned: towards the unknown world of London—that world +teeming with so many possibilities of brilliant success or of miserable +squalid failure. It was the year 1782, and the young man was just +twenty-five. No sooner had he reached the great city than he began +looking about him for suitable work. He had a letter of introduction +to the architect of Somerset House, whose ornamental fronts were just +then being erected, facing the Strand and the river; and Telford was +able to get a place at once on the job as a hewer of the finer +architectural details, for which both his taste and experience well +fitted him. He spent some two years in London at this humble post as a +stone-cutter; but already he began to aspire to something better. He +earned first-class mason's wages now, and saved whatever he did not +need for daily expenses. In this respect, the improvidence of his +English fellow-workmen struck the cautious young Scotchman very +greatly. They lived, he said, from week to week entirely; any time +beyond a week seemed unfortunately to lie altogether outside the range +of their limited comprehension. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of two years in London, Telford's skill and study began to +bear good fruit. His next engagement was one which raised him for the +first time in his life above the rank of a mere journeyman mason. The +honest workman had attracted the attention of competent judges. He +obtained employment as foreman of works of some important buildings in +Portsmouth Dockyard. A proud man indeed was Thomas Telford at this +change of fortune, and very proudly he wrote to his old friends in +Eskdale, with almost boyish delight, about the trust reposed in him by +the commissioners and officers, and the pains he was taking with the +task entrusted to him. For he was above all things a good workman, and +like all good workmen he felt a pride and an interest in all the jobs +he took in hand. His sense of responsibility and his sensitiveness, +indeed, were almost too great at times for his own personal comfort. +Things WILL go wrong now and then, even with the greatest care; +well-planned undertakings will not always pay, and the best engineering +does not necessarily succeed in earning a dividend; but whenever such +mishaps occurred to his employers, Telford felt the disappointment much +too keenly, as though he himself had been to blame for their +miscalculations or over-sanguine hopes. Still, it is a good thing to +put one's heart in one's work, and so much Thomas Telford certainly did. +</P> + +<P> +About this time, too, the rising young mason began to feel that he must +get a little more accurate scientific knowledge. The period for +general study had now passed by, and the period for special trade +reading had set in. This was well. A lad cannot do better than lay a +good foundation of general knowledge and general literature during the +period when he is engaged in forming his mind: a young man once fairly +launched in life may safely confine himself for a time to the studies +that bear directly upon his own special chosen subject. The thing that +Telford began closely to investigate was—lime. Now, lime makes +mortar; and without lime, accordingly, you can have no mason. But to +know anything really about lime, Telford found he must read some +chemistry; and to know anything really about chemistry he must work at +it hard and unremittingly. A strict attention to one's own business, +understood in this very broad and liberal manner, is certainly no bad +thing for any struggling handicraftsman, whatever his trade or +profession may happen to be. +</P> + +<P> +In 1786, when Telford was nearly thirty, a piece of unexpected good +luck fell to his lot. And yet it was not so much good luck as due +recognition of his sterling qualities by a wealthy and appreciative +person. Long before, while he was still in Eskdale, one Mr. Pulteney, +a man of social importance, who had a large house in the bleak northern +valley, had asked his advice about the repairs of his own mansion. We +may be sure that Telford did his work on that occasion carefully and +well; for now, when Mr. Pulteney wished to restore the ruins of +Shrewsbury Castle as a dwelling-house, he sought out the young mason +who had attended to his Scotch property, and asked him to superintend +the proposed alterations in his Shropshire castle. Nor was that all: +by Mr. Pulteney's influence, Telford was shortly afterwards appointed +to be county surveyor of public works, having under his care all the +roads, bridges, gaols, and public buildings in the whole of Shropshire. +Thus the Eskdale shepherd-boy rose at last from the rank of a working +mason, and attained the well-earned dignity of an engineer and a +professional man. +</P> + +<P> +Telford had now a fair opportunity of showing the real stuff of which +he was made. Those, of course, were the days when railroads had not +yet been dreamt of; when even roads were few and bad; when +communications generally were still in a very disorderly and +unorganized condition. It is Telford's special glory that he reformed +and altered this whole state of things; he reduced the roads of half +Britain to system and order; he made the finest highways and bridges +then ever constructed; and by his magnificent engineering works, +especially his aqueducts, he paved the way unconsciously but surely for +the future railways. If it had not been for such great undertakings as +Telford's Holyhead Road, which familiarized men's minds with costly +engineering operations, it is probable that projectors would long have +stood aghast at the alarming expense of a nearly level iron road +running through tall hills and over broad rivers the whole way from +London to Manchester. +</P> + +<P> +At first, Telford's work as county surveyor lay mostly in very small +things indeed—mere repairs of sidepaths or bridges, which gave him +little opportunity to develop his full talents as a born engineer. But +in time, being found faithful in small things, his employers, the +county magistrates, began to consult him more and more on matters of +comparative importance. First, it was a bridge to be built across the +Severn; then a church to be planned at Shrewsbury, and next, a second +church in Coalbrookdale. If he was thus to be made suddenly into an +architect, Telford thought, almost without being consulted in the +matter, he must certainly set out to study architecture. So, with +characteristic vigour, he went to work to visit London, Worcester, +Gloucester, Bath, and Oxford, at each place taking care to learn +whatever was to be learned in the practice of his new art. +Fortunately, however, for Telford and for England, it was not +architecture in the strict sense that he was finally to practise as a +real profession. Another accident, as thoughtless people might call +it, led him to adopt engineering in the end as the path in life he +elected to follow. In 1793, he was appointed engineer to the projected +Ellesmere Canal. +</P> + +<P> +In the days before railways, such a canal as this was an engineering +work of the very first importance. It was to connect the Mersey, the +Dee, and the Severn, and it passed over ground which rendered necessary +some immense aqueducts on a scale never before attempted by British +engineers. Even in our own time, every traveller by the Great Western +line between Chester and Shrewsbury must have observed on his right two +magnificent ranges as high arches, which are as noticeable now as ever +for their boldness, their magnitude, and their exquisite construction. +The first of these mighty archways is the Pont Cysylltau aqueduct which +carries the Ellesmere Canal across the wide valley of the Dee, known as +the Vale of Llangollen; the second is the Chirk aqueduct, which takes +it over the lesser glen of a minor tributary, the Ceriog. Both these +beautiful works were designed and carried out entirely by Telford. +They differ from many other great modern engineering achievements in +the fact that, instead of spoiling the lovely mountain scenery into +whose midst they have been thrown, they actually harmonize with it and +heighten its natural beauty. Both works, however, are splendid feats, +regarded merely as efforts of practical skill; and the larger one is +particularly memorable for the peculiarity that the trough for the +water and the elegant parapet at the side are both entirely composed of +iron. Nowadays, of course, there would be nothing remarkable in the +use of such a material for such a purpose; but Telford was the first +engineer to see the value of iron in this respect, and the Pont +Cysylltau aqueduct was one of the earliest works in which he applied +the new material to these unwonted uses. Such a step is all the more +remarkable, because Telford's own education had lain entirely in what +may fairly be called the "stone age" of English engineering; while his +natural predilections as a stonemason might certainly have made him +rather overlook the value of the novel material. But Telford was a man +who could rise superior to such little accidents of habit or training; +and as a matter of fact there is no other engineer to whom the rise of +the present "iron age" in engineering work is more directly and +immediately to be attributed than to himself. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the Eskdale pioneer did not forget his mother. For years he +had constantly written to her, in PRINT HAND, so that the letters might +be more easily read by her aged eyes; he had sent her money in full +proportion to his means; and he had taken every possible care to let +her declining years be as comfortable as his altered circumstances +could readily make them. And now, in the midst of this great and +responsible work, he found time to "run down" to Eskdale (very +different "running down" from that which we ourselves can do by the +London and North Western Railway), to see his aged mother once more +before she died. What a meeting that must have been, between the poor +old widow of the Eskdale shepherd, and her successful son, the county +surveyor of Shropshire, and engineer of the great and important +Ellesmere Canal! +</P> + +<P> +While Telford was working busily upon his wonderful canal, he had many +other schemes to carry out of hardly less importance, in connection +with his appointment as county surveyor. His beautiful iron bridge +across the Severn at Buildwas was another application of his favourite +metal to the needs of the new world that was gradually growing up in +industrial England; and so satisfied was he with the result of his +experiment (for though not absolutely the first, it was one of the +first iron bridges ever built) that he proposed another magnificent +idea, which unfortunately was never carried into execution. Old London +Bridge had begun to get a trifle shaky; and instead of rebuilding it, +Telford wished to span the whole river by a single iron arch, whose +splendid dimensions would have formed one of the most remarkable +engineering triumphs ever invented. The scheme, for some good reason, +doubtless, was not adopted; but it is impossible to look at Telford's +grand drawing of the proposed bridge—a single bold arch, curving +across the Thames from side to side, with the dome of St. Paul's rising +majestically above it—without a feeling of regret that such a noble +piece of theoretical architecture was never realized in actual fact. +</P> + +<P> +Telford had now come to be regarded as the great practical authority +upon all that concerned roads or communications; and he was reaping the +due money-reward of his diligence and skill. Every day he was called +upon to design new bridges and other important structures in all parts +of the kingdom, but more especially in Scotland and on the Welsh +border. Many of the most picturesque bridges in Britain, which every +tourist has admired, often without inquiring or thinking of the hand +that planned them, were designed by his inventive brain. The exquisite +stone arch which links the two banks of the lesser Scotch Dee in its +gorge at Tongueland is one of the most picturesque; for Telford was a +bit of an artist at heart, and, unlike too many modern railway +constructors, he always endeavoured to make his bridges and aqueducts +beautify rather than spoil the scenery in whose midst they stood. +Especially was he called in to lay out the great system of roads by +which the Scotch Highlands, then so lately reclaimed from a state of +comparative barbarism, were laid open for the great development they +have since undergone. In the earlier part of the century, it is true, +a few central highways had been run through the very heart of that +great solid block of mountains; but these were purely military roads, +to enable the king's soldiers more easily to march against the revolted +clans, and they had hardly more connection with the life of the country +than the bare military posts, like Fort William and Fort Augustus, +which guarded their ends, had to do with the ordinary life of a +commercial town. Meanwhile, however, the Highlands had begun gradually +to settle down; and Telford's roads were intended for the far higher +and better purpose of opening out the interior of northern Scotland to +the humanizing influences of trade and industry. +</P> + +<P> +Fully to describe the great work which the mature engineer constructed +in the Highland region, would take up more space than could be allotted +to such a subject anywhere save in a complete industrial history of +roads and travelling in modern Britain. It must suffice to say that +when Telford took the matter in hand, the vast block of country north +and west of the Great Glen of Caledonia (which divides the Highlands in +two between Inverness and Ben Nevis)—a block comprising the counties +of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, and half Inverness—had +literally nothing within it worthy of being called a road. Wheeled +carts or carriages were almost unknown, and all burdens were conveyed +on pack-horses, or, worse still, on the broad backs of Highland +lassies. The people lived in small scattered villages, and +communications from one to another were well-nigh impossible. Telford +set to work to give the country, not a road or two, but a main system +of roads. First, he bridged the broad river Tay at Dunkeld, so as to +allow of a direct route straight into the very jaws of the Highlands. +Then, he also bridged over the Beauly at Inverness, so as to connect +the opposite sides of the Great Glen with one another. Next, he laid +out a number of trunk lines, running through the country on both banks, +to the very north of Caithness, and the very west of the Isle of Skye. +Whoever to this day travels on the main thoroughfares in the greater +Scottish Islands—in Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull; or in the wild peninsula +of Morvern, and the Land of Lorne; or through the rugged regions of +Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, where the railway has not yet +penetrated,—travels throughout on Telford's roads. The number of large +bridges and other great engineering masterpieces on this network of +roads is enormous; among the most famous and the most beautiful, are +the exquisite single arch which spans the Spey just beside the lofty +rearing rocks of Craig Ellachie, and the bridge across the Dee, beneath +the purple heather-clad braes of Ballater. Altogether, on Telford's +Highland roads alone, there are no fewer than twelve hundred bridges. +</P> + +<P> +Nor were these the only important labours by which Telford ministered +to the comfort and well-being of his Scotch fellow-countrymen. +Scotland's debt to the Eskdale stonemason is indeed deep and lasting. +While on land, he improved her communications by his great lines of +roads, which did on a smaller scale for the Highland valleys what +railways have since done for the whole of the civilized world; he also +laboured to improve her means of transit at sea by constructing a +series of harbours along that bare and inhospitable eastern coast, once +almost a desert, but now teeming with great towns and prosperous +industries. It was Telford who formed the harbour of Wick, which has +since grown from a miserable fishing village into a large town, the +capital of the North Sea herring fisheries. It was he who enlarged the +petty port of Peterhead into the chief station of the flourishing +whaling trade. It was he who secured prosperity for Fraserburgh, and +Banff, and many other less important centres; while even Dundee and +Aberdeen, the chief commercial cities of the east coast, owe to him a +large part of their present extraordinary wealth and industry. When +one thinks how large a number of human beings have been benefited by +Telford's Scotch harbour works alone, it is impossible not to envy a +great engineer his almost unlimited power of permanent usefulness to +unborn thousands of his fellow-creatures. +</P> + +<P> +As a canal-maker, Telford was hardly less successful than as a +constructor of roads and harbours. It is true, his greatest work in +this direction was in one sense a failure. He was employed by +Government for many years as the engineer of the Caledonian Canal, +which runs up the Great Glen of Caledonia, connecting the line of lakes +whose basins occupy that deep hollow in the Highland ranges, and so +avoiding the difficult and dangerous sea voyage round the stormy +northern capes of Caithness. Unfortunately, though the canal as an +engineering work proved to be of the most successful character, it has +never succeeded as a commercial undertaking. It was built just at the +exact moment when steamboats were on the point of revolutionizing ocean +traffic; and so, though in itself a magnificent and lordly undertaking, +it failed to satisfy the sanguine hopes of its projectors. But though +Telford felt most bitterly the unavoidable ill success of this great +scheme, he might well have comforted himself by the good results of his +canal-building elsewhere. He went to Sweden to lay out the Gotha +Canal, which still forms the main high-road of commerce between +Stockholm and the sea; while in England itself some of his works in +this direction—such as the improvements on the Birmingham Canal, with +its immense tunnel—may fairly be considered as the direct precursors +of the great railway efforts of the succeeding generation. +</P> + +<P> +The most remarkable of all Telford's designs, however, and the one +which most immediately paved the way for the railway system, was his +magnificent Holyhead Road. This wonderful highway he carried through +the very midst of the Welsh mountains, at a comparatively level height +for its whole distance, in order to form a main road from London to +Ireland. On this road occurs Telford's masterpiece of engineering, the +Menai suspension bridge, long regarded as one of the wonders of the +world, and still one of the most beautiful suspension bridges in all +Europe. Hardly less admirable, however, in its own way is the other +suspension bridge which he erected at Conway, to carry his road across +the mouth of the estuary, beside the grey old castle, with which its +charming design harmonizes so well. Even now it is impossible to drive +or walk along this famous and picturesque highway without being struck +at every turn by the splendid engineering triumphs which it displays +throughout its entire length. The contrast, indeed, between the noble +grandeur of Telford's bridges, and the works on the neighbouring +railways, is by no means flattering in every respect to our too +exclusively practical modern civilization. +</P> + +<P> +Telford was now growing an old man. The Menai bridge was begun in 1819 +and finished in 1826, when he was sixty-eight years of age; and though +he still continued to practise his profession, and to design many +valuable bridges, drainage cuts, and other small jobs, that great +undertaking was the last masterpiece of his long and useful life. His +later days were passed in deserved honour and comparative opulence; for +though never an avaricious man, and always anxious to rate his services +at their lowest worth, he had gathered together a considerable fortune +by the way, almost without seeking it. To the last, his happy cheerful +disposition enabled him to go on labouring at the numerous schemes by +which he hoped to benefit the world of workers; and so much +cheerfulness was surely well earned by a man who could himself look +back upon so good a record of work done for the welfare of humanity. +At last, on the 2nd of September, 1834, his quiet and valuable life +came gently to a close, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was +buried in Westminster Abbey, and few of the men who sleep within that +great national temple more richly deserve the honour than the +Westerkirk shepherd-boy. For Thomas Telford's life was not merely one +of worldly success; it was still more pre-eminently one of noble ends +and public usefulness. Many working men have raised themselves by +their own exertions to a position of wealth and dignity far surpassing +his; few indeed have conferred so many benefits upon untold thousands +of their fellow-men. It is impossible, even now, to travel in any part +of England, Wales, or Scotland, without coming across innumerable +memorials of Telford's great and useful life; impossible to read the +full record of his labours without finding that numberless structures +we have long admired for their beauty or utility, owe their origin to +the honourable, upright, hardworking, thorough-going, journeyman mason +of the quiet little Eskdale village. Whether we go into the drained +fens of Lincolnshire, or traverse the broad roads of the rugged Snowdon +region; whether we turn to St. Katharine's Docks in London, or to the +wide quays of Dundee and those of Aberdeen; whether we sail beneath the +Menai suspension bridge at Bangor, or drive over the lofty arches that +rise sheer from the precipitous river gorge at Cartland, we meet +everywhere the lasting traces of that inventive and ingenious brain. +And yet, what lad could ever have started in the world under apparently +more hopeless circumstances than widow Janet Telford's penniless orphan +shepherd-boy Tam, in the bleakest and most remote of all the lonely +border valleys of southern Scotland? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINE-MAN. +</H3> + +<P> +Any time about the year 1786, a stranger in the streets of the grimy +colliery village of Wylam, near Newcastle, might have passed by without +notice a ragged, barefooted, chubby child of five years old, Geordie +Stephenson by name, playing merrily in the gutter and looking to the +outward eye in no way different from any of the other colliers' +children who loitered about him. Nevertheless, that ragged boy was yet +destined in after-life to alter the whole face of England and the world +by those wonderful railways, which he more than any other man was +instrumental in first constructing; and the story of his life may rank +perhaps as one of the most marvellous in the whole marvellous history +of able and successful British working men. +</P> + +<P> +George Stephenson was born in June, 1781, the son of a fireman who +tended the pumping engine of the neighbouring colliery, and one of a +penniless family of six children. So poor was his father, indeed, that +the whole household lived in a single room, with bare floor and mud +wall; and little Geordie grew up in his own unkempt fashion without any +schooling whatever, not even knowing A from B when he was a big lad of +seventeen. At an age when he ought to have been learning his letters, +he was bird's-nesting in the fields or running errands to the Wylam +shops; and as soon as he was old enough to earn a few pence by light +work, he was set to tend cows at the magnificent wages of twopence a +day, in the village of Dewley Burn, close by, to which his father had +then removed. It might have seemed at first as though the future +railway engineer was going to settle down quietly to the useful but +uneventful life of an agricultural labourer; for from tending cows he +proceeded in due time (with a splendid advance of twopence) to leading +the horses at the plough, spudding thistles, and hoeing turnips on his +employer's farm. But the native bent of a powerful mind usually shows +itself very early; and even during the days when Geordie was still +stumbling across the freshly ploughed clods or driving the cows to +pasture with a bunch of hazel twigs, his taste for mechanics already +made itself felt in a very marked and practical fashion. During all +his leisure time, the future engineer and his chum Bill Thirlwall +occupied themselves with making clay models of engines, and fitting up +a winding machine with corks and twine like those which lifted the +colliery baskets. Though Geordie Stephenson didn't go to school at the +village teacher's, he was teaching himself in his own way by close +observation and keen comprehension of all the machines and engines he +could come across. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally, to such a boy, the great ambition of his life was to be +released from the hoeing and spudding, and set to work at his father's +colliery. Great was Geordie's joy, therefore, when at last he was +taken on there in the capacity of a coal-picker, to clear the loads +from stones and rubbish. It wasn't a very dignified position, to be +sure, but it was the first step that led the way to the construction of +the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Geordie was now fairly free from +the uncongenial drudgery of farm life, and able to follow his own +inclinations in the direction of mechanical labour. Besides, was he +not earning the grand sum of sixpence a day as picker, increased to +eightpence a little later on, when he rose to the more responsible and +serious work of driving the gin-horse? A proud day indeed it was for +him when, at fourteen, he was finally permitted to aid his father in +firing the colliery engine; though he was still such a very small boy +that he used to run away and hide when the owner went his rounds of +inspection, for fear he should be thought too little to earn his untold +wealth of a shilling a day in such a grown-up occupation. Humbler +beginnings were never any man's who lived to become the honoured guest, +not of kings and princes only, but of the truly greatest and noblest in +the land. +</P> + +<P> +A coal-miner's life is often a very shifting one; for the coal in +particular collieries gets worked out from time to time; and he has to +remove, accordingly, to fresh quarters, wherever employment happens to +be found. This was very much the case with George Stephenson and his +family; all of them being obliged to remove several times over during +his childish days in search of new openings. Shortly after Geordie had +attained to the responsible position of assistant fireman, his father +was compelled, by the closing of Dewley Burn mine, to get a fresh +situation hard by at Newburn. George accompanied him, and found +employment as full fireman at a small working, whose little engine he +undertook to manage in partnership with a mate, each of them tending +the fire night and day by twelve-hour shifts. Two years later, his +wages were raised to twelve shillings a week, a sure mark of his +diligent and honest work; so that George was not far wrong in remarking +to a fellow-workman at the time that he now considered himself a made +man for life. +</P> + +<P> +During all this time, George Stephenson never for a moment ceased to +study and endeavour to understand the working of every part in the +engine that he tended. He was not satisfied, as too many workmen are, +with merely learning the routine work of his own trade; with merely +knowing that he must turn such and such a tap or valve in order to +produce such and such a desired result: he wanted to see for himself +how and why the engine did this or that, what was the use and object of +piston and cylinder and crank and joint and condenser—in short, fully +to understand the underlying principle of its construction. He took it +to pieces for cleaning whenever it was needful; he made working models +of it after his old childish pattern; he even ventured to tinker it up +when out of order on his own responsibility. Thus he learnt at last +something of the theory of the steam-engine, and learnt also by the way +a great deal about the general principles of mechanical science. Still, +even now, incredible as it seems, the future father of railways +couldn't yet read; and he found this terrible drawback told fatally +against his further progress. Whenever he wanted to learn something +that he didn't quite understand, he was always referred for information +to a Book. Oh, those books; those mysterious, unattainable, +incomprehensible books; how they must have bothered and worried poor +intelligent and aspiring but still painfully ignorant young George +Stephenson! Though he was already trying singularly valuable +experiments in his own way, he hadn't yet even begun to learn his +letters. +</P> + +<P> +Under these circumstances, George Stephenson, eager and anxious for +further knowledge, took a really heroic resolution. He wasn't ashamed +to go to school. Though now a full workman on his own account, about +eighteen years old, he began to attend the night school at the +neighbouring village of Walbottle, where he took lessons in reading +three evenings every week. It is a great thing when a man is not +ashamed to learn. Many men are; they consider themselves so immensely +wise that they look upon it as an impertinence in anybody to try to +tell them anything they don't know already. Truly wise or truly great +men—men with the capability in them for doing anything worthy in their +generation—never feel this false and foolish shame. They know that +most other people know some things in some directions which they do +not, and they are glad to be instructed in them whenever opportunity +offers. This wisdom George Stephenson possessed in sufficient degree to +make him feel more ashamed of his ignorance than of the steps necessary +in order to conquer it. Being a diligent and willing scholar, he soon +learnt to read, and by the time he was nineteen he had learnt how to +write also. At arithmetic, a science closely allied to his native +mechanical bent, he was particularly apt, and beat all the other +scholars at the village night school. This resolute effort at +education was the real turning-point in George Stephenson's remarkable +career, the first step on the ladder whose topmost rung led him so high +that he himself must almost have felt giddy at the unwonted elevation. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after, young Stephenson gained yet another promotion in being +raised to the rank of brakesman, whose duty it was to slacken the +engine when the full baskets of coal reached the top of the shaft. +This was a more serious and responsible post than any he had yet +filled, and one for which only the best and steadiest workmen were ever +selected. His wages now amounted to a pound a week, a very large sum +in those days for a skilled working-man. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, George, like most other young men, had fallen in love. His +sweetheart, Fanny Henderson, was servant at the small farmhouse where +he had taken lodgings since leaving his father's home; and though but +little is known about her (for she unhappily died before George had +begun to rise to fame and fortune), what little we do know seems to +show that she was in every respect a fitting wife for the active young +brakesman, and a fitting mother for his equally celebrated son, Robert +Stephenson. Fired by the honourable desire to marry Fanny, with a +proper regard for prudence, George set himself to work to learn +cobbling in his spare moments; and so successfully did he cobble the +worn shoes of his fellow-colliers after working hours, that before long +he contrived to save a whole guinea out of his humble earnings. That +guinea was the first step towards an enormous fortune; a fortune, too, +all accumulated by steady toil and constant useful labour for the +ultimate benefit of his fellow-men. To make a fortune is the smallest +and least noble of all possible personal ambitions; but to save the +first guinea which leads us on at last to independence and modest +comfort is indeed an important turning-point in every prudent man's +career. Geordie Stephenson was so justly proud of his achievement in +this respect that he told a friend in confidence he might now consider +himself a rich man. +</P> + +<P> +By the time George was twenty-one, he had saved up enough by constant +care to feel that he might safely embark on the sea of housekeeping. +He was able to take a small cottage lodging for himself and Fanny, at +Willington Quay, near his work at the moment, and to furnish it with +the simple comfort which was all that their existing needs demanded. +He married Fanny on the 28th of November, 1802; and the young couple +proceeded at once to their new home. Here George laboured harder than +ever, as became the head of a family. He was no more ashamed of odd +jobs than he had been of learning the alphabet. He worked overtime at +emptying ballast from ships; he continued to cobble, to cut lasts, and +even to try his hand at regular shoemaking; furthermore, he actually +acquired the art of mending clocks, a matter which lay strictly in his +own line, and he thus earned a tidy penny at odd hours by doctoring all +the rusty or wheezy old timepieces of all his neighbours. Nor did he +neglect his mechanical education meanwhile for he was always at work +upon various devices for inventing a perpetual motion machine. Now, +perpetual motion is the most foolish will-o'-the-wisp that ever engaged +a sane man's attention: the thing has been proved to be impossible from +every conceivable point of view, and the attempt to achieve it, if +pursued to the last point, can only end in disappointment if not in +ruin. Still, for all that, the work George Stephenson spent upon this +unpractical object did really help to give him an insight into +mechanical science which proved very useful to him at a later date. He +didn't discover perpetual motion, but he did invent at last the real +means for making the locomotive engine a practical power in the matter +of travelling. +</P> + +<P> +A year later, George's only son Robert was born; and from that moment +the history of those two able and useful lives is almost inseparable. +During the whole of George Stephenson's long upward struggle, and +during the hard battle he had afterwards to fight on behalf of his +grand design of railways, he met with truer sympathy, appreciation, and +comfort from his brave and gifted son than from any other person +whatsoever. Unhappily, his pleasure and delight in the up-bringing of +his boy was soon to be clouded for a while by the one great bereavement +of an otherwise singularly placid and happy existence. Some two years +after her marriage, Fanny Stephenson died, as yet a mere girl, leaving +her lonely husband to take care of their baby boy alone and unaided. +Grief for this irretrievable loss drove the young widower away for a +while from his accustomed field of work among the Tyneside coal-pits; +he accepted an invitation to go to Montrose in Scotland, to overlook +the working of a large engine in some important spinning-works. He +remained in this situation for one year only; but during that time he +managed to give clear evidence of his native mechanical insight by +curing a defect in the pumps which supplied water to his engine, and +which had hitherto defied the best endeavours of the local engineers. +The young father was not unmindful, either, of his duty to his boy, +whom he had left behind with his grandfather on Tyneside; for he saved +so large a sum as 28 pounds during his engagement, which he carried +back with him in his pocket on his return to England. +</P> + +<P> +A sad disappointment awaited him when at last he arrived at home. Old +Robert Stephenson, the father, had met with an accident during George's +absence which made him quite blind, and incapacitated him for further +work. Helpless and poor, he had no resource to save him from the +workhouse except George; but George acted towards him exactly as all +men who have in them a possibility of any good thing always do act +under similar circumstances. He spent 15 pounds of his hard-earned +savings to pay the debts the poor blind old engine-man had necessarily +contracted during his absence, and he took a comfortable cottage for +his father and mother at Killingworth, where he had worked before his +removal to Scotland, and where he now once more obtained employment, +still as a brakesman. In that cottage this good and brave son +supported his aged parents till their death, in all the simple luxury +that his small means would then permit him. +</P> + +<P> +That, however, was not the end of George's misfortunes. Shortly after, +he was drawn by lot as a militiaman; and according to the law of that +time (for this was in 1807, during the very height of the wars against +Napoleon) he must either serve in person or else pay heavily to secure +a substitute. George chose regretfully the latter course—the only one +open to him if he wished still to support his parents and his infant +son. But in order to do so, he had to pay away the whole remainder of +his carefully hoarded savings, and even to borrow 6 pounds to make up +the payment for the substitute. It must have seemed very hard to him +to do this, and many men would have sunk under the blow, become +hopeless, or taken to careless rowdy drinking habits. George +Stephenson felt it bitterly, and gave way for a while to a natural +despondency; he would hardly have been human if he had not; but still, +he lived over it, and in the end worked on again with fuller resolution +and vigour than ever. +</P> + +<P> +For several years Geordie, as his fellow-colliers affectionately called +him, continued to live on at one or other of the Killingworth +collieries. In a short time, he entered into a small contract with his +employers for "brakeing" the engines; and in the course of this +contract, he invented certain improvements in the matter of saving wear +and tear of ropes, which were both profitable to himself and also in +some small degree pointed the way toward his future plans for the +construction of railways. It is true, the two subjects have not, +apparently, much in common; but they are connected in this way, that +both proceed upon the principle of reducing the friction to the +smallest possible quantity. It was this principle that Stephenson was +gradually learning to appreciate more and more at its proper value; and +it was this which finally led him to the very summit of a great and +pre-eminently useful profession. The great advantage, indeed, of a +level railway over an up-and-down ordinary road is simply that in the +railway the resistance and friction are almost entirely got rid of. +</P> + +<P> +It was in 1810, when Stephenson was twenty-nine, that his first +experiment in serious engineering was made. A coal-pit had been sunk +at Killingworth, and a rude steam-engine of that time had been set to +pump the water out of its shaft; but, somehow, the engine made no +headway against the rising springs at the bottom of the mine. For +nearly a year the engine worked away in vain, till at last, one +Saturday afternoon, Geordie Stephenson went over to examine her. +"Well, George," said a pitman, standing by, "what do you think of her?" +"Man," said George, boldly, "I could alter her and make her draw. In a +week I could let you all go the bottom." The pitman reported this +confident speech of the young brakesman to the manager; and the +manager, at his wits' end for a remedy, determined to let this fellow +Stephenson try his hand at her. After all, if he did no good, he would +be much like all the others; and anyhow he seemed to have confidence in +himself, which, if well grounded, is always a good thing. +</P> + +<P> +George's confidence WAS well grounded. It was not the confidence of +ignorance, but that of knowledge. He UNDERSTOOD the engine now, and he +saw at once the root of the evil. He picked the engine to pieces, +altered it to suit the requirements of the case, and set it to work to +pump without delay. Sure enough, he kept his word; and within the +week, the mine was dry, and the men were sent to the bottom. This was +a grand job for George's future. The manager, a Mr. Dodds, not only +gave him ten pounds at once as a present, in acknowledgment of his +practical skill, but also appointed him engine-man of the new pit, +another rise in the social scale as well as in the matter of wages. +Dodds kept him in mind for the future, too; and a couple of years +later, on a vacancy occurring, he promoted the promising hand to be +engine-wright of all the collieries under his management, at a salary +of 100 pounds a year. When a man's income comes to be reckoned by the +year, rather than by the week or month, it is a sign that he is growing +into a person of importance. George had now a horse to ride upon, on +his visits of inspection to the various engines; and his work was +rather one of mechanical engineering than of mere ordinary labouring +handicraft. +</P> + +<P> +The next few years of George Stephenson's life were mainly taken up in +providing for the education of his boy Robert. He had been a good son, +and he was now a good father. Feeling acutely how much he himself had +suffered, and how many years he had been put back, by his own want of a +good sound rudimentary education, he determined that Robert should not +suffer from a similar cause. Indeed, George Stephenson's splendid +abilities were kept in the background far too long, owing to his early +want of regular instruction. So the good father worked hard to send +his boy to school; not to the village teacher's only, but to a school +for gentlemen's sons at Newcastle. By mending clocks and watches in +spare moments, and by rigid economy in all unnecessary expenses +(especially beer), Stephenson had again gathered together a little +hoard, which mounted up this time to a hundred guineas. A hundred +guineas is a fortune and a capital to a working man. He was therefore +rich enough, not only to send little Robert to school, but even to buy +him a donkey, on which the boy made the journey every day from +Killingworth to Newcastle. This was in 1815, when George was +thirty-four, and Robert twelve. Perhaps no man who ever climbed so +high as George Stephenson, had ever reached so little of the way at so +comparatively late an age. For in spite of his undoubted success, +viewed from the point of view of his origin and early prospects, he was +as yet after all nothing more than the common engine-wright of the +Killingworth collieries—a long way off as yet from the distinguished +father of the railway system. +</P> + +<P> +George Stephenson's connection with the locomotive, however, was even +now beginning. Already, in 1816, he and his boy had tried a somewhat +higher flight of mechanical and scientific skill than usual, in the +construction of a sun-dial, which involves a considerable amount of +careful mathematical work; and now George found that the subject of +locomotive engines was being forced by circumstances upon his +attention. From the moment he was appointed engine-wright of the +Killingworth collieries, he began to think about all possible means of +hauling coal at cheaper rates from the pit's mouth to the shipping +place on the river. For that humble object alone—an object that lay +wholly within the line of his own special business—did the great +railway projector set out upon his investigations into the +possibilities of the locomotive. Indeed, in its earliest origin, the +locomotive was almost entirely connected with coals and mining; its +application to passenger traffic on the large scale was quite a later +and secondary consideration. It was only by accident, so to speak, +that the true capabilities of railways were finally discovered in the +actual course of their practical employment. +</P> + +<P> +George Stephenson was not the first person to construct either a +locomotive or a tramway. Both were already in use, in more or less +rude forms, at several collieries. But he WAS the first person to +bring the two to such a pitch of perfection, that what had been at +first a mere clumsy mining contrivance, became developed into a smooth +and easy iron highway for the rapid and convenient conveyance of goods +and passengers over immense distances. Of course, this great +invention, like all other great inventions, was not the work of one day +or one man. Many previous heads had helped to prepare the way for +George Stephenson; and George Stephenson himself had been working at +the subject for many years before he even reached the first stage of +realized endeavour. As early as 1814 he constructed his first +locomotive at Killingworth colliery; it was not until 1822 that he laid +the first rail of his first large line, the Stockton and Darlington +Railway. +</P> + +<P> +Stephenson's earliest important improvement in the locomotive consisted +in his invention of what is called the steam-blast, by which the steam +is made to increase the draught of the fire, and so largely add to the +effectiveness of the engine. It was this invention that enabled him at +last to make the railway into the great carrier of the world, and to +begin the greatest social and commercial upheaval that has ever +occurred in the whole history of the human race. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, however, George was not entirely occupied with the +consideration of his growing engine. He had the clocks and watches to +mend; he had Robert's schooling to look after; and he had another +practical matter even nearer home than the locomotive on which to +exercise his inventive genius. One day, in 1814, the main gallery of +the colliery caught fire. Stephenson at once descended into the +burning pit, with a chosen band of volunteers, who displayed the usual +heroic courage of colliers in going to the rescue of their comrades; +and, at the risk of their lives, these brave men bricked up the burning +portion, and so, by excluding the air, put out the dangerous fire. +Still, even so, several of the workmen had been suffocated, and one of +the pitmen asked Geordie in dismay whether nothing could be done to +prevent such terrible disasters in future. "The price of coal-mining +now," he said, "is pitmen's lives." Stephenson promised to think the +matter over; and he did think it over with good effect. The result of +his thought was the apparatus still affectionately known to the pitmen +as "the Geordie lamp." It is a lamp so constructed that the flame +cannot pass out into the air outside, and so cause explosions in the +dangerous fire-damp which is always liable to occur abundantly in the +galleries of coal mines. By this invention alone George Stephenson's +name and memory might have been kept green for ever; for his lamp has +been the means of saving thousands of lives from a sudden, a terrible, +and a pitiful death. Most accidents that now occur in mines are due to +the neglect of ordinary precautions, and to the perverse habit of +carrying a naked lighted candle in the hand (contrary to regulations) +instead of a carefully guarded safety lamp. Yet so culpably reckless +of their own and other men's lives are a large number of people +everywhere, that in spite of the most stringent and salutary rules, +explosions from this cause (and, therefore, easily avoidable) take +place constantly to the present day, though far less frequently than +before the invention of the Geordie lamp. +</P> + +<P> +Curiously enough, at the very time when George Stephenson was busy +inventing his lamp at Killingworth, Sir Humphrey Davy was working at +just the same matter in London; and the two lamps, though a little +different in minor points of construction, are practically the same in +general principle. Now, Sir Humphrey was then the great fashionable +natural philosopher of the day, the favourite of London society, and +the popular lecturer of the Royal Institution. His friends thought it a +monstrous idea that his splendid life-saving apparatus should have been +independently devised by "an engine-wright of Killingworth of the name +of Stephenson—a person not even possessing a knowledge of the elements +of chemistry." This sounds very odd reading at the present day, when +the engine-wright of the name of Stephenson has altered the whole face +of the world, while Davy is chiefly remembered as a meritorious and +able chemist; but at the time, Stephenson's claim to the invention met +with little courtesy from the great public of London, where a meeting +was held on purpose to denounce his right to the credit of the +invention. What the coal-owners and colliers of the North Country +thought about the matter was sufficiently shown by their subscription +of 1000 pounds, as a Stephenson testimonial fund. With part of the +money, a silver tankard was presented to the deserving engine-wright, +while the remainder of the sum was handed over to him in ready cash. A +very acceptable present it was, and one which George Stephenson +remembered with pride down to his dying day. The Geordie lamp +continues in use to the present moment in the Tyneside collieries with +excellent effect. +</P> + +<P> +For some years more, Mr. Stephenson (he is now fairly entitled to that +respectable prefix) went on still further experimenting on the question +of locomotives and railways. He was now beginning to learn that much +unnecessary wear and tear arose on the short lines of rail down from +the pit's mouths to the loading-places on the river by the inequalities +and roughnesses of the joints; and he invented a method of overlapping +the rails which quite got over this source of loss—loss of speed, loss +of power, and loss of material at once. It was in 1819 that he laid +down his first considerable piece of road, the Hetton railway. The +owners of a colliery at the village of Hetton, in Durham, determined to +replace their waggon road by a locomotive line; and they invited the +now locally famous Killingworth engine-wright to act as their engineer. +Stephenson gladly undertook the post; and he laid down a railway of +eight miles in length, on the larger part of which the trucks were to +be drawn by "the iron horse," as people now began to style the altered +and improved locomotive. The Hetton railway was opened in 1822, and +the assembled crowd were delighted at beholding a single engine draw +seventeen loaded trucks after it, at the extraordinary rate of four +miles an hour—nearly as fast as a man could walk. Whence it may be +gathered that Stephenson's ideas upon the question of speed were still +on a very humble scale indeed. +</P> + +<P> +Before the Hetton railway was opened, however, George Stephenson had +shown one more proof of his excellence as a father by sending his boy +Robert, now nineteen, to Edinburgh University. It was a serious +expense for a man who was even now, after all, hardly more than a +working man of the superior grade; but George Stephenson was well +repaid for the sacrifice he thus made on behalf of his only son. He +lived to see him the greatest practical engineer of his own time, and +to feel that his success was in large measure due to the wider and more +accurate scientific training the lad had received from his Edinburgh +teachers. +</P> + +<P> +In 1819 George married again, his second wife being the daughter of a +farmer at Black Callerton. +</P> + +<P> +The work which finally secured the position of George Stephenson and of +his dearly loved locomotive was the Stockton and Darlington railway. +Like all the other early railways, it was originally projected simply +as a mineral line. Darlington lies in the centre of a rich inland +mining district; but the impossibility of getting the coal carried to +the sea by cart or donkey, long prevented the opening up of its immense +natural wealth. At last, as early as 1817, Edward Pease and a few +other enterprising Darlington Quakers determined to build a line of +railway from the mining region to Stockton, on the river Tees, where +the coal could be loaded into sea-going ships. It was a very long +line, compared to any railway that had yet been constructed; but it was +still only to be worked by horse-power—to be, in fact, what we now +call a tramway, rather than a railway in the modern sense. However, +while the plan was still undecided, George Stephenson, who had heard +about the proposed scheme, went over to Darlington one day, and boldly +asked to see Mr. Pease. The good Quaker received him kindly, and +listened to his arguments in favour of the locomotive. "Come over to +Killingworth some day and see my engine at work," said Stephenson, +confidently; "and if you do you will never think of horses again." Mr. +Pease, with Quaker caution, came and looked. George put the engine +through its paces, and showed off its marvellous capabilities to such +good effect that Edward Pease was immediately converted. Henceforth, +he became a decided advocate of locomotives, and greatly aided by his +wealth and influence in securing their final triumph. +</P> + +<P> +Not only that, but Mr. Pease also aided Stephenson in carrying out a +design which George had long had upon his mind—the establishment of a +regular locomotive factory, where the work of engine-making for this +particular purpose might be carried on with all the necessary finish +and accuracy. George himself put into the concern his precious 1000 +pounds, not one penny of which he had yet touched; while Pease and a +friend advanced as much between them. A factory was forthwith started +at Newcastle on a small scale, and the hardworking engine-wright found +himself now fully advanced to the commercial dignity of Stephenson and +Co. With the gradual growth of railways, that humble Newcastle factory +grew gradually into one of the largest and wealthiest manufacturing +establishments in all England. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, Stephenson was eagerly pushing on the survey of the Stockton +and Darlington railway, all the more gladly now that he knew it was to +be worked by means of his own adopted child, the beloved locomotive. +He worked at his line early and late; he took the sights with the +spirit-level with his own eye; he was determined to make it a model +railway. It was a long and heavy work, for railway surveying was then +a new art, and the appliances were all fresh and experimental; but in +the end, Stephenson brought it to a happy conclusion, and struck at +once the death-blow of the old road-travelling system. The line was +opened successfully in 1825, and the engine started off on the +inaugural ceremony with a magnificent train of thirty-eight vehicles. +"Such was its velocity," says a newspaper of the day, "that in some +parts the speed was frequently twelve miles an hour." +</P> + +<P> +The success of the Stockton and Darlington railway was so immense and +unexpected, the number of passengers who went by it was so great, and +the quantity of coal carried for shipment so far beyond anything the +projectors themselves could have anticipated, that a desire soon began +to be felt for similar works in other places. There are no two towns in +England which absolutely need a railway communication from one to the +other so much as Liverpool and Manchester. The first is the great port +of entry for cotton, the second is the great centre of its manufacture. +The Bridgewater canal had helped for a time to make up for the want of +water communication between those two closely connected towns; but as +trade developed, the canal became too small for the demands upon it, +and the need for an additional means of intercourse was deeply felt. A +committee was formed to build a railway in this busy district, and +after a short time George Stephenson was engaged to superintend its +construction. +</P> + +<P> +A long and severe fight was fought over the Liverpool and Manchester +railway, and it was at first doubtful whether the scheme would ever be +carried out. Many great landowners were strongly opposed to it, and +tried their best to keep the bill for authorizing it from passing +through Parliament. Stephenson himself was compelled to appear in +London as a witness before a parliamentary committee, and was closely +cross-examined as to the possibilities of his plan. In those days, +even after the success of the Stockton and Darlington line, his views +about the future of railways were still regarded by most sober persons +as ridiculously wild and enthusiastic; while the notion that trains +might be made to travel twice as fast as stage-coaches, was scouted as +the most palpable and ridiculous delusion. One of the members of the +committee pressed Stephenson very hard with questions. "Suppose," he +said, "a cow were to get upon the line, and the engine were to come +into collision with it; wouldn't that be very awkward, now?" George +looked up at him with a merry twinkle of the eye, and answered in his +broad North Country dialect, "Oo, ay, very awkward for the COO." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of all Stephenson's earnestness and mother wit, however, +Parliament refused to pass the bill (in 1825), and for the moment the +engineer's vexation was bitter to behold. He and his friends plucked +up heart, however; they were fighting the winning battle against +prejudice and obstruction, and they were sure to conquer in the long +run. The line was resurveyed by other engineers; the lands of the +hostile owners were avoided; the causes of offence were dexterously +smoothed down; and after another hard fight, in 1826, the bill +authorizing the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester railway +was finally passed. The board at once appointed Stephenson engineer +for constructing the line, at a salary of 1000 pounds a year. George +might now fairly consider himself entitled to the honours of an Esquire. +</P> + +<P> +The line was a difficult one to construct; but George Stephenson set +about it with the skill and knowledge acquired during many years of +slow experience; and he performed it with distinguished success. He +was now forty-four; and he had had more to do with the laying down of +rails than any other man then living. The great difficulty of the +Liverpool and Manchester line lay in the fact that it had to traverse a +vast shaking bog or morass, Chat Moss, which the best engineers had +emphatically declared it would be impossible to cross. George +Stephenson, however, had a plan for making the impossible possible. He +simply floated his line on a broad bottom, like a ship, on the top of +the quaking quagmire; and proceeded to lay down his rails on this +seemingly fragile support without further scruple. It answered +admirably, and still answers to the present day. The other works on +the railway, especially the cuttings, were such as might well have +appalled the boldest heart in those experimental ages of railway +enterprise. It is easy enough for us now to undertake tunnelling great +hills or filling up wide valleys with long ranges of viaduct, because +the thing has been done so often, and the prospect of earning a fair +return on the money sunk can be calculated with so high a degree of +reasonable probability. But it required no little faith for George +Stephenson and his backers to drive a level road, for the first time, +through solid rocks and over trembling morasses, the whole way from +Liverpool to Manchester. He persevered, however, and in 1830, after +four years' toilsome and ceaseless labour, during which he had worked +far-harder than the sturdiest navvy on the line, his railway was +finally opened for regular traffic. +</P> + +<P> +Before the completion of the railway, George Stephenson had taken part +in a great contest for the best locomotive at Liverpool, a prize of 500 +pounds having been offered by the company to the successful competitor. +Stephenson sent in his improved model, the Rocket, constructed after +plans of his own and his son Robert's, and it gained the prize against +all its rivals, travelling at what was then considered the incredible +rate of 35 miles an hour. It was thus satisfactorily settled that the +locomotive was the best power for drawing carriages on railways, and +George Stephenson's long battle was thus at last practically won. +</P> + +<P> +The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway was an era in the +history of the world. From the moment that great undertaking was +complete, there could no longer be any doubt about the utility and +desirability of railways, and all opposition died away almost at once. +New lines began immediately to be laid out, and in an incredibly short +time the face of England was scarred by the main trunks in that network +of iron roads with which its whole surface is now so closely covered. +The enormous development of the railway system benefited the Stephenson +family in more than one way. Robert Stephenson became the engineer of +the vast series of lines now known as the London and North Western; and +the increased demand for locomotives caused George Stephenson's small +factory at Newcastle to blossom out suddenly into an immense and +flourishing manufacturing concern. +</P> + +<P> +The rest of George Stephenson's life is one long story of unbroken +success. In 1831, the year after the opening of the Liverpool and +Manchester line, George, being now fifty, began to think of settling +down in a more permanent home. His son Robert, who was surveying the +Leicester and Swannington railway, observed on an estate called +Snibston, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, what to his experienced geological +eye looked like the probable indications of coal beneath the surface. +He wrote to his father about it, and as the estate was at the time for +sale, George, now a comparatively wealthy man, bought it up on his +son's recommendation. He also pitched his home close by at Alton +Grange, and began to sink shafts in search of coal. He found it in due +time; and thus, in addition to his Newcastle works, he became a +flourishing colliery proprietor. It is pleasing to note that +Stephenson, unlike too many other self-made men, always treated his +workmen with the greatest kindness and consideration, erecting +admirable cottages for their accommodation, and providing them with +church, chapel, and schools for their religious and social education. +</P> + +<P> +While living at Alton Grange, Stephenson was engaged in laying out +several new lines in the middle and north of England, especially the +Grand Junction and the Midland, both of which he constructed with great +boldness and practical skill. As he grew older and more famous, he +began to mix in the truly best society of England; his acquaintance +being sought by all the most eminent men in literature, science, and +political life. Though but an uneducated working man by origin, George +Stephenson had so improved his mind by constant thought and expansive +self-education, that he was able to meet these able and distinguished +friends of his later days on terms of perfect intellectual and social +equality. To the last, however, he never forgot his older and poorer +friends, nor was he ever ashamed of their acquaintance. A pleasant +trait is narrated by his genial biographer, Dr. Smiles, who notices +that on one occasion he stopped to speak to one of his wealthy +acquaintances in a fine carriage, and then turned to shake hands with +the coachman on the box, whom he had known and respected in his earlier +days. He enjoyed, too, the rare pleasure of feeling his greatness +recognized in his own time: and once, when he went over to Brussels on +a visit to the king of the Belgians, he was pleased and surprised, as +the royal party entered the ball-room at the Town Hall, to hear a +general murmur among the guests of "Which is Stephenson?" +</P> + +<P> +George Stephenson continued to live for sixteen years, first at Alton +Grange, and afterwards at Tapton House, near Chesterfield, in comfort +and opulence; growing big pines and melons, keeping birds and dogs, and +indulging himself towards the end in the well-earned repose to which +his useful and laborious life fully entitled him. At last, on the 12th +of August, 1848, he died suddenly of intermittent fever, in his +sixty-seventh year, and was peacefully buried in Chesterfield church. +Probably no one man who ever lived did so much to change and renovate +the whole aspect of human life as George Stephenson; and, unlike many +other authors of great revolutions, he lived long enough to see the +full result of his splendid labours in the girdling of England by his +iron roads. A grand and simple man, he worked honestly and steadfastly +throughout his days, and he found his reward in the unprecedented +benefits which his locomotive was even then conferring upon his +fellow-men. It is indeed wonderful to think how very different is the +England in which we live to-day, from that in which we might possibly +have been living were it not for the barefooted little collier boy who +made clay models of engines at Wylam, and who grew at last into the +great and famous engineer of the marvellous Liverpool and Manchester +railway. The main characteristic of George Stephenson was +perseverance; and it was that perseverance that enabled him at last to +carry out his magnificent schemes in the face of so much bitter and +violent opposition. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JOHN GIBSON, SCULPTOR. +</H3> + +<P> +In most cases, the working man who raises himself to wealth and +position, does so by means of trade, which is usually the natural +outgrowth of his own special handicraft or calling. If he attains, not +only to riches, but to distinction as well, it is in general by +mechanical talent, the direction of the mind being naturally biased by +the course of one's own ordinary occupations. England has been +exceptionally rich in great engineers and inventive geniuses of such +humble origin—working men who have introduced great improvements in +manufactures or communications; and our modern English civilization has +been immensely influenced by the lives of these able and successful +mechanical toilers. From Brindley, the constructor of the earliest +great canal, to Joseph Gillott, the inventor of the very steel pen with +which this book is written; from Arkwright the barber who fashioned the +first spinning-machine, to Crompton the weaver, whose mule gave rise to +the mighty Manchester cotton trade; from Newcomen, who made the first +rough attempt at a steam-engine, to Stephenson, who sent the iron horse +from end to end of the land,—the chief mechanical improvements in the +country have almost all been due to the energy, intelligence, and skill +of our labouring population. The English mind is intensely practical, +and the English working man, for the last two centuries at least, has +been mainly distinguished for his great mechanical aptitude, bursting +out, here and there, in exceptional persons, under the form of +exceedingly high inventive genius. +</P> + +<P> +At our very doors, however, there is a small nation of largely +different blood and of wholly different speech from our own; a nation +forming a part of our own kingdom, even more closely than the Scotch or +the Irish, and yet in some respects further from us in mind and habit +of life than either; a nation marked rather by the poetical and +artistic, than by the mechanical and practical temperament—the ancient +and noble Welsh people. It would hardly be reasonable to expect from +the Welsh exactly the same kind of success in life which we often find +in English workmen; the aims and ideals of the two races are so +distinct, and it must be frankly confessed the advantage is not always +on the side of the Englishman. The Welsh peasants, living among their +own romantic hills and valleys, speaking their own soft and exquisite +language, treasuring their own plaintive and melodious poetry, have +grown up with an intense love for beauty and the beautiful closely +intwined into the very warp and woof of their inmost natures. They +have almost always a natural refinement of manner and delicacy of +speech which is unfortunately too often wanting amongst our rougher +English labouring classes, especially in large towns. They are +intensely musical, producing a very large proportion of the best +English singers and composers. They are fond of literature, for which +they have generally some natural capacity, and in which they exercise +themselves to an extent unknown, probably, among people of their class +in any other country. At the local meetings of bards (as they call +themselves) in Wales, it is not at all uncommon to hear that the first +prize for Welsh poetry has been carried off by a shepherd, and the +first prize for Welsh prose composition by a domestic servant. In +short, the susceptibilities of the race run rather toward art and +imagination, than toward mere moneymaking and practical ingenuity. +</P> + +<P> +John Gibson, sculptor, of Rome, as he loved to call himself, was a +remarkable embodiment, in many ways, of this self-respecting, artistic, +ideal Welsh peasant temperament. In a little village near Conway, in +North Wales, there lived at the end of the last century a petty +labouring market gardener of the name of Gibson, who knew and spoke no +other tongue than his native Welsh. In 1790, his wife gave birth to a +son whom they christened John, and who grew up, a workman's child, +under the shadow of the great castle, and among the exquisite scenery +of the placid land-locked Conway river. John Gibson's parents, like +the mass of labouring Welsh people, were honest, God-fearing folk, with +a great earnestness of principle, a profound love of truth, and a +hatred of all mean or dirty actions. They brought up the boy in these +respects in the way he should go; and when he was old he indeed did not +depart from them. Throughout his life, John Gibson was remarkable for +his calm, earnest, straightforward simplicity, a simplicity which +seemed almost childish to those who could not understand so grand and +uncommon and noble a nature as his. +</P> + +<P> +From his babyhood, almost, the love of art was innate in the boy; and +when he was only seven years old, he began to draw upon a slate a scene +that particularly pleased him—a line of geese sailing upon the smooth +glassy surface of a neighbouring pond. He drew them as an ordinary +child almost always does draw—one goose after another, in profile, as +though they were in procession, without any attempt at grouping or +perspective in any way. His mother praised the first attempt, saying +to him in Welsh, "Indeed, Jack, this is very like the geese;" and Jack, +encouraged by her praise, decided immediately to try again. But not +being an ordinary child, he determined this time to do better; he drew +the geese one behind the other as one generally sees them in actual +nature. His mother then asked him to draw a horse; and "after gazing +long and often upon one," he says, "I at last ventured to commit him to +the slate." When he had done so, the good mother was even more +delighted. So, to try his childish art, she asked him to put a rider +on the horse's back. Jack went out once more, "carefully watched men +on horseback," and then returning, made his sketch accordingly. In +this childish reminiscence one can see already the first workings of +that spirit which made Gibson afterwards into the greatest sculptor of +all Europe. He didn't try even then to draw horse or man by mere +guesswork; he went out and studied the subject at first hand. There +are in that single trait two great elements of success in no matter +what line of life—supreme carefulness, and perfect honesty of +workmanship. +</P> + +<P> +When Jack was nine years old, his father determined to emigrate to +America, and for that purpose went to Liverpool to embark for the +United States. But when he had got as far as the docks, Mrs. Gibson, +good soul, frightened at the bigness of the ships (a queer cause of +alarm), refused plumply ever to put her foot on one of them. So her +husband, a dutiful man with a full sense of his wife's government upon +him, consented unwillingly to stop in Liverpool, where he settled down +to work again as a gardener. Hitherto, Jack and his brothers had spoken +nothing but Welsh; but at Liverpool he was put to school, and soon +learned to express himself correctly and easily in English. Liverpool +was a very different place for young Jack Gibson from Conway: there +were no hills and valleys there, to be sure, but there were shops—such +shops! all full of the most beautiful and highly coloured prints and +caricatures, after the fashion of the days when George IV. was still +Prince Regent. All his spare time he now gave up to diligently copying +the drawings which he saw spread out in tempting array before him in +the shop-windows. Flattening his little nose against the glass panes, +he used to look long and patiently at a single figure, till he had got +every detail of its execution fixed firmly on his mind's eye; and then +he would go home hastily and sketch it out at once while the picture +was still quite fresh in his vivid memory. Afterwards he would return +to the shop-window, and correct his copy by the original till it was +completely finished. No doubt the boy did all this purely for his own +amusement; but at the same time he was quite unconsciously teaching +himself to draw under a very careful and accurate master—himself. +Already, however, he found his paintings had patrons, for he sold them +when finished to the other boys; and once he got as much as sixpence +for a coloured picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps—"the largest +sum," he says brightly in his memoirs long after, "I had yet received +for a work of art." +</P> + +<P> +Opportunities always arise for those who know how to use them. Little +Jack Gibson used to buy his paper and colours at a stationer's in +Liverpool, who one day said to him kindly, "My lad, you're a constant +customer here: I suppose you're a painter." "Yes, sir," Jack answered, +with childish self-complacency, "I do paint." The stationer, who had +himself studied at the Royal Academy, asked him to bring his pictures +on view; and when Jack did so, his new friend, Mr. Tourmeau, was so +much pleased with them that he lent the boy drawings to copy, and +showed him how to draw for himself from plaster casts. These first +amateur lessons must have given the direction to all Gibson's later +life: for when the time came for him to choose a trade, he was not set +to till the ground like his father, but was employed at once on +comparatively artistic and intelligent handicraft. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was fourteen when his father apprenticed him to a firm of +cabinet-makers. For the first year, he worked away contentedly at legs +and mouldings; but as soon as he had learnt the rudiments of the trade +he persuaded his masters to change his indentures, and let him take the +more suitable employment of carving woodwork for ornamental furniture. +He must have been a good workman and a promising boy, one may be sure, +or his masters would never have countenanced such a revolutionary +proceeding on the part of a raw apprentice. Young Gibson was delighted +with his new occupation, and pursued it so eagerly that he carved even +during his leisure hours from plaster casts. But after another year, +as ill-luck or good fortune would have it, he happened to come across a +London marble-cutter, who had come down to Liverpool to carve flowers +in marble for a local firm. The boy was enchanted with his freer and +more artistic work; when the marble-cutter took him over a big yard, +and showed him the process of modelling and cutting, he began to feel a +deep contempt for his own stiff and lifeless occupation of woodcarving. +Inspired with the desire to learn this higher craft, he bought some +clay, took it home, and moulded it for himself after all the casts he +could lay his hands on. Mr. Francis, the proprietor of the marble +works, had a German workman in his employ of the name of Luge, who used +to model small figures, chiefly, no doubt, for monumental purposes. +Young Gibson borrowed a head of Bacchus that Luge had composed, and +made a copy of it himself in clay. Mr. Francis was well pleased with +this early attempt, and also with a clever head of Mercury in marble, +which Gibson carved in his spare moments. +</P> + +<P> +The more the lad saw of clay and marble, the greater grew his distaste +for mere woodwork. At last, he determined to ask Mr. Francis to buy +out his indentures from the cabinet-makers, and let him finish his +apprenticeship as a sculptor. But unfortunately the cabinet-makers +found Gibson too useful a person to be got rid of so easily: they said +he was the most industrious lad they had ever had; and so his very +virtues seemed as it were to turn against him. Not so, really: Mr. +Francis thought so well of the boy that he offered the masters 70 +pounds to be quit of their bargain; and in the end, Gibson himself +having made a very firm stand in the matter, he was released from his +indentures and handed over finally to Mr. Francis and a sculptor's life. +</P> + +<P> +And now the eager boy was at last "truly happy." He had to model all +day long, and he worked away at it with a will. Shortly after he went +to Mr. Francis's yard, a visitor came upon business, a +magnificent-looking old man, with snowy hair and Roman features. It was +William Roscoe, the great Liverpool banker, himself a poor boy who had +risen, and who had found time not only to build up for himself an +enormous fortune, but also to become thoroughly well acquainted with +literature and art by the way. Mr. Roscoe had written biographies of +Lorenzo de Medici, the great Florentine, and of Leo X., the art-loving +pope; and throughout his whole life he was always deeply interested in +painting and sculpture and everything that related to them. He was a +philanthropist, too, who had borne his part bravely in the great +struggle for the abolition of the slave trade; and to befriend a +struggling lad of genius like John Gibson was the very thing that was +nearest and dearest to his benevolent heart. Mr. Francis showed Roscoe +the boy's drawings and models; and Roscoe's appreciative eye saw in +them at once the visible promise of great things to be. He had come to +order a chimney-piece for his library at Allerton, where his important +historical works were all composed; and he determined that the clever +boy should have a chief hand in its production. A few days later he +returned again with a valuable old Italian print. "I want you to make +a bas-relief in baked clay," he said to Gibson, "from this print for +the centres of my mantelpiece." Gibson was overjoyed. The print was +taken from a fresco of Raphael's in the Vatican at Rome, and Gibson's +work was to reproduce it in clay in low relief, as a sculpture picture. +He did so entirely to his new patron's satisfaction, and this his first +serious work is now duly preserved in the Liverpool Institution which +Mr. Roscoe had been mainly instrumental in founding. +</P> + +<P> +Roscoe had a splendid collection of prints and drawings at Allerton; +and he invited the clever Welsh lad over there frequently, and allowed +him to study them all to his heart's content. To a lad like John +Gibson, such an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the works of +Raphael and Michael Angelo was a great and pure delight. Before he was +nineteen, he began to think of a big picture which he hoped to paint +some day; and he carried it out as well as he was able in his own +self-taught fashion. For as yet, it must be remembered, Gibson had had +no regular artistic instruction: there was none such, indeed, to be had +at all in Liverpool in his day; and there was no real art going on in +the town in any way. Mr. Francis, his master, was no artist; nor was +there anybody at the works who could teach him: for as soon as Mr. +Francis found out the full measure of Gibson's abilities, he dismissed +his German artist Luge, and put the clever boy entirely in his place. +At this time, Gibson was only receiving six shillings a week as wages; +but Mr. Francis got good prices for many of his works, and was not +ashamed even to put his own name upon the promising lad's artistic +performances. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Roscoe did not merely encourage the young sculptor; he set him also +on the right road for ultimate success. He urged Gibson to study +anatomy, without which no sculpture worthy of the name is possible. +Gibson gladly complied, for he knew that Michael Angelo had been a +great anatomist, and Michael was just at that moment the budding +sculptor's idol and ideal. But how could he learn? A certain Dr. Vose +was then giving lectures on anatomy to young surgeons at Liverpool, and +on Roscoe's recommendation he kindly admitted the eager student gratis +to his dissecting-room. Gibson dissected there with a will in all his +spare moments, and as he put his mind into the work he soon became well +versed in the construction of the human body. +</P> + +<P> +From the day that Gibson arrived at man's estate, the great dream of +his life was to go to Rome. For Rome is to art what London is to +industry—the metropolis in its own way of the entire earth. But +travelling in 1810 cost a vast deal of money; and the poor Liverpool +marble-cutter (for as yet he was really nothing more) could hardly hope +to earn the immense sum that such an expedition would necessarily cost +him. So for six years more he went on working at Liverpool in his own +native untaught fashion, doing his best to perfect himself, but feeling +sadly the lack of training and competition. One of the last works he +executed while still in Mr. Francis's service was a chimney-piece for +Sir John Gladstone, father of the future premier. Sir John was so +pleased with the execution, that he gave the young workman ten pounds +as a present. But in spite of occasional encouragement like this, +Gibson felt himself at Liverpool, as he says, "chained down by the leg, +and panting for liberation." +</P> + +<P> +In 1817, when he was just twenty-seven, he determined to set off to +London. He took with him good introductions from Mr. Roscoe to Mr. +Brougham (afterwards Lord Chancellor), to Christie, the big +picture-dealer, and to several other influential people. Later on, +Roscoe recommended him to still more important leaders in the world of +art—Flaxman the great sculptor, Benjamin West, the Quaker painter and +President of the Royal Academy, and others of like magnitude. Mr. +Watson Taylor, a wealthy art patron, gave Gibson employment, and was +anxious that he should stop in London. But Gibson wanted more than +employment; he wanted to LEARN, to perfect himself, to become great in +his art. He could do that nowhere but at Rome, and to Rome therefore +he was determined to go. Mr. Taylor still begged him to wait a little. +"Go to Rome I will," Gibson answered boldly, "even if I have to go +there on foot." +</P> + +<P> +He was not quite reduced to this heroic measure, however, for his +Liverpool friends made up a purse of 150 pounds for him (we may be sure +it was repaid later on); and with that comparatively large sum in his +pocket the young stone-cutter started off gaily on his continental +tour, from which he was not to return for twenty-seven years. He drove +from Paris to Rome, sharing a carriage with a Scotch gentleman; and +when he arrived in the Pope's city (as it then was) he knew absolutely +not a single word of Italian, or of any other language on earth save +Welsh and English. In those days, Canova, the great Venetian sculptor, +was the head of artistic society in Rome; and as ALL society in Rome is +more or less artistic, he might almost be said to have led the whole +life of the great and lively city. Indeed, the position of such a man +in Italy resembles far more that of a duke in England than of an artist +as we here are accustomed to think of him. Gibson had letters of +introduction to this prince of sculptors from his London friends; and +when he went to present them, he found Canova in his studio, surrounded +by his numerous scholars and admirers. The Liverpool stone-cutter had +brought a few of his drawings with him, and Canova examined them with +great attention. Instinctively he recognized the touch of genius. +When he had looked at them keenly for a few minutes, he turned kindly +to the trembling young man, and said at once, "Come to me alone next +week, for I want to have a talk with you." +</P> + +<P> +On the appointed day, Gibson, quivering with excitement; presented +himself once more at the great master's studio. Canova was surrounded +as before by artists and visitors; but in a short time he took Gibson +into a room by himself, and began to speak with him in his very broken +English. Many artists came to Rome, he said, with very small means, +and that perhaps might be Gibson's case. "Let me have the +gratification, then," he went on, "of assisting you to prosecute your +studies. I am rich. I am anxious to be of use to you. Let me forward +you in your art as long as you stay in Rome." +</P> + +<P> +Gibson replied, with many stammerings, that he hoped his slender means +would suffice for his personal needs, but that if Canova would only +condescend to give him instruction, to make him his pupil, to let him +model in his studio, he would be eternally grateful. Canova was one of +the most noble and lovable of men. He acceded at once to Gibson's +request, and Gibson never forgot his kind and fatherly assistance. +"Dear generous master," the Welsh sculptor wrote many years after, when +Canova had long passed away, "I see you before me now. I hear your +soft Venetian dialect, and your kindly words inspiring my efforts and +gently correcting my defects. My heart still swells with grateful +recollection of you." +</P> + +<P> +Canova told his new pupil to devote a few days first to seeing the +sights of Rome; but Gibson was impatient to begin at once. "I shall be +at your studio to-morrow morning," the ardent Welshman said; and he +kept his word. Canova, pleased with so much earnestness and +promptitude, set him to work forthwith upon a clay model from his own +statue of the Pugilist. Gibson went to the task with a will, moulding +the clay as best he could into shape; but he still knew so little of +the technical ways of regular sculptors that he tried to model this +work from the clay alone, though its pose was such that it could not +possibly hold together without an iron framework. Canova saw his error +and smiled, but let him go on so that he might learn his business by +experience. In a day or two the whole thing, of course, collapsed by +its own weight; and then Canova called in a blacksmith and showed the +eager beginner how the mechanical skeleton was formed with iron bars, +and interlacing crosses of wood and wire. This was quite a new idea to +Gibson, who had modelled hitherto only in his own self-taught fashion +with moist clay, letting it support its own weight as best it might. +Another pupil then fleshed out the iron skeleton with clay, and roughly +shaped it to the required figure, so that it stood as firm as a rock +for Gibson to work upon. The new hand turned to vigorously once more; +and, in spite of his seeming rawness, finished the copy so well that +Canova admitted him at once to the Academy to model from life. At this +Academy Canova himself, who loved art far more than money, used to +attend twice a week to give instruction to students without receiving +any remuneration whatsoever. It is of such noble men as this that the +world of art is largely made up—that world which we too-practical +English have always undervalued or even despised. +</P> + +<P> +Gibson's student period at Rome under Canova was a very happy episode +in a uniformly happy and beautiful life. His only trouble was that he +had not been able to come there earlier. Singularly free from every +taint of envy (like all the great sculptors of his time), he could not +help regretting when he saw other men turning out work of such great +excellence while he was still only a learner. "When I observed the +power and experience of youths much younger than myself," he says in +his generous appreciative fashion, "their masterly manner of sketching +in the figure, and their excellent imitation of nature, my spirits fell +many degrees, and I felt humbled and unhappy." He need not have done +so, for the man who thus distrusts his own work is always the truest +workman; it is only fools or poor creatures who are pleased and +self-satisfied with their own first bungling efforts. But the great +enjoyment of Rome to Gibson consisted in the free artistic society +which he found there. At Liverpool, he had felt almost isolated; there +was hardly anybody with whom he could talk on an equality about his +artistic interests; nobody but himself cared about the things that +pleased and engrossed his earnest soul the most. But at Rome, there +was a great society of artists; every man's studio was open to his +friends and fellow-workers; and a lively running fire of criticism went +on everywhere about all new works completed or in progress. He was +fortunate, too, in the exact moment of his residence: Rome then +contained at once, besides himself, the two truest sculptors of the +present century, Canova the Venetian, and Thorwaldsen the Dane. Both +these great masters were singularly free from jealousy, rivalry, or +vanity. In their perfect disinterestedness and simplicity of character +they closely resembled Gibson himself. The ardent and pure-minded +young Welshman, who kept himself so unspotted from the world in his +utter devotion to his chosen art, could not fail to derive an elevated +happiness from his daily intercourse with these two noble and +sympathetic souls. +</P> + +<P> +After Gibson had been for some time in Canova's studio, his illustrious +master told him that the sooner he took to modelling a life-size figure +of his own invention, the better. So Gibson hired a studio (with what +means he does not tell us in his short sketch of his own life) close to +Canova's, so that the great Venetian was able to drop in from time to +time and assist him with his criticism and judgment. How delightful is +the friendly communion of work implied in all this graceful artistic +Roman life! How different from the keen competition and jealous +rivalry which too often distinguishes our busy money-getting English +existence! In 1819, two years after Gibson's arrival at Rome, he began +to model his Mars and Cupid, a more than life-size group, on which he +worked patiently and lovingly for many months. When it was nearly +finished, one day a knock came at the studio door. After the knock, a +handsome young man entered, and announced himself brusquely as the Duke +of Devonshire. "Canova sent me," he said, "to see what you were +doing." Gibson wasn't much accustomed to dukes in those days—he grew +more familiar with them later on—and we may be sure the poor young +artist's heart beat a little more fiercely than usual when the stranger +asked him the price of his Mars and Cupid in marble. The sculptor had +never yet sold a statue, and didn't know how much he ought to ask; but +after a few minutes' consideration he said, "Five hundred pounds. But, +perhaps," he added timidly, "I have said too much." "Oh no," the duke +answered, "not at all too much;" and he forthwith ordered (or, as +sculptors prefer to say, commissioned) the statue to be executed for +him in marble. Gibson was delighted, and ran over at once to tell +Canova, thinking he had done a splendid stroke of business. Canova +shared his pleasure, till the young man came to the price; then the +older sculptor's face fell ominously. "Five hundred pounds!" he cried +in dismay; "why, it won't cover the cost of marble and workmanship." +And so indeed it turned out; for when the work was finished, it had +stood Gibson in 520 pounds for marble and expenses, and left him twenty +pounds out of pocket in the end. So he got less than nothing after all +for his many months of thought and labour over clay and marble alike. +</P> + +<P> +Discouraging as this beginning must have proved, it was nevertheless in +reality the first important step in a splendid and successful career. +It is something to have sold your first statue, even if you sell it at +a disadvantage. In 1821 Gibson modelled a group of Pysche and the +Zephyrs. That winter Sir George Beaumont, himself a distinguished +amateur artist, and a great patron of art, came to Rome; and Canova +sent him to see the young Welshman's new composition. Sir George asked +the price, and Gibson, this time more cautious, asked for time to +prepare an estimate, and finally named 700 pounds. To his joy, Sir +George immediately ordered it, and also introduced many wealthy +connoisseurs to the rising sculptor's studio. That same winter, also, +the Duke of Devonshire came again, and commissioned a bas-relief in +marble (which is now at Chatsworth House, with many other of Gibson's +works), at a paying price, too, which was a great point for the young +man's scanty exchequer. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately, Gibson has not left us any notice of how he managed to +make both ends meet during this long adult student period at Rome. +Information on that point would indeed be very interesting; but so +absorbed was the eager Welshman always in his art, that he seldom tells +us anything at all about such mere practical every-day matters as bread +and butter. To say the truth, he cared but little about them. +Probably he had lived in a very simple penurious style during his whole +studenthood, taking his meals at a cafe or eating-house, and centering +all his affection and ideas upon his beloved studio. But now wealth +and fame began to crowd in upon him, almost without the seeking. +Visitors to Rome began to frequent the Welshman's rooms, and the death +of "the great and good Canova," which occurred in 1822, while depriving +Gibson of a dearly loved friend, left him, as it were, that great +master's successor. Towards him and Thorwaldsen, indeed, Gibson always +cherished a most filial regard. "May I not be proud," he writes long +after, "to have known such men, to have conversed with them, watched +all their proceedings, heard all their great sentiments on art? Is it +not a pleasure to be so deeply in their debt for instruction?" And now +the flood of visitors who used to flock to Canova's studio began to +transfer their interest to Gibson's. Commission after commission was +offered him, and he began to make money faster than he could use it. +His life had always been simple and frugal—the life of a working man +with high aims and grand ideals: he hardly knew now how to alter it. +People who did not understand Gibson used to say in his later days that +he loved money, because he made much and spent little. Those who knew +him better say rather that he worked much for the love of art, and +couldn't find much to do with his money when he had earned it. He was +singularly indifferent to gain; he cared not what he eat or drank; he +spent little on clothes, and nothing on entertainments; but he paid his +workmen liberally or even lavishly; he allowed one of his brothers more +than he ever spent upon himself, and he treated the other with uniform +kindness and generosity. The fact is, Gibson didn't understand money, +and when it poured in upon him in large sums, he simply left it in the +hands of friends, who paid him a very small percentage on it, and whom +he always regarded as being very kind to take care of the troublesome +stuff on his account. In matters of art, Gibson was a great master; in +matters of business, he was hardly more than a simple-minded child. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes queer incidents occurred at Gibson's studio from the curious +ignorance of our countrymen generally on the subject of art. One day, +a distinguished and wealthy Welsh gentleman called on the sculptor, and +said that, as a fellow Welshman, he was anxious to give him a +commission. As he spoke, he cast an admiring eye on Gibson's group of +Psyche borne by the Winds. Gibson was pleased with his admiration, but +rather taken aback when the old gentleman said blandly, "If you were to +take away the Psyche and put a dial in the place, it'd make a capital +design for a clock." Much later, the first Duke of Wellington called +upon him at Rome and ordered a statue of Pandora, in an attitude which +he described. Gibson at once saw that the Duke's idea was a bad one, +and told him so. By-and-by, on a visit to England, Gibson waited on +the duke, and submitted photographs of the work he had modelled. "But, +Mr. Gibson," said the old soldier, looking at them curiously, "you +haven't followed my idea." "No," answered the sculptor, "I have +followed MY OWN." "You are very stubborn," said Wellington. "Duke," +answered the sturdy sculptor, "I am a Welshman, and all the world knows +that we are a stubborn race." The Iron Duke ought to have been +delighted to find another man as unbending as himself, but he wasn't; +and in the end he refused the figure, which Gibson sold instead to Lady +Marian Alford. +</P> + +<P> +For twenty-seven years Gibson remained at Rome, working assiduously at +his art, and rising gradually but surely to the very first place among +then living sculptors. His studio now became the great centre of all +fashionable visitors to Rome. Still, he made no effort to get rich, +though he got rich without wishing it; he worked on merely for art's +sake, not for money. He would not do as many sculptors do, keep +several copies in marble of his more popular statues for sale; he +preferred to devote all his time to new works. "Gibson was always +absorbed in one subject," says Lady Eastlake, "and that was the +particular work or part of a work—were it but the turn of a corner of +drapery—which was then under his modelling hands. Time was nothing to +him; he was long and fastidious." His favourite pupil, Miss Hosmer, +once expressed regret to him that she had been so long about a piece of +work on which she was engaged. "Always try to do the best you can," +Gibson answered. "Never mind how long you are upon a work—no. No one +will ask how long you have been, except fools. You don't care what +fools think." +</P> + +<P> +During his long life at Rome, he was much cheered by the presence and +assistance of his younger brother, Mr. Ben, as he always called him, +who was also a sculptor, though of far less merit than John Gibson +himself. Mr. Ben came to Rome younger than John, and he learned to be +a great classical scholar, and to read those Greek and Latin books +which John only knew at second hand, but from whose beautiful fanciful +stories of gods and heroes he derived all the subjects for his works of +statuary. His other brother, Solomon, a strange, wild, odd man, in +whom the family genius had degenerated into mere eccentricity, never +did anything for his own livelihood, but lived always upon John +Gibson's generous bounty. In John's wealthy days, he and Mr. Ben used +to escape every summer from the heat and dust of Rome—which is +unendurable in July and August—to the delightfully cool air and +magnificent mountain scenery of the Tyrol. "I cannot tell you how well +I am," he writes on one of these charming visits, "and so is Mr. Ben. +Every morning we take our walks in the woods here. I feel as if I were +new modelled." Another passage in one of these summer tourist letters +well deserves to be copied here, as it shows the artist's point of view +of labours like Telford's and Stephenson's. "From Bormio," he says, +"the famous road begins which passes over the Stelvio into the Tyrol; +the highest carriage-road in the world. We began the ascent early in +the morning. It is magnificent and wonderful. Man shows his talents, +his power over great difficulties, in the construction of these roads. +Behold the cunning little workman—he comes, he explores, and he says, +'Yes, I will send a carriage and horses over these mighty mountains;' +and, by Jove, you are drawn up among the eternal snows. I am a great +admirer of these roads." +</P> + +<P> +In 1844 Gibson paid his first visit to England, a very different +England indeed to the one he had left twenty-seven years earlier. His +Liverpool friends, now thoroughly proud of their stone-cutter, insisted +upon giving him a public banquet. Glasgow followed the same example; +and the simple-minded sculptor, unaccustomed to such honours, hardly +knew how to bear his blushes decorously upon him. During this visit, he +received a command to execute a statue of the queen. Gibson was at +first quite disconcerted at such an awful summons. "I don't know how +to behave to queens," he said. "Treat her like a lady," said a friend; +and Gibson, following the advice, found it sufficiently answered all +the necessities of the situation. But when he went to arrange with the +Prince Consort about the statue, he was rather puzzled what he should +do about measuring the face, which he always did for portrait sculpture +with a pair of compasses. All these difficulties were at last smoothed +over; and Gibson was also permitted to drape the queen's statue in +Greek costume, for in his artistic conscientiousness he absolutely +refused to degrade sculpture by representing women in the fashionable +gown of the day, or men in swallow-tail coats and high collars. +</P> + +<P> +Another work which Gibson designed during this visit possesses for us a +singular and exceptional interest. It was a statue of George +Stephenson, to be erected at Liverpool. Thus, by a curious +coincidence, the Liverpool stone-cutter was set to immortalize the +features and figure of the Killingworth engine-man. Did those two +great men, as they sat together in one room, sculptor and sitter, know +one another's early history and strange struggles, we wonder? Perhaps +not; but if they did, it must surely have made a bond of union between +them. At any rate, Gibson greatly admired Stephenson, just as he had +admired the Stelvio road. "I will endeavour to give him a look capable +of action and energy," he said; "but he must be contemplative, grave, +simple. He is a good subject. I wish to make him look like an +Archimedes." +</P> + +<P> +If Gibson admired Stephenson, however, he did not wholly admire +Stephenson's railways. The England he had left was the England of +mail-coaches. In Italy, he had learnt to travel by carriage, after the +fashion of the country; but these new whizzing locomotives, with their +time-tables, and their precision, and their inscrutable mysteries of +shunts and junctions, were quite too much for his simple, childish, +old-world habits. He had a knack of getting out too soon or too late, +which often led him into great confusion. Once, when he wanted to go to +Chichester, he found himself landed at Portsmouth, and only discovered +his mistake when, on asking the way to the cathedral, he was told there +was no cathedral in the town at all. Another story of how he tried to +reach Wentworth, Lord Fitzwilliam's place, is best told in his own +words. "The train soon stopped at a small station, and, seeing some +people get out, I also descended; when, in a moment, the train moved +on—faster and faster—and left me standing on the platform. I walked +a few paces backward and forward in disagreeable meditation. 'I wish +to Heaven,' thought I to myself, 'that I was on my way back to Rome +with a postboy.' Then I observed a policeman darting his eyes upon me, +as if he would look me through. Said I to the fellow, 'Where is that +cursed train gone to? It's off with my luggage and here am I.' The +man asked me the name of the place where I took my ticket. 'I don't +remember,' said I. 'How should I know the name of any of these +places?—it's as long as my arm. I've got it written down somewhere.' +'Pray, sir,' said the man, after a little pause, 'are you a foreigner?' +'No,' I replied, 'I am not a foreigner; I'm a sculptor.'" +</P> + +<P> +The consequence of this almost childish carelessness was that Gibson +had always to be accompanied on his long journeys either by a friend or +a courier. While Mr. Ben lived, he usually took his brother in charge +to some extent; and the relation between them was mutual, for while +John Gibson found the sculpture, Mr. Ben found the learning, so that +Gibson used often to call him "my classical dictionary." In 1847, +however, Mr. Ben was taken ill. He got a bad cold, and would have no +doctor, take no medicine. "I consider Mr. Ben," his brother writes, +"as one of the most amiable of human beings—too good for this +world—but he will take no care against colds, and when ill he is a +stubborn animal." That summer Gibson went again to England, and when, +he came back found Mr. Ben no better. For four years the younger +brother lingered on, and in 1851 died suddenly from the effects of a +fall in walking. Gibson was thus left quite alone, but for his pupil +Miss Hosmer, who became to him more than a daughter. +</P> + +<P> +During his later years Gibson took largely to tinting his +statues—colouring them faintly with flesh-tones and other hues like +nature; and this practice he advocated with all the strength of his +single-minded nature. All visitors to the great Exhibition of 1862 +will remember his beautiful tinted Venus, which occupied the place of +honour in a light temple erected for the purpose by another +distinguished artistic Welshman, Mr. Owen Jones, who did much towards +raising the standard of taste in the English people. +</P> + +<P> +In January, 1866, John Gibson had a stroke of paralysis, from which he +never recovered. He died within the month, and was buried in the +English cemetery at Rome. Both his brothers had died before him; and +he left the whole of his considerable fortune to the Royal Academy in +England. An immense number of his works are in the possession of the +Academy, and are on view there throughout the year. +</P> + +<P> +John Gibson's life is very different in many respects from that of most +other great working men whose story is told in this volume. +Undoubtedly, he was deficient in several of those rugged and stern +qualities to which English working men have oftenest owed their final +success. But there was in him a simple grandeur of character, a purity +of soul, and an earnestness of aim which raised him at once far above +the heads of most among those who would have been the readiest to laugh +at and ridicule him. Besides his exquisite taste, his severe love of +beauty, and his marvellous power of expressing the highest ideals of +pure form, he had one thing which linked him to all the other great men +whose lives we have here recounted—his steadfast and unconquerable +personal energy. In one sense it may be said that he was not a +practical man; and yet in another and higher sense, what could possibly +be more practical than this accomplished resolve of the poor Liverpool +stone-cutter to overcome all obstacles, to go to, Rome, and to make +himself into a great sculptor? It is indeed a pity that in writing for +Englishmen of the present day such a life should even seem for a moment +to stand in need of a practical apology. For purity, for +guilelessness, for exquisite appreciation of the true purpose of +sculpture as the highest embodiment of beauty of form, John Gibson's +art stands unsurpassed in all the annals of modern statuary. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BANDSMAN. +</H3> + +<P> +Old Isaac Herschel, the oboe-player of the King's Guard in Hanover, had +served with his regiment for many years in the chilly climate of North +Germany, and was left at last broken down in health and spirits by the +many hardships of several severe European campaigns. Isaac Herschel was +a man of tastes and education above his position; but he had married a +person in some respects quite unfitted for him. His good wife, Anna, +though an excellent housekeeper and an estimable woman in her way, had +never even learned to write; and when the pair finally settled down to +old age in Hanover, they were hampered by the cares of a large family +of ten children. Respectable poverty in Germany is even more pressing +than in England; the decent poor are accustomed to more frugal fare and +greater privations than with us; and the domestic life of the Herschel +family circle must needs have been of the most careful and penurious +description. Still, Isaac Herschel dearly loved his art, and in it he +found many amends and consolations for the sordid shifts and troubles +of a straitened German household. All his spare time was given to +music, and in his later days he was enabled to find sufficient pupils +to eke out his little income with comparative comfort. +</P> + +<P> +William Herschel, the great astronomer (born in 1738), was the fourth +child of his mother, and with his brothers he was brought up at the +garrison school in Hanover, together with the sons of the other common +soldiers. There he learned, not only the three R's, but also a little +French and English. Still, the boy was not content with these ordinary +studies; in his own playtime he took lessons in Latin and mathematics +privately with the regimental schoolmaster. The young Herschels, +indeed, were exceptionally fortunate in the possession of an excellent +and intelligent father, who was able to direct their minds into +channels which few people of their position in life have the +opportunity of entering. Isaac Herschel was partly of Jewish descent, +and he inherited in a marked degree two very striking Jewish gifts—a +turn for music, and a turn for philosophy. The Jews are probably the +oldest civilized race now remaining on earth; and their musical +faculties have been continuously exercised from a time long before the +days of David, so that now they produce undoubtedly a far larger +proportion of musicians and composers than any other class of the +population whatsoever. They are also deeply interested in the same +profound theological and philosophical problems which were discussed +with so much acuteness and freedom in the Book of Ecclesiastes and the +subtle argument of Job and his friends. There has never been a time +when the Jewish mind has not exercised itself profoundly on these deep +and difficult questions; and the Hanover bandsman inherited from his +Jewish ancestry an unusual interest in similar philosophical subjects. +Thus, while the little ones were sleeping in the same common room at +night, William and his father were often heard discussing the ideas of +such abstruse thinkers as Newton and Leibnitz, whose names must have +sounded strange indeed to the ordinary frequenters of the Hanover +barracks. On such occasions good dame Herschel was often compelled to +interpose between them, lest the loudness of their logic should wake +the younger children in the crib hard by. +</P> + +<P> +William, however, possessed yet another gift, which he is less likely +to have derived from the Jewish side of the house. He and his brother +Alexander were both distinguished by a natural taste for mechanics, and +early gave proof of their learning by turning neat globes with the +equator and ecliptic accurately engraved upon them, or by making model +instruments for their own amusement out of bits of pasteboard. Thus, +in early opportunities and educational advantages, the young Herschels +certainly started in life far better equipped than most working men's +sons; and, considering their father's doubtful position, it may seem at +first sight rather a stretch of language to describe him as a working +man at all. Nevertheless, when one remembers the humble grade of +military bandsmen in Germany, even at the present day, and the fact +that most of the Herschel family remained in that grade during all +their lives, it is clear that William Herschel's life may be fairly +included within the scope of the present series. "In my fifteenth +year," he says himself, "I enlisted in military service," and he +evidently looked upon his enlistment in exactly the same light as that +of any ordinary soldier. +</P> + +<P> +England and Hanover were, of course, very closely connected together at +the middle of the last century. The king moved about a great deal from +one country to the other; and in 1755 the regiment of Hanoverian Guards +was ordered on service to England for a year. William Herschel, then +seventeen years of age, and already a member of the band, went together +with his father; and it was in this modest capacity that he first made +acquaintance with the land where he was afterwards to attain the +dignity of knighthood and the post of the king's astronomer. He played +the oboe, like his father before him, and no doubt underwent the usual +severe military discipline of that age of stiff stocks and stern +punishments. His pay was very scanty, and out of it he only saved +enough to carry home one memento of his English experiences. That +memento was in itself a sufficient mark of the stuff from which young +Herschel was compounded. It was a copy of "Locke on the Human +Understanding." Now, Locke's famous work, oftener named than read, is a +very tough and serious bit of philosophical exposition; and a boy of +seventeen who buys such a book out of his meagre earnings as a military +bandsman is pretty sure not to end his life within the four dismal bare +walls of the barrack. It is indeed a curious picture to imagine young +William Herschel, among a group of rough and boisterous German +soldiers, discussing high mathematical problems with his father, or +sitting down quietly in a corner to read "Locke on the Human +Understanding." +</P> + +<P> +In 1757, during the Seven Years' War, Herschel was sent with his +regiment to serve in the campaign of Rossbach against the French. He +was not physically strong, and the hardships of active service told +terribly upon the still growing lad. His parents were alarmed at his +appearance when he returned, and were very anxious to "remove" him from +the service. That, however, was by no means an easy matter for them to +accomplish. They had no money to buy his discharge, and so, not to +call the transaction by any other than its true name, William Herschel +was forced to run away from the army. We must not judge too harshly of +this desertion, for the times were hard, and the lives of men in +Herschel's position were valued at very little by the constituted +authorities. Long after, it is said, when Herschel had distinguished +himself by the discovery of the planet Uranus, a pardon for this high +military offence was duly handed to him by the king in person on the +occasion of his first presentation. George III. was not a particularly +wise or brilliant man; but even he had sense enough to perceive that +William Herschel could serve the country far better by mapping out the +stars of heaven than by playing the oboe to the royal regiment of +Hanoverian Guards. +</P> + +<P> +William was nineteen when he ran away. His good mother packed his +boxes for him with such necessaries as she could manage, and sent them +after him to Hamburg; but, to the boy's intense disgust, she forgot to +send the copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding." What a sturdy +deserter we have here, to be sure! "She, dear woman," he says +plaintively, "knew no other wants than good linen and clothing!" So +William Herschel the oboe-player started off alone to earn his living +as best he might in the great world of England. It is strange he +should have chosen that, of all European countries; for there alone he +was liable to be arrested as a deserter: but perhaps his twelvemonth's +stay in London may have given him a sense of being at home amongst us +which he would have lacked in any other part of Europe. At any rate, +hither he came, and for the next three years picked up a livelihood, we +know not how, as many other excellent German bandsmen have done before +and since him. Our information about his early life is very meagre, +and at this period we lose sight of him for a while altogether. +</P> + +<P> +About the year 1760, however, we catch another incidental glimpse of +the young musician in his adopted country. By that time, he had found +himself once more a regular post as oboist to the Durham militia, then +quartered for its muster at Pontefract. A certain Dr. Miller, an +organist at Doncaster, was dining one evening at the officers' mess; +when his host happened to speak to him in high praise of a young German +they had in their band, who was really, he said, a most remarkable and +spirited performer. Dr. Miller asked to see (or rather hear) this +clever musician; so Herschel was called up, and made to go through a +solo for the visitor's gratification. The organist was surprised at +his admirable execution, and asked him on what terms he was engaged to +the Durham militia. "Only from month to month," Herschel answered. +"Then leave them at the end of your month," said Miller, "and come to +live with me. I'm a single man; I think we can manage together; and +I'm sure I can get you a better situation." Herschel frankly accepted +the offer so kindly made, and seems to have lived for much of the next +five years with Miller in his little two-roomed cottage at Doncaster. +Here he took pupils and performed in the orchestra at public concerts, +always in a very quiet and modest fashion. He also lived for part of +the time with a Mr. Bulman at Leeds, for whom he afterwards generously +provided a place as clerk to the Octagon Chapel at Bath. Indeed, it is +a very pleasing trait in William Herschel's character that to the end +he was constantly engaged in finding places for his early friends, as +well as for the less energetic or less fortunate members of his own +family. +</P> + +<P> +During these years, Herschel also seems to have given much attention to +the organ, which enabled him to make his next step in life in 1765, +when he was appointed organist at Halifax. Now, there is a great +social difference between the position of an oboe-player in a band and +a church organist; and it was through his organ-playing that Herschel +was finally enabled to leave his needy hand-to-mouth life in Yorkshire. +A year later, he obtained the post of organist to the Octagon Chapel at +Bath, an engagement which gave him new opportunities of turning his +mind to the studies for which he possessed a very marked natural +inclination. Bath was in those days not only the most fashionable +watering-place in England, but almost the only fashionable +watering-place in the whole kingdom. It was, to a certain extent, all +that Brighton, Scarborough, Buxton, and Harrogate are to-day, and +something more. In our own time, when railways and steamboats have so +altered the face of the world, the most wealthy and fashionable English +society resorts a great deal to continental pleasure towns like Cannes, +Nice, Florence, Vichy, Baden, Ems, and Homburg; but in the eighteenth +century it resorted almost exclusively to Bath. The Octagon Chapel was +in one sense the centre of life in Bath; and through his connection +with it, Herschel was thrown into a far more intelligent and learned +society than that which he had left behind him in still rural +Yorkshire. New books came early to Bath, and were read and discussed +in the reading-rooms; famous men and women came there, and contributed +largely to the intellectual life of the place; the theatre was the +finest out of London; the Assembly Rooms were famous as the greatest +resort of wit and culture in the whole kingdom. Herschel here was far +more in his element than in the barracks of Hanover, or in the little +two-roomed cottage at rustic Doncaster. +</P> + +<P> +He worked very hard indeed, and his work soon brought him comfort and +comparative wealth. Besides his chapel services, and his later +engagement in the orchestra of the Assembly Rooms, he had often as many +as thirty-eight private pupils in music every week; and he also +composed a few pieces, which were published in London with some modest +success. Still, in spite of all these numerous occupations, the eager +young German found a little leisure time to devote to self-education; +so much so that, after a fatiguing day of fourteen or sixteen hours +spent in playing the organ and teaching, he would "unbend his mind" by +studying the higher mathematics, or give himself a lesson in Greek and +Italian. At the same time; he was also working away at a line of +study, seemingly useless to him, but in which he was afterwards to earn +so great and deserved a reputation. Among the books he read during +this Bath period were Smith's "Optics" and Lalande's "Astronomy." +Throughout all his own later writings, the influence of these two +books, thoroughly mastered by constant study in the intervals of his +Bath music lessons, makes itself everywhere distinctly felt. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the family at Hanover had not been flourishing quite so +greatly as the son William was evidently doing in wealthy England. +During all those years, the young man had never forgotten to keep up a +close correspondence with his people in Germany. Already, in 1764, +during his Yorkshire days, William Herschel had managed out of his +Savings as an oboe-player to make a short trip to his old home; and his +sister Carolina, afterwards his chief assistant in his astronomical +labours, notes with pleasure the delight she felt in having her beloved +brother with her once more, though she, poor girl, being cook to the +household apparently, could only enjoy his society when she was not +employed "in the drudgery of the scullery." A year later, when William +had returned to England again, and had just received his appointment as +organist at Halifax, his father, Isaac, had a stroke of paralysis which +ended his violin-playing for ever, and forced him to rely thenceforth +upon copying music for a precarious livelihood. In 1767 he died, and +poor Carolina saw before her in prospect nothing but a life of that +domestic drudgery which she so disliked. "I could not bear the idea of +being turned into a housemaid," she says; and she thought that if only +she could take a few lessons in music and fancy work she might get "a +place as governess in some family where the want of a knowledge of +French would be no objection." But, unhappily, good dame Herschel, +like many other uneducated and narrow-minded persons, had a strange +dread of too much knowledge. She thought that "nothing further was +needed," says Carolina, "than to send me two or three months to a +sempstress to be taught to make household linen; so all that my father +could do was to indulge me sometimes with a short lesson on the violin +when my mother was either in good humour or out of the way. It was her +certain belief that my brother William would have returned to his +country, and my eldest brother would not have looked so high, if they +had had a little less learning." Poor, purblind, well-meaning, +obstructive old dame Herschel! what a boon to the world that children +like yours are sometimes seized with this incomprehensible fancy for +"looking too high"! +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, Carolina managed by rising early to take a few lessons at +daybreak from a young woman whose parents lived in the same cottage +with hers; and so she got through a little work before the regular +daily business of the family began at seven. Imagine her delight then, +just as the difficulties after her father's death are making that +housemaid's place seem almost inevitable, when she gets a letter from +William at Bath, asking her to come over to England and join him at +that gay and fashionable city. He would try to prepare her for singing +at his concerts; but if after two years' trial she didn't succeed, he +would take her back again to Hanover himself. In 1772, indeed, William +in person came over to fetch her, and thenceforth the brother and +sister worked unceasingly together in all their undertakings to the day +of the great astronomer's death. +</P> + +<P> +About this time Herschel had been reading Ferguson's "Astronomy," and +felt very desirous of seeing for himself the objects in the heavens, +invisible to the naked eye, of which he there found descriptions. For +this purpose he must of course have a telescope. But how to obtain one? +that was the question. There was a small two-and-a-half foot +instrument on hire at one of the shops at Bath; and the ambitious +organist borrowed this poor little glass for a time, not merely to look +through, but to use as a model for constructing one on his own account. +Buying was impossible, of course, for telescopes cost much money: but +making would not be difficult for a determined mind. He had always +been of a mechanical turn, and he was now fired with a desire to build +himself a telescope eighteen or twenty feet long. He sent to London +for the lenses, which could not be bought at Bath; and Carolina amused +herself by making a pasteboard tube to fit them in her leisure hours. +It was long before he reached twenty feet, indeed: his first effort was +a seven-foot, attained only "after many continuous determined trials." +The amateur pasteboard frame did not fully answer Herschel's +expectations, so he was obliged to go in grudgingly for the expense of +a tin tube. The reflecting mirror which he ought to have had proved +too dear for his still slender purse, and he thus had to forego it with +much regret. But he found a man at Bath who had once been in the +mirror-polishing line; and he bought from him for a bargain all his +rubbish of patterns, tools, unfinished mirrors and so forth, with which +he proceeded to experiment on the manufacture of a proper telescope. In +the summer, when the season was over, and all the great people had left +Bath, the house, as Carolina says ruefully, "was turned into a +workshop." William's younger brother Alexander was busy putting up a +big lathe in a bedroom, grinding glasses and turning eyepieces; while +in the drawing-room itself, sacred to William's aristocratic pupils, a +carpenter, sad to relate, was engaged in making a tube and putting up +stands for the future telescopes. Sad goings on, indeed, in the family +of a respectable music-master and organist! Many a good solid +shopkeeper in Bath must no doubt have shaken his grey head solemnly as +he passed the door, and muttered to himself that that young German +singer fellow was clearly going on the road to ruin with his foolish +good-for-nothing star-gazing. +</P> + +<P> +In 1774, when William Herschel was thirty six, he had at last +constructed himself a seven-foot telescope, and began for the first +time in his life to view the heavens in a systematic manner. From this +he advanced to a ten-foot, and then to one of twenty, for he meant to +see stars that no astronomer had ever yet dreamt of beholding. It was +comparatively late in life to begin, but Herschel had laid a solid +foundation already and he was enabled therefore to do an immense deal +in the second half of those threescore years and ten which are the +allotted average life of man, but which he himself really overstepped +by fourteen winters. As he said long afterwards with his modest manner +to the poet Campbell, "I have looked further into space than ever human +being did before me. I have observed stars of which the light, it can +be proved, must take two millions of years to reach this earth." That +would have been a grand thing for any man to be able truthfully to say +under any circumstances: it was a marvellous thing for a man who had +laboured under all the original disadvantages of Herschel—a man who +began life as a penniless German bandsman, and up to the age of +thirty-six had never even looked through a telescope. +</P> + +<P> +At this time, Herschel was engaged in playing the harpsichord in the +orchestra of the theatre; and it was during the interval between the +acts that he made his first general survey of the heavens. The moment +his part was finished, he would rush out to gaze through his telescope; +and in these short periods he managed to observe all the visible stars +of what are called the first, second, third, and fourth magnitudes. +Henceforth he went on building telescope after telescope, each one +better than the last; and now all his glasses were ground and polished +either by his own hand or by his brother Alexander's. Carolina +meanwhile took her part in the workshop; but as she had also to sing at +the oratorios, and her awkward German manners might shock the sensitive +nerves of the Bath aristocrats, she took two lessons a week for a whole +twelvemonth (she tells us in her delightfully straightforward fashion) +"from Miss Fleming, the celebrated dancing mistress, to drill me for a +gentlewoman." Poor Carolina, there she was mistaken: Miss Fleming +could make her into no gentlewoman, for she was born one already, and +nothing proves it more than the perfect absence of false shame with +which in her memoirs she tells us all these graphic little details of +their early humble days. +</P> + +<P> +While they were thus working at Bath an incident occurred which is +worth mentioning because it shows the very different directions in +which the presence or the want of steady persistence may lead the +various members of the very self-same family. William received a +letter from his widowed mother at Hanover to say, in deep distress, +that Dietrich, the youngest brother, had run away from home, it was +supposed for the purpose of going to India, "with a young idler no +older than himself." Forthwith, the budding astronomer left the lathe +where he was busy turning an eye-piece from a cocoa-nut shell, and, +like a good son and brother as he always was, hurried off to Holland +and thence to Hanover. No Dietrich was anywhere to be found. But +while he was away, Carolina at Bath received a letter from Dietrich +himself, to tell her ruefully he was "laid up very ill" at a waterside +tavern in Wapping—not the nicest or most savoury East End +sailor-suburb of London. Alexander immediately took the coach to town, +put the prodigal into a decent lodging, nursed him carefully for a +fortnight, and then took him down with him in triumph to the family +home at Bath. There brother William found him safe and sound on his +return, under the sisterly care of good Carolina. A pretty dance he +had led the two earnest and industrious astronomers; but they seem +always to have treated this black sheep of the family with uniform +kindness, and long afterwards Sir William remembered him favourably in +his last will. +</P> + +<P> +In 1779 and the succeeding years the three Herschels were engaged +during all their spare time in measuring the heights of about one +hundred mountains in the moon, which William gauged by three different +methods. In the same year, he made an acquaintance of some importance +to him, as forming his first introduction to the wider world of science +in London and elsewhere. Dr. Watson, a Fellow of the Royal Society, +happened, to see him working at his telescope; and this led to a visit +from the electrician to the amateur astronomer. Dr. Watson was just +then engaged in getting up a Philosophical Society at Bath (a far rarer +institution at that time in a provincial town than now), and he invited +William Herschel to join it. Here Herschel learned for the first time +to mix with those who were more nearly his intellectual equals, and to +measure his strength against other men's. +</P> + +<P> +It was in 1781 that Herschel made the great discovery which immediately +established his fame as an astronomer, and enabled him to turn from +conducting concerts to the far higher work of professionally observing +the stars. On the night of Tuesday, March 13th, Herschel was engaged +in his usual systematic survey of the sky, a bit at a time, when his +telescope lighted among a group of small fixed stars upon what he at +first imagined to be a new comet. It proved to be no comet, however, +but a true planet—a veritable world, revolving like our own in a +nearly circular path around the sun as centre, though far more remote +from it than the most distant planet then known, Saturn. Herschel +called his new world the Georgium Sidus (King George's star) in honour +of the reigning monarch; but it has since been known as Uranus. +Astronomers all over Europe were soon apprised of this wonderful +discovery, and the path of the freshly found planet was computed by +calculation, its distance from the sun being settled at nineteen times +that of our own earth. +</P> + +<P> +In order faintly to understand the importance attached at the time to +Herschel's observation of this very remote and seemingly petty world, +we must remember that up to that date all the planets which circle +round our own sun had been familiarly known to everybody from time +immemorial. To suggest that there was yet another world belonging to +our system outside the path of the furthest known planet would have +seemed to most people like pure folly. Since then, we have grown quite +accustomed to the discovery of a fresh small world or two every year, +and we have even had another large planet (Neptune), still more remote +than Herschel's Uranus, added to the list of known orbs in our own +solar system. But in Herschel's day, nobody had ever heard of a new +planet being discovered since the beginning of all things. A hundred +years before, an Italian astronomer, it is true, had found out four +small moons revolving round Saturn, besides the big moon then already +known; but for a whole century, everybody believed that the solar +system was now quite fully explored, and that nothing fresh could be +discovered about it. Hence Herschel's observation produced a very +different effect from, say, the discovery of the two moons which +revolve round Mars, in our own day. Even people who felt no interest +in astronomy were aroused to attention. Mr. Herschel's new planet +became the talk of the town and the subject of much admiring discussion +in the London newspapers. Strange, indeed, that an amateur astronomer +of Bath, a mere German music-master, should have hit upon a planet +which escaped the sight even of the king's own Astronomer Royal at +Greenwich. +</P> + +<P> +Of course there were not people wanting who ascribed this wonderful +discovery of Herschel's to pure chance. If he hadn't just happened to +turn his telescope in that particular direction on that particular +night, he wouldn't have seen this Georgium Sidus they made such a fuss +about at all. Quite so. And if he hadn't built a twenty-foot +telescope for himself, he wouldn't have turned it anywhere at any time. +But Herschel himself knew better. "This was by no means the result of +chance," he said; "but a simple consequence of the position of the +planet on that particular evening, since it occupied precisely that +spot in the heavens which came in the order of the minute observations +that I had previously mapped out for myself. Had I not seen it just +when I did, I must inevitably have come upon it soon after, since my +telescope was so perfect that I was able to distinguish it from a fixed +star in the first minute of observation." Indeed, when once Herschel's +twenty-foot telescope was made, he could not well have failed in the +long run to discover Uranus, as his own description of his method +clearly shows. "When I had carefully and thoroughly perfected the +great instrument in all its parts," he says, "I made a systematic use +of it in my observation of the heaven, first forming a determination +never to pass by any, the smallest, portion of them without due +investigation. This habit, persisted in, led to the discovery of the +new planet (Georgium Sidus)." As well might one say that a skilled +mining surveyor, digging for coal, came upon the seam by chance, as +ascribe to chance the necessary result of such a careful and methodical +scrutiny as this. +</P> + +<P> +Before the year was out, the ingenious Mr. Herschel of Bath was elected +a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was also presented with the Copley +gold medal. From this moment all the distinguished people in Bath were +anxious to be introduced to the philosophical music-master; and, +indeed, they intruded so much upon his time that the daily music +lessons were now often interrupted. He was soon, however, to give up +lessons for ever, and devote himself to his more congenial and natural +work in astronomy. In May, 1782, he went up to London, to be formally +admitted to his Fellowship of the Royal Society. There he stayed so +long that poor Carolina was quite frightened. It was "double the time +which my brother could safely be absent from his scholars." The +connection would be broken up, and the astronomy would be the ruin of +the family. (A little of good old dame Herschel's housewifely leaven +here, perhaps.) But William's letters from London to "Dear Lina" must +soon have quieted her womanly fears. William had actually been +presented to the king, and "met with a very gracious reception." He had +explained the solar system to the king and queen, and his telescope was +to be put up first at Greenwich and then at Richmond. The Greenwich +authorities were delighted with his instrument; they have seen what +Herschel calls "MY fine double stars" with it. "All my papers are +printing," he tells Lina with pardonable pride, "and are allowed to be +very valuable." But he himself is far from satisfied as yet with the +results of his work. Evidently no small successes in the field of +knowledge will do for William Herschel. "Among opticians and +astronomers," he writes to Lina, "nothing now is talked of but WHAT +THEY CALL my great discoveries. Alas! this shows how far they are +behind, when such trifles as I have seen and done are called GREAT. +Let me but get at it again! I will make such telescopes and see such +things!" Well, well, William Herschel, in that last sentence we get +the very keynote of true greatness and true genius. +</P> + +<P> +But must he go back quietly to Bath and the toils of teaching? "An +intolerable waste of time," he thought it. The king happily relieved +him from this intolerable waste. He offered Herschel a salary of 200 +pounds a year if he would come and live at Datchet, and devote himself +entirely to astronomical observations. It was by no means a munificent +sum for a king to offer for such labour; but Herschel gladly accepted +it, as it would enable him to give up the interruption of teaching, and +spend all his time on his beloved astronomy. His Bath friend, Sir +William Watson, exclaimed when he heard of it, "Never bought monarch +honour so cheap." Herschel was forty-three when he removed to Datchet, +and from that day forth he lived almost entirely in his observatory, +wholly given up to his astronomical pursuits. Even when he had to go +to London to read his papers before the Royal Society, he chose a +moonlight night (when the stars would be mostly invisible), so that it +might not interfere with his regular labours. +</P> + +<P> +Poor Carolina was horrified at the house at Datchet, which seemed +terribly desolate and poor, even to her modest German ideas; but +William declared his willingness to live permanently and cheerfully +upon "eggs and bacon" now that he was at last free to do nothing on +earth but observe the heavens. Night after night he and Carolina +worked together at their silent task—he noting the small features with +his big telescope, she "sweeping for comets" with a smaller glass or +"finder." Herschel could have had no more useful or devoted assistant +than his sister, who idolized him with all her heart. Alexander, too, +came to stay with them during the slack months at Bath, and then the +whole strength of the family was bent together on their labour of love +in gauging the heavens. +</P> + +<P> +But what use was it all? Why should they wish to go star-gazing? Well, +if a man cannot see for himself what use it was, nobody else can put +the answer into him, any more than they could put into him a love for +nature, or for beauty, or for art, or for music, if he had it not to +start with. What is the good of a great picture, a splendid oratorio, +a grand poem? To the man who does not care for them, nothing; to the +man who loves them, infinite. It is just the same with science. The +use of knowledge to a mind like Herschel's is the mere possession of +it. With such as he, it is a love, an object of desire, a thing to be +sought after for its town sake; and the mere act of finding it is in +itself purely delightful. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and +the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is +better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine +gold. She is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst +desire are not to be compared unto her." So, to such a man as +Herschel, that peaceful astronomer life at Datchet was indeed, in the +truest sense of those much-abused words, "success in life." If you had +asked some vulgar-minded neighbour of the great Sir William in his +later days whether the astronomer had been a successful man or not, he +would doubtless have answered, after his kind, "Certainly. He has been +made a knight, has lands in two counties, and has saved 35,000 pounds." +But if you had asked William Herschel himself, he would probably have +said, with his usual mixture of earnestness and humility, "Yes, I have +been a very fortunate man in life. I have discovered Uranus, and I +have gauged all the depths of heaven, as none before ever gauged them, +with my own great telescope." +</P> + +<P> +Still, those who cannot sympathize with the pure love of knowledge for +its own sake—one of the highest and noblest of human aims—should +remember that astronomy is also of immense practical importance to +mankind, and especially to navigation and commerce. Unless great +astronomical calculations were correctly performed at Greenwich and +elsewhere, it would be impossible for any ship or steamer to sail with +safety from England to Australia or America. Every defect in our +astronomical knowledge helps to wreck our vessels on doubtful coasts; +every advance helps to save the lives of many sailors and the cargoes +of many merchants. It is this practical utility of astronomy that +justifies the spending of national money on observatories and transits +of Venus, and it is the best apology for an astronomer's life to those +who do not appreciate the use of knowledge for its own beauty. +</P> + +<P> +At Datchet, Herschel not only made several large telescopes for sale, +for which he obtained large prices, but he also got a grant of 2000 +pounds from the king to aid him in constructing his huge forty-foot +instrument. It was here, too, in 1783, that Herschel married. His +wife was a widow lady of scientific tastes like his own, and she was +possessed of considerable means, which enabled him henceforth to lay +aside all anxiety on the score of money. They had but one child, a +son, afterwards Sir John Herschel, almost as great an astronomer as his +father had been before him. In 1785, the family moved to Clay Hall, in +Old Windsor, and in 1786 to Slough, where Herschel lived for the +remainder of his long life. How completely his whole soul was bound up +in his work is shown in the curious fact recorded for us by Carolina +Herschel. The last night at Clay Hall was spent in sweeping the sky +with the great glass till daylight; and by the next evening the +telescope stood ready for observations once more in the new home at +Slough. +</P> + +<P> +To follow Herschel through the remainder of his life would be merely to +give a long catalogue of his endless observations and discoveries among +the stars. Such a catalogue would be interesting only to astronomers; +yet it would truly give the main facts of Herschel's existence in his +happy home at Slough. Honoured by the world, dearly loved in his own +family, and engrossed with a passionate affection for his chosen +science, the great astronomer and philosopher grew grey in peace under +his own roof, in the course of a singularly placid and gentle old age. +In 1802 he laid before the Royal Society a list of five thousand new +stars, star-clusters, or other heavenly bodies which he had discovered, +and which formed the great body of his personal additions to +astronomical knowledge. The University of Oxford made him Doctor of +Laws, and very late in life he was knighted by the king—a too tardy +acknowledgment of his immense services to science. To the very last, +however, he worked on with a will; and, indeed, it is one of the great +charms of scientific interest that it thus enables a man to keep his +faculties on the alert to an advanced old age. In 1819, when Herschel +was more than eighty, he writes to his sister a short note—"Lina, +there is a great comet. I want you to assist me. Come to dine and +spend the day here. If you can come soon after one o'clock, we shall +have time to prepare maps and telescopes. I saw its situation last +night. It has a long tail." How delightful to find such a living +interest in life at the age of eighty! +</P> + +<P> +On the 25th of August, 1822, this truly great and simple man passed +away, in his eighty-fifth year. It has been possible here only to +sketch out the chief personal points in his career, without dwelling +much upon the scientific importance of his later life-long labours; but +it must suffice to say briefly upon this point that Herschel's work was +no mere mechanical star-finding; it was the most profoundly +philosophical astronomical work ever performed, except perhaps Newton's +and Laplace's. Among astronomers proper there has been none +distinguished by such breadth of grasp, such wide conceptions, and such +perfect clearness of view as the self-taught oboe-player of Hanover. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET, PAINTER. +</H3> + +<P> +There is no part of France so singularly like England, both in the +aspect of the country itself and in the features and character of the +inhabitants, as Normandy. The wooded hills and dales, the frequent +copses and apple orchards, the numerous thriving towns and villages, +the towers and steeples half hidden among the trees, recall at every +step the very similar scenery of our own beautiful and fruitful +Devonshire. And as the land is, so are the people. Ages ago, about the +same time that the Anglo-Saxon invaders first settled down in England, +a band of similar English pirates, from the old common English home by +the cranberry marshes of the Baltic, drove their long ships upon the +long rocky peninsula of the Cotentin, which juts out, like a French +Cornwall, from the mainland of Normandy up to the steep cliffs and +beetling crags of busy Cherbourg. There they built themselves little +hamlets and villages of true English type, whose very names to this day +remind one of their ancient Saxon origin. Later on, the Danes or +Northmen conquered the country, which they called after their own name, +Normandy, that is to say, the Northmen's land. Mixing with the early +Saxon or English settlers, and with the still more primitive Celtic +inhabitants, the Northmen founded a race extremely like that which now +inhabits our own country. To this day, the Norman peasants of the +Cotentin retain many marks of their origin and their half-forgotten +kinship with the English race. While other Frenchmen are generally +dark and thick-set, the Norman is, as a rule, a tall, fair-haired, +blue-eyed man, not unlike in build to our Yarmouth fisherman, or our +Kentish labourers. In body and mind, there is something about him even +now which makes him seem more nearly akin to us than the true Frenchmen +who inhabit almost all the rest of France. +</P> + +<P> +In the village of Gruchy, near Greville, in this wild and beautiful +region of the Cotentin, there lived at the beginning of the present +century a sturdy peasant family of the name of Millet. The father of +the family was one of the petty village landholders so common in +France; a labourer who owned and tilled his own tiny patch of farm, +with the aid of his wife and children. We have now no class in England +exactly answering to the French peasant proprietors, who form so large +and important an element in the population just across the Channel. +The small landholder in France belongs by position to about the same +level as our own agricultural labourer, and in many ways is content +with a style of dress and a mode of living against which English +labourers would certainly protest with horror. And yet, he is a +proprietor, with a proprietor's sense of the dignity of his position, +and an ardent love of his own little much-subdivided corner of +agricultural land. On this he spends all his energies, and however +many children he may have, he will try to make a livelihood for all by +their united labour out of the soil, rather than let one of them go to +seek his fortune by any other means in the great cities. Thus the +ground is often tilled up to an almost ridiculous extent, the entire +labour of the family being sometimes expended in cultivating, manuring, +weeding, and tending a patch of land perhaps hardly an acre in size. +It is quite touching to see the care and solicitude with which these +toilsome peasants will laboriously lay out their bit of garden with +fruits or vegetables, making every line almost mathematically regular, +planting every pea at a measured distance, or putting a smooth flat +pebble under every strawberry on the evenly ridged-up vines. It is +only in the very last resort that the peasant proprietor will consent +to let one of his daughters go out to service, or send one of his sons +adrift to seek his fortune as an artisan in the big, unknown, outer +world. +</P> + +<P> +Millet the elder, however, had nine children, which is an unusually +large number for a French peasant family (where the women ordinarily +marry late in life); and his little son Jean Francois (the second child +and eldest boy), though set to weed and hoe upon the wee farm in his +boyhood, was destined by his father for some other life than that of a +tiller of the soil. He was born in the year before Waterloo—1814—and +was brought up on his father's plot of land, in the hard rough way to +which peasant children in France are always accustomed. Bronzed by sun +and rain, poorly clad, and ill-fed, he acquired as a lad, from the open +air and the toilsome life he led, a vigour of constitution which +enabled him to bear up against the numerous hardships and struggles of +his later days. "A Norman Peasant," he loved to call himself always, +with a certain proud humility; and happily he had the rude health of +one all his life long. +</P> + +<P> +Hard as he worked, little Francois' time was not entirely taken up with +attending to the fields or garden. He was a studious boy, and learned +not only to read and write in French, but also to try some higher +flights, rare indeed for a lad of his position. His family possessed +remarkable qualities as French peasants go; and one of his +great-uncles, a man of admirable strength of character, a priest in the +days of the great Revolution, had braved the godless republicans of his +time, and though deprived of his cure, and compelled to labour for his +livelihood in the fields, had yet guided the plough in his priestly +garments. His grandmother first taught him his letters; and when she +had instructed him to the length of reading any French book that was +put before him, the village priest took him in hand. In France, the +priest comes often from the peasant class, and remains in social +position a member of that class as long as he lives. But he always +possesses a fair knowledge of Latin, the language in which all his +religious services are conducted; and this knowledge serves as a key to +much that his unlearned parishioners could never dream of knowing. +Young Millet's parish priest taught him as much Latin as he knew +himself; and so the boy was not only able to read the Bible in the +Latin or Vulgate translation, but also to make acquaintance with the +works of Virgil and several others of the great Roman poets. He read, +too, the beautiful "Confessions" of St. Augustine, and the "Lives of +the Saints," which he found in his father's scanty library, as well as +the works of the great French preachers, Bossuet and Fenelon. Such +early acquaintance with these and many other masterpieces of higher +literature, we may be sure, helped greatly to mould the lad's mind into +that grand and sober shape which it finally acquired. +</P> + +<P> +Jean Francois' love of art was first aroused by the pictures in an old +illustrated Bible which belonged to his father, and which he was +permitted to look at on Sundays and festivals. The child admired these +pictures immensely, and asked leave to be permitted to copy them. The +only time he could find for the purpose, however, was that of the +mid-day rest or siesta. It is the custom in France, as in Southern +Europe generally, for labourers to cease from work for an hour or so in +the middle of the day; and during this "tired man's holiday," young +Millet, instead of resting, used to take out his pencil and paper, and +try his hand at reproducing the pictures in the big Bible. His father +was not without an undeveloped taste for art. "See," he would say, +looking into some beautiful combe or glen on the hillside—"see that +little cottage half buried in the trees; how beautiful it is! I think +it ought to be drawn so—;" and then he would make a rough sketch of it +on some scrap of paper. At times he would model things with a bit of +clay, or cut the outline of a flower or an animal with his knife on a +flat piece of wood. This unexercised talent Francois inherited in a +still greater degree. As time went on, he progressed to making little +drawings on his own account; and we may be sure the priest and all the +good wives of Gruchy had quite settled in their own minds before long +that Jean Francois Millet's hands would be able in time to paint quite +a beautiful altar-piece for the village church. +</P> + +<P> +By-and-by, when the time came for Francois to choose a trade, he being +then a big lad of about nineteen, it was suggested to his father that +young Millet might really make a regular painter—that is to say, an +artist. In France, the general tastes of the people are far more +artistic than with us; and the number of painters who find work for +their brushes in Paris is something immensely greater than the number +in our own smoky, money-making London. So there was nothing very +remarkable, from a French point of view, in the idea of the young +peasant turning for a livelihood to the profession of an artist. But +Millet's father was a sober and austere man, a person of great dignity +and solemnity, who decided to put his son's powers to the test in a +very regular and critical fashion. He had often watched Francois +drawing, and he thought well of the boy's work. If he had a real +talent for painting, a painter he should be; if not, he must take to +some other craft, where he would have the chance of making himself a +decent livelihood. So he told Francois to prepare a couple of +drawings, which he would submit to the judgment of M. Mouchel, a local +painter at Cherbourg, the nearest large town, and capital of the +department. Francois duly prepared the drawings, and Millet the elder +went with his, son to submit them in proper form for M. Mouchel's +opinion. Happily, M. Mouchel had judgment enough to see at a glance +that the drawings possessed remarkable merit. "You must be playing me +a trick," he said; "that lad could never have made these drawings." "I +saw him do them with my own eyes," answered the father warmly. "Then," +said Mouchel, "all I can say is this: he has in him the making of a +great painter." He accepted Millet as his pupil; and the young man set +off for Cherbourg accordingly, to study with care and diligence under +his new master. +</P> + +<P> +Cherbourg, though not yet at that time a great naval port, as it +afterwards became, was a busy harbour and fishing town, where the young +artist saw a great deal of a kind of life with which he possessed an +immense sympathy. The hard work of the fishermen putting out to sea on +stormy evenings, or toiling with their nets ashore after a sleepless +night, made a living picture which stamped itself deeply on his +receptive mind. A man of the people himself, born to toil and inured +to it from babyhood, this constant scene of toiling and struggling +humanity touched the deepest chord in his whole nature, so that some of +the most beautiful and noble of his early pictures are really +reminiscences of his first student days at Cherbourg. But after he had +spent a year in Mouchel's studio, sad news came to him from Gruchy. +His father was dying, and Francois was only just in time to see him +before he passed away. If the family was to be kept together at all, +Francois must return from his easel and palette, and take once more to +guiding the plough. With that earnest resolution which never forsook +him, Millet decided to accept the inevitable. He went back home once +more, and gave up his longings for art in order to till the ground for +his fatherless sisters. +</P> + +<P> +Luckily, however, his friends at Gruchy succeeded after awhile in +sending him back again to Cherbourg, where he began to study under +another master, Langlois, and to have hopes once more for his artistic +future, now that he was free at last to pursue it in his own way. At +this time, he read a great deal—Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Byron, +Goethe's "Faust," Victor Hugo and Chateaubriand; in fact, all the great +works he could lay his hands upon. Peasant as he was, he gave himself, +half unconsciously, a noble education. Very soon, it became apparent +that the Cherbourg masters could do nothing more for him, and that, if +he really wished to perfect himself in art, he must go to Paris. In +France, the national interest felt in painting is far greater and more +general than in England. Nothing is commoner than for towns or +departments to grant pensions (or as we should call them, scholarships) +to promising lads who wish to study art in Paris. Young Millet had +attracted so much attention at Cherbourg, that the Council General of +the Department of the Manche voted him a present of six hundred francs +(about 24 pounds) to start him on the way; and the town of Cherbourg +promised him an annual grant of four hundred francs more (about 16 +pounds). So up to Paris Millet went, and there was duly enrolled as a +student at the Government "School of Fine-Arts." +</P> + +<P> +Those student days in Paris were days of hunger and cold, very often, +which Millet bore with the steady endurance of a Norman peasant boy. +But they were also days of something worse to him—of effort +misdirected, and of constant struggling against a system for which he +was not fitted. In fact, Millet was an original genius, whereas the +teachers at the School of Fine Arts were careful and methodical +rule-of-thumb martinets. They wished to train Millet into the ordinary +pattern, which he could not follow; and in the end, he left the school, +and attached himself to the studio of Paul Delaroche, then the greatest +painter of historical pictures in all Paris. But even Delaroche, +though an artist of deep feeling and power, did not fully understand +his young Norman pupil. He himself used to paint historical pictures +in the grand style, full of richness and beauty; but his subjects were +almost always chosen from the lives of kings or queens, and treated +with corresponding calmness and dignity. "The Young Princes in the +Tower," "The Execution of Marie Antoinette," "The Death of Queen +Elizabeth," "Cromwell viewing the Body of Charles I."—these were the +kind of pictures on which Delaroche loved to employ himself. Millet, +on the other hand, though also full of dignity and pathos, together +with an earnestness far surpassing Delaroche's, did not care for these +lofty subjects. It was the dignity and pathos of labour that moved him +most; the silent, weary, noble lives of the uncomplaining peasants, +amongst whom his own days had been mostly passed. Delaroche could not +make him out at all; he was such a curious, incomprehensible, odd young +fellow! "There, go your own way, if you will," the great master said +to him at last; "for my part, I can make nothing of you." +</P> + +<P> +So, shortly after, Millet and his friend Marolle set up a studio for +themselves in the Rue de l'Est in Paris. The precise occasion of their +going was this. Millet was anxious to obtain the Grand Prize of Rome +annually offered to the younger artists, and Delaroche definitely told +him that his own influence would be used on behalf of another pupil. +After this, the young Norman felt that he could do better by following +out his own genius in his own fashion. At the Rue de l'Est, he +continued to study hard, but he also devoted a large part of his time +to painting cheap portraits—what artists call "pot-boilers;" mere +hasty works dashed off anyhow to earn his daily livelihood. For these +pictures he got about ten to fifteen francs apiece,—in English money +from eight to twelve shillings. They were painted in a theatrical +style, which Millet himself detested—all pink cheeks, and red lips, +and blue satin, and lace collars; whereas his own natural style was one +of great austerity and a certain earnest sombreness the exact reverse +of the common Parisian taste to which he ministered. However, he had +to please his patrons—and, like a sensible man, he went on producing +these cheap daubs to any extent required, for a living, while he +endeavoured to perfect himself meanwhile for the higher art he was +meditating for the future. In the great galleries of the Louvre at +Paris he found abundant models which he could study in the works of the +old masters; and there, poring over Michael Angelo and Mantegna, he +could recompense himself a little in his spare hours for the time he +was obliged to waste on pinky-white faces and taffeta gowns. To an +artist by nature there is nothing harder than working perforce against +the bent of one's own innate and instinctive feelings. +</P> + +<P> +In 1840, Millet found his life in Paris still so hard that he seemed +for a time inclined to give up the attempt, and returned to Greville, +where he painted a marine subject of the sort that was dearest to his +heart—a group of sailors mending a sail. Shortly after, however, he +was back in Paris—the record of these years of hard struggle is not +very clear—with his wife, a Cherbourg girl whom he had imprudently +married while still barely able to support himself in the utmost +poverty. It was not till 1844 that the hard-working painter at last +achieved his first success. It was with a picture of a milkwoman, one +of his own favourite peasant subjects; and the poetry and sympathy +which he had thrown into so commonplace a theme attracted the attention +of many critics among the cultivated Parisian world of art. The +"Milkwoman" was exhibited at the Salon (the great annual exhibition of +works of art in Paris, like that of the Royal Academy in London, but on +a far larger scale); and several good judges of art began immediately +to inquire, "Who is Jean Francois Millet?" Hunting his address out, a +party of friendly critics presented themselves at his lodgings, only to +learn that Madame Millet had just died, and that her husband, half in +despair, had gone back again once more to his native Norman hills and +valleys. +</P> + +<P> +But Millet was the last man on earth to sit down quietly with his hands +folded, waiting for something or other to turn up. At Cherbourg, he +set to work once more, no doubt painting more "pot-boilers" for the +respectable shopkeepers of the neighbourhood—complacent portraits, +perhaps, of a stout gentleman with a large watch-chain fully displayed, +and of a stout lady in a black silk dress and with a vacant smile; and +by hook or by crook he managed to scrape together a few hundred francs, +with which once more he might return to Paris. But before he did so, +he married again, this time more wisely. His wife, Catharine Lemaire, +was a brave and good woman, who knew how to appreciate her husband, and +to second him well in all his further struggles and endeavours. They +went for a while to Havre, where Millet, in despair of getting better +work, and not ashamed of doing anything honest to pay his way, actually +took to painting sign-boards. In this way he saved money enough to +make a fresh start in Paris. There, he continued his hard battle +against the taste of the time; for French art was then dominated by the +influence of men like Delaroche, or like Delacroix and Horace Vernet, +who had accustomed the public to pictures of a very lofty, a very +romantic, or a very fiery sort; and there were few indeed who cared for +stern and sympathetic delineations of the French peasant's unlovely +life of unremitting toil, such as Millet loved to set before them. +Yet, in spite of discouragement, he did well to follow out this inner +prompting of his own soul; for in that direction he could do his best +work—and the best work is always the best worth doing in the long run. +There are some minds, of which Franklin's is a good type, so versatile +and so shifty that they can turn with advantage to any opening that +chances to offer, no matter in what direction; and such minds do right +in seizing every opportunity, wherever it occurs. But there are other +minds, of which Gibson and Millet are excellent examples, naturally +restricted to certain definite lines of thought or work; and such minds +do right in persistently following up their own native talent, and +refusing to be led aside by circumstances into any less natural or less +promising channel. +</P> + +<P> +While living in Paris at this time, Millet painted several of his +favourite peasant pictures, amongst others "The Workman's Monday," +which is a sort of parallel in painting to Burns's "Cotter's Saturday +Night" in poetry. Indeed, there is a great deal in Millet which +strongly reminds one at every step of Burns. Both were born of the +agricultural labouring class; both remained peasants at heart, in +feelings and sympathies, all their lives long; neither was ashamed of +his origin, even in the days of his greatest fame; painter and poet +alike loved best to choose their themes from the simple life of the +poor whose trials and hardships they knew so well by bitter experience; +and in each case they succeeded best in touching the hearts of others +when they did not travel outside their own natural range of subjects. +Only (if Scotchmen will allow one to say so) there was in Millet a far +deeper vein of moral earnestness than in Burns; he was more profoundly +impressed by the dignity and nobility of labour; in his tender sympathy +there was a touch of solemn grandeur which was wanting in the too +genial and easy-going Ayrshire ploughman. +</P> + +<P> +In 1848, the year of revolutions, Millet painted his famous picture of +"The Winnower," since considered as one of his finest works. Yet for a +long time, though the critics praised it, it could not find a +purchaser; till at last M. Ledru Rollin, a well-known politician, +bought it for what Millet considered the capital price of five hundred +francs (about 20 pounds). It would now fetch a simply fabulous price, +if offered for sale. Soon after this comparative success Millet +decided to leave Paris, where the surroundings indeed were little +fitted to a man of his peculiarly rural and domestic tastes. He would +go where he might see the living models of his peasant friends for ever +before him; where he could watch them leaning over the plough pressed +deep into the earth; cutting the faggots with stout arms in the +thick-grown copses; driving the cattle home at milking time with weary +feet, along the endless, straight white high-roads of the French rural +districts. At the same time, he must be within easy reach of Paris; +for though he had almost made up his mind not to exhibit any more at +the Salon—people didn't care to see his reapers or his fishermen—he +must still manage to keep himself within call of possible purchasers; +and for this purpose he selected the little village of Barbizon, on the +edge of the forest of Fontainebleau. +</P> + +<P> +The woods of Fontainebleau stand to Paris in somewhat the same relation +that Windsor Great Park stands to London; only, the scenery is more +forest-like, and the trees are big and antique looking. By the +outskirts of this great wood stands the pretty hamlet of Barbizon, a +single long street of small peasant cottages, built with the usual +French rural disregard of beauty or cleanliness. At the top of the +street, in a little three-roomed house, the painter and his wife +settled down quietly; and here they lived for twenty-seven years, long +after Millet's name had grown to be famous in the history of +contemporary French painting. An English critic, who visited the spot +in the days of Millet's greatest celebrity, was astonished to find the +painter, whom he had come to see, strolling about the village in rustic +clothes, and even wearing the sabots or wooden shoes which are in +France the social mark of the working classes, much as the smock-frock +used once to be in the remoter country districts of England. Perhaps +this was a little bit of affectation on Millet's part—a sort of proud +declaration of the fact that in spite of fame and honours he still +insisted upon counting himself a simple peasant; but if so, it was, +after all, a very pretty and harmless affectation indeed. Better to see +a man sticking pertinaciously to his wooden shoes, than turning his +back upon old friends and old associations in the days of his worldly +prosperity. +</P> + +<P> +At Barbizon Millet's life moved on so quietly that there is nothing to +record in it almost, save a long list of pictures painted, and a +gradual growth, not in popularity (for THAT Millet never really +attained at all), but in the esteem of the best judges, which of course +brought with it at last, first ease, then comfort, and finally +comparative riches. Millet was able now to paint such subjects as +pleased him best, and he threw himself into his work with all the +fervour of his intensely earnest and poetical nature. Whatever might be +the subject which he undertook, he knew how to handle it so that it +became instinct with his own fine feeling for the life he saw around +him. In 1852 he painted his "Man spreading Manure." In itself, that +is not a very exalted or beautiful occupation; but what Millet saw in +it was the man, not the manure—the toiling, sorrowing, human +fellow-being, whose labour and whose spirit he knew so well how to +appreciate. And in this view of the subject he makes us all at once +sympathize. Other pictures of this period are such as "The Gleaners," +"The Reapers," "A Peasant grafting a Tree," "The Potato Planters," and +so forth. These were very different subjects indeed from the dignified +kings and queens painted by Delaroche, or the fiery battle-pieces of +Delacroix but they touch a chord in our souls which those great +painters fail to strike, and his treatment of them is always truthful, +tender, melancholy, and exquisite. +</P> + +<P> +Bit by bit, French artistic opinion began to recognize the real +greatness of the retiring painter at Barbizon. He came to be looked +upon as a true artist, and his pictures sold every year for +increasingly large prices. Still, he had not been officially +recognized; and in France, where everything, even to art and the +theatre, is under governmental regulation, this want of official +countenance is always severely felt. At last, in 1867, Millet was +awarded the medal of the first class, and was appointed a Chevalier of +the Legion of Honour. The latter distinction carries with it the right +to wear that little tag of ribbon on the coat which all Frenchmen prize +so highly; for to be "decorated," as it is called, is in France a spur +to ambition of something the same sort as a knighthood or a peerage in +England, though of course it lies within the reach of a far greater +number of citizens. There is something to our ideas rather absurd in +the notion of bestowing such a tag of ribbon on a man of Millet's aims +and occupations; but all honours are honours just according to the +estimation of the man who receives them and the society in which he +lives; and Millet no doubt prized his admission to the Legion of Honour +all the more because it had been so long delayed and so little truckled +for. +</P> + +<P> +To the end of his days, Millet never left his beloved Barbizon. He +stopped there, wandering about the fields, watching peasants at work, +imprinting their images firmly upon his eye and brain, and then going +home again to put the figures he had thus observed upon his vivid +canvas. For, strange to say, unlike almost every other great painter, +Millet never painted from a model. Instead of getting a man or woman +to sit for him in the pose he required, he would go out into the +meadows and look at the men and women at their actual daily +occupations; and so keen and acute was his power of observation, and so +retentive was his inner eye, that he could then recall almost every +detail of action or manner as clearly as if he had the original present +in his studio before him. As a rule, such a practice is not to be +recommended to any one who wishes to draw with even moderate accuracy; +constant study of the actual object, and frequent comparison by +glancing from object to copy, are absolutely necessary for forming a +correct draughtsman. But Millet knew his own way best; and how +wonderfully minute and painstaking must his survey have been when it +enabled him to reproduce the picture of a person afterwards in every +detail of dress or movement. +</P> + +<P> +He did not paint very fast. He preferred doing good work to much +work—an almost invariable trait of all the best workmen. During the +thirty-one years that he worked independently, he produced only eighty +pictures—not more, on an average, than two or three a year. Compared +with the rate at which most successful artists cover canvas to sell, +this was very slow. But then, Millet did not paint mainly to sell; he +painted to satisfy his own strict ideas of what constituted the highest +art. His pictures are usually very simple in their theme; take, for +example, his "Angelus," painted at the height of his fame, in 1867. A +man and a woman are working in the fields—two poor, simple-minded, +weather-beaten, devout French peasants. It is nightfall; the bell +called the "Angelus" rings out from the church steeple, and the two +poor souls, resting for a moment from their labours, devote a few +seconds to the silent prayers enjoined by their church. That is all; +and yet in that one picture the sorrows, the toils, and the +consolations of the needy French peasantry are summed up in a single +glimpse of a pair of working and praying partners. +</P> + +<P> +Millet died somewhat suddenly in 1875. Strong and hearty as he was, +even the sturdy health of the Norman peasant had been undermined by the +long hardships of his early struggles, and his constitution gave way at +last with comparative rapidity. Still, he had lived long enough to see +his fame established, to enjoy ten years of ease and honour, and to +find his work cordially admired by all those for whose admiration he +could have cared to make an effort. After his death, the pictures and +unfinished sketches in his studio were sold for 321,000 francs, a +little less than 13,000 pounds. The peasant boy of Greville had at +last conquered all the difficulties which obstructed his path, and had +fought his own way to fame and dignity. And in so fighting, he had +steadily resisted the temptation to pander to the low and coarse taste +in art of the men by whom he was surrounded. In spite of cold, and +hunger, and poverty, he had gone on trying to put upon his canvas the +purer, truer, and higher ideas with which his own beautiful soul was +profoundly animated. In that endeavour he nobly succeeded. While too +many contemporary French pictures are vicious and sensual in tone and +feeling, every one of Millet's pictures is a sermon in colour—a thing +to make us sympathize more deeply with our kind, and to send us away, +saddened perhaps, yet ennobled and purified. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JAMES GARFIELD, CANAL BOY. +</H3> + +<P> +At the present time, the neighbourhood of Cleveland, Ohio, the busiest +town along the southern shore of Lake Erie, may fairly rank as one of +the richest agricultural districts in all America. But when Abram +Garfield settled down in the township of Orange in 1830, it was one of +the wildest and most unpeopled woodland regions in the whole of the +United States. Pioneers from the older states had only just begun to +make little clearings for themselves in the unbroken forest; and land +was still so cheap that Abram Garfield was able to buy himself a tract +of fifty acres for no more than 20 pounds. His brother-in-law's family +removed there with him; and the whole strength of the two households +was immediately employed in building a rough log hut for their common +accommodation, where both the Garfields and the Boyntons lived together +during the early days of their occupation. The hut consisted of a mere +square box, made by piling logs on top of one another, the spaces +between being filled with mud, while the roof was formed of loose stone +slabs. Huts of that sort are everywhere common among the isolation of +the American backwoods; and isolated indeed they were, for the +Garfields' nearest neighbours, when they first set up house, lived as +far as seven miles away, across the uncleared forest. +</P> + +<P> +When Abram Garfield came to this lonely lodge in the primaeval +woodlands, he had one son and one daughter. In 1831, the year after +his removal to his new home, a second boy was born into the family, +whom his father named James Abram. Before the baby was eighteen months +old, the father died, and was buried alone, after the only possible +fashion among such solitary settlers, in a corner of the wheat field +which he himself had cleared of its stumps. A widow's life is always a +hard one, but in such a country and under such conditions it is even +harder and more lonely than elsewhere. Mrs. Garfield's eldest boy, +Thomas, was only eleven years old; and with the aid of this one +ineffectual helper, she managed herself to carry on the farm for many +years. Only those who know the hard toil of a raw American township +can have any idea what that really means. A farmer's work in America +is not like a farmer's work in England. The man who occupies the soil +is there at once his own landlord and his own labourer; and he has to +contend with nature as nobody in England has had to contend with it for +the last five centuries at least. He finds the land covered with +trees, which he has first to fell and sell as timber; then he must dig +or burn out the stumps; clear the plot of boulders and large stones; +drain it, fence it, plough it, and harrow it; build barns for the +produce and sheds for the cows; in short, MAKE his farm, instead of +merely TAKING it. This is labour from which many strong men shrink in +dismay, especially those who have come out fresh from a civilized and +fully occupied land. For a woman and a boy, it is a task that seems +almost above their utmost powers. Nevertheless, Mrs. Garfield and her +son did not fail under it. With her own hands, the mother split up the +young trees info rude triangular rails to make the rough snake fences +of the country—mere zigzags of wood laid one bit above the other; +while the lad worked away bravely at sowing fall and spring wheat, +hoeing Indian corn, and building a little barn for the harvest before +the arrival of the long cold Ohio winter. To such a family did the +future President originally belong; and with them he must have shared +those strong qualities of perseverance and industry which more than +anything else at length secured his ultimate success in life. +</P> + +<P> +For James Garfield's history differs greatly in one point from that of +most other famous working men, whose stories have been told in this +volume. There is no reason to believe that he was a man of exceptional +or commanding intellect. On the contrary, his mental powers appear to +have been of a very respectable but quite ordinary and commonplace +order. It was not by brilliant genius that James Garfield made his way +up in life; it was rather by hard work, unceasing energy, high +principle, and generous enthusiasm for the cause of others. Some of +the greatest geniuses among working men, such as Burns, Tannahill, and +Chatterton, though they achieved fame, and though they have enriched +the world with many touching and beautiful works, must be considered to +have missed success in life, so far as their own happiness was +concerned, by their unsteadiness, want of self-control, or lack of +fixed principle. Garfield, on the other hand, was not a genius; but by +his sterling good qualities he nevertheless achieved what cannot but be +regarded as a true success, and left an honourable name behind him in +the history of his country. +</P> + +<P> +However poor an American township may be, it is seldom too poor to +afford its children a moderate and humble education. While James +Garfield was still very young, the settlers in the neighbourhood +decided to import a schoolmaster, whom they "boarded about" between +them, after a fashion very common in rural western districts. The +school-house was only a log hut; the master was a lad of twenty; and +the textbooks were of the very meagrest sort. But at least James +Garfield was thus enabled to read and write, which after all is the +great first step on the road to all possible promotion. The raw, +uncouth Yankee lad who taught the Ohio boys, slept at Widow Garfield's, +with Thomas and James; and the sons of the neighbouring settlers worked +on the farm during the summer months, but took lessons when the long +ice and snow of winter along the lake shore put a stop almost entirely +for the time to their usual labours. +</P> + +<P> +James continued at school till he was twelve years old, and then, his +brother Thomas (being by that time twenty-one) went away by agreement +still further west to Michigan, leaving young Jim to take his place +upon the little farm. The fences were all completed, by this time; the +barn was built, the ground was fairly brought under cultivation, and it +required comparatively little labour to keep the land cropped after the +rough fashion which amply satisfies American pioneers, with no rent to +pay, and only their bare living to make out of the soil. Thomas was +going to fell trees in Michigan, to clear land there for a farmer; and +he proposed to use his earnings (when he got them) for the purpose of +building a "frame house" (that is to say, a house built of planks) +instead of the existing log hut. It must be added, in fairness, that +hard as were the circumstances under which the young Garfields lived, +they were yet lucky in their situation in a new country, where wages +were high, and where the struggle for life is far less severe or +competitive than in old settled lands like France and England. Thomas, +in fact; would get boarded for nothing in Michigan, and so would be +able easily to save almost all his high wages for the purpose of +building the frame house. +</P> + +<P> +So James had to take to the farm in summer, while in the winter he +began to work as a sort of amateur carpenter in a small way. As yet he +had lived entirely in the backwoods, and had never seen a town or even +a village; but his education in practical work had begun from his very +babyhood, and he was handy after the usual fashion of American or +colonial boys—ready to turn his hand to anything that happened to +present itself. In new countries, where everybody has not got +neighbours and workmen within call, such rough-and-ready handiness is +far more common than in old England. The one carpenter of the +neighbourhood asked James to help him, on the proud day when Tom +brought back his earnings from Michigan, and set about the building of +the frame house, for which he had already collected the unhewn timber. +From that first beginning, by the time he was thirteen, James was +promoted to assist in building a barn; and he might have taken +permanently to a carpenter's life, had it not been that his boyish +passion for reading had inspired him with an equal passion for going to +sea. He had read Marryatt's novels and other sailor tales—what boy +has not?—and he was fired with the usual childish desire to embark +upon that wonderful life of chasing buccaneers, fighting pirates, +capturing prizes, or hunting hidden treasure, which is a lad's +brilliantly coloured fancy picture of an everyday sailor's wet, cold, +cheerless occupation. +</P> + +<P> +At last, when James was about fifteen, his longing for the sea grew so +strong that his mother, by way of a compromise, allowed him to go and +try his luck with the Lake Erie captains at Cleveland. Shipping on the +great lakes, where one can see neither bank from the middle of the wide +blue sheet of water, and where wrecks are unhappily as painfully +frequent as on our own coasts, was quite sufficiently like going to sea +to suit the adventurous young backwoodsman to the top of his bent. But +when he got to Cleveland, a fortunate disappointment awaited him. The +Cleveland captains declined his services in such vigorous seafaring +language (not unmixed with many unnecessary oaths), that he was glad +enough to give up the idea of sailoring, and take a place as driver of +a canal boat from Cleveland to Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, the boat +being under the charge of one of his own cousins. Copper ore was then +largely mined on Lake Superior, where it is very abundant, carried by +ship to Cleveland, down the chain of lakes, and there transferred to +canal boats, which took it on to Pittsburg, the centre of a great coal +and manufacturing district in Pennsylvania, to be smelted and employed +in various local arts. Young Garfield stuck for a little while to the +canal business. He plodded along wearily upon the bank, driving his +still wearier horse before him, and carrying ore down to Pittsburg with +such grace as he best might; but it didn't somehow quite come up to his +fancy picture of the seaman's life. It was dull and monotonous, and he +didn't care for it much. In genuine American language, "he didn't find +it up to sample." The sea might be very well in its way; but a canal +was a very different matter indeed. So after a fair trial, James +finally gave the business up, and returned to his mother on the little +homestead, ill and tired with his long tramping. +</P> + +<P> +While he was at home, the schoolmaster of the place, who saw that the +lad had abilities, was never tired of urging him to go to school, and +do himself justice by getting himself a first-rate education, or at +least as good a one as could be obtained in America. James was ready +enough to take this advice, if the means were forthcoming; but how was +he to do so? "Oh, that's easy enough," said young Bates, the master. +"You'll only have to work out of hours as a carpenter, take odd jobs in +your vacations, live plainly, and there you are." In England there are +few schools where such a plan would be practicable; but in +rough-and-ready America, where self-help is no disgrace, there are +many, and they are all well attended. In the neighbouring town of +Chester, a petty Baptist sect had started a young school which they +named Geauga Seminary (there are no plain schools in America—they are +all "academies" or "institutes"); and to this simple place young +Garfield went, to learn and work as best he might for his own +advancement. A very strange figure he must then have cut, indeed; for +a person who saw him at the time described him as wearing a pair of +trousers he had long outworn, rough cow-hide boots, a waistcoat much +too short for him, and a thread-bare coat, with sleeves that only +reached a little below the elbows. Of such stuff as that, with a stout +heart and an eager brain, the budding presidents of the United States +are sometimes made. +</P> + +<P> +James soon found himself humble lodgings at an old woman's in Chester, +and he also found himself a stray place at a carpenter's shop in the +town, where he was able to do three hours' work out of school time +every day, besides giving up the whole of his Saturday holiday to +regular labour. It was hard work, this schooling and carpentering side +by side; but James throve upon it; and at the end of the first term he +was not only able to pay all his bill for board and lodging, but also +to carry home a few dollars in his pocket by way of savings. +</P> + +<P> +James stopped three years at the "seminary" at Chester; and in the +holidays he employed himself by teaching in the little township schools +among the country districts. There is generally an opening for young +students to earn a little at such times by instructing younger boys +than themselves in reading, writing, and arithmetic; and the +surrounding farmers, who want schooling for their boys, are glad enough +to take the master in on the "boarding round" system, for the sake of +his usefulness in overlooking the lads in the preparation of their home +lessons. It is a simple patriarchal life, very different from anything +we know in England; and though Ohio was by this time a far more settled +and populated place than when Abram Garfield first went there, it was +still quite possible to manage in this extremely primitive and family +fashion. The fact is, though luxuries were comparatively unknown, food +was cheap and abundant; and a young teacher who was willing to put his +heart into his work could easily earn more than enough to live upon in +rough comfort. Sometimes the school-house was a mere log hut, like +that in which young Garfield had been born; but, at any rate, it was +work to do, and food to eat, and that alone was a great thing for a lad +who meant to make his own way in the world by his own exertions. +</P> + +<P> +Near the end of his third year at Chester, James met, quite +accidentally, with a young man who had come from a little embryo +"college," of the sort so common in rising American towns, at a place +called Hiram in Ohio. American schools are almost as remarkable as +American towns for the oddity and ugliness of their names; and this +"college" was known by the queer and meaningless title of the "Eclectic +Institute." It was conducted by an obscure sect who dub themselves +"The Disciples' Church," to which young Garfield's father and mother +had both belonged. His casual acquaintance urged upon him strongly the +desirability of attending the institute; and James, who had already +begun to learn Latin, and wished to learn more, was easily persuaded to +try this particular school rather than any other. +</P> + +<P> +In August, 1851, James Garfield, then aged nearly twenty, presented +himself at the "Eclectic Institute," in the farm-labourer's clothes +which were his only existing raiment. He asked to see the "president" +of the school, and told him plainly that he wished to come there for +education, but that he was poor, and if he came, he must work for his +living. "What can you do?" asked the president. "Sweep the floors, +light the fires, ring the bell, and make myself generally useful," +answered the young backwoodsman. The president, pleased with his +eagerness, promised to try him for a fortnight; and at the end of the +fortnight, Garfield had earned his teaching so well that he was excused +from all further fees during the remainder of his stay at the little +institute. His post was by no mean an easy one, for he was +servant-of-all-work as well as student; but he cared very little for +that as long as he could gain the means for self-improvement. +</P> + +<P> +Hiram was a small town, as ugly as its name. Twelve miles from a +railway, a mere agricultural centre, of the rough back-country sort, +all brand new and dreary looking, with a couple of wooden churches, +half a dozen wooden shops, two new intersecting streets with wooden +sidewalks, and that was all. The "institute" was a square brick block, +planted incongruously in the middle of an Indian-corn plantation; and +the students were the sons and daughters of the surrounding farmers, +for (as in most western schools) both sexes were here educated +together. But the place suited Garfield far better than an older and +more dignified university would have done. The other students knew no +more than he did, so that he did not feel himself at a disadvantage; +they were dressed almost as plainly as himself; and during the time he +was at Hiram he worked away with a will at Latin, Greek, and the higher +mathematics, so as to qualify himself for a better place hereafter. +Meanwhile, the local carpenter gave him plenty of planing to do, with +which he managed to pay his way; and as he had to rise before five +every morning to ring the first bell, he was under no danger of +oversleeping himself. By 1853, he had made so much progress in his +studies that he was admitted as a sort of pupil teacher, giving +instruction himself in the English department and in rudimentary Greek +and Latin, while he went on with his own studies with the aid of the +other teachers. +</P> + +<P> +James had now learnt as much as the little "Eclectic Institute" could +possibly teach him, and he began to think of going to some better +college in the older-settled and more cultivated eastern states, where +he might get an education somewhat higher than was afforded him by the +raw "seminaries" and "academies" of his native Ohio. True, his own +sect, the "Disciples' Church," had got up a petty university of their +own, "Bethany College"—such self-styled colleges swarm all over the +United States; but James didn't much care for the idea of going to it. +"I was brought up among the Disciples," he said; "I have mixed chiefly +among them; I know little of other people; it will enlarge my views and +give me more liberal feelings if a try a college elsewhere, conducted +otherwise; if I see a little of the rest of the world." Moreover, +those were stirring times in the States. The slavery question was +beginning to come uppermost. The men of the free states in the north +and west were beginning to say among themselves that they would no +longer tolerate that terrible blot upon American freedom—the +enslavement of four million negroes in the cotton-growing south. James +Garfield felt all his soul stirred within him by this great national +problem—the greatest that any modern nation has ever had to solve for +itself. Now, his own sect, the Disciples, and their college, Bethany, +were strongly tinctured with a leaning in favour of slavery, which +young James Garfield utterly detested. So he made up his mind to +having nothing to do with the accursed thing, but to go east to some +New England college, where he would mix among men of culture, and where +he would probably find more congenial feelings on the slavery question. +</P> + +<P> +Before deciding, he wrote to three eastern colleges, amongst others to +Yale, the only American university which by its buildings and +surroundings can lay any claim to compare, even at a long distance, in +beauty and associations, with the least among European universities. +The three colleges gave him nearly similar answers; but one of them, in +addition to the formal statement of terms and so forth, added the short +kindly sentence, "If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can +for you." It was only a small polite phrase; but it took the heart of +the rough western boy. If other things were about the same, he said, he +would go to the college which offered him, as it were, a friendly grasp +of the hand. He had saved a little money at Hiram; and he proposed now +to go on working for his living, as he had hitherto done, side by side +with his regular studies. But his brother, who was always kind and +thoughtful to him, would not hear of this. Thomas had prospered +meanwhile in his own small way, and he insisted upon lending James such +a sum as would cover his necessary expenses for two years at an eastern +university. James insured his life for the amount, so that Thomas +might not be a loser by his brotherly generosity in case of his death +before repayment could be made; and then, with the money safe in his +pocket, he started off for his chosen goal, the Williams College, in +one of the most beautiful and hilly parts of Massachusetts. +</P> + +<P> +During the three years that Garfield was at this place, he studied hard +and regularly, so much so that at one time his brain showed symptoms of +giving way under the constant strain. In the vacations, he took a trip +into Vermont, a romantic mountain state, where he opened a writing +school at a little country village; and another into the New York +State, where he engaged himself in a similar way at a small town on the +banks of the lovely Hudson river. At college, in spite of his rough +western dress and manners, he earned for himself the reputation of a +thoroughly good fellow. Indeed, geniality and warmth of manner, +qualities always much prized by the social American people, were very +marked traits throughout of Garfield's character, and no doubt helped +him greatly in after life in, rising to the high summit which he +finally reached. It was here, too, that he first openly identified +himself with the anti-slavery party, which was then engaged in fighting +out the important question whether any new slave states should be +admitted to the Union. Charles Sumner, the real grand central figure +of that noble struggle, was at that moment thundering in Congress +against the iniquitous extension of the slave-holding area, and was +employing all his magnificent powers to assail the abominable Fugitive +Slave Bill, for the return of runaway negroes, who escaped north, into +the hands of their angry masters. The American colleges are always big +debating societies, where questions of politics are regularly argued +out among the students; and Garfield put himself at the head of the +anti-slavery movement at his own little university. He spoke upon the +subject frequently before the assembled students, and gained himself a +considerable reputation, not only as a zealous advocate of the rights +of the negro, but also as an eloquent orator and a powerful +argumentative debater. +</P> + +<P> +In 1856, Garfield took his degree at Williams College, and had now +finished his formal education. By that time, he was a fair though not +a great scholar, competently read in the Greek and Latin literatures, +and with a good knowledge of French and German. He was now nearly +twenty-five years old; and his experience was large and varied enough +to make him already into a man of the world. He had been farmer, +carpenter, canal driver, and student; he had seen the primitive life of +the forest, and the more civilized society of the Atlantic shore; he +had taught in schools in many states; he had supported himself for +years by his own labours; and now, at an age when many young men are, +as a rule, only just beginning life on their own account, he had +practically raised himself from his own class into the class of +educated and cultivated gentlemen. As soon as he had taken his degree, +his old friends, the trustees of the "Eclectic Institute" at Hiram, +proud of their former sweeper and bell-ringer, called him back at a +good salary as teacher of Greek and Latin. It was then just ten years +since he had toiled wearily along the tow-path of the Ohio and +Pennsylvania Canal. +</P> + +<P> +As a teacher, Garfield seems to have been eminently successful. His +genial character and good-natured way of explaining things made him a +favourite at once with the rough western lads he had to teach, who +would perhaps have thought a more formal teacher stiff and stuckup. +Garfield was one of themselves; he knew their ways and their manners; +he could make allowances for their awkwardness and bluntness of speech; +he could adopt towards them the exact tone which put them at home at +once with their easy-going instructor. Certainly, he inspired all his +pupils with an immense love and devotion for him; and it is less easy +to inspire those feelings in a sturdy Ohio farmer than in most other +varieties of the essentially affectionate human species. +</P> + +<P> +From 1857 to 1861, Garfield remained at Hiram, teaching and working +very hard. His salary, though a good one for the time and place, was +still humble according to our English notions; but it sufficed for his +needs; and as yet it would have seemed hardly credible that in only +twenty years the Ohio schoolmaster would rise to be President of the +United States. Indeed, it is only in America, that country of +peculiarly unencumbered political action, where every kind of talent is +most rapidly recognized and utilized, that this particular form of +swift promotion is really possible. But while Garfield was still at +his Institute, he was taking a vigorous part in local politics, +especially on the slavery question. Whenever there was a political +meeting at Hiram, the young schoolmaster was always called upon to take +the anti-slavery side; and he delivered himself so effectively upon +this favourite topic that he began to be looked upon as a rising +political character. In America, politics are less confined to any one +class than in Europe; and there would be nothing unusual in the +selection of a schoolmaster who could talk to a seat in the local or +general legislature. The practice of paying members makes it possible +for comparatively poor men to offer themselves as candidates; and +politics are thus a career, in the sense of a livelihood, far more than +in any other country. +</P> + +<P> +In 1858, Garfield married a lady who had been a fellow-student of his +in earlier days, and to whom he had been long engaged. In the +succeeding year, he got an invitation which greatly pleased and +flattered him. The authorities at Williams College asked him to +deliver the "Master's Oration" at their annual festival; an unusual +compliment to pay to so young a man, and one who had so recently taken +his degree. It was the first opportunity he had ever had for a +pleasure-trip, and taking his young wife with him (proud indeed, we may +be sure, at this earliest honour of his life, the precursor of so many +more) he went to Massachusetts by a somewhat roundabout but very +picturesque route, down the Great Lakes, through the Thousand Islands, +over the St. Lawrence rapids, and on to Quebec, the only town in +America which from its old-world look can lay claim to the sort of +beauty which so many ancient European cities abundantly possess. He +delivered his address with much applause, and returned to his Ohio home +well satisfied with this pleasant outing. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately on his return, the speech-making schoolmaster was met by a +very sudden and unexpected request that he would allow himself to be +nominated for the State legislature. Every state of the Union has its +own separate little legislative body, consisting of two houses; and it +was to the upper of these, the Senate of Ohio, that James Garfield was +asked to become a candidate. The schoolmaster consented; and as those +were times of very great excitement, when the South was threatening to +secede if a President hostile to the slave-owning interest was elected, +the contest was fought out almost entirely along those particular +lines. Garfield was returned as senator by a large majority, and took +his seat in the Ohio Senate in January, 1860. There, his voice was +always raised against slavery, and he was recognized at once as one of +the ablest speakers in the whole legislature. +</P> + +<P> +In 1861, the great storm burst over the States. In the preceding +November, Abraham Lincoln had been elected President. Lincoln was +himself, like Garfield, a self-made man, who had risen from the very +same pioneer labourer class;—a wood-cutter and rail-splitter in the +backwoods of Illinois, he had become a common boatman on the +Mississippi, and had there improved his mind by reading eagerly in all +his spare moments. With one of those rapid rises so commonly made by +self-taught lads in America, he had pushed his way into the Illinois +legislature by the time he was twenty-five, and qualified himself to +practise as a barrister at Springfield. His shrewd original talents +had raised him with wonderful quickness into the front ranks of his own +party; and when the question between the North and South rose into the +region of practical politics, Lincoln was selected by the republicans +(the antislavery group) as their candidate for the Presidency of the +United States. This selection was a very significant one in several +ways; Lincoln was a very strong opponent of slavery, and his +candidature showed the southern slave-owners that if the Republicans +were successful in the contest, a vigorous move against the +slave-holding oligarchy would at once be made. But it was also +significant in the fact that Lincoln was a western man; it was a sign +that the farmers and grangers of the agricultural west were beginning +to wake up politically and throw themselves into the full current of +American State affairs. On both these grounds, Lincoln's nomination +must have been deeply interesting to Garfield, whose own life had been +so closely similar, and who was destined, twenty years later, to follow +him to the same goal. +</P> + +<P> +Lincoln was duly elected, and the southern states began to secede. The +firing upon Fort Sumter by the South Carolina secessionists was the +first blow struck in that terrible war. Every man who was privileged +to live in America at that time (like the present writer) cannot recall +without a glow of recollection the memory of the wild eagerness with +which the North answered that note of defiance, and went forth with +overpowering faith and eagerness to fight the good fight on behalf of +human freedom. Such a spontaneous outburst of the enthusiasm of +humanity has never been known, before or since. President Lincoln +immediately called for a supply of seventy-five thousand men. In the +Ohio Senate, his message was read amid tumultuous applause; and the +moment the sound of the cheers died away, Garfield, as natural +spokesman of the republican party, sprang to his feet, and moved in a +short and impassioned speech that the state of Ohio should contribute +twenty thousand men and three million dollars as its share in the +general preparations. The motion was immediately carried with the +wildest demonstrations of fervour, and Ohio, with all the rest of the +North, rose like one man to put down by the strong hand the hideous +traffic in human flesh and blood. +</P> + +<P> +During those fiery and feverish days, every citizen of the loyal states +felt himself to be, in reserve at least, a possible soldier. It was +necessary to raise, drill, and render effective in an incredibly short +time a large army; and it would have been impossible to do so had it +not been for the eager enthusiasm with which civilians of every sort +enlisted, and threw themselves into their military duties with almost +incredible devotion. Garfield felt that he must bear his own part in +the struggle by fighting it out, not in the Senate but on the field; +and his first move was to obtain a large quantity of arms from the +arsenal in the doubtfully loyal state of Missouri. In this mission he +was completely successful; and he was next employed to raise and +organize two new regiments of Ohio infantry. Garfield, of course, knew +absolutely nothing of military matters at that time; but it was not a +moment to stand upon questions of precedence or experience; the born +organizers came naturally to the front, and Garfield was one of them. +Indeed, the faculty for organization seems innate in the American +people, so that when it became necessary to raise and equip so large a +body of men at a few weeks' notice, the task was undertaken offhand by +lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, and schoolmasters, without a minute's +hesitation, and was performed on the whole with distinguished success. +</P> + +<P> +When Garfield had organized his regiments, the Governor asked him to +accept the post of colonel to one of them. But Garfield at first +mistrusted his own powers in this direction. How should he, who had +hitherto been poring chiefly over the odes of Horace (his favourite +poet), now take so suddenly to leading a thousand men into actual +battle? He would accept only a subordinate position, he said, if a +regular officer of the United States army, trained at the great +military academy at West Point, was placed in command. So the Governor +told him to go among his own farmer friends in his native district, and +recruit a third regiment, promising to find him a West Point man as +colonel, if one was available. Garfield accepted the post of +lieutenant-colonel, raised the 42nd Ohio regiment, chiefly among his +own old pupils at Hiram, and set off for the seat of operations. At +the last moment the Governor failed to find a regular officer to lead +these raw recruits, every available man being already occupied, and +Garfield found himself, against his will, compelled to undertake the +responsible task of commanding the regiment. He accepted the task thus +thrust upon him, and as if by magic transformed himself at once from a +schoolmaster into an able soldier. +</P> + +<P> +In less than one month, Colonel Garfield took his raw troops into +action in the battle of Middle Creek, and drove the Confederate General +Marshall, with far larger numbers, out of his intrenchments, compelling +him to retreat into Virginia. This timely victory did much to secure +the northern advance along the line of the Mississippi. During the +whole of the succeeding campaign Garfield handled his regiment with +such native skill and marked success that the Government appointed him +Brigadier-General for his bravery and military talent. In spite of all +his early disadvantages, he had been the youngest member of the Ohio +Senate, and now he was the youngest general in the whole American army. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after, the important victory of Chickamauga was gained almost +entirely by the energy and sagacity of General Garfield. For this +service, he was raised one degree in dignity, receiving his commission +as Major-General. He served altogether only two years and three months +in the army. +</P> + +<P> +But while Garfield was at the head of his victorious troops in +Kentucky, his friends in Ohio were arranging, without his consent or +knowledge, to call him away to a very different sphere of work. They +nominated Garfield as their candidate for the United States House of +Representatives at Washington. The General himself was unwilling to +accede to their request, when it reached him. He thought he could +serve the country better in the field than in Congress. Besides, he +was still a comparatively poor man. His salary as Major-General was +double that of a member of the House; and for his wife's and children's +sake he hesitated to accept the lesser position. Had he continued in +the army to the end of the war, he would doubtless have risen to the +very highest honours of that stirring epoch. But President Lincoln was +very anxious that Garfield should come into the Congress, where his +presence would greatly strengthen the President's hands; and with a +generous self-denial which well bespeaks his thorough loyalty, Garfield +gave up his military post and accepted a place in the House of +Representatives. He took his seat in December, 1863. +</P> + +<P> +For seventeen years, General Garfield sat in the general legislature of +the United States as one of the members for Ohio. During all that time, +he distinguished himself most honourably as the fearless advocate of +honest government, and the pronounced enemy of those underhand dodges +and wire-pulling machinery which are too often the disgrace of American +politics. He was opposed to all corruption and chicanery, especially +to the bad system of rewarding political supporters with places under +Government, which has long been the chief blot upon American republican +institutions. As a person of stalwart honesty and singleness of +purpose, he made himself respected by both sides alike. Politically +speaking, different men will judge very differently of Garfield's acts +in the House of Representatives. Englishmen especially cannot fail to +remark that his attitude towards ourselves was almost always one of +latent hostility; but it is impossible for anybody to deny that his +conduct was uniformly guided by high principle, and a constant +deference to what he regarded as the right course of action. +</P> + +<P> +In 1880, when General Garfield had already risen to be the acknowledged +leader of the House of Representatives, his Ohio supporters put him in +nomination for the upper chamber, the Senate. They wished Garfield to +come down to the state capital and canvas for support; but this the +General would not hear of. "I never asked for any place yet," he said, +"except the post of bell-ringer and general sweeper at the Hiram +Institute, and I won't ask for one now." But at least, his friends +urged, he would be on the spot to encourage and confer with his +partisans. No, Garfield answered; if they wished to elect him they +must elect him in his absence; he would avoid all appearance, even, of +angling for office. The result was that all the other candidates +withdrew, and Garfield was elected by acclamation. +</P> + +<P> +After the election he went down to Ohio and delivered a speech to his +constituents, a part of which strikingly illustrates the courage and +independence of the backwoods schoolmaster. "During the twenty years +that I have been in public life," he said, "almost eighteen of it in +the Congress of the United States, I have tried to do one thing. +Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to +follow my conviction, at whatever personal cost to myself. I have +represented for many years a district in Congress whose approbation I +greatly desired; but though it may seem, perhaps, a little egotistical +to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person, and +his name was Garfield. He is the only man that I am compelled to sleep +with, and eat with, and live with, and die with; and if I could not +have his approbation I should have bad companionship." +</P> + +<P> +Only one higher honour could now fall to the lot of a citizen of the +United States. The presidency was the single post to which Garfield's +ambition could still aspire. That honour came upon him, like all the +others, without his seeking; and it came, too, quite unexpectedly. +Five months later, in the summer of 1880, the National Republican +Convention met to select a candidate for their party at the forthcoming +presidential election. Every four years, before the election, each +party thus meets to decide upon the man to whom its votes will be given +at the final choice. After one or two ineffectual attempts to secure +unanimity in favour of other and more prominent politicians, the +Convention with one accord chose James Garfield for its candidate—a +nomination which was quite as great a surprise to Garfield himself as +to all the rest of the world. He was elected President of the United +States in November, 1880. +</P> + +<P> +It was a marvellous rise for the poor canal boy, the struggling +student, the obscure schoolmaster, thus to find himself placed at the +head of one among the greatest nations of the earth. He was still less +than fifty, and he might reasonably have looked forward to many years +of a happy, useful, and honourable life. Nevertheless, it is +impossible to feel that Garfield's death was other than a noble and +enviable one. He was cut off suddenly in the very moment of his +brightest success, before the cares and disappointments of office had +begun to dim the pleasure of his first unexpected triumph. He died a +martyr to a good and honest cause, and his death-bed was cheered and +alleviated by the hushed sorrow and sympathy of an entire nation—one +might almost truthfully add, of the whole civilized world. +</P> + +<P> +From the first, President Garfield set his face sternly against the bad +practice of rewarding political adherents by allowing them to nominate +officials in the public service—a species of covert corruption +sanctioned by long usage in the United States. This honest and +independent conduct raised up for him at once a host of enemies among +his own party. The talk which they indulged in against the President +produced a deep effect upon a half-crazy and wildly egotistic +French-Canadian of the name of Guiteau, who had emigrated to the States +and become an American citizen. General Garfield had arranged a trip +to New England in the summer of 1881, to attend the annual festival at +his old school, the Williams College, Massachusetts; and for that +purpose he left the White House (the President's official residence at +Washington) on July 2. As he stood in the station of the Baltimore and +Potomac Railway, arm in arm with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, +Guiteau approached him casually, and, drawing out a pistol, fired two +shots in rapid succession, one of which took effect on the President +above the third rib. The assassin was at once secured, and the wounded +President was carried back carefully to the White House. +</P> + +<P> +Almost everybody who reads this book will remember the long suspense, +while the President lay stretched upon his bed for weeks and weeks +together, with all Europe and America watching anxiously for any sign +of recovery, and sympathizing deeply with the wounded statesman and his +devoted wife. Every effort that was possible was made to save him, but +the wound was past all surgical skill. After lingering long with the +stored-up force of a good constitution, James Garfield passed away at +last of blood-poisoning, more deeply regretted perhaps than any other +man whom the present generation can remember. +</P> + +<P> +It is only in America that precisely such a success as Garfield's is +possible for people who spring, as he did, from the midst of the +people. In old-settled and wealthy countries we must be content, at +best, with slower and less lofty promotion. But the lesson of +Garfield's life is not for America only, but for the whole world of +workers everywhere. The same qualities which procured his success +there will produce a different, but still a solid success, anywhere +else. As Garfield himself fittingly put it, with his usual keen +American common sense, "There is no more common thought among young +people than the foolish one, that by-and-by something will turn up by +which they will suddenly achieve fame or fortune. No, young gentlemen; +things don't turn up in this world unless somebody turns them up." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THOMAS EDWARD, SHOEMAKER. +</H3> + +<P> +It is the object of this volume to set forth the lives of working men +who through industry, perseverance, and high principle have raised +themselves by their own exertions from humble beginnings. Raised +themselves! Yes; but to what? Not merely, let us hope, to wealth and +position, not merely to worldly respect and high office, but to some +conspicuous field of real usefulness to their fellow men. Those whose +lives we have hitherto examined did so raise themselves by their own +strenuous energy and self-education. Either, like Garfield and +Franklin, they served the State zealously in peace or war; or else, +like Stephenson and Telford, they improved human life by their +inventions and engineering works; or, again, like Herschel and +Fraunhofer, they added to the wide field of scientific knowledge; or +finally, like Millet and Gibson, they beautified the world with their +noble and inspiring artistic productions. But in every one of these +cases, the men whose lives we have been here considering did actually +rise, sooner or later, from the class of labourers into some other +class socially and monetarily superior to it. Though they did great +good in other ways to others, they did still as a matter of fact +succeed themselves in quitting the rank in which they were born, and +rising to some other rank more or less completely above it. +</P> + +<P> +Now, it will be clear to everybody that so long as our present social +arrangements exist, it must be impossible for the vast mass of +labouring men ever to do anything of the sort. It is to be desired, +indeed, that every labouring man should by industry and thrift secure +independence in the end for himself and his family; but however much +that may be the case, it will still rest certain that the vast mass of +men will necessarily remain workers to the last; and that no attempt to +raise individual working men above their own class into the +professional or mercantile classes can ever greatly benefit the working +masses as a whole. What is most of all desirable is that the +condition, the aims, and the tastes of working men, as working men, +should be raised and bettered; that without necessarily going outside +their own ranks, they should become more prudent, more thrifty, better +educated, and wider-minded than many of their predecessors have been in +the past. Under such circumstances, it is surely well to set before +ourselves some examples of working men who, while still remaining +members of their own class, have in the truest and best sense "raised +themselves" so as to attain the respect and admiration of others +whether their equals or superiors in the artificial scale. Dr. Smiles, +who has done much to illustrate the history of the picked men among the +labouring orders, has chosen two or three lives of such a sort for +investigation, and from them we may select a single one as an example +of a working man's career rendered conspicuous by qualities other than +those that usually secure external success. +</P> + +<P> +Thomas Edward, associate of the Linnean Society, though a Scotchman all +his life long, was accidentally born (so to speak) at Gosport, near +Portsmouth, on Christmas Day, 1814. His father was in the Fifeshire +militia, and in those warlike days, when almost all the regulars were +on the Continent, fighting Napoleon, militia regiments used to be +ordered about the country from one place to another, to watch the coast +or mount guard over the French prisoners, in the most unaccountable +fashion. So it happened, oddly enough, that Thomas Edward, a Scotchman +of the Scotch, was born close under the big forts of Portsmouth harbour. +</P> + +<P> +After Waterloo, however, the Fifeshire regiment was sent home again; +and the militia being before long disbanded, John Edward, our hero's +father, went to live at Aberdeen, where he plied his poor trade of a +hand-loom linen weaver for many years. It was on the green at +Aberdeen, surrounded by small labourers' cottages, that Thomas Edward +passed his early days. From his babyhood, almost, the boy had a strong +love for all the beasties he saw everywhere around him; a fondness for +birds and animals, and a habit of taming them which can seldom be +acquired, but which seems with some people to come instinctively by +nature. While Tam was still quite a child, he loved to wander by +himself out into the country, along the green banks of the Dee, or +among the tidal islands at the mouth of the river, overgrown by waving +seaweeds, and fringed with great white bunches of blossoming +scurvy-grass. He loved to hunt for crabs and sea-anemones beside the +ebbing channels, or to watch the jelly-fish left high and dry upon the +shore by the retreating water. Already, in his simple way, the little +ragged bare-footed Scotch laddie was at heart a born naturalist. +</P> + +<P> +Very soon, Tam was not content with looking at the "venomous beasts," +as the neighbours called them, but he must needs begin to bring them +home, and set up a small aquarium and zoological garden on his own +account. All was fish that came to Tam's net: tadpoles, newts, and +stickleback from the ponds, beetles from the dung-heaps, green crabs +from the sea-shore—nay, even in time such larger prizes as hedgehogs, +moles, and nestfuls of birds. Nothing delighted him so much as to be +out in the fields, hunting for and taming these his natural pets. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately, Tam's father and mother did not share the boy's passion +for nature, and instead of encouraging him in pursuing his inborn +taste, they scolded him and punished him bitterly for bringing home the +nasty creatures. But nothing could win away Tam from the love of the +beasties; and in the end, he had his own way, and lived all his life, +as he himself afterwards beautifully put it, "a fool to nature." Too +often, unhappily, fathers and mothers thus try to check the best +impulses in their children, under mistaken notions of right, and +especially is this the case in many instances as regards the love of +nature. Children are constantly chidden for taking an interest in the +beautiful works of creation, and so have their first intelligent +inquiries and aspirations chilled at once; when a little care and +sympathy would get rid of the unpleasantness of having white mice or +lizards crawling about the house, without putting a stop to the young +beginner's longing for more knowledge of the wonderful and beautiful +world in whose midst he lives. +</P> + +<P> +When Tam was nearly five years old, he was sent to school, chiefly no +doubt to get him out of the way; but Scotch schools for the children of +the working classes were in those days very rough hard places, where +the taws or leather strap was still regarded as the chief instrument of +education. Little Edward was not a child to be restrained by that +particular form of discipline; and after he had had two or three +serious tussles with his instructors, he was at last so cruelly beaten +by one of his masters that he refused to return, and his parents, who +were themselves by no means lacking in old Scotch severity, upheld him +in his determination. He had picked up reading by this time, and now +for a while he was left alone to hunt about to his heart's content +among his favourite fields and meadows. But by the time he was six +years old, he felt he ought to be going to work, brave little mortal +that he was; and as his father and mother thought so too, the poor wee +mite was sent to join his elder brother in working at a tobacco factory +in the town, at the wages of fourteen-pence a week. So, for the next +two years, little Tam waited upon a spinner (as the workers are called) +and began life in earnest as a working man. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of two years, however, the brothers heard that better wages +were being given, a couple of miles away, at Grandholm, up the river +Don. So off the lads tramped, one fast-day (a recognized Scotch +institution), to ask the manager of the Grandholm factory if he could +give them employment. They told nobody of their intention, but trudged +away on their own account; and when they came back and told their +parents what they had done, the father was not very well satisfied with +the proposal, because he thought it too far for so small a boy as Tam +to walk every day to and from his work. Tam, however, was very anxious +to go, not only on account of the increased wages, but also (though +this was a secret) because of the beautiful woods and crags round +Grandholm, through which he hoped to wander during the short dinner +hour. In the end, John Edward gave way, and the boys were allowed to +follow their own fancy in going to the new factory. +</P> + +<P> +It was very hard work; the hours were from six in the morning till +eight at night, for there was no Factory Act then to guard the interest +of helpless children; so the boys had to be up at four in the morning, +and were seldom home again till nine at night. In winter, the snow +lies long and deep on those chilly Aberdeenshire roads, and the east +winds from the German Ocean blow cold and cutting up the narrow valley +of the Don; and it was dreary work toiling along them in the dark of +morning or of night in bleak and cheerless December weather. Still, +Tam liked it on the whole extremely well. His wages were now three +shillings a week; and then, twice a day in summer, there was the +beautiful walk to and fro along the leafy high-road. "People may say +of factories what they please," Edward wrote much later, "but I liked +this factory. It was a happy time for me whilst I remained there. The +woods were easy of access during our meal-hours. What lots of nests! +What insects, wild flowers, and plants, the like of which I had never +seen before." The boy revelled in the beauty of the birds and beasts +he saw here, and he retained a delightful recollection of them +throughout his whole after life. +</P> + +<P> +This happy time, however, was not to last for ever. When young Edward +was eleven years old, his father took him away from Grandholm, and +apprenticed him to a working shoemaker. The apprenticeship was to go +on for six years; the wages to begin at eighteen-pence a week; and the +hours, too sadly long, to be from six in the morning till nine at +night. Tam's master, one Charles Begg, was a drunken London workman, +who had wandered gradually north; a good shoemaker, but a quarrelsome, +rowdy fellow, loving nothing on earth so much as a round with his fists +on the slightest provocation. From this unpromising teacher, Edward +took his first lessons in the useful art of shoemaking; and though he +learned fast—for he was not slothful in business—he would have +learned faster, no doubt, but for his employer's very drunken and +careless ways. When Begg came home from the public-house, much the +worse for whisky, he would first beat Tam, and then proceed upstairs to +beat his wife. For three years young Edward lived under this +intolerable tyranny, till he could stand it no longer. At last, Begg +beat and ill-treated him so terribly that Tam refused outright to +complete his apprenticeship. Begg was afraid to compel him to do +so—doubtless fearing to expose his ill-usage of the lad. So Tam went +to a new master, a kindly man, with whom he worked in future far more +happily. +</P> + +<P> +The boy now began to make himself a little botanical garden in the back +yard of his mother's house—a piece of waste ground covered with +rubbish, such as one often sees behind the poorer class of cottages in +towns. Tam determined to alter all that, so he piled up all the stones +into a small rockery, dug up the plot, manured it, and filled it with +wild and garden flowers. The wild flowers, of course, he found in the +woods and hedgerows around him; but the cultivated kinds he got in a +very ingenious fashion, by visiting all the rubbish heaps of the +neighbourhood, on which garden refuse was usually piled. A good many +roots and plants can generally be found in such places, and by digging +them up, Tam was soon able to make himself a number of bright and +lively beds. Such self-help in natural history always lay very much in +Edward's way. +</P> + +<P> +At the same time, young Edward was now beginning to feel the desire for +knowing something more about the beasts and birds of which he was so +fond. He used to go in all his spare moments among the shops in the +town, to look at the pictures in the windows, especially the pictures +of animals; and though his earnings were still small, he bought a book +whenever he was able to afford one. In those days, cheap papers for the +people were only just beginning to come into existence; and Tam, who +was now eighteen, bought the first number of the Penny Magazine, an +excellent journal of that time, which he liked so much that he +continued to take in the succeeding numbers. Some of the papers in it +were about natural history, and these, of course, particularly +delighted the young man's heart. He also bought the Weekly Visitor, +which he read through over and over again. +</P> + +<P> +In 1831, when Tam was still eighteen, he enlisted in the Aberdeenshire +militia, and during his brief period of service an amusing circumstance +occurred which well displays the almost irresistible character of +Edward's love of nature. While he was drilling with the awkward squad +one morning, a butterfly of a kind that he had never seen before +happened to flit in front of him as he stood in the ranks. It was a +beautiful large brown butterfly, and Edward was so fascinated by its +appearance that he entirely forgot, in a moment, where he was and what +he was doing. Without a second's thought, he darted wildly out of the +ranks, and rushed after the butterfly, cap in hand. It led him a +pretty chase, over sandhills and shore, for five minutes. He was just +on the point of catching it at last, when he suddenly felt a heavy hand +laid upon his shoulder, and looking round, he saw the corporal of the +company and several soldiers come to arrest him. Such a serious +offence against military discipline might have cost him dear indeed, +for corporals have little sympathy with butterfly hunting; but luckily +for Edward, as he was crossing the parade ground under arrest, he +happened to meet an officer walking with some ladies. The officer +asked the nature of his offence, and when the ladies heard what it was +they were so much interested in such a strange creature as a +butterfly-loving militiaman, that they interceded for him, and finally +begged him off his expected punishment. The story shows us what sort +of stuff Edward was really made of. He felt so deep an interest in all +the beautiful living creatures around him for their own sake, that he +could hardly restrain his feelings even under the most untoward +circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +When Edward was twenty, he removed from Aberdeen to Banff where he +worked as a journeyman for a new master. The hours were very long, but +by taking advantage of the summer evenings, he was still able to hunt +for his beloved birds, caterpillars, and butterflies. Still, the low +wages in the trade discouraged him much, and he almost made up his mind +to save money and emigrate to America. But one small accident alone +prevented him from carrying out this purpose. Like a good many other +young men, the naturalist shoemaker fell in love. Not only so, but his +falling in love took practical shape a little later in his getting +married; and at twenty-three, the lonely butterfly hunter brought back +a suitable young wife to his little home. The marriage was a very +happy one. Mrs. Edward not only loved her husband deeply, but showed +him sympathy in his favourite pursuits, and knew how to appreciate his +sterling worth. Long afterwards she said, that though many of her +neighbours could not understand her husband's strange behaviour, she +had always felt how much better it was to have one who spent his spare +time on the study of nature than one who spent it on the public-house. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as Edward got a home of his own, he began to make a regular +collection of all the animals and plants in Banffshire. This was a +difficult thing for him to do, for he knew little of books, and had +access to very few, so that he couldn't even find out the names of all +the creatures he caught and preserved. But, though he didn't always +know what they were called, he did know their natures and habits and +all about them; and such first-hand knowledge in natural history is +really the rarest and the most valuable of all. He saw little of his +fellow-workmen. They were usually a drunken, careless lot; Edward was +sober and thoughtful, and had other things to think of than those that +they cared to talk about with one another. But he went out much into +the fields, with invincible determination, having made up his mind that +he would get to know all about the plants and beasties, however much +the knowledge might cost him. +</P> + +<P> +For this object, he bought a rusty old gun for four-and-sixpence, and +invested in a few boxes and bottles for catching insects. His working +hours were from six in the morning till nine at night, and for that +long day he always worked hard to support his wife, and (when they +came) his children. He had therefore only the night hours between nine +and six to do all his collecting. Any other man, almost, would have +given up the attempt as hopeless; but Edward resolved never to waste a +single moment or a single penny, and by care and indomitable energy he +succeeded in making his wished-for collection. Sometimes he was out +tramping the whole night; sometimes he slept anyhow, under a hedge or +haystack; sometimes he took up temporary quarters in a barn, an +outhouse, or a ruined castle. But night after night he went on +collecting, whenever he was able; and he watched the habits and manners +of the fox, the badger, the otter, the weasel, the stoat, the pole-cat, +and many other regular night-roamers as no one else, in all +probability, had ever before watched them in the whole world. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes he suffered terrible disappointments, due directly or +indirectly to his great poverty. Once, he took all his cases of +insects, containing nine hundred and sixteen specimens, and +representing the work of four years, up to his garret to keep them +there till he was able to glaze them. When he came to take them down +again he found to his horror that rats had got at the boxes, eaten +almost every insect in the whole collection, and left nothing behind +but the bare pins, with a few scattered legs, wings, and bodies, +sticking amongst them. Most men would have been so disgusted with this +miserable end to so much labour, that they would have given up moth +hunting for ever. But Edward was made of different stuff. He went to +work again as zealously as ever, and in four years more, he had got +most of the beetles, flies, and chafers as carefully collected as +before. +</P> + +<P> +By the year 1845, Edward had gathered together about two thousand +specimens of beasts, birds, and insects found in the neighbourhood of +his own town of Banff. He made the cases to hold them himself, and did +it so neatly that, in the case of his shells, each kind had even a +separate little compartment all of its own. And now he unfortunately +began to think of making money by exhibiting his small museum. If only +he could get a few pounds to help him in buying books, materials, +perhaps even a microscope, to help him in prosecuting his scientific +work, what a magnificent thing that would be for him! Filled with this +grand idea, he took a room in the Trades Hall at Banff, and exhibited +his collection during a local fair. A good many people came to see it, +and the Banff paper congratulated the poor shoemaker on his energy in +gathering together such a museum of curiosities "without aid, and under +discouraging circumstances which few would have successfully +encountered." He was so far lucky in this first venture that he +covered his expenses and was able even to put away a little money for +future needs. Encouraged by this small triumph, the unwearied +naturalist set to work during the next year, and added several new +attractions to his little show. At the succeeding fair he again +exhibited, and made still more money out of his speculation. Unhappily, +the petty success thus secured led him to hope he might do even better +by moving his collection to Aberdeen. +</P> + +<P> +To Aberdeen, accordingly, Edward went. He took a shop in the great gay +thoroughfare of that cold northern city—Union Street—and prepared to +receive the world at large, and to get the money for the longed-for +books and the much-desired microscope. Now, Aberdeen is a big, busy, +bustling town; it has plenty of amusements and recreations; it has two +colleges and many learned men of its own; and the people did not care +to come and see the working shoemaker's poor small collection. If he +had been a president of the British Association for the Advancement of +Science, now—some learned knight or baronet come down by special train +from London—the Aberdeen doctors and professors might have rushed to +hear his address; or if he had been a famous music-hall singer or an +imitation negro minstrel, the public at large might have flocked to be +amused and degraded by his parrot-like buffoonery; but as he was only a +working shoemaker from Banff, with a heaven-born instinct for watching +and discovering all the strange beasts and birds of Scotland, and the +ways and thoughts of them, why, of course, respectable Aberdeen, high +or low, would have nothing in particular to say to him. Day after day +went by, and hardly anybody came, till at last poor Edward's heart sank +terribly within him. Even the few who did come were loth to believe +that a working shoemaker could ever have gathered together such a large +collection by his own exertions. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to say," said one of the Aberdeen physicians to Edward, +"that you've maintained your wife and family by working at your trade, +all the while that you've been making this collection?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do," Edward answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nonsense!" the doctor said. "How is it possible you could have +done that?" +</P> + +<P> +"By never losing a single minute or part of a minute," was the brave +reply, "that I could by any means improve." +</P> + +<P> +It is wonderful indeed that when once Edward had begun to attract +anybody's attention at all, he and his exhibition should ever have been +allowed to pass so unnoticed in a great, rich, learned city like +Aberdeen. But it only shows how very hard it is for unassuming merit +to push its way; for the Aberdeen people still went unheeding past the +shop in Union Street, till Edward at last began to fear and tremble as +to how he should ever meet the expenses of the exhibition. After the +show had been open four weeks, one black Friday came when Edward never +took a penny the whole day. As he sat there alone and despondent in +the empty room, the postman brought him a letter. It was from his +master at Banff. "Return immediately," it said, "or you will be +discharged." What on earth could he do? He couldn't remove his +collection; he couldn't pay his debt. A few more days passed, and he +saw no way out of it. At last, in blank despair, he offered the whole +collection for sale. A gentleman proposed to pay him the paltry sum of +20 pounds 10s. for the entire lot, the slow accumulations of ten long +years. It was a miserable and totally inadequate price, but Edward +could get no more. In the depths of his misery, he accepted it. The +gentleman took the collection home, gave it to his boy, and finally +allowed it all, for want of care and attention, to go to rack and ruin. +And so that was the end of ten years of poor Thomas Edward's +unremitting original work in natural history. A sadder tale of +unrequited labour in the cause of science has seldom been written. +</P> + +<P> +How he ever recovered from such a downfall to all his hopes and +expectations is extraordinary. But the man had a wonderful power of +bearing up against adverse circumstances; and when, after six weeks' +absence, he returned to Banff, ruined and dispirited, he set to work +once more, as best he might, at the old, old trade of shoemaking. He +was obliged to leave his wife and children in Aberdeen, and to tramp +himself on foot to Banff, so that he might earn the necessary money to +bring them back; for the cash he had got for the collection had all +gone in paying expenses. It is almost too sad to relate; and no wonder +poor Edward felt crushed indeed when he got back once more to his +lonely shoemaker's bench and fireless fireside. He was very lonely +until his wife and children came. But when the carrier generously +brought them back free (with that kindliness which the poor so often +show to the poor), and the home was occupied once more, and the fire +lighted, he felt as if life might still be worth living, at least for +his wife and children. So he went back to his trade as heartily as he +might, and worked at it well and successfully. For it is to be noted, +that though Thomas Edward was so assiduous a naturalist and collector, +he was the best hand, too, at making first-class shoes in all Banff. +The good workman is generally the best man at whatever he undertakes. +Certainly the best man is almost always a good workman at his own trade. +</P> + +<P> +But of course he made no more natural history collections? Not a bit +of it. Once a naturalist, always a naturalist. Edward set to work +once more, nothing daunted, and by next spring he was out everywhere +with his gun, exactly as before, replacing the sold collection as fast +as ever his hand was able. +</P> + +<P> +By this time Edward began to make a few good friends. Several +magistrates for the county signed a paper for him, stating that they +knew him to be a naturalist, and no poacher; and on presenting this +paper to the gamekeepers, he was generally allowed to pursue his +researches wherever he liked, and shoot any birds or animals he needed +for his new museum. Soon after his return from Aberdeen, too, he made +the acquaintance of a neighbouring Scotch minister, Mr. Smith of +Monquhitter, who proved a very kind and useful friend to him. Mr. +Smith was a brother naturalist, and he had books—those precious +books—which he lent Edward freely; and there for the first time the +shoemaker zoologist learned the scientific names of many among the +birds and animals with whose lives and habits he had been so long +familiar. Another thing the good minister did for his shoemaker +friend: he constantly begged him to write to scientific journals the +results of his observations in natural history. At first Edward was +very timid; he didn't like to appear in print; thought his grammar and +style wouldn't be good enough; fought shy of the proposal altogether. +But at last Edward made up his mind to contribute a few notes to the +Banffshire Journal, and from that he went on slowly to other papers, +until at last he came to be one of the most valued occasional writers +for several of the leading scientific periodicals in England. +Unfortunately, science doesn't pay. All this work was done for love +only; and Edward's only reward was the pleasure he himself derived from +thus jotting down the facts he had observed about the beautiful +creatures he loved so well. +</P> + +<P> +Soon Mr. Smith induced the indefatigable shoemaker to send a few papers +on the birds and beasts to the Zoologist. Readers began to perceive +that these contributions were sent by a man of the right sort—a man +who didn't merely read what other men had said about the creatures in +books, but who watched their ways on his own account, and knew all +about their habits and manners in their own homes. Other friends now +began to interest themselves in him; and Edward obtained at last, what +to a man of his tastes must have been almost as much as money or +position—the society of people who could appreciate him, and could +sympathize in all that interested him. Mr. Smith in particular always +treated him, says Dr. Smiles, "as one intelligent man treats another." +The paltry distinctions of artificial rank were all forgotten between +them, and the two naturalists talked together with endless interest +about all those lovely creatures that surround us every one on every +side, but that so very few people comparatively have ever eyes to see +or hearts to understand. It was a very great loss to Edward when Mr. +Smith died, in 1854. +</P> + +<P> +In the year 1858 the untiring shoemaker had gathered his third and last +collection, the finest and best of all. By this time he had become an +expert stuffer of birds, and a good preserver of fish and flowers. But +his health was now beginning to fail. He was forty-four, and he had +used his constitution very severely, going out at nights in cold and +wet, and cheating himself of sleep during the natural hours of rest and +recuperation. Happily, during all these years, he had resisted the +advice of his Scotch labouring friends, to take out whisky with him on +his nightly excursions. He never took a drop of it, at home or abroad. +If he had done so, he himself believed, he could not have stood the +cold, the damp, and the exposure in the way he did. His food was +chiefly oatmeal-cake; his drink was water. "Sometimes, when I could +afford it," he says, "my wife boiled an egg or two, and these were my +only luxuries." He had a large family, and the task of providing for +them was quite enough for his slender means, without leaving much +margin for beer or whisky. +</P> + +<P> +But the best constitution won't stand privation and exposure for ever. +By-and-by Edward fell ill, and had a fever. He was ill for a month, +and when he came round again the doctor told him that he must at once +give up his nightly wandering. This was a real and serious blow to +poor Edward; it was asking him to give up his one real pleasure and +interest in life. All the happiest moments he had ever known were +those which he had spent in the woods and fields, or among the lonely +mountains with the falcons, and the herons, and the pine-martens, and +the ermines. All this delightful life he was now told he must abandon +for ever. Nor was that all. Illness costs money. While a man is +earning nothing, he is running up a doctor's bill. Edward now saw that +he must at last fall back upon his savings bank, as he rightly called +it—his loved and cherished collection of Banffshire animals. He had +to draw upon it heavily. Forty cases of birds were sold; and Edward +now knew that he would never be able to replace the specimens he had +parted with. +</P> + +<P> +Still, his endless patience wasn't yet exhausted. No more of wandering +by night, to be sure, upon moor or fell, gun in hand, chasing the +merlin or the polecat to its hidden lair; no more of long watching +after the snowy owl or the long-tailed titmouse among the frozen winter +woods; but there remained one almost untried field on which Edward +could expend his remaining energy, and in which he was to do better +work for science than in all the rest—the sea. +</P> + +<P> +This new field he began to cultivate in a novel and ingenious way. He +got together all the old broken pails, pots, pans, and kettles he could +find in the neighbourhood, filled them with straw or bits of rag, and +then sank them with a heavy stone into the rocky pools that abound +along that weather-beaten coast. A rope was tied to one end, by which +he could raise them again; and once a month he used to go his rounds to +visit these very primitive but effectual sea-traps. Lots of living +things had meanwhile congregated in the safe nests thus provided for +them, and Edward sorted them all over, taking home with him all the +newer or more valuable specimens. In this way he was enabled to make +several additions to our knowledge of the living things that inhabit +the sea off the north-east coast of Scotland. +</P> + +<P> +The fishermen also helped him not a little, by giving him many rare +kinds of fish or refuse from their nets, which he duly examined and +classified. As a rule, the hardy men who go on the smacks have a +profound contempt for natural history, and will not be tempted, even by +offers of money, to assist those whom they consider as half-daft +gentlefolk in what seems to them a perfectly useless and almost +childish amusement. But it was different with Tam Edward, the strange +shoemaker whom they all knew so well; if HE wanted fish or rubbish for +his neat collection in the home-made glass cases, why, of course he +could have them, and welcome. So they brought him rare sand-suckers, +and blue-striped wrasse, and saury pike, and gigantic cuttle-fish, four +feet long, to his heart's content. Edward's daughters were now also old +enough to help him in his scientific studies. They used to watch for +the clearing of the nets, and pick out of the refuse whatever they +thought would interest or please their father. But the fish themselves +were Edward's greatest helpers and assistants. As Dr. Smiles quaintly +puts it, they were the best of all possible dredgers. His daughters +used to secure him as many stomachs as possible, and from their +contents he picked out an immense number of beautiful and valuable +specimens. The bill of fare of the cod alone comprised an incredible +variety of small crabs, shells, shrimps, sea-mice, star-fish, +jelly-fish, sea anemones, eggs, and zoophytes. All these went to swell +Edward's new collection of marine animals. +</P> + +<P> +To identify and name so many small and little-known creatures was a +very difficult task for the poor shoemaker, with so few books, and no +opportunities for visiting museums and learned societies. But his +industry and ingenuity managed to surmount all obstacles. Naturalists +everywhere are very willing to aid and instruct one another; especially +are the highest authorities almost always eager to give every help and +encouragement in their power to local amateurs. Edward used to wait +till he had collected a batch of specimens of a single class or order, +and then he would send them by post to learned men in different parts +of the country, who named them for him, and sent them back with some +information as to their proper place in the classification of the group +to which they belonged. Mr. Spence Bate of Plymouth is the greatest +living authority on crustaceans, such as the lobsters, shrimps, +sea-fleas, and hermit crabs; and to him Edward sent all the queer +crawling things of that description that he found in his original +sea-traps. Mr. Couch, of Polperro in Cornwall, was equally versed in +the true backboned fishes; and to him Edward sent any doubtful midges, +or gurnards, or gobies, or whiffs. So numerous are the animals and +plants of the sea-shore, even in the north of Scotland alone, that if +one were to make a complete list of all Edward's finds it would occupy +an entire book almost as large as this volume. +</P> + +<P> +Naturalists now began to help Edward in another way, the way that he +most needed, by kind presents of books, especially their own +writings—a kind of gift which cost them nothing, but was worth to him +a very great deal. Mr. Newman, the editor of the Zoologist paper, was +one of his most useful correspondents, and gave him several excellent +books on natural history. Mr. Bate made him a still more coveted +present—a microscope, with which he could examine several minute +animals, too small to be looked at by the naked eye. The same good +friend also gave him a little pocket-lens (or magnifying glass) for use +on the sea-shore. +</P> + +<P> +As Edward went on, his knowledge increased rapidly, and his discoveries +fully kept pace with it. The wretchedly paid Banff shoemaker was now +corresponding familiarly with half the most eminent men of science in +the kingdom, and was a valued contributor to all the most important +scientific journals. Several new animals which he had discovered were +named in his honour, and frequent references were made to him in +printed works of the first importance. It occurred to Mr. Couch and +Mr. Bate, therefore, both of whom were greatly indebted to the +working-man naturalist for specimens and information, that Edward ought +to be elected a member of some leading scientific society. There is no +such body of greater distinction in the world of science than the +Linnean Society; and of this learned institution Edward was duly +elected an associate in 1866. The honour was one which he had richly +deserved, and which no doubt he fully appreciated. +</P> + +<P> +And yet he was nothing more even now than a working shoemaker, who was +earning not more but less wages even than he once used to do. He had +brought up a large family honestly and respectably; he had paid his way +without running into debt; his children were all growing up; and he had +acquired a wide reputation among naturalists as a thoroughly +trustworthy observer and an original worker in many different fields of +botany and zoology. But his wages were now only eight shillings a +week, and his science had brought him, as many people would say, only +the barren honour of being an associate of the Linnean Society, or the +respected friend of many among the noblest and greatest men of his +country. He began life as a shoemaker, and he remained a shoemaker to +the end. "Had I pursued money," he said, "with half the ardour and +perseverance that I have pursued nature, I have no hesitation in saying +that by this time I should have been a rich man." +</P> + +<P> +In 1876, Dr. Smiles, the historian of so many truly great working men, +attracted by Edward's remarkable and self-sacrificing life, determined +to write the good shoemaker's biography while he was still alive. +Edward himself gave Dr. Smiles full particulars as to his early days +and his later struggles; and that information the genial biographer +wove into a delightful book, from which all the facts here related have +been borrowed. The "Life of a Scotch Naturalist" attracted an immense +deal of attention when it was first published, and led many people, +scientific or otherwise, to feel a deep interest in the man who had +thus made himself poor for the love of nature. The result was such a +spontaneous expression of generous feeling towards Edward that he was +enabled to pass the evening of his days not only in honour, but also in +substantial ease and comfort. +</P> + +<P> +And shall we call such a life as this a failure? Shall we speak of it +carelessly as unsuccessful? Surely not. Edward had lived his life +happily, usefully, and nobly; he had attained the end he set before +himself; he had conquered all his difficulties by his indomitable +resolution; and he lived to see his just reward in the respect and +admiration of all those whose good opinion was worth the having. If he +had toiled and moiled all the best days of his life, at some work, +perhaps, which did not even benefit in any way his fellow-men; if he +had given up all his time to enriching himself anyhow, by fair means or +foul; if he had gathered up a great business by crushing out +competition and absorbing to himself the honest livelihood of a dozen +other men; if he had speculated in stocks and shares, and piled up at +last a vast fortune by doubtful transactions, all the world would have +said, in its unthinking fashion, that Mr. Edward was a wonderfully +successful man. But success in life does not consist in that only, if +in that at all. Edward lived for an aim, and that aim he amply +attained. He never neglected his home duties or his regular work; but +in his stray moments he found time to amass an amount of knowledge +which rendered him the intellectual equal of men whose opportunities +and education had been far more fortunate than his own. The pleasure +he found in his work was the real reward that science gave him. All his +life long he had that pleasure: he saw the fields grow green in spring, +the birds build nests in early summer, the insects flit before his eyes +on autumn evenings, the stoat and hare put on their snow-white coat to +his delight in winter weather. And shall we say that the riches he +thus beheld spread ever before him were any less real or less +satisfying to a soul like his than the mere worldly wealth that other +men labour and strive for? Oh no. Thomas Edward was one of those who +work for higher and better ends than outward show, and verily he had +his reward. The monument raised up to that simple and earnest working +shoemaker in the "Life of a Scotch Naturalist" is one of which any +scientific worker in the whole world might well be proud. In his old +age, he had the meed of public encouragement and public recognition, +the one thing that the world at large can add to a scientific worker's +happiness; and his name will be long remembered hereafter, when those +of more pretentious but less useful labourers are altogether forgotten. +How many men whom the world calls successful might gladly have +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Biographies of Working Men, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 4529-h.htm or 4529-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/5/2/4529/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. 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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 + + +Title: Biographies of Working Men + +Author: Grant Allen + +Posting Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #4529] +Release Date: October, 2003 +First Posted: February 2, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN + + +by + +GRANT ALLEN, B.A. + + +1884 + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. THOMAS TELFORD, STONEMASON + II. GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINE-MAN + III. JOHN GIBSON, SCULPTOR + IV. WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BANDSMAN + V. JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET, PAINTER + VI. JAMES GARFIELD, CANAL BOY + VII. THOMAS EDWARD, SHOEMAKER + + + + +PREFACE. + + +My acknowledgments are due to Dr. Smiles's "Lives of the Engineers," +"Life of the Stephensons," and "Life of a Scotch Naturalist;" to Lady +Eastlake's "Life of Gibson;" to Mr. Holden's "Life of Sir William +Herschel;" to M. Seusier's "J. F. Millet, Sa Vie et Ses Oeuvres;" and +to Mr. Thayer's "Life of President Garfield;" from which most of the +facts here narrated have been derived. + +G.A. + + + + +BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN. + + + + +I. + +THOMAS TELFORD, STONEMASON. + + +High up among the heather-clad hills which form the broad dividing +barrier between England and Scotland, the little river Esk brawls and +bickers over its stony bed through a wild land of barren braesides and +brown peat mosses, forming altogether some of the gloomiest and most +forbidding scenery in the whole expanse of northern Britain. Almost +the entire bulk of the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Ayr is +composed of just such solemn desolate upland wolds, with only a few +stray farms or solitary cottages sprinkled at wide distances over their +bare bleak surface, and with scarcely any sign of life in any part save +the little villages which cluster here and there at long intervals +around some stern and simple Scottish church. Yet the hardy people who +inhabit this wild and chilly moorland country may well be considered to +rank among the best raw material of society in the whole of Britain; +for from the peasant homes of these southern Scotch Highlands have come +forth, among a host of scarcely less distinguished natives, three men, +at least, who deserve to take their place in the very front line of +British thinkers or workers--Thomas Telford, Robert Burns, and Thomas +Carlyle. By origin, all three alike belonged in the very strictest +sense to the working classes; and the story of each is full of lessons +or of warnings for every one of us: but that of Telford is perhaps the +most encouraging and the most remarkable of all, as showing how much +may be accomplished by energy and perseverance, even under the most +absolutely adverse and difficult circumstances. + +Near the upper end of Eskdale, in the tiny village of Westerkirk, a +young shepherd's wife gave birth to a son on the 9th of August, 1757. +Her husband, John Telford, was employed in tending sheep on a +neighbouring farm, and he and his Janet occupied a small cottage close +by, with mud walls and rudely thatched roof, such as in southern +England even the humblest agricultural labourer would scarcely consent +willingly to inhabit. Before the child was three months old, his +father died; and Janet Telford was left alone in the world with her +unweaned baby. But in remote country districts, neighbours are often +more neighbourly than in great towns; and a poor widow can manage to +eke out a livelihood for herself with an occasional lift from the +helping hands of friendly fellow-villagers. Janet Telford had nothing +to live upon save her own ten fingers; but they were handy enough, +after the sturdy Scotch fashion, and they earned some sort of +livelihood in a humble way for herself and her fatherless boy. The +farmers about found her work on their farms at haymaking or milking, +and their wives took the child home with them while its mother was busy +labouring in the harvest fields. Amid such small beginnings did the +greatest of English engineers before the railway era receive his first +hard lessons in the art of life. + +After her husband's death, the poor widow removed from her old cottage +to a still more tiny hut, which she shared with a neighbour--a very +small hut, with a single door for both families; and here young Tam +Telford spent most of his boyhood in the quiet honourable poverty of +the uncomplaining rural poor. As soon as he was big enough to herd +sheep, he was turned out upon the hillside in summer like any other +ragged country laddie, and in winter he tended cows, receiving for +wages only his food and money enough to cover the cost of his scanty +clothing. He went to school, too; how, nobody now knows: but he DID +go, to the parish school of Westerkirk, and there he learnt with a +will, in the winter months, though he had to spend the summer on the +more profitable task of working in the fields. To a steady earnest boy +like young Tam Telford, however, it makes all the difference in the +world that he should have been to school, no matter how simply. Those +twenty-six letters of the alphabet, once fairly learnt, are the key, +after all, to all the book-learning in the whole world. Without them, +the shepherd-boy might remain an ignorant, unprogressive shepherd all +his life long, even his undeniable native energy using itself up on +nothing better than a wattled hurdle or a thatched roof; with them, the +path is open before him which led Tam Telford at last to the Menai +Bridge And Westminster Abbey. + +When Tam had gradually eaten his way through enough thin oatmeal +porridge (with very little milk, we fear) to make him into a hearty lad +of fifteen, it began to be high time for him to choose himself a final +profession in life, such as he was able. And here already the born +tastes of the boy began to show themselves: for he had no liking for +the homely shepherd's trade; he felt a natural desire for a chisel and +a hammer--the engineer was there already in the grain--and he was +accordingly apprenticed to a stonemason in the little town of +Lochmaben, beyond the purple hills to eastward. But his master was a +hard man; he had small mercy for the raw lad; and after trying to +manage with him for a few months, Tam gave it up, took the law into his +own hands, and ran away. Probably the provocation was severe, for in +after-life Telford always showed himself duly respectful to constituted +authority; and we know that petty self-made master-workmen are often +apt to be excessively severe to their own hired helpers, and especially +to helpless lads or young apprentices. At any rate, Tam wouldn't go +back; and in the end, a well-to-do cousin, who had risen to the proud +position of steward at the great hall of the parish, succeeded in +getting another mason at Langholm, the little capital of Eskdale, to +take over the runaway for the remainder of the term of his indentures. + +At Langholm, a Scotch country town of the quietest and sleepiest +description, Tam Telford passed the next eight years of his uneventful +early life, first as an apprentice, and afterwards as a journeyman +mason of the humblest type. He had a good mother, and he was a good +son. On Saturday nights he generally managed to walk over to the +cottage at Westerkirk, and accompany the poor widow to the Sunday +services at the parish kirk. As long as she lived, indeed, he never +forgot her; and one of the first tasks he set himself when he was out +of his indentures was to cut a neat headstone with a simple but +beautiful inscription for the grave of that shepherd father whom he had +practically never seen. At Langholm, an old maiden lady, Miss Pasley, +interested herself kindly in Janet Telford's rising boy. She lent him +what of all things the eager lad most needed--books; and the young +mason applied himself to them in all his spare moments with the +vigorous ardour and perseverance of healthy youth. The books he read +were not merely those which bore directly or indirectly upon his own +craft: if they had been, Tam Telford might have remained nothing more +than a journeyman mason all the days of his life. It is a great +mistake, even from the point of view of mere worldly success, for a +young man to read or learn only what "pays" in his particular calling; +the more he reads and learns, the more will he find that seemingly +useless things "pay" in the end, and that what apparently pays least, +often really pays most in the long run. This is not the only or the +best reason why every man should aim at the highest possible +cultivation of his own talents, be they what they may; but it is in +itself a very good reason, and it is a sufficient answer for those who +would deter us from study of any high kind on the ground that it "does +no good." Telford found in after-life that his early acquaintance with +sound English literature did do him a great deal of good: it opened and +expanded his mind; it trained his intelligence; it stored his brain +with images and ideas which were ever after to him a source of +unmitigated delight and unalloyed pleasure. He read whenever he had +nothing else to do. He read Milton with especial delight; and he also +read the verses that his fellow-countryman, Rob Burns, the Ayrshire +ploughman, was then just beginning to speak straight to the heart of +every aspiring Scotch peasant lad. With these things Tam Telford +filled the upper stories of his brain quite as much as with the trade +details of his own particular useful handicraft; and the result soon +showed that therein Tam Telford had not acted uncannily or unwisely. + +Nor did he read only; he wrote too--verses, not very good, nor yet very +bad, but well expressed, in fairly well chosen language, and with due +regard to the nice laws of metre and of grammar, which is in itself a +great point. Writing verse is an occupation at which only very few +even among men of literary education ever really succeed; and +nine-tenths of published verse is mere mediocre twaddle, quite unworthy +of being put into the dignity of print. Yet Telford did well for all +that in trying his hand, with but poor result, at this most difficult +and dangerous of all the arts. His rhymes were worth nothing as +rhymes; but they were worth a great deal as discipline and training: +they helped to form the man, and that in itself is always something. +Most men who have in them the power to do any great thing pass in early +life through a verse-making stage. The verses never come to much; but +they leave their stamp behind them; and the man is all the better in +the end for having thus taught himself the restraint, the command of +language, the careful choice of expressions, the exercise of deliberate +pains in composition, which even bad verse-making necessarily implies. +It is a common mistake of near-sighted minds to look only at the +immediate results of things, without considering their remoter effects. +When Tam Telford, stonemason of Langholm, began at twenty-two years of +age to pen poetical epistles to Robert Burns, most of his +fellow-workmen doubtless thought he was giving himself up to very +foolish and nonsensical practices; but he was really helping to educate +Thomas Telford, engineer of the Holyhead Road and the Caledonian Canal, +for all his future usefulness and greatness. + +As soon as Tam was out of his indentures, he began work as a journeyman +mason at Langholm on his own account, at the not very magnificent wages +of eighteenpence a day. That isn't much; but at any rate it is an +independence. Besides building many houses in his own town, Tam made +here his first small beginning in the matter of roads and highways, by +helping to build a bridge over the Esk at Langholm. He was very proud +of his part in this bridge, and to the end of his life he often +referred to it as his first serious engineering work. Many of the +stones still bear his private mark, hewn with the tool into their solid +surface, with honest workmanship which helps to explain his later +success. But the young mason was beginning to discover that Eskdale +was hardly a wide enough field for his budding ambition. He could +carve the most careful headstones; he could cut the most ornamental +copings for doors or windows; he could even build a bridge across the +roaring flooded Esk; but he wanted to see a little of the great world, +and learn how men and masons went about their work in the busy centres +of the world's activity. So, like a patriotic Scotchman that he was, +he betook himself straight to Edinburgh, tramping it on foot, of +course, for railways did not yet exist, and coaches were not for the +use of such as young Thomas Telford. + +He arrived in the grey old capital of Scotland in the very nick of +time. The Old Town, a tangle of narrow alleys and close courtyards, +surrounded by tall houses with endless tiers of floors, was just being +deserted by the rich and fashionable world for the New Town, which lies +beyond a broad valley on the opposite hillside, and contains numerous +streets of solid and handsome stone houses, such as are hardly to be +found in any other town in Britain, except perhaps Bath and Aberdeen. +Edinburgh is always, indeed, an interesting place for an enthusiastic +lover of building, be he architect or stonemason; for instead of being +built of brick like London and so many other English centres, it is +built partly of a fine hard local sandstone and partly of basaltic +greenstone; and besides its old churches and palaces, many of the +public buildings are particularly striking and beautiful architectural +works. But just at the moment when young Telford walked wearily into +Edinburgh at the end of his long tramp, there was plenty for a stout +strong mason to do in the long straight stone fronts of the rising New +Town. For two years, he worked away patiently at his trade in "the +grey metropolis of the North;" and he took advantage of the special +opportunities the place afforded him to learn drawing, and to make +minute sketches in detail of Holyrood Palace, Heriot's Hospital, Roslyn +Chapel, and all the other principal old buildings' in which the +neighbourhood of the capital is particularly rich. So anxious, indeed, +was the young mason to perfect himself by the study of the very best +models in his own craft, that when at the end of two years he walked +back to revisit his good mother in Eskdale, he took the opportunity of +making drawings of Melrose Abbey, the most exquisite and graceful +building that the artistic stone-cutters of the Middle Ages have handed +down to our time in all Scotland. + +This visit to Eskdale was really Telford's last farewell to his old +home, before setting out on a journey which was to form the +turning-point in his own history, and in the history of British +engineering as well. In Scotch phrase, he was going south. And after +taking leave of his mother (not quite for the last time) he went south +in good earnest, doing this journey on horseback; for his cousin the +steward had lent him a horse to make his way southward like a +gentleman. Telford turned where all enterprising young Scotchmen of +his time always turned: towards the unknown world of London--that world +teeming with so many possibilities of brilliant success or of miserable +squalid failure. It was the year 1782, and the young man was just +twenty-five. No sooner had he reached the great city than he began +looking about him for suitable work. He had a letter of introduction +to the architect of Somerset House, whose ornamental fronts were just +then being erected, facing the Strand and the river; and Telford was +able to get a place at once on the job as a hewer of the finer +architectural details, for which both his taste and experience well +fitted him. He spent some two years in London at this humble post as a +stone-cutter; but already he began to aspire to something better. He +earned first-class mason's wages now, and saved whatever he did not +need for daily expenses. In this respect, the improvidence of his +English fellow-workmen struck the cautious young Scotchman very +greatly. They lived, he said, from week to week entirely; any time +beyond a week seemed unfortunately to lie altogether outside the range +of their limited comprehension. + +At the end of two years in London, Telford's skill and study began to +bear good fruit. His next engagement was one which raised him for the +first time in his life above the rank of a mere journeyman mason. The +honest workman had attracted the attention of competent judges. He +obtained employment as foreman of works of some important buildings in +Portsmouth Dockyard. A proud man indeed was Thomas Telford at this +change of fortune, and very proudly he wrote to his old friends in +Eskdale, with almost boyish delight, about the trust reposed in him by +the commissioners and officers, and the pains he was taking with the +task entrusted to him. For he was above all things a good workman, and +like all good workmen he felt a pride and an interest in all the jobs +he took in hand. His sense of responsibility and his sensitiveness, +indeed, were almost too great at times for his own personal comfort. +Things WILL go wrong now and then, even with the greatest care; +well-planned undertakings will not always pay, and the best engineering +does not necessarily succeed in earning a dividend; but whenever such +mishaps occurred to his employers, Telford felt the disappointment much +too keenly, as though he himself had been to blame for their +miscalculations or over-sanguine hopes. Still, it is a good thing to +put one's heart in one's work, and so much Thomas Telford certainly did. + +About this time, too, the rising young mason began to feel that he must +get a little more accurate scientific knowledge. The period for +general study had now passed by, and the period for special trade +reading had set in. This was well. A lad cannot do better than lay a +good foundation of general knowledge and general literature during the +period when he is engaged in forming his mind: a young man once fairly +launched in life may safely confine himself for a time to the studies +that bear directly upon his own special chosen subject. The thing that +Telford began closely to investigate was--lime. Now, lime makes +mortar; and without lime, accordingly, you can have no mason. But to +know anything really about lime, Telford found he must read some +chemistry; and to know anything really about chemistry he must work at +it hard and unremittingly. A strict attention to one's own business, +understood in this very broad and liberal manner, is certainly no bad +thing for any struggling handicraftsman, whatever his trade or +profession may happen to be. + +In 1786, when Telford was nearly thirty, a piece of unexpected good +luck fell to his lot. And yet it was not so much good luck as due +recognition of his sterling qualities by a wealthy and appreciative +person. Long before, while he was still in Eskdale, one Mr. Pulteney, +a man of social importance, who had a large house in the bleak northern +valley, had asked his advice about the repairs of his own mansion. We +may be sure that Telford did his work on that occasion carefully and +well; for now, when Mr. Pulteney wished to restore the ruins of +Shrewsbury Castle as a dwelling-house, he sought out the young mason +who had attended to his Scotch property, and asked him to superintend +the proposed alterations in his Shropshire castle. Nor was that all: +by Mr. Pulteney's influence, Telford was shortly afterwards appointed +to be county surveyor of public works, having under his care all the +roads, bridges, gaols, and public buildings in the whole of Shropshire. +Thus the Eskdale shepherd-boy rose at last from the rank of a working +mason, and attained the well-earned dignity of an engineer and a +professional man. + +Telford had now a fair opportunity of showing the real stuff of which +he was made. Those, of course, were the days when railroads had not +yet been dreamt of; when even roads were few and bad; when +communications generally were still in a very disorderly and +unorganized condition. It is Telford's special glory that he reformed +and altered this whole state of things; he reduced the roads of half +Britain to system and order; he made the finest highways and bridges +then ever constructed; and by his magnificent engineering works, +especially his aqueducts, he paved the way unconsciously but surely for +the future railways. If it had not been for such great undertakings as +Telford's Holyhead Road, which familiarized men's minds with costly +engineering operations, it is probable that projectors would long have +stood aghast at the alarming expense of a nearly level iron road +running through tall hills and over broad rivers the whole way from +London to Manchester. + +At first, Telford's work as county surveyor lay mostly in very small +things indeed--mere repairs of sidepaths or bridges, which gave him +little opportunity to develop his full talents as a born engineer. But +in time, being found faithful in small things, his employers, the +county magistrates, began to consult him more and more on matters of +comparative importance. First, it was a bridge to be built across the +Severn; then a church to be planned at Shrewsbury, and next, a second +church in Coalbrookdale. If he was thus to be made suddenly into an +architect, Telford thought, almost without being consulted in the +matter, he must certainly set out to study architecture. So, with +characteristic vigour, he went to work to visit London, Worcester, +Gloucester, Bath, and Oxford, at each place taking care to learn +whatever was to be learned in the practice of his new art. +Fortunately, however, for Telford and for England, it was not +architecture in the strict sense that he was finally to practise as a +real profession. Another accident, as thoughtless people might call +it, led him to adopt engineering in the end as the path in life he +elected to follow. In 1793, he was appointed engineer to the projected +Ellesmere Canal. + +In the days before railways, such a canal as this was an engineering +work of the very first importance. It was to connect the Mersey, the +Dee, and the Severn, and it passed over ground which rendered necessary +some immense aqueducts on a scale never before attempted by British +engineers. Even in our own time, every traveller by the Great Western +line between Chester and Shrewsbury must have observed on his right two +magnificent ranges as high arches, which are as noticeable now as ever +for their boldness, their magnitude, and their exquisite construction. +The first of these mighty archways is the Pont Cysylltau aqueduct which +carries the Ellesmere Canal across the wide valley of the Dee, known as +the Vale of Llangollen; the second is the Chirk aqueduct, which takes +it over the lesser glen of a minor tributary, the Ceriog. Both these +beautiful works were designed and carried out entirely by Telford. +They differ from many other great modern engineering achievements in +the fact that, instead of spoiling the lovely mountain scenery into +whose midst they have been thrown, they actually harmonize with it and +heighten its natural beauty. Both works, however, are splendid feats, +regarded merely as efforts of practical skill; and the larger one is +particularly memorable for the peculiarity that the trough for the +water and the elegant parapet at the side are both entirely composed of +iron. Nowadays, of course, there would be nothing remarkable in the +use of such a material for such a purpose; but Telford was the first +engineer to see the value of iron in this respect, and the Pont +Cysylltau aqueduct was one of the earliest works in which he applied +the new material to these unwonted uses. Such a step is all the more +remarkable, because Telford's own education had lain entirely in what +may fairly be called the "stone age" of English engineering; while his +natural predilections as a stonemason might certainly have made him +rather overlook the value of the novel material. But Telford was a man +who could rise superior to such little accidents of habit or training; +and as a matter of fact there is no other engineer to whom the rise of +the present "iron age" in engineering work is more directly and +immediately to be attributed than to himself. + +Meanwhile, the Eskdale pioneer did not forget his mother. For years he +had constantly written to her, in PRINT HAND, so that the letters might +be more easily read by her aged eyes; he had sent her money in full +proportion to his means; and he had taken every possible care to let +her declining years be as comfortable as his altered circumstances +could readily make them. And now, in the midst of this great and +responsible work, he found time to "run down" to Eskdale (very +different "running down" from that which we ourselves can do by the +London and North Western Railway), to see his aged mother once more +before she died. What a meeting that must have been, between the poor +old widow of the Eskdale shepherd, and her successful son, the county +surveyor of Shropshire, and engineer of the great and important +Ellesmere Canal! + +While Telford was working busily upon his wonderful canal, he had many +other schemes to carry out of hardly less importance, in connection +with his appointment as county surveyor. His beautiful iron bridge +across the Severn at Buildwas was another application of his favourite +metal to the needs of the new world that was gradually growing up in +industrial England; and so satisfied was he with the result of his +experiment (for though not absolutely the first, it was one of the +first iron bridges ever built) that he proposed another magnificent +idea, which unfortunately was never carried into execution. Old London +Bridge had begun to get a trifle shaky; and instead of rebuilding it, +Telford wished to span the whole river by a single iron arch, whose +splendid dimensions would have formed one of the most remarkable +engineering triumphs ever invented. The scheme, for some good reason, +doubtless, was not adopted; but it is impossible to look at Telford's +grand drawing of the proposed bridge--a single bold arch, curving +across the Thames from side to side, with the dome of St. Paul's rising +majestically above it--without a feeling of regret that such a noble +piece of theoretical architecture was never realized in actual fact. + +Telford had now come to be regarded as the great practical authority +upon all that concerned roads or communications; and he was reaping the +due money-reward of his diligence and skill. Every day he was called +upon to design new bridges and other important structures in all parts +of the kingdom, but more especially in Scotland and on the Welsh +border. Many of the most picturesque bridges in Britain, which every +tourist has admired, often without inquiring or thinking of the hand +that planned them, were designed by his inventive brain. The exquisite +stone arch which links the two banks of the lesser Scotch Dee in its +gorge at Tongueland is one of the most picturesque; for Telford was a +bit of an artist at heart, and, unlike too many modern railway +constructors, he always endeavoured to make his bridges and aqueducts +beautify rather than spoil the scenery in whose midst they stood. +Especially was he called in to lay out the great system of roads by +which the Scotch Highlands, then so lately reclaimed from a state of +comparative barbarism, were laid open for the great development they +have since undergone. In the earlier part of the century, it is true, +a few central highways had been run through the very heart of that +great solid block of mountains; but these were purely military roads, +to enable the king's soldiers more easily to march against the revolted +clans, and they had hardly more connection with the life of the country +than the bare military posts, like Fort William and Fort Augustus, +which guarded their ends, had to do with the ordinary life of a +commercial town. Meanwhile, however, the Highlands had begun gradually +to settle down; and Telford's roads were intended for the far higher +and better purpose of opening out the interior of northern Scotland to +the humanizing influences of trade and industry. + +Fully to describe the great work which the mature engineer constructed +in the Highland region, would take up more space than could be allotted +to such a subject anywhere save in a complete industrial history of +roads and travelling in modern Britain. It must suffice to say that +when Telford took the matter in hand, the vast block of country north +and west of the Great Glen of Caledonia (which divides the Highlands in +two between Inverness and Ben Nevis)--a block comprising the counties +of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, and half Inverness--had +literally nothing within it worthy of being called a road. Wheeled +carts or carriages were almost unknown, and all burdens were conveyed +on pack-horses, or, worse still, on the broad backs of Highland +lassies. The people lived in small scattered villages, and +communications from one to another were well-nigh impossible. Telford +set to work to give the country, not a road or two, but a main system +of roads. First, he bridged the broad river Tay at Dunkeld, so as to +allow of a direct route straight into the very jaws of the Highlands. +Then, he also bridged over the Beauly at Inverness, so as to connect +the opposite sides of the Great Glen with one another. Next, he laid +out a number of trunk lines, running through the country on both banks, +to the very north of Caithness, and the very west of the Isle of Skye. +Whoever to this day travels on the main thoroughfares in the greater +Scottish Islands--in Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull; or in the wild peninsula +of Morvern, and the Land of Lorne; or through the rugged regions of +Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, where the railway has not yet +penetrated,--travels throughout on Telford's roads. The number of large +bridges and other great engineering masterpieces on this network of +roads is enormous; among the most famous and the most beautiful, are +the exquisite single arch which spans the Spey just beside the lofty +rearing rocks of Craig Ellachie, and the bridge across the Dee, beneath +the purple heather-clad braes of Ballater. Altogether, on Telford's +Highland roads alone, there are no fewer than twelve hundred bridges. + +Nor were these the only important labours by which Telford ministered +to the comfort and well-being of his Scotch fellow-countrymen. +Scotland's debt to the Eskdale stonemason is indeed deep and lasting. +While on land, he improved her communications by his great lines of +roads, which did on a smaller scale for the Highland valleys what +railways have since done for the whole of the civilized world; he also +laboured to improve her means of transit at sea by constructing a +series of harbours along that bare and inhospitable eastern coast, once +almost a desert, but now teeming with great towns and prosperous +industries. It was Telford who formed the harbour of Wick, which has +since grown from a miserable fishing village into a large town, the +capital of the North Sea herring fisheries. It was he who enlarged the +petty port of Peterhead into the chief station of the flourishing +whaling trade. It was he who secured prosperity for Fraserburgh, and +Banff, and many other less important centres; while even Dundee and +Aberdeen, the chief commercial cities of the east coast, owe to him a +large part of their present extraordinary wealth and industry. When +one thinks how large a number of human beings have been benefited by +Telford's Scotch harbour works alone, it is impossible not to envy a +great engineer his almost unlimited power of permanent usefulness to +unborn thousands of his fellow-creatures. + +As a canal-maker, Telford was hardly less successful than as a +constructor of roads and harbours. It is true, his greatest work in +this direction was in one sense a failure. He was employed by +Government for many years as the engineer of the Caledonian Canal, +which runs up the Great Glen of Caledonia, connecting the line of lakes +whose basins occupy that deep hollow in the Highland ranges, and so +avoiding the difficult and dangerous sea voyage round the stormy +northern capes of Caithness. Unfortunately, though the canal as an +engineering work proved to be of the most successful character, it has +never succeeded as a commercial undertaking. It was built just at the +exact moment when steamboats were on the point of revolutionizing ocean +traffic; and so, though in itself a magnificent and lordly undertaking, +it failed to satisfy the sanguine hopes of its projectors. But though +Telford felt most bitterly the unavoidable ill success of this great +scheme, he might well have comforted himself by the good results of his +canal-building elsewhere. He went to Sweden to lay out the Gotha +Canal, which still forms the main high-road of commerce between +Stockholm and the sea; while in England itself some of his works in +this direction--such as the improvements on the Birmingham Canal, with +its immense tunnel--may fairly be considered as the direct precursors +of the great railway efforts of the succeeding generation. + +The most remarkable of all Telford's designs, however, and the one +which most immediately paved the way for the railway system, was his +magnificent Holyhead Road. This wonderful highway he carried through +the very midst of the Welsh mountains, at a comparatively level height +for its whole distance, in order to form a main road from London to +Ireland. On this road occurs Telford's masterpiece of engineering, the +Menai suspension bridge, long regarded as one of the wonders of the +world, and still one of the most beautiful suspension bridges in all +Europe. Hardly less admirable, however, in its own way is the other +suspension bridge which he erected at Conway, to carry his road across +the mouth of the estuary, beside the grey old castle, with which its +charming design harmonizes so well. Even now it is impossible to drive +or walk along this famous and picturesque highway without being struck +at every turn by the splendid engineering triumphs which it displays +throughout its entire length. The contrast, indeed, between the noble +grandeur of Telford's bridges, and the works on the neighbouring +railways, is by no means flattering in every respect to our too +exclusively practical modern civilization. + +Telford was now growing an old man. The Menai bridge was begun in 1819 +and finished in 1826, when he was sixty-eight years of age; and though +he still continued to practise his profession, and to design many +valuable bridges, drainage cuts, and other small jobs, that great +undertaking was the last masterpiece of his long and useful life. His +later days were passed in deserved honour and comparative opulence; for +though never an avaricious man, and always anxious to rate his services +at their lowest worth, he had gathered together a considerable fortune +by the way, almost without seeking it. To the last, his happy cheerful +disposition enabled him to go on labouring at the numerous schemes by +which he hoped to benefit the world of workers; and so much +cheerfulness was surely well earned by a man who could himself look +back upon so good a record of work done for the welfare of humanity. +At last, on the 2nd of September, 1834, his quiet and valuable life +came gently to a close, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was +buried in Westminster Abbey, and few of the men who sleep within that +great national temple more richly deserve the honour than the +Westerkirk shepherd-boy. For Thomas Telford's life was not merely one +of worldly success; it was still more pre-eminently one of noble ends +and public usefulness. Many working men have raised themselves by +their own exertions to a position of wealth and dignity far surpassing +his; few indeed have conferred so many benefits upon untold thousands +of their fellow-men. It is impossible, even now, to travel in any part +of England, Wales, or Scotland, without coming across innumerable +memorials of Telford's great and useful life; impossible to read the +full record of his labours without finding that numberless structures +we have long admired for their beauty or utility, owe their origin to +the honourable, upright, hardworking, thorough-going, journeyman mason +of the quiet little Eskdale village. Whether we go into the drained +fens of Lincolnshire, or traverse the broad roads of the rugged Snowdon +region; whether we turn to St. Katharine's Docks in London, or to the +wide quays of Dundee and those of Aberdeen; whether we sail beneath the +Menai suspension bridge at Bangor, or drive over the lofty arches that +rise sheer from the precipitous river gorge at Cartland, we meet +everywhere the lasting traces of that inventive and ingenious brain. +And yet, what lad could ever have started in the world under apparently +more hopeless circumstances than widow Janet Telford's penniless orphan +shepherd-boy Tam, in the bleakest and most remote of all the lonely +border valleys of southern Scotland? + + + + +II. + +GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINE-MAN. + + +Any time about the year 1786, a stranger in the streets of the grimy +colliery village of Wylam, near Newcastle, might have passed by without +notice a ragged, barefooted, chubby child of five years old, Geordie +Stephenson by name, playing merrily in the gutter and looking to the +outward eye in no way different from any of the other colliers' +children who loitered about him. Nevertheless, that ragged boy was yet +destined in after-life to alter the whole face of England and the world +by those wonderful railways, which he more than any other man was +instrumental in first constructing; and the story of his life may rank +perhaps as one of the most marvellous in the whole marvellous history +of able and successful British working men. + +George Stephenson was born in June, 1781, the son of a fireman who +tended the pumping engine of the neighbouring colliery, and one of a +penniless family of six children. So poor was his father, indeed, that +the whole household lived in a single room, with bare floor and mud +wall; and little Geordie grew up in his own unkempt fashion without any +schooling whatever, not even knowing A from B when he was a big lad of +seventeen. At an age when he ought to have been learning his letters, +he was bird's-nesting in the fields or running errands to the Wylam +shops; and as soon as he was old enough to earn a few pence by light +work, he was set to tend cows at the magnificent wages of twopence a +day, in the village of Dewley Burn, close by, to which his father had +then removed. It might have seemed at first as though the future +railway engineer was going to settle down quietly to the useful but +uneventful life of an agricultural labourer; for from tending cows he +proceeded in due time (with a splendid advance of twopence) to leading +the horses at the plough, spudding thistles, and hoeing turnips on his +employer's farm. But the native bent of a powerful mind usually shows +itself very early; and even during the days when Geordie was still +stumbling across the freshly ploughed clods or driving the cows to +pasture with a bunch of hazel twigs, his taste for mechanics already +made itself felt in a very marked and practical fashion. During all +his leisure time, the future engineer and his chum Bill Thirlwall +occupied themselves with making clay models of engines, and fitting up +a winding machine with corks and twine like those which lifted the +colliery baskets. Though Geordie Stephenson didn't go to school at the +village teacher's, he was teaching himself in his own way by close +observation and keen comprehension of all the machines and engines he +could come across. + +Naturally, to such a boy, the great ambition of his life was to be +released from the hoeing and spudding, and set to work at his father's +colliery. Great was Geordie's joy, therefore, when at last he was +taken on there in the capacity of a coal-picker, to clear the loads +from stones and rubbish. It wasn't a very dignified position, to be +sure, but it was the first step that led the way to the construction of +the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Geordie was now fairly free from +the uncongenial drudgery of farm life, and able to follow his own +inclinations in the direction of mechanical labour. Besides, was he +not earning the grand sum of sixpence a day as picker, increased to +eightpence a little later on, when he rose to the more responsible and +serious work of driving the gin-horse? A proud day indeed it was for +him when, at fourteen, he was finally permitted to aid his father in +firing the colliery engine; though he was still such a very small boy +that he used to run away and hide when the owner went his rounds of +inspection, for fear he should be thought too little to earn his untold +wealth of a shilling a day in such a grown-up occupation. Humbler +beginnings were never any man's who lived to become the honoured guest, +not of kings and princes only, but of the truly greatest and noblest in +the land. + +A coal-miner's life is often a very shifting one; for the coal in +particular collieries gets worked out from time to time; and he has to +remove, accordingly, to fresh quarters, wherever employment happens to +be found. This was very much the case with George Stephenson and his +family; all of them being obliged to remove several times over during +his childish days in search of new openings. Shortly after Geordie had +attained to the responsible position of assistant fireman, his father +was compelled, by the closing of Dewley Burn mine, to get a fresh +situation hard by at Newburn. George accompanied him, and found +employment as full fireman at a small working, whose little engine he +undertook to manage in partnership with a mate, each of them tending +the fire night and day by twelve-hour shifts. Two years later, his +wages were raised to twelve shillings a week, a sure mark of his +diligent and honest work; so that George was not far wrong in remarking +to a fellow-workman at the time that he now considered himself a made +man for life. + +During all this time, George Stephenson never for a moment ceased to +study and endeavour to understand the working of every part in the +engine that he tended. He was not satisfied, as too many workmen are, +with merely learning the routine work of his own trade; with merely +knowing that he must turn such and such a tap or valve in order to +produce such and such a desired result: he wanted to see for himself +how and why the engine did this or that, what was the use and object of +piston and cylinder and crank and joint and condenser--in short, fully +to understand the underlying principle of its construction. He took it +to pieces for cleaning whenever it was needful; he made working models +of it after his old childish pattern; he even ventured to tinker it up +when out of order on his own responsibility. Thus he learnt at last +something of the theory of the steam-engine, and learnt also by the way +a great deal about the general principles of mechanical science. Still, +even now, incredible as it seems, the future father of railways +couldn't yet read; and he found this terrible drawback told fatally +against his further progress. Whenever he wanted to learn something +that he didn't quite understand, he was always referred for information +to a Book. Oh, those books; those mysterious, unattainable, +incomprehensible books; how they must have bothered and worried poor +intelligent and aspiring but still painfully ignorant young George +Stephenson! Though he was already trying singularly valuable +experiments in his own way, he hadn't yet even begun to learn his +letters. + +Under these circumstances, George Stephenson, eager and anxious for +further knowledge, took a really heroic resolution. He wasn't ashamed +to go to school. Though now a full workman on his own account, about +eighteen years old, he began to attend the night school at the +neighbouring village of Walbottle, where he took lessons in reading +three evenings every week. It is a great thing when a man is not +ashamed to learn. Many men are; they consider themselves so immensely +wise that they look upon it as an impertinence in anybody to try to +tell them anything they don't know already. Truly wise or truly great +men--men with the capability in them for doing anything worthy in their +generation--never feel this false and foolish shame. They know that +most other people know some things in some directions which they do +not, and they are glad to be instructed in them whenever opportunity +offers. This wisdom George Stephenson possessed in sufficient degree to +make him feel more ashamed of his ignorance than of the steps necessary +in order to conquer it. Being a diligent and willing scholar, he soon +learnt to read, and by the time he was nineteen he had learnt how to +write also. At arithmetic, a science closely allied to his native +mechanical bent, he was particularly apt, and beat all the other +scholars at the village night school. This resolute effort at +education was the real turning-point in George Stephenson's remarkable +career, the first step on the ladder whose topmost rung led him so high +that he himself must almost have felt giddy at the unwonted elevation. + +Shortly after, young Stephenson gained yet another promotion in being +raised to the rank of brakesman, whose duty it was to slacken the +engine when the full baskets of coal reached the top of the shaft. +This was a more serious and responsible post than any he had yet +filled, and one for which only the best and steadiest workmen were ever +selected. His wages now amounted to a pound a week, a very large sum +in those days for a skilled working-man. + +Meanwhile, George, like most other young men, had fallen in love. His +sweetheart, Fanny Henderson, was servant at the small farmhouse where +he had taken lodgings since leaving his father's home; and though but +little is known about her (for she unhappily died before George had +begun to rise to fame and fortune), what little we do know seems to +show that she was in every respect a fitting wife for the active young +brakesman, and a fitting mother for his equally celebrated son, Robert +Stephenson. Fired by the honourable desire to marry Fanny, with a +proper regard for prudence, George set himself to work to learn +cobbling in his spare moments; and so successfully did he cobble the +worn shoes of his fellow-colliers after working hours, that before long +he contrived to save a whole guinea out of his humble earnings. That +guinea was the first step towards an enormous fortune; a fortune, too, +all accumulated by steady toil and constant useful labour for the +ultimate benefit of his fellow-men. To make a fortune is the smallest +and least noble of all possible personal ambitions; but to save the +first guinea which leads us on at last to independence and modest +comfort is indeed an important turning-point in every prudent man's +career. Geordie Stephenson was so justly proud of his achievement in +this respect that he told a friend in confidence he might now consider +himself a rich man. + +By the time George was twenty-one, he had saved up enough by constant +care to feel that he might safely embark on the sea of housekeeping. +He was able to take a small cottage lodging for himself and Fanny, at +Willington Quay, near his work at the moment, and to furnish it with +the simple comfort which was all that their existing needs demanded. +He married Fanny on the 28th of November, 1802; and the young couple +proceeded at once to their new home. Here George laboured harder than +ever, as became the head of a family. He was no more ashamed of odd +jobs than he had been of learning the alphabet. He worked overtime at +emptying ballast from ships; he continued to cobble, to cut lasts, and +even to try his hand at regular shoemaking; furthermore, he actually +acquired the art of mending clocks, a matter which lay strictly in his +own line, and he thus earned a tidy penny at odd hours by doctoring all +the rusty or wheezy old timepieces of all his neighbours. Nor did he +neglect his mechanical education meanwhile for he was always at work +upon various devices for inventing a perpetual motion machine. Now, +perpetual motion is the most foolish will-o'-the-wisp that ever engaged +a sane man's attention: the thing has been proved to be impossible from +every conceivable point of view, and the attempt to achieve it, if +pursued to the last point, can only end in disappointment if not in +ruin. Still, for all that, the work George Stephenson spent upon this +unpractical object did really help to give him an insight into +mechanical science which proved very useful to him at a later date. He +didn't discover perpetual motion, but he did invent at last the real +means for making the locomotive engine a practical power in the matter +of travelling. + +A year later, George's only son Robert was born; and from that moment +the history of those two able and useful lives is almost inseparable. +During the whole of George Stephenson's long upward struggle, and +during the hard battle he had afterwards to fight on behalf of his +grand design of railways, he met with truer sympathy, appreciation, and +comfort from his brave and gifted son than from any other person +whatsoever. Unhappily, his pleasure and delight in the up-bringing of +his boy was soon to be clouded for a while by the one great bereavement +of an otherwise singularly placid and happy existence. Some two years +after her marriage, Fanny Stephenson died, as yet a mere girl, leaving +her lonely husband to take care of their baby boy alone and unaided. +Grief for this irretrievable loss drove the young widower away for a +while from his accustomed field of work among the Tyneside coal-pits; +he accepted an invitation to go to Montrose in Scotland, to overlook +the working of a large engine in some important spinning-works. He +remained in this situation for one year only; but during that time he +managed to give clear evidence of his native mechanical insight by +curing a defect in the pumps which supplied water to his engine, and +which had hitherto defied the best endeavours of the local engineers. +The young father was not unmindful, either, of his duty to his boy, +whom he had left behind with his grandfather on Tyneside; for he saved +so large a sum as 28 pounds during his engagement, which he carried +back with him in his pocket on his return to England. + +A sad disappointment awaited him when at last he arrived at home. Old +Robert Stephenson, the father, had met with an accident during George's +absence which made him quite blind, and incapacitated him for further +work. Helpless and poor, he had no resource to save him from the +workhouse except George; but George acted towards him exactly as all +men who have in them a possibility of any good thing always do act +under similar circumstances. He spent 15 pounds of his hard-earned +savings to pay the debts the poor blind old engine-man had necessarily +contracted during his absence, and he took a comfortable cottage for +his father and mother at Killingworth, where he had worked before his +removal to Scotland, and where he now once more obtained employment, +still as a brakesman. In that cottage this good and brave son +supported his aged parents till their death, in all the simple luxury +that his small means would then permit him. + +That, however, was not the end of George's misfortunes. Shortly after, +he was drawn by lot as a militiaman; and according to the law of that +time (for this was in 1807, during the very height of the wars against +Napoleon) he must either serve in person or else pay heavily to secure +a substitute. George chose regretfully the latter course--the only one +open to him if he wished still to support his parents and his infant +son. But in order to do so, he had to pay away the whole remainder of +his carefully hoarded savings, and even to borrow 6 pounds to make up +the payment for the substitute. It must have seemed very hard to him +to do this, and many men would have sunk under the blow, become +hopeless, or taken to careless rowdy drinking habits. George +Stephenson felt it bitterly, and gave way for a while to a natural +despondency; he would hardly have been human if he had not; but still, +he lived over it, and in the end worked on again with fuller resolution +and vigour than ever. + +For several years Geordie, as his fellow-colliers affectionately called +him, continued to live on at one or other of the Killingworth +collieries. In a short time, he entered into a small contract with his +employers for "brakeing" the engines; and in the course of this +contract, he invented certain improvements in the matter of saving wear +and tear of ropes, which were both profitable to himself and also in +some small degree pointed the way toward his future plans for the +construction of railways. It is true, the two subjects have not, +apparently, much in common; but they are connected in this way, that +both proceed upon the principle of reducing the friction to the +smallest possible quantity. It was this principle that Stephenson was +gradually learning to appreciate more and more at its proper value; and +it was this which finally led him to the very summit of a great and +pre-eminently useful profession. The great advantage, indeed, of a +level railway over an up-and-down ordinary road is simply that in the +railway the resistance and friction are almost entirely got rid of. + +It was in 1810, when Stephenson was twenty-nine, that his first +experiment in serious engineering was made. A coal-pit had been sunk +at Killingworth, and a rude steam-engine of that time had been set to +pump the water out of its shaft; but, somehow, the engine made no +headway against the rising springs at the bottom of the mine. For +nearly a year the engine worked away in vain, till at last, one +Saturday afternoon, Geordie Stephenson went over to examine her. +"Well, George," said a pitman, standing by, "what do you think of her?" +"Man," said George, boldly, "I could alter her and make her draw. In a +week I could let you all go the bottom." The pitman reported this +confident speech of the young brakesman to the manager; and the +manager, at his wits' end for a remedy, determined to let this fellow +Stephenson try his hand at her. After all, if he did no good, he would +be much like all the others; and anyhow he seemed to have confidence in +himself, which, if well grounded, is always a good thing. + +George's confidence WAS well grounded. It was not the confidence of +ignorance, but that of knowledge. He UNDERSTOOD the engine now, and he +saw at once the root of the evil. He picked the engine to pieces, +altered it to suit the requirements of the case, and set it to work to +pump without delay. Sure enough, he kept his word; and within the +week, the mine was dry, and the men were sent to the bottom. This was +a grand job for George's future. The manager, a Mr. Dodds, not only +gave him ten pounds at once as a present, in acknowledgment of his +practical skill, but also appointed him engine-man of the new pit, +another rise in the social scale as well as in the matter of wages. +Dodds kept him in mind for the future, too; and a couple of years +later, on a vacancy occurring, he promoted the promising hand to be +engine-wright of all the collieries under his management, at a salary +of 100 pounds a year. When a man's income comes to be reckoned by the +year, rather than by the week or month, it is a sign that he is growing +into a person of importance. George had now a horse to ride upon, on +his visits of inspection to the various engines; and his work was +rather one of mechanical engineering than of mere ordinary labouring +handicraft. + +The next few years of George Stephenson's life were mainly taken up in +providing for the education of his boy Robert. He had been a good son, +and he was now a good father. Feeling acutely how much he himself had +suffered, and how many years he had been put back, by his own want of a +good sound rudimentary education, he determined that Robert should not +suffer from a similar cause. Indeed, George Stephenson's splendid +abilities were kept in the background far too long, owing to his early +want of regular instruction. So the good father worked hard to send +his boy to school; not to the village teacher's only, but to a school +for gentlemen's sons at Newcastle. By mending clocks and watches in +spare moments, and by rigid economy in all unnecessary expenses +(especially beer), Stephenson had again gathered together a little +hoard, which mounted up this time to a hundred guineas. A hundred +guineas is a fortune and a capital to a working man. He was therefore +rich enough, not only to send little Robert to school, but even to buy +him a donkey, on which the boy made the journey every day from +Killingworth to Newcastle. This was in 1815, when George was +thirty-four, and Robert twelve. Perhaps no man who ever climbed so +high as George Stephenson, had ever reached so little of the way at so +comparatively late an age. For in spite of his undoubted success, +viewed from the point of view of his origin and early prospects, he was +as yet after all nothing more than the common engine-wright of the +Killingworth collieries--a long way off as yet from the distinguished +father of the railway system. + +George Stephenson's connection with the locomotive, however, was even +now beginning. Already, in 1816, he and his boy had tried a somewhat +higher flight of mechanical and scientific skill than usual, in the +construction of a sun-dial, which involves a considerable amount of +careful mathematical work; and now George found that the subject of +locomotive engines was being forced by circumstances upon his +attention. From the moment he was appointed engine-wright of the +Killingworth collieries, he began to think about all possible means of +hauling coal at cheaper rates from the pit's mouth to the shipping +place on the river. For that humble object alone--an object that lay +wholly within the line of his own special business--did the great +railway projector set out upon his investigations into the +possibilities of the locomotive. Indeed, in its earliest origin, the +locomotive was almost entirely connected with coals and mining; its +application to passenger traffic on the large scale was quite a later +and secondary consideration. It was only by accident, so to speak, +that the true capabilities of railways were finally discovered in the +actual course of their practical employment. + +George Stephenson was not the first person to construct either a +locomotive or a tramway. Both were already in use, in more or less +rude forms, at several collieries. But he WAS the first person to +bring the two to such a pitch of perfection, that what had been at +first a mere clumsy mining contrivance, became developed into a smooth +and easy iron highway for the rapid and convenient conveyance of goods +and passengers over immense distances. Of course, this great +invention, like all other great inventions, was not the work of one day +or one man. Many previous heads had helped to prepare the way for +George Stephenson; and George Stephenson himself had been working at +the subject for many years before he even reached the first stage of +realized endeavour. As early as 1814 he constructed his first +locomotive at Killingworth colliery; it was not until 1822 that he laid +the first rail of his first large line, the Stockton and Darlington +Railway. + +Stephenson's earliest important improvement in the locomotive consisted +in his invention of what is called the steam-blast, by which the steam +is made to increase the draught of the fire, and so largely add to the +effectiveness of the engine. It was this invention that enabled him at +last to make the railway into the great carrier of the world, and to +begin the greatest social and commercial upheaval that has ever +occurred in the whole history of the human race. + +Meanwhile, however, George was not entirely occupied with the +consideration of his growing engine. He had the clocks and watches to +mend; he had Robert's schooling to look after; and he had another +practical matter even nearer home than the locomotive on which to +exercise his inventive genius. One day, in 1814, the main gallery of +the colliery caught fire. Stephenson at once descended into the +burning pit, with a chosen band of volunteers, who displayed the usual +heroic courage of colliers in going to the rescue of their comrades; +and, at the risk of their lives, these brave men bricked up the burning +portion, and so, by excluding the air, put out the dangerous fire. +Still, even so, several of the workmen had been suffocated, and one of +the pitmen asked Geordie in dismay whether nothing could be done to +prevent such terrible disasters in future. "The price of coal-mining +now," he said, "is pitmen's lives." Stephenson promised to think the +matter over; and he did think it over with good effect. The result of +his thought was the apparatus still affectionately known to the pitmen +as "the Geordie lamp." It is a lamp so constructed that the flame +cannot pass out into the air outside, and so cause explosions in the +dangerous fire-damp which is always liable to occur abundantly in the +galleries of coal mines. By this invention alone George Stephenson's +name and memory might have been kept green for ever; for his lamp has +been the means of saving thousands of lives from a sudden, a terrible, +and a pitiful death. Most accidents that now occur in mines are due to +the neglect of ordinary precautions, and to the perverse habit of +carrying a naked lighted candle in the hand (contrary to regulations) +instead of a carefully guarded safety lamp. Yet so culpably reckless +of their own and other men's lives are a large number of people +everywhere, that in spite of the most stringent and salutary rules, +explosions from this cause (and, therefore, easily avoidable) take +place constantly to the present day, though far less frequently than +before the invention of the Geordie lamp. + +Curiously enough, at the very time when George Stephenson was busy +inventing his lamp at Killingworth, Sir Humphrey Davy was working at +just the same matter in London; and the two lamps, though a little +different in minor points of construction, are practically the same in +general principle. Now, Sir Humphrey was then the great fashionable +natural philosopher of the day, the favourite of London society, and +the popular lecturer of the Royal Institution. His friends thought it a +monstrous idea that his splendid life-saving apparatus should have been +independently devised by "an engine-wright of Killingworth of the name +of Stephenson--a person not even possessing a knowledge of the elements +of chemistry." This sounds very odd reading at the present day, when +the engine-wright of the name of Stephenson has altered the whole face +of the world, while Davy is chiefly remembered as a meritorious and +able chemist; but at the time, Stephenson's claim to the invention met +with little courtesy from the great public of London, where a meeting +was held on purpose to denounce his right to the credit of the +invention. What the coal-owners and colliers of the North Country +thought about the matter was sufficiently shown by their subscription +of 1000 pounds, as a Stephenson testimonial fund. With part of the +money, a silver tankard was presented to the deserving engine-wright, +while the remainder of the sum was handed over to him in ready cash. A +very acceptable present it was, and one which George Stephenson +remembered with pride down to his dying day. The Geordie lamp +continues in use to the present moment in the Tyneside collieries with +excellent effect. + +For some years more, Mr. Stephenson (he is now fairly entitled to that +respectable prefix) went on still further experimenting on the question +of locomotives and railways. He was now beginning to learn that much +unnecessary wear and tear arose on the short lines of rail down from +the pit's mouths to the loading-places on the river by the inequalities +and roughnesses of the joints; and he invented a method of overlapping +the rails which quite got over this source of loss--loss of speed, loss +of power, and loss of material at once. It was in 1819 that he laid +down his first considerable piece of road, the Hetton railway. The +owners of a colliery at the village of Hetton, in Durham, determined to +replace their waggon road by a locomotive line; and they invited the +now locally famous Killingworth engine-wright to act as their engineer. +Stephenson gladly undertook the post; and he laid down a railway of +eight miles in length, on the larger part of which the trucks were to +be drawn by "the iron horse," as people now began to style the altered +and improved locomotive. The Hetton railway was opened in 1822, and +the assembled crowd were delighted at beholding a single engine draw +seventeen loaded trucks after it, at the extraordinary rate of four +miles an hour--nearly as fast as a man could walk. Whence it may be +gathered that Stephenson's ideas upon the question of speed were still +on a very humble scale indeed. + +Before the Hetton railway was opened, however, George Stephenson had +shown one more proof of his excellence as a father by sending his boy +Robert, now nineteen, to Edinburgh University. It was a serious +expense for a man who was even now, after all, hardly more than a +working man of the superior grade; but George Stephenson was well +repaid for the sacrifice he thus made on behalf of his only son. He +lived to see him the greatest practical engineer of his own time, and +to feel that his success was in large measure due to the wider and more +accurate scientific training the lad had received from his Edinburgh +teachers. + +In 1819 George married again, his second wife being the daughter of a +farmer at Black Callerton. + +The work which finally secured the position of George Stephenson and of +his dearly loved locomotive was the Stockton and Darlington railway. +Like all the other early railways, it was originally projected simply +as a mineral line. Darlington lies in the centre of a rich inland +mining district; but the impossibility of getting the coal carried to +the sea by cart or donkey, long prevented the opening up of its immense +natural wealth. At last, as early as 1817, Edward Pease and a few +other enterprising Darlington Quakers determined to build a line of +railway from the mining region to Stockton, on the river Tees, where +the coal could be loaded into sea-going ships. It was a very long +line, compared to any railway that had yet been constructed; but it was +still only to be worked by horse-power--to be, in fact, what we now +call a tramway, rather than a railway in the modern sense. However, +while the plan was still undecided, George Stephenson, who had heard +about the proposed scheme, went over to Darlington one day, and boldly +asked to see Mr. Pease. The good Quaker received him kindly, and +listened to his arguments in favour of the locomotive. "Come over to +Killingworth some day and see my engine at work," said Stephenson, +confidently; "and if you do you will never think of horses again." Mr. +Pease, with Quaker caution, came and looked. George put the engine +through its paces, and showed off its marvellous capabilities to such +good effect that Edward Pease was immediately converted. Henceforth, +he became a decided advocate of locomotives, and greatly aided by his +wealth and influence in securing their final triumph. + +Not only that, but Mr. Pease also aided Stephenson in carrying out a +design which George had long had upon his mind--the establishment of a +regular locomotive factory, where the work of engine-making for this +particular purpose might be carried on with all the necessary finish +and accuracy. George himself put into the concern his precious 1000 +pounds, not one penny of which he had yet touched; while Pease and a +friend advanced as much between them. A factory was forthwith started +at Newcastle on a small scale, and the hardworking engine-wright found +himself now fully advanced to the commercial dignity of Stephenson and +Co. With the gradual growth of railways, that humble Newcastle factory +grew gradually into one of the largest and wealthiest manufacturing +establishments in all England. + +Meanwhile, Stephenson was eagerly pushing on the survey of the Stockton +and Darlington railway, all the more gladly now that he knew it was to +be worked by means of his own adopted child, the beloved locomotive. +He worked at his line early and late; he took the sights with the +spirit-level with his own eye; he was determined to make it a model +railway. It was a long and heavy work, for railway surveying was then +a new art, and the appliances were all fresh and experimental; but in +the end, Stephenson brought it to a happy conclusion, and struck at +once the death-blow of the old road-travelling system. The line was +opened successfully in 1825, and the engine started off on the +inaugural ceremony with a magnificent train of thirty-eight vehicles. +"Such was its velocity," says a newspaper of the day, "that in some +parts the speed was frequently twelve miles an hour." + +The success of the Stockton and Darlington railway was so immense and +unexpected, the number of passengers who went by it was so great, and +the quantity of coal carried for shipment so far beyond anything the +projectors themselves could have anticipated, that a desire soon began +to be felt for similar works in other places. There are no two towns in +England which absolutely need a railway communication from one to the +other so much as Liverpool and Manchester. The first is the great port +of entry for cotton, the second is the great centre of its manufacture. +The Bridgewater canal had helped for a time to make up for the want of +water communication between those two closely connected towns; but as +trade developed, the canal became too small for the demands upon it, +and the need for an additional means of intercourse was deeply felt. A +committee was formed to build a railway in this busy district, and +after a short time George Stephenson was engaged to superintend its +construction. + +A long and severe fight was fought over the Liverpool and Manchester +railway, and it was at first doubtful whether the scheme would ever be +carried out. Many great landowners were strongly opposed to it, and +tried their best to keep the bill for authorizing it from passing +through Parliament. Stephenson himself was compelled to appear in +London as a witness before a parliamentary committee, and was closely +cross-examined as to the possibilities of his plan. In those days, +even after the success of the Stockton and Darlington line, his views +about the future of railways were still regarded by most sober persons +as ridiculously wild and enthusiastic; while the notion that trains +might be made to travel twice as fast as stage-coaches, was scouted as +the most palpable and ridiculous delusion. One of the members of the +committee pressed Stephenson very hard with questions. "Suppose," he +said, "a cow were to get upon the line, and the engine were to come +into collision with it; wouldn't that be very awkward, now?" George +looked up at him with a merry twinkle of the eye, and answered in his +broad North Country dialect, "Oo, ay, very awkward for the COO." + +In spite of all Stephenson's earnestness and mother wit, however, +Parliament refused to pass the bill (in 1825), and for the moment the +engineer's vexation was bitter to behold. He and his friends plucked +up heart, however; they were fighting the winning battle against +prejudice and obstruction, and they were sure to conquer in the long +run. The line was resurveyed by other engineers; the lands of the +hostile owners were avoided; the causes of offence were dexterously +smoothed down; and after another hard fight, in 1826, the bill +authorizing the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester railway +was finally passed. The board at once appointed Stephenson engineer +for constructing the line, at a salary of 1000 pounds a year. George +might now fairly consider himself entitled to the honours of an Esquire. + +The line was a difficult one to construct; but George Stephenson set +about it with the skill and knowledge acquired during many years of +slow experience; and he performed it with distinguished success. He +was now forty-four; and he had had more to do with the laying down of +rails than any other man then living. The great difficulty of the +Liverpool and Manchester line lay in the fact that it had to traverse a +vast shaking bog or morass, Chat Moss, which the best engineers had +emphatically declared it would be impossible to cross. George +Stephenson, however, had a plan for making the impossible possible. He +simply floated his line on a broad bottom, like a ship, on the top of +the quaking quagmire; and proceeded to lay down his rails on this +seemingly fragile support without further scruple. It answered +admirably, and still answers to the present day. The other works on +the railway, especially the cuttings, were such as might well have +appalled the boldest heart in those experimental ages of railway +enterprise. It is easy enough for us now to undertake tunnelling great +hills or filling up wide valleys with long ranges of viaduct, because +the thing has been done so often, and the prospect of earning a fair +return on the money sunk can be calculated with so high a degree of +reasonable probability. But it required no little faith for George +Stephenson and his backers to drive a level road, for the first time, +through solid rocks and over trembling morasses, the whole way from +Liverpool to Manchester. He persevered, however, and in 1830, after +four years' toilsome and ceaseless labour, during which he had worked +far-harder than the sturdiest navvy on the line, his railway was +finally opened for regular traffic. + +Before the completion of the railway, George Stephenson had taken part +in a great contest for the best locomotive at Liverpool, a prize of 500 +pounds having been offered by the company to the successful competitor. +Stephenson sent in his improved model, the Rocket, constructed after +plans of his own and his son Robert's, and it gained the prize against +all its rivals, travelling at what was then considered the incredible +rate of 35 miles an hour. It was thus satisfactorily settled that the +locomotive was the best power for drawing carriages on railways, and +George Stephenson's long battle was thus at last practically won. + +The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway was an era in the +history of the world. From the moment that great undertaking was +complete, there could no longer be any doubt about the utility and +desirability of railways, and all opposition died away almost at once. +New lines began immediately to be laid out, and in an incredibly short +time the face of England was scarred by the main trunks in that network +of iron roads with which its whole surface is now so closely covered. +The enormous development of the railway system benefited the Stephenson +family in more than one way. Robert Stephenson became the engineer of +the vast series of lines now known as the London and North Western; and +the increased demand for locomotives caused George Stephenson's small +factory at Newcastle to blossom out suddenly into an immense and +flourishing manufacturing concern. + +The rest of George Stephenson's life is one long story of unbroken +success. In 1831, the year after the opening of the Liverpool and +Manchester line, George, being now fifty, began to think of settling +down in a more permanent home. His son Robert, who was surveying the +Leicester and Swannington railway, observed on an estate called +Snibston, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, what to his experienced geological +eye looked like the probable indications of coal beneath the surface. +He wrote to his father about it, and as the estate was at the time for +sale, George, now a comparatively wealthy man, bought it up on his +son's recommendation. He also pitched his home close by at Alton +Grange, and began to sink shafts in search of coal. He found it in due +time; and thus, in addition to his Newcastle works, he became a +flourishing colliery proprietor. It is pleasing to note that +Stephenson, unlike too many other self-made men, always treated his +workmen with the greatest kindness and consideration, erecting +admirable cottages for their accommodation, and providing them with +church, chapel, and schools for their religious and social education. + +While living at Alton Grange, Stephenson was engaged in laying out +several new lines in the middle and north of England, especially the +Grand Junction and the Midland, both of which he constructed with great +boldness and practical skill. As he grew older and more famous, he +began to mix in the truly best society of England; his acquaintance +being sought by all the most eminent men in literature, science, and +political life. Though but an uneducated working man by origin, George +Stephenson had so improved his mind by constant thought and expansive +self-education, that he was able to meet these able and distinguished +friends of his later days on terms of perfect intellectual and social +equality. To the last, however, he never forgot his older and poorer +friends, nor was he ever ashamed of their acquaintance. A pleasant +trait is narrated by his genial biographer, Dr. Smiles, who notices +that on one occasion he stopped to speak to one of his wealthy +acquaintances in a fine carriage, and then turned to shake hands with +the coachman on the box, whom he had known and respected in his earlier +days. He enjoyed, too, the rare pleasure of feeling his greatness +recognized in his own time: and once, when he went over to Brussels on +a visit to the king of the Belgians, he was pleased and surprised, as +the royal party entered the ball-room at the Town Hall, to hear a +general murmur among the guests of "Which is Stephenson?" + +George Stephenson continued to live for sixteen years, first at Alton +Grange, and afterwards at Tapton House, near Chesterfield, in comfort +and opulence; growing big pines and melons, keeping birds and dogs, and +indulging himself towards the end in the well-earned repose to which +his useful and laborious life fully entitled him. At last, on the 12th +of August, 1848, he died suddenly of intermittent fever, in his +sixty-seventh year, and was peacefully buried in Chesterfield church. +Probably no one man who ever lived did so much to change and renovate +the whole aspect of human life as George Stephenson; and, unlike many +other authors of great revolutions, he lived long enough to see the +full result of his splendid labours in the girdling of England by his +iron roads. A grand and simple man, he worked honestly and steadfastly +throughout his days, and he found his reward in the unprecedented +benefits which his locomotive was even then conferring upon his +fellow-men. It is indeed wonderful to think how very different is the +England in which we live to-day, from that in which we might possibly +have been living were it not for the barefooted little collier boy who +made clay models of engines at Wylam, and who grew at last into the +great and famous engineer of the marvellous Liverpool and Manchester +railway. The main characteristic of George Stephenson was +perseverance; and it was that perseverance that enabled him at last to +carry out his magnificent schemes in the face of so much bitter and +violent opposition. + + + + +III. + +JOHN GIBSON, SCULPTOR. + + +In most cases, the working man who raises himself to wealth and +position, does so by means of trade, which is usually the natural +outgrowth of his own special handicraft or calling. If he attains, not +only to riches, but to distinction as well, it is in general by +mechanical talent, the direction of the mind being naturally biased by +the course of one's own ordinary occupations. England has been +exceptionally rich in great engineers and inventive geniuses of such +humble origin--working men who have introduced great improvements in +manufactures or communications; and our modern English civilization has +been immensely influenced by the lives of these able and successful +mechanical toilers. From Brindley, the constructor of the earliest +great canal, to Joseph Gillott, the inventor of the very steel pen with +which this book is written; from Arkwright the barber who fashioned the +first spinning-machine, to Crompton the weaver, whose mule gave rise to +the mighty Manchester cotton trade; from Newcomen, who made the first +rough attempt at a steam-engine, to Stephenson, who sent the iron horse +from end to end of the land,--the chief mechanical improvements in the +country have almost all been due to the energy, intelligence, and skill +of our labouring population. The English mind is intensely practical, +and the English working man, for the last two centuries at least, has +been mainly distinguished for his great mechanical aptitude, bursting +out, here and there, in exceptional persons, under the form of +exceedingly high inventive genius. + +At our very doors, however, there is a small nation of largely +different blood and of wholly different speech from our own; a nation +forming a part of our own kingdom, even more closely than the Scotch or +the Irish, and yet in some respects further from us in mind and habit +of life than either; a nation marked rather by the poetical and +artistic, than by the mechanical and practical temperament--the ancient +and noble Welsh people. It would hardly be reasonable to expect from +the Welsh exactly the same kind of success in life which we often find +in English workmen; the aims and ideals of the two races are so +distinct, and it must be frankly confessed the advantage is not always +on the side of the Englishman. The Welsh peasants, living among their +own romantic hills and valleys, speaking their own soft and exquisite +language, treasuring their own plaintive and melodious poetry, have +grown up with an intense love for beauty and the beautiful closely +intwined into the very warp and woof of their inmost natures. They +have almost always a natural refinement of manner and delicacy of +speech which is unfortunately too often wanting amongst our rougher +English labouring classes, especially in large towns. They are +intensely musical, producing a very large proportion of the best +English singers and composers. They are fond of literature, for which +they have generally some natural capacity, and in which they exercise +themselves to an extent unknown, probably, among people of their class +in any other country. At the local meetings of bards (as they call +themselves) in Wales, it is not at all uncommon to hear that the first +prize for Welsh poetry has been carried off by a shepherd, and the +first prize for Welsh prose composition by a domestic servant. In +short, the susceptibilities of the race run rather toward art and +imagination, than toward mere moneymaking and practical ingenuity. + +John Gibson, sculptor, of Rome, as he loved to call himself, was a +remarkable embodiment, in many ways, of this self-respecting, artistic, +ideal Welsh peasant temperament. In a little village near Conway, in +North Wales, there lived at the end of the last century a petty +labouring market gardener of the name of Gibson, who knew and spoke no +other tongue than his native Welsh. In 1790, his wife gave birth to a +son whom they christened John, and who grew up, a workman's child, +under the shadow of the great castle, and among the exquisite scenery +of the placid land-locked Conway river. John Gibson's parents, like +the mass of labouring Welsh people, were honest, God-fearing folk, with +a great earnestness of principle, a profound love of truth, and a +hatred of all mean or dirty actions. They brought up the boy in these +respects in the way he should go; and when he was old he indeed did not +depart from them. Throughout his life, John Gibson was remarkable for +his calm, earnest, straightforward simplicity, a simplicity which +seemed almost childish to those who could not understand so grand and +uncommon and noble a nature as his. + +From his babyhood, almost, the love of art was innate in the boy; and +when he was only seven years old, he began to draw upon a slate a scene +that particularly pleased him--a line of geese sailing upon the smooth +glassy surface of a neighbouring pond. He drew them as an ordinary +child almost always does draw--one goose after another, in profile, as +though they were in procession, without any attempt at grouping or +perspective in any way. His mother praised the first attempt, saying +to him in Welsh, "Indeed, Jack, this is very like the geese;" and Jack, +encouraged by her praise, decided immediately to try again. But not +being an ordinary child, he determined this time to do better; he drew +the geese one behind the other as one generally sees them in actual +nature. His mother then asked him to draw a horse; and "after gazing +long and often upon one," he says, "I at last ventured to commit him to +the slate." When he had done so, the good mother was even more +delighted. So, to try his childish art, she asked him to put a rider +on the horse's back. Jack went out once more, "carefully watched men +on horseback," and then returning, made his sketch accordingly. In +this childish reminiscence one can see already the first workings of +that spirit which made Gibson afterwards into the greatest sculptor of +all Europe. He didn't try even then to draw horse or man by mere +guesswork; he went out and studied the subject at first hand. There +are in that single trait two great elements of success in no matter +what line of life--supreme carefulness, and perfect honesty of +workmanship. + +When Jack was nine years old, his father determined to emigrate to +America, and for that purpose went to Liverpool to embark for the +United States. But when he had got as far as the docks, Mrs. Gibson, +good soul, frightened at the bigness of the ships (a queer cause of +alarm), refused plumply ever to put her foot on one of them. So her +husband, a dutiful man with a full sense of his wife's government upon +him, consented unwillingly to stop in Liverpool, where he settled down +to work again as a gardener. Hitherto, Jack and his brothers had spoken +nothing but Welsh; but at Liverpool he was put to school, and soon +learned to express himself correctly and easily in English. Liverpool +was a very different place for young Jack Gibson from Conway: there +were no hills and valleys there, to be sure, but there were shops--such +shops! all full of the most beautiful and highly coloured prints and +caricatures, after the fashion of the days when George IV. was still +Prince Regent. All his spare time he now gave up to diligently copying +the drawings which he saw spread out in tempting array before him in +the shop-windows. Flattening his little nose against the glass panes, +he used to look long and patiently at a single figure, till he had got +every detail of its execution fixed firmly on his mind's eye; and then +he would go home hastily and sketch it out at once while the picture +was still quite fresh in his vivid memory. Afterwards he would return +to the shop-window, and correct his copy by the original till it was +completely finished. No doubt the boy did all this purely for his own +amusement; but at the same time he was quite unconsciously teaching +himself to draw under a very careful and accurate master--himself. +Already, however, he found his paintings had patrons, for he sold them +when finished to the other boys; and once he got as much as sixpence +for a coloured picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps--"the largest +sum," he says brightly in his memoirs long after, "I had yet received +for a work of art." + +Opportunities always arise for those who know how to use them. Little +Jack Gibson used to buy his paper and colours at a stationer's in +Liverpool, who one day said to him kindly, "My lad, you're a constant +customer here: I suppose you're a painter." "Yes, sir," Jack answered, +with childish self-complacency, "I do paint." The stationer, who had +himself studied at the Royal Academy, asked him to bring his pictures +on view; and when Jack did so, his new friend, Mr. Tourmeau, was so +much pleased with them that he lent the boy drawings to copy, and +showed him how to draw for himself from plaster casts. These first +amateur lessons must have given the direction to all Gibson's later +life: for when the time came for him to choose a trade, he was not set +to till the ground like his father, but was employed at once on +comparatively artistic and intelligent handicraft. + +Jack was fourteen when his father apprenticed him to a firm of +cabinet-makers. For the first year, he worked away contentedly at legs +and mouldings; but as soon as he had learnt the rudiments of the trade +he persuaded his masters to change his indentures, and let him take the +more suitable employment of carving woodwork for ornamental furniture. +He must have been a good workman and a promising boy, one may be sure, +or his masters would never have countenanced such a revolutionary +proceeding on the part of a raw apprentice. Young Gibson was delighted +with his new occupation, and pursued it so eagerly that he carved even +during his leisure hours from plaster casts. But after another year, +as ill-luck or good fortune would have it, he happened to come across a +London marble-cutter, who had come down to Liverpool to carve flowers +in marble for a local firm. The boy was enchanted with his freer and +more artistic work; when the marble-cutter took him over a big yard, +and showed him the process of modelling and cutting, he began to feel a +deep contempt for his own stiff and lifeless occupation of woodcarving. +Inspired with the desire to learn this higher craft, he bought some +clay, took it home, and moulded it for himself after all the casts he +could lay his hands on. Mr. Francis, the proprietor of the marble +works, had a German workman in his employ of the name of Luge, who used +to model small figures, chiefly, no doubt, for monumental purposes. +Young Gibson borrowed a head of Bacchus that Luge had composed, and +made a copy of it himself in clay. Mr. Francis was well pleased with +this early attempt, and also with a clever head of Mercury in marble, +which Gibson carved in his spare moments. + +The more the lad saw of clay and marble, the greater grew his distaste +for mere woodwork. At last, he determined to ask Mr. Francis to buy +out his indentures from the cabinet-makers, and let him finish his +apprenticeship as a sculptor. But unfortunately the cabinet-makers +found Gibson too useful a person to be got rid of so easily: they said +he was the most industrious lad they had ever had; and so his very +virtues seemed as it were to turn against him. Not so, really: Mr. +Francis thought so well of the boy that he offered the masters 70 +pounds to be quit of their bargain; and in the end, Gibson himself +having made a very firm stand in the matter, he was released from his +indentures and handed over finally to Mr. Francis and a sculptor's life. + +And now the eager boy was at last "truly happy." He had to model all +day long, and he worked away at it with a will. Shortly after he went +to Mr. Francis's yard, a visitor came upon business, a +magnificent-looking old man, with snowy hair and Roman features. It was +William Roscoe, the great Liverpool banker, himself a poor boy who had +risen, and who had found time not only to build up for himself an +enormous fortune, but also to become thoroughly well acquainted with +literature and art by the way. Mr. Roscoe had written biographies of +Lorenzo de Medici, the great Florentine, and of Leo X., the art-loving +pope; and throughout his whole life he was always deeply interested in +painting and sculpture and everything that related to them. He was a +philanthropist, too, who had borne his part bravely in the great +struggle for the abolition of the slave trade; and to befriend a +struggling lad of genius like John Gibson was the very thing that was +nearest and dearest to his benevolent heart. Mr. Francis showed Roscoe +the boy's drawings and models; and Roscoe's appreciative eye saw in +them at once the visible promise of great things to be. He had come to +order a chimney-piece for his library at Allerton, where his important +historical works were all composed; and he determined that the clever +boy should have a chief hand in its production. A few days later he +returned again with a valuable old Italian print. "I want you to make +a bas-relief in baked clay," he said to Gibson, "from this print for +the centres of my mantelpiece." Gibson was overjoyed. The print was +taken from a fresco of Raphael's in the Vatican at Rome, and Gibson's +work was to reproduce it in clay in low relief, as a sculpture picture. +He did so entirely to his new patron's satisfaction, and this his first +serious work is now duly preserved in the Liverpool Institution which +Mr. Roscoe had been mainly instrumental in founding. + +Roscoe had a splendid collection of prints and drawings at Allerton; +and he invited the clever Welsh lad over there frequently, and allowed +him to study them all to his heart's content. To a lad like John +Gibson, such an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the works of +Raphael and Michael Angelo was a great and pure delight. Before he was +nineteen, he began to think of a big picture which he hoped to paint +some day; and he carried it out as well as he was able in his own +self-taught fashion. For as yet, it must be remembered, Gibson had had +no regular artistic instruction: there was none such, indeed, to be had +at all in Liverpool in his day; and there was no real art going on in +the town in any way. Mr. Francis, his master, was no artist; nor was +there anybody at the works who could teach him: for as soon as Mr. +Francis found out the full measure of Gibson's abilities, he dismissed +his German artist Luge, and put the clever boy entirely in his place. +At this time, Gibson was only receiving six shillings a week as wages; +but Mr. Francis got good prices for many of his works, and was not +ashamed even to put his own name upon the promising lad's artistic +performances. + +Mr. Roscoe did not merely encourage the young sculptor; he set him also +on the right road for ultimate success. He urged Gibson to study +anatomy, without which no sculpture worthy of the name is possible. +Gibson gladly complied, for he knew that Michael Angelo had been a +great anatomist, and Michael was just at that moment the budding +sculptor's idol and ideal. But how could he learn? A certain Dr. Vose +was then giving lectures on anatomy to young surgeons at Liverpool, and +on Roscoe's recommendation he kindly admitted the eager student gratis +to his dissecting-room. Gibson dissected there with a will in all his +spare moments, and as he put his mind into the work he soon became well +versed in the construction of the human body. + +From the day that Gibson arrived at man's estate, the great dream of +his life was to go to Rome. For Rome is to art what London is to +industry--the metropolis in its own way of the entire earth. But +travelling in 1810 cost a vast deal of money; and the poor Liverpool +marble-cutter (for as yet he was really nothing more) could hardly hope +to earn the immense sum that such an expedition would necessarily cost +him. So for six years more he went on working at Liverpool in his own +native untaught fashion, doing his best to perfect himself, but feeling +sadly the lack of training and competition. One of the last works he +executed while still in Mr. Francis's service was a chimney-piece for +Sir John Gladstone, father of the future premier. Sir John was so +pleased with the execution, that he gave the young workman ten pounds +as a present. But in spite of occasional encouragement like this, +Gibson felt himself at Liverpool, as he says, "chained down by the leg, +and panting for liberation." + +In 1817, when he was just twenty-seven, he determined to set off to +London. He took with him good introductions from Mr. Roscoe to Mr. +Brougham (afterwards Lord Chancellor), to Christie, the big +picture-dealer, and to several other influential people. Later on, +Roscoe recommended him to still more important leaders in the world of +art--Flaxman the great sculptor, Benjamin West, the Quaker painter and +President of the Royal Academy, and others of like magnitude. Mr. +Watson Taylor, a wealthy art patron, gave Gibson employment, and was +anxious that he should stop in London. But Gibson wanted more than +employment; he wanted to LEARN, to perfect himself, to become great in +his art. He could do that nowhere but at Rome, and to Rome therefore +he was determined to go. Mr. Taylor still begged him to wait a little. +"Go to Rome I will," Gibson answered boldly, "even if I have to go +there on foot." + +He was not quite reduced to this heroic measure, however, for his +Liverpool friends made up a purse of 150 pounds for him (we may be sure +it was repaid later on); and with that comparatively large sum in his +pocket the young stone-cutter started off gaily on his continental +tour, from which he was not to return for twenty-seven years. He drove +from Paris to Rome, sharing a carriage with a Scotch gentleman; and +when he arrived in the Pope's city (as it then was) he knew absolutely +not a single word of Italian, or of any other language on earth save +Welsh and English. In those days, Canova, the great Venetian sculptor, +was the head of artistic society in Rome; and as ALL society in Rome is +more or less artistic, he might almost be said to have led the whole +life of the great and lively city. Indeed, the position of such a man +in Italy resembles far more that of a duke in England than of an artist +as we here are accustomed to think of him. Gibson had letters of +introduction to this prince of sculptors from his London friends; and +when he went to present them, he found Canova in his studio, surrounded +by his numerous scholars and admirers. The Liverpool stone-cutter had +brought a few of his drawings with him, and Canova examined them with +great attention. Instinctively he recognized the touch of genius. +When he had looked at them keenly for a few minutes, he turned kindly +to the trembling young man, and said at once, "Come to me alone next +week, for I want to have a talk with you." + +On the appointed day, Gibson, quivering with excitement; presented +himself once more at the great master's studio. Canova was surrounded +as before by artists and visitors; but in a short time he took Gibson +into a room by himself, and began to speak with him in his very broken +English. Many artists came to Rome, he said, with very small means, +and that perhaps might be Gibson's case. "Let me have the +gratification, then," he went on, "of assisting you to prosecute your +studies. I am rich. I am anxious to be of use to you. Let me forward +you in your art as long as you stay in Rome." + +Gibson replied, with many stammerings, that he hoped his slender means +would suffice for his personal needs, but that if Canova would only +condescend to give him instruction, to make him his pupil, to let him +model in his studio, he would be eternally grateful. Canova was one of +the most noble and lovable of men. He acceded at once to Gibson's +request, and Gibson never forgot his kind and fatherly assistance. +"Dear generous master," the Welsh sculptor wrote many years after, when +Canova had long passed away, "I see you before me now. I hear your +soft Venetian dialect, and your kindly words inspiring my efforts and +gently correcting my defects. My heart still swells with grateful +recollection of you." + +Canova told his new pupil to devote a few days first to seeing the +sights of Rome; but Gibson was impatient to begin at once. "I shall be +at your studio to-morrow morning," the ardent Welshman said; and he +kept his word. Canova, pleased with so much earnestness and +promptitude, set him to work forthwith upon a clay model from his own +statue of the Pugilist. Gibson went to the task with a will, moulding +the clay as best he could into shape; but he still knew so little of +the technical ways of regular sculptors that he tried to model this +work from the clay alone, though its pose was such that it could not +possibly hold together without an iron framework. Canova saw his error +and smiled, but let him go on so that he might learn his business by +experience. In a day or two the whole thing, of course, collapsed by +its own weight; and then Canova called in a blacksmith and showed the +eager beginner how the mechanical skeleton was formed with iron bars, +and interlacing crosses of wood and wire. This was quite a new idea to +Gibson, who had modelled hitherto only in his own self-taught fashion +with moist clay, letting it support its own weight as best it might. +Another pupil then fleshed out the iron skeleton with clay, and roughly +shaped it to the required figure, so that it stood as firm as a rock +for Gibson to work upon. The new hand turned to vigorously once more; +and, in spite of his seeming rawness, finished the copy so well that +Canova admitted him at once to the Academy to model from life. At this +Academy Canova himself, who loved art far more than money, used to +attend twice a week to give instruction to students without receiving +any remuneration whatsoever. It is of such noble men as this that the +world of art is largely made up--that world which we too-practical +English have always undervalued or even despised. + +Gibson's student period at Rome under Canova was a very happy episode +in a uniformly happy and beautiful life. His only trouble was that he +had not been able to come there earlier. Singularly free from every +taint of envy (like all the great sculptors of his time), he could not +help regretting when he saw other men turning out work of such great +excellence while he was still only a learner. "When I observed the +power and experience of youths much younger than myself," he says in +his generous appreciative fashion, "their masterly manner of sketching +in the figure, and their excellent imitation of nature, my spirits fell +many degrees, and I felt humbled and unhappy." He need not have done +so, for the man who thus distrusts his own work is always the truest +workman; it is only fools or poor creatures who are pleased and +self-satisfied with their own first bungling efforts. But the great +enjoyment of Rome to Gibson consisted in the free artistic society +which he found there. At Liverpool, he had felt almost isolated; there +was hardly anybody with whom he could talk on an equality about his +artistic interests; nobody but himself cared about the things that +pleased and engrossed his earnest soul the most. But at Rome, there +was a great society of artists; every man's studio was open to his +friends and fellow-workers; and a lively running fire of criticism went +on everywhere about all new works completed or in progress. He was +fortunate, too, in the exact moment of his residence: Rome then +contained at once, besides himself, the two truest sculptors of the +present century, Canova the Venetian, and Thorwaldsen the Dane. Both +these great masters were singularly free from jealousy, rivalry, or +vanity. In their perfect disinterestedness and simplicity of character +they closely resembled Gibson himself. The ardent and pure-minded +young Welshman, who kept himself so unspotted from the world in his +utter devotion to his chosen art, could not fail to derive an elevated +happiness from his daily intercourse with these two noble and +sympathetic souls. + +After Gibson had been for some time in Canova's studio, his illustrious +master told him that the sooner he took to modelling a life-size figure +of his own invention, the better. So Gibson hired a studio (with what +means he does not tell us in his short sketch of his own life) close to +Canova's, so that the great Venetian was able to drop in from time to +time and assist him with his criticism and judgment. How delightful is +the friendly communion of work implied in all this graceful artistic +Roman life! How different from the keen competition and jealous +rivalry which too often distinguishes our busy money-getting English +existence! In 1819, two years after Gibson's arrival at Rome, he began +to model his Mars and Cupid, a more than life-size group, on which he +worked patiently and lovingly for many months. When it was nearly +finished, one day a knock came at the studio door. After the knock, a +handsome young man entered, and announced himself brusquely as the Duke +of Devonshire. "Canova sent me," he said, "to see what you were +doing." Gibson wasn't much accustomed to dukes in those days--he grew +more familiar with them later on--and we may be sure the poor young +artist's heart beat a little more fiercely than usual when the stranger +asked him the price of his Mars and Cupid in marble. The sculptor had +never yet sold a statue, and didn't know how much he ought to ask; but +after a few minutes' consideration he said, "Five hundred pounds. But, +perhaps," he added timidly, "I have said too much." "Oh no," the duke +answered, "not at all too much;" and he forthwith ordered (or, as +sculptors prefer to say, commissioned) the statue to be executed for +him in marble. Gibson was delighted, and ran over at once to tell +Canova, thinking he had done a splendid stroke of business. Canova +shared his pleasure, till the young man came to the price; then the +older sculptor's face fell ominously. "Five hundred pounds!" he cried +in dismay; "why, it won't cover the cost of marble and workmanship." +And so indeed it turned out; for when the work was finished, it had +stood Gibson in 520 pounds for marble and expenses, and left him twenty +pounds out of pocket in the end. So he got less than nothing after all +for his many months of thought and labour over clay and marble alike. + +Discouraging as this beginning must have proved, it was nevertheless in +reality the first important step in a splendid and successful career. +It is something to have sold your first statue, even if you sell it at +a disadvantage. In 1821 Gibson modelled a group of Pysche and the +Zephyrs. That winter Sir George Beaumont, himself a distinguished +amateur artist, and a great patron of art, came to Rome; and Canova +sent him to see the young Welshman's new composition. Sir George asked +the price, and Gibson, this time more cautious, asked for time to +prepare an estimate, and finally named 700 pounds. To his joy, Sir +George immediately ordered it, and also introduced many wealthy +connoisseurs to the rising sculptor's studio. That same winter, also, +the Duke of Devonshire came again, and commissioned a bas-relief in +marble (which is now at Chatsworth House, with many other of Gibson's +works), at a paying price, too, which was a great point for the young +man's scanty exchequer. + +Unfortunately, Gibson has not left us any notice of how he managed to +make both ends meet during this long adult student period at Rome. +Information on that point would indeed be very interesting; but so +absorbed was the eager Welshman always in his art, that he seldom tells +us anything at all about such mere practical every-day matters as bread +and butter. To say the truth, he cared but little about them. +Probably he had lived in a very simple penurious style during his whole +studenthood, taking his meals at a cafe or eating-house, and centering +all his affection and ideas upon his beloved studio. But now wealth +and fame began to crowd in upon him, almost without the seeking. +Visitors to Rome began to frequent the Welshman's rooms, and the death +of "the great and good Canova," which occurred in 1822, while depriving +Gibson of a dearly loved friend, left him, as it were, that great +master's successor. Towards him and Thorwaldsen, indeed, Gibson always +cherished a most filial regard. "May I not be proud," he writes long +after, "to have known such men, to have conversed with them, watched +all their proceedings, heard all their great sentiments on art? Is it +not a pleasure to be so deeply in their debt for instruction?" And now +the flood of visitors who used to flock to Canova's studio began to +transfer their interest to Gibson's. Commission after commission was +offered him, and he began to make money faster than he could use it. +His life had always been simple and frugal--the life of a working man +with high aims and grand ideals: he hardly knew now how to alter it. +People who did not understand Gibson used to say in his later days that +he loved money, because he made much and spent little. Those who knew +him better say rather that he worked much for the love of art, and +couldn't find much to do with his money when he had earned it. He was +singularly indifferent to gain; he cared not what he eat or drank; he +spent little on clothes, and nothing on entertainments; but he paid his +workmen liberally or even lavishly; he allowed one of his brothers more +than he ever spent upon himself, and he treated the other with uniform +kindness and generosity. The fact is, Gibson didn't understand money, +and when it poured in upon him in large sums, he simply left it in the +hands of friends, who paid him a very small percentage on it, and whom +he always regarded as being very kind to take care of the troublesome +stuff on his account. In matters of art, Gibson was a great master; in +matters of business, he was hardly more than a simple-minded child. + +Sometimes queer incidents occurred at Gibson's studio from the curious +ignorance of our countrymen generally on the subject of art. One day, +a distinguished and wealthy Welsh gentleman called on the sculptor, and +said that, as a fellow Welshman, he was anxious to give him a +commission. As he spoke, he cast an admiring eye on Gibson's group of +Psyche borne by the Winds. Gibson was pleased with his admiration, but +rather taken aback when the old gentleman said blandly, "If you were to +take away the Psyche and put a dial in the place, it'd make a capital +design for a clock." Much later, the first Duke of Wellington called +upon him at Rome and ordered a statue of Pandora, in an attitude which +he described. Gibson at once saw that the Duke's idea was a bad one, +and told him so. By-and-by, on a visit to England, Gibson waited on +the duke, and submitted photographs of the work he had modelled. "But, +Mr. Gibson," said the old soldier, looking at them curiously, "you +haven't followed my idea." "No," answered the sculptor, "I have +followed MY OWN." "You are very stubborn," said Wellington. "Duke," +answered the sturdy sculptor, "I am a Welshman, and all the world knows +that we are a stubborn race." The Iron Duke ought to have been +delighted to find another man as unbending as himself, but he wasn't; +and in the end he refused the figure, which Gibson sold instead to Lady +Marian Alford. + +For twenty-seven years Gibson remained at Rome, working assiduously at +his art, and rising gradually but surely to the very first place among +then living sculptors. His studio now became the great centre of all +fashionable visitors to Rome. Still, he made no effort to get rich, +though he got rich without wishing it; he worked on merely for art's +sake, not for money. He would not do as many sculptors do, keep +several copies in marble of his more popular statues for sale; he +preferred to devote all his time to new works. "Gibson was always +absorbed in one subject," says Lady Eastlake, "and that was the +particular work or part of a work--were it but the turn of a corner of +drapery--which was then under his modelling hands. Time was nothing to +him; he was long and fastidious." His favourite pupil, Miss Hosmer, +once expressed regret to him that she had been so long about a piece of +work on which she was engaged. "Always try to do the best you can," +Gibson answered. "Never mind how long you are upon a work--no. No one +will ask how long you have been, except fools. You don't care what +fools think." + +During his long life at Rome, he was much cheered by the presence and +assistance of his younger brother, Mr. Ben, as he always called him, +who was also a sculptor, though of far less merit than John Gibson +himself. Mr. Ben came to Rome younger than John, and he learned to be +a great classical scholar, and to read those Greek and Latin books +which John only knew at second hand, but from whose beautiful fanciful +stories of gods and heroes he derived all the subjects for his works of +statuary. His other brother, Solomon, a strange, wild, odd man, in +whom the family genius had degenerated into mere eccentricity, never +did anything for his own livelihood, but lived always upon John +Gibson's generous bounty. In John's wealthy days, he and Mr. Ben used +to escape every summer from the heat and dust of Rome--which is +unendurable in July and August--to the delightfully cool air and +magnificent mountain scenery of the Tyrol. "I cannot tell you how well +I am," he writes on one of these charming visits, "and so is Mr. Ben. +Every morning we take our walks in the woods here. I feel as if I were +new modelled." Another passage in one of these summer tourist letters +well deserves to be copied here, as it shows the artist's point of view +of labours like Telford's and Stephenson's. "From Bormio," he says, +"the famous road begins which passes over the Stelvio into the Tyrol; +the highest carriage-road in the world. We began the ascent early in +the morning. It is magnificent and wonderful. Man shows his talents, +his power over great difficulties, in the construction of these roads. +Behold the cunning little workman--he comes, he explores, and he says, +'Yes, I will send a carriage and horses over these mighty mountains;' +and, by Jove, you are drawn up among the eternal snows. I am a great +admirer of these roads." + +In 1844 Gibson paid his first visit to England, a very different +England indeed to the one he had left twenty-seven years earlier. His +Liverpool friends, now thoroughly proud of their stone-cutter, insisted +upon giving him a public banquet. Glasgow followed the same example; +and the simple-minded sculptor, unaccustomed to such honours, hardly +knew how to bear his blushes decorously upon him. During this visit, he +received a command to execute a statue of the queen. Gibson was at +first quite disconcerted at such an awful summons. "I don't know how +to behave to queens," he said. "Treat her like a lady," said a friend; +and Gibson, following the advice, found it sufficiently answered all +the necessities of the situation. But when he went to arrange with the +Prince Consort about the statue, he was rather puzzled what he should +do about measuring the face, which he always did for portrait sculpture +with a pair of compasses. All these difficulties were at last smoothed +over; and Gibson was also permitted to drape the queen's statue in +Greek costume, for in his artistic conscientiousness he absolutely +refused to degrade sculpture by representing women in the fashionable +gown of the day, or men in swallow-tail coats and high collars. + +Another work which Gibson designed during this visit possesses for us a +singular and exceptional interest. It was a statue of George +Stephenson, to be erected at Liverpool. Thus, by a curious +coincidence, the Liverpool stone-cutter was set to immortalize the +features and figure of the Killingworth engine-man. Did those two +great men, as they sat together in one room, sculptor and sitter, know +one another's early history and strange struggles, we wonder? Perhaps +not; but if they did, it must surely have made a bond of union between +them. At any rate, Gibson greatly admired Stephenson, just as he had +admired the Stelvio road. "I will endeavour to give him a look capable +of action and energy," he said; "but he must be contemplative, grave, +simple. He is a good subject. I wish to make him look like an +Archimedes." + +If Gibson admired Stephenson, however, he did not wholly admire +Stephenson's railways. The England he had left was the England of +mail-coaches. In Italy, he had learnt to travel by carriage, after the +fashion of the country; but these new whizzing locomotives, with their +time-tables, and their precision, and their inscrutable mysteries of +shunts and junctions, were quite too much for his simple, childish, +old-world habits. He had a knack of getting out too soon or too late, +which often led him into great confusion. Once, when he wanted to go to +Chichester, he found himself landed at Portsmouth, and only discovered +his mistake when, on asking the way to the cathedral, he was told there +was no cathedral in the town at all. Another story of how he tried to +reach Wentworth, Lord Fitzwilliam's place, is best told in his own +words. "The train soon stopped at a small station, and, seeing some +people get out, I also descended; when, in a moment, the train moved +on--faster and faster--and left me standing on the platform. I walked +a few paces backward and forward in disagreeable meditation. 'I wish +to Heaven,' thought I to myself, 'that I was on my way back to Rome +with a postboy.' Then I observed a policeman darting his eyes upon me, +as if he would look me through. Said I to the fellow, 'Where is that +cursed train gone to? It's off with my luggage and here am I.' The +man asked me the name of the place where I took my ticket. 'I don't +remember,' said I. 'How should I know the name of any of these +places?--it's as long as my arm. I've got it written down somewhere.' +'Pray, sir,' said the man, after a little pause, 'are you a foreigner?' +'No,' I replied, 'I am not a foreigner; I'm a sculptor.'" + +The consequence of this almost childish carelessness was that Gibson +had always to be accompanied on his long journeys either by a friend or +a courier. While Mr. Ben lived, he usually took his brother in charge +to some extent; and the relation between them was mutual, for while +John Gibson found the sculpture, Mr. Ben found the learning, so that +Gibson used often to call him "my classical dictionary." In 1847, +however, Mr. Ben was taken ill. He got a bad cold, and would have no +doctor, take no medicine. "I consider Mr. Ben," his brother writes, +"as one of the most amiable of human beings--too good for this +world--but he will take no care against colds, and when ill he is a +stubborn animal." That summer Gibson went again to England, and when, +he came back found Mr. Ben no better. For four years the younger +brother lingered on, and in 1851 died suddenly from the effects of a +fall in walking. Gibson was thus left quite alone, but for his pupil +Miss Hosmer, who became to him more than a daughter. + +During his later years Gibson took largely to tinting his +statues--colouring them faintly with flesh-tones and other hues like +nature; and this practice he advocated with all the strength of his +single-minded nature. All visitors to the great Exhibition of 1862 +will remember his beautiful tinted Venus, which occupied the place of +honour in a light temple erected for the purpose by another +distinguished artistic Welshman, Mr. Owen Jones, who did much towards +raising the standard of taste in the English people. + +In January, 1866, John Gibson had a stroke of paralysis, from which he +never recovered. He died within the month, and was buried in the +English cemetery at Rome. Both his brothers had died before him; and +he left the whole of his considerable fortune to the Royal Academy in +England. An immense number of his works are in the possession of the +Academy, and are on view there throughout the year. + +John Gibson's life is very different in many respects from that of most +other great working men whose story is told in this volume. +Undoubtedly, he was deficient in several of those rugged and stern +qualities to which English working men have oftenest owed their final +success. But there was in him a simple grandeur of character, a purity +of soul, and an earnestness of aim which raised him at once far above +the heads of most among those who would have been the readiest to laugh +at and ridicule him. Besides his exquisite taste, his severe love of +beauty, and his marvellous power of expressing the highest ideals of +pure form, he had one thing which linked him to all the other great men +whose lives we have here recounted--his steadfast and unconquerable +personal energy. In one sense it may be said that he was not a +practical man; and yet in another and higher sense, what could possibly +be more practical than this accomplished resolve of the poor Liverpool +stone-cutter to overcome all obstacles, to go to, Rome, and to make +himself into a great sculptor? It is indeed a pity that in writing for +Englishmen of the present day such a life should even seem for a moment +to stand in need of a practical apology. For purity, for +guilelessness, for exquisite appreciation of the true purpose of +sculpture as the highest embodiment of beauty of form, John Gibson's +art stands unsurpassed in all the annals of modern statuary. + + + + +IV. + +WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BANDSMAN. + + +Old Isaac Herschel, the oboe-player of the King's Guard in Hanover, had +served with his regiment for many years in the chilly climate of North +Germany, and was left at last broken down in health and spirits by the +many hardships of several severe European campaigns. Isaac Herschel was +a man of tastes and education above his position; but he had married a +person in some respects quite unfitted for him. His good wife, Anna, +though an excellent housekeeper and an estimable woman in her way, had +never even learned to write; and when the pair finally settled down to +old age in Hanover, they were hampered by the cares of a large family +of ten children. Respectable poverty in Germany is even more pressing +than in England; the decent poor are accustomed to more frugal fare and +greater privations than with us; and the domestic life of the Herschel +family circle must needs have been of the most careful and penurious +description. Still, Isaac Herschel dearly loved his art, and in it he +found many amends and consolations for the sordid shifts and troubles +of a straitened German household. All his spare time was given to +music, and in his later days he was enabled to find sufficient pupils +to eke out his little income with comparative comfort. + +William Herschel, the great astronomer (born in 1738), was the fourth +child of his mother, and with his brothers he was brought up at the +garrison school in Hanover, together with the sons of the other common +soldiers. There he learned, not only the three R's, but also a little +French and English. Still, the boy was not content with these ordinary +studies; in his own playtime he took lessons in Latin and mathematics +privately with the regimental schoolmaster. The young Herschels, +indeed, were exceptionally fortunate in the possession of an excellent +and intelligent father, who was able to direct their minds into +channels which few people of their position in life have the +opportunity of entering. Isaac Herschel was partly of Jewish descent, +and he inherited in a marked degree two very striking Jewish gifts--a +turn for music, and a turn for philosophy. The Jews are probably the +oldest civilized race now remaining on earth; and their musical +faculties have been continuously exercised from a time long before the +days of David, so that now they produce undoubtedly a far larger +proportion of musicians and composers than any other class of the +population whatsoever. They are also deeply interested in the same +profound theological and philosophical problems which were discussed +with so much acuteness and freedom in the Book of Ecclesiastes and the +subtle argument of Job and his friends. There has never been a time +when the Jewish mind has not exercised itself profoundly on these deep +and difficult questions; and the Hanover bandsman inherited from his +Jewish ancestry an unusual interest in similar philosophical subjects. +Thus, while the little ones were sleeping in the same common room at +night, William and his father were often heard discussing the ideas of +such abstruse thinkers as Newton and Leibnitz, whose names must have +sounded strange indeed to the ordinary frequenters of the Hanover +barracks. On such occasions good dame Herschel was often compelled to +interpose between them, lest the loudness of their logic should wake +the younger children in the crib hard by. + +William, however, possessed yet another gift, which he is less likely +to have derived from the Jewish side of the house. He and his brother +Alexander were both distinguished by a natural taste for mechanics, and +early gave proof of their learning by turning neat globes with the +equator and ecliptic accurately engraved upon them, or by making model +instruments for their own amusement out of bits of pasteboard. Thus, +in early opportunities and educational advantages, the young Herschels +certainly started in life far better equipped than most working men's +sons; and, considering their father's doubtful position, it may seem at +first sight rather a stretch of language to describe him as a working +man at all. Nevertheless, when one remembers the humble grade of +military bandsmen in Germany, even at the present day, and the fact +that most of the Herschel family remained in that grade during all +their lives, it is clear that William Herschel's life may be fairly +included within the scope of the present series. "In my fifteenth +year," he says himself, "I enlisted in military service," and he +evidently looked upon his enlistment in exactly the same light as that +of any ordinary soldier. + +England and Hanover were, of course, very closely connected together at +the middle of the last century. The king moved about a great deal from +one country to the other; and in 1755 the regiment of Hanoverian Guards +was ordered on service to England for a year. William Herschel, then +seventeen years of age, and already a member of the band, went together +with his father; and it was in this modest capacity that he first made +acquaintance with the land where he was afterwards to attain the +dignity of knighthood and the post of the king's astronomer. He played +the oboe, like his father before him, and no doubt underwent the usual +severe military discipline of that age of stiff stocks and stern +punishments. His pay was very scanty, and out of it he only saved +enough to carry home one memento of his English experiences. That +memento was in itself a sufficient mark of the stuff from which young +Herschel was compounded. It was a copy of "Locke on the Human +Understanding." Now, Locke's famous work, oftener named than read, is a +very tough and serious bit of philosophical exposition; and a boy of +seventeen who buys such a book out of his meagre earnings as a military +bandsman is pretty sure not to end his life within the four dismal bare +walls of the barrack. It is indeed a curious picture to imagine young +William Herschel, among a group of rough and boisterous German +soldiers, discussing high mathematical problems with his father, or +sitting down quietly in a corner to read "Locke on the Human +Understanding." + +In 1757, during the Seven Years' War, Herschel was sent with his +regiment to serve in the campaign of Rossbach against the French. He +was not physically strong, and the hardships of active service told +terribly upon the still growing lad. His parents were alarmed at his +appearance when he returned, and were very anxious to "remove" him from +the service. That, however, was by no means an easy matter for them to +accomplish. They had no money to buy his discharge, and so, not to +call the transaction by any other than its true name, William Herschel +was forced to run away from the army. We must not judge too harshly of +this desertion, for the times were hard, and the lives of men in +Herschel's position were valued at very little by the constituted +authorities. Long after, it is said, when Herschel had distinguished +himself by the discovery of the planet Uranus, a pardon for this high +military offence was duly handed to him by the king in person on the +occasion of his first presentation. George III. was not a particularly +wise or brilliant man; but even he had sense enough to perceive that +William Herschel could serve the country far better by mapping out the +stars of heaven than by playing the oboe to the royal regiment of +Hanoverian Guards. + +William was nineteen when he ran away. His good mother packed his +boxes for him with such necessaries as she could manage, and sent them +after him to Hamburg; but, to the boy's intense disgust, she forgot to +send the copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding." What a sturdy +deserter we have here, to be sure! "She, dear woman," he says +plaintively, "knew no other wants than good linen and clothing!" So +William Herschel the oboe-player started off alone to earn his living +as best he might in the great world of England. It is strange he +should have chosen that, of all European countries; for there alone he +was liable to be arrested as a deserter: but perhaps his twelvemonth's +stay in London may have given him a sense of being at home amongst us +which he would have lacked in any other part of Europe. At any rate, +hither he came, and for the next three years picked up a livelihood, we +know not how, as many other excellent German bandsmen have done before +and since him. Our information about his early life is very meagre, +and at this period we lose sight of him for a while altogether. + +About the year 1760, however, we catch another incidental glimpse of +the young musician in his adopted country. By that time, he had found +himself once more a regular post as oboist to the Durham militia, then +quartered for its muster at Pontefract. A certain Dr. Miller, an +organist at Doncaster, was dining one evening at the officers' mess; +when his host happened to speak to him in high praise of a young German +they had in their band, who was really, he said, a most remarkable and +spirited performer. Dr. Miller asked to see (or rather hear) this +clever musician; so Herschel was called up, and made to go through a +solo for the visitor's gratification. The organist was surprised at +his admirable execution, and asked him on what terms he was engaged to +the Durham militia. "Only from month to month," Herschel answered. +"Then leave them at the end of your month," said Miller, "and come to +live with me. I'm a single man; I think we can manage together; and +I'm sure I can get you a better situation." Herschel frankly accepted +the offer so kindly made, and seems to have lived for much of the next +five years with Miller in his little two-roomed cottage at Doncaster. +Here he took pupils and performed in the orchestra at public concerts, +always in a very quiet and modest fashion. He also lived for part of +the time with a Mr. Bulman at Leeds, for whom he afterwards generously +provided a place as clerk to the Octagon Chapel at Bath. Indeed, it is +a very pleasing trait in William Herschel's character that to the end +he was constantly engaged in finding places for his early friends, as +well as for the less energetic or less fortunate members of his own +family. + +During these years, Herschel also seems to have given much attention to +the organ, which enabled him to make his next step in life in 1765, +when he was appointed organist at Halifax. Now, there is a great +social difference between the position of an oboe-player in a band and +a church organist; and it was through his organ-playing that Herschel +was finally enabled to leave his needy hand-to-mouth life in Yorkshire. +A year later, he obtained the post of organist to the Octagon Chapel at +Bath, an engagement which gave him new opportunities of turning his +mind to the studies for which he possessed a very marked natural +inclination. Bath was in those days not only the most fashionable +watering-place in England, but almost the only fashionable +watering-place in the whole kingdom. It was, to a certain extent, all +that Brighton, Scarborough, Buxton, and Harrogate are to-day, and +something more. In our own time, when railways and steamboats have so +altered the face of the world, the most wealthy and fashionable English +society resorts a great deal to continental pleasure towns like Cannes, +Nice, Florence, Vichy, Baden, Ems, and Homburg; but in the eighteenth +century it resorted almost exclusively to Bath. The Octagon Chapel was +in one sense the centre of life in Bath; and through his connection +with it, Herschel was thrown into a far more intelligent and learned +society than that which he had left behind him in still rural +Yorkshire. New books came early to Bath, and were read and discussed +in the reading-rooms; famous men and women came there, and contributed +largely to the intellectual life of the place; the theatre was the +finest out of London; the Assembly Rooms were famous as the greatest +resort of wit and culture in the whole kingdom. Herschel here was far +more in his element than in the barracks of Hanover, or in the little +two-roomed cottage at rustic Doncaster. + +He worked very hard indeed, and his work soon brought him comfort and +comparative wealth. Besides his chapel services, and his later +engagement in the orchestra of the Assembly Rooms, he had often as many +as thirty-eight private pupils in music every week; and he also +composed a few pieces, which were published in London with some modest +success. Still, in spite of all these numerous occupations, the eager +young German found a little leisure time to devote to self-education; +so much so that, after a fatiguing day of fourteen or sixteen hours +spent in playing the organ and teaching, he would "unbend his mind" by +studying the higher mathematics, or give himself a lesson in Greek and +Italian. At the same time; he was also working away at a line of +study, seemingly useless to him, but in which he was afterwards to earn +so great and deserved a reputation. Among the books he read during +this Bath period were Smith's "Optics" and Lalande's "Astronomy." +Throughout all his own later writings, the influence of these two +books, thoroughly mastered by constant study in the intervals of his +Bath music lessons, makes itself everywhere distinctly felt. + +Meanwhile, the family at Hanover had not been flourishing quite so +greatly as the son William was evidently doing in wealthy England. +During all those years, the young man had never forgotten to keep up a +close correspondence with his people in Germany. Already, in 1764, +during his Yorkshire days, William Herschel had managed out of his +Savings as an oboe-player to make a short trip to his old home; and his +sister Carolina, afterwards his chief assistant in his astronomical +labours, notes with pleasure the delight she felt in having her beloved +brother with her once more, though she, poor girl, being cook to the +household apparently, could only enjoy his society when she was not +employed "in the drudgery of the scullery." A year later, when William +had returned to England again, and had just received his appointment as +organist at Halifax, his father, Isaac, had a stroke of paralysis which +ended his violin-playing for ever, and forced him to rely thenceforth +upon copying music for a precarious livelihood. In 1767 he died, and +poor Carolina saw before her in prospect nothing but a life of that +domestic drudgery which she so disliked. "I could not bear the idea of +being turned into a housemaid," she says; and she thought that if only +she could take a few lessons in music and fancy work she might get "a +place as governess in some family where the want of a knowledge of +French would be no objection." But, unhappily, good dame Herschel, +like many other uneducated and narrow-minded persons, had a strange +dread of too much knowledge. She thought that "nothing further was +needed," says Carolina, "than to send me two or three months to a +sempstress to be taught to make household linen; so all that my father +could do was to indulge me sometimes with a short lesson on the violin +when my mother was either in good humour or out of the way. It was her +certain belief that my brother William would have returned to his +country, and my eldest brother would not have looked so high, if they +had had a little less learning." Poor, purblind, well-meaning, +obstructive old dame Herschel! what a boon to the world that children +like yours are sometimes seized with this incomprehensible fancy for +"looking too high"! + +Nevertheless, Carolina managed by rising early to take a few lessons at +daybreak from a young woman whose parents lived in the same cottage +with hers; and so she got through a little work before the regular +daily business of the family began at seven. Imagine her delight then, +just as the difficulties after her father's death are making that +housemaid's place seem almost inevitable, when she gets a letter from +William at Bath, asking her to come over to England and join him at +that gay and fashionable city. He would try to prepare her for singing +at his concerts; but if after two years' trial she didn't succeed, he +would take her back again to Hanover himself. In 1772, indeed, William +in person came over to fetch her, and thenceforth the brother and +sister worked unceasingly together in all their undertakings to the day +of the great astronomer's death. + +About this time Herschel had been reading Ferguson's "Astronomy," and +felt very desirous of seeing for himself the objects in the heavens, +invisible to the naked eye, of which he there found descriptions. For +this purpose he must of course have a telescope. But how to obtain one? +that was the question. There was a small two-and-a-half foot +instrument on hire at one of the shops at Bath; and the ambitious +organist borrowed this poor little glass for a time, not merely to look +through, but to use as a model for constructing one on his own account. +Buying was impossible, of course, for telescopes cost much money: but +making would not be difficult for a determined mind. He had always +been of a mechanical turn, and he was now fired with a desire to build +himself a telescope eighteen or twenty feet long. He sent to London +for the lenses, which could not be bought at Bath; and Carolina amused +herself by making a pasteboard tube to fit them in her leisure hours. +It was long before he reached twenty feet, indeed: his first effort was +a seven-foot, attained only "after many continuous determined trials." +The amateur pasteboard frame did not fully answer Herschel's +expectations, so he was obliged to go in grudgingly for the expense of +a tin tube. The reflecting mirror which he ought to have had proved +too dear for his still slender purse, and he thus had to forego it with +much regret. But he found a man at Bath who had once been in the +mirror-polishing line; and he bought from him for a bargain all his +rubbish of patterns, tools, unfinished mirrors and so forth, with which +he proceeded to experiment on the manufacture of a proper telescope. In +the summer, when the season was over, and all the great people had left +Bath, the house, as Carolina says ruefully, "was turned into a +workshop." William's younger brother Alexander was busy putting up a +big lathe in a bedroom, grinding glasses and turning eyepieces; while +in the drawing-room itself, sacred to William's aristocratic pupils, a +carpenter, sad to relate, was engaged in making a tube and putting up +stands for the future telescopes. Sad goings on, indeed, in the family +of a respectable music-master and organist! Many a good solid +shopkeeper in Bath must no doubt have shaken his grey head solemnly as +he passed the door, and muttered to himself that that young German +singer fellow was clearly going on the road to ruin with his foolish +good-for-nothing star-gazing. + +In 1774, when William Herschel was thirty six, he had at last +constructed himself a seven-foot telescope, and began for the first +time in his life to view the heavens in a systematic manner. From this +he advanced to a ten-foot, and then to one of twenty, for he meant to +see stars that no astronomer had ever yet dreamt of beholding. It was +comparatively late in life to begin, but Herschel had laid a solid +foundation already and he was enabled therefore to do an immense deal +in the second half of those threescore years and ten which are the +allotted average life of man, but which he himself really overstepped +by fourteen winters. As he said long afterwards with his modest manner +to the poet Campbell, "I have looked further into space than ever human +being did before me. I have observed stars of which the light, it can +be proved, must take two millions of years to reach this earth." That +would have been a grand thing for any man to be able truthfully to say +under any circumstances: it was a marvellous thing for a man who had +laboured under all the original disadvantages of Herschel--a man who +began life as a penniless German bandsman, and up to the age of +thirty-six had never even looked through a telescope. + +At this time, Herschel was engaged in playing the harpsichord in the +orchestra of the theatre; and it was during the interval between the +acts that he made his first general survey of the heavens. The moment +his part was finished, he would rush out to gaze through his telescope; +and in these short periods he managed to observe all the visible stars +of what are called the first, second, third, and fourth magnitudes. +Henceforth he went on building telescope after telescope, each one +better than the last; and now all his glasses were ground and polished +either by his own hand or by his brother Alexander's. Carolina +meanwhile took her part in the workshop; but as she had also to sing at +the oratorios, and her awkward German manners might shock the sensitive +nerves of the Bath aristocrats, she took two lessons a week for a whole +twelvemonth (she tells us in her delightfully straightforward fashion) +"from Miss Fleming, the celebrated dancing mistress, to drill me for a +gentlewoman." Poor Carolina, there she was mistaken: Miss Fleming +could make her into no gentlewoman, for she was born one already, and +nothing proves it more than the perfect absence of false shame with +which in her memoirs she tells us all these graphic little details of +their early humble days. + +While they were thus working at Bath an incident occurred which is +worth mentioning because it shows the very different directions in +which the presence or the want of steady persistence may lead the +various members of the very self-same family. William received a +letter from his widowed mother at Hanover to say, in deep distress, +that Dietrich, the youngest brother, had run away from home, it was +supposed for the purpose of going to India, "with a young idler no +older than himself." Forthwith, the budding astronomer left the lathe +where he was busy turning an eye-piece from a cocoa-nut shell, and, +like a good son and brother as he always was, hurried off to Holland +and thence to Hanover. No Dietrich was anywhere to be found. But +while he was away, Carolina at Bath received a letter from Dietrich +himself, to tell her ruefully he was "laid up very ill" at a waterside +tavern in Wapping--not the nicest or most savoury East End +sailor-suburb of London. Alexander immediately took the coach to town, +put the prodigal into a decent lodging, nursed him carefully for a +fortnight, and then took him down with him in triumph to the family +home at Bath. There brother William found him safe and sound on his +return, under the sisterly care of good Carolina. A pretty dance he +had led the two earnest and industrious astronomers; but they seem +always to have treated this black sheep of the family with uniform +kindness, and long afterwards Sir William remembered him favourably in +his last will. + +In 1779 and the succeeding years the three Herschels were engaged +during all their spare time in measuring the heights of about one +hundred mountains in the moon, which William gauged by three different +methods. In the same year, he made an acquaintance of some importance +to him, as forming his first introduction to the wider world of science +in London and elsewhere. Dr. Watson, a Fellow of the Royal Society, +happened, to see him working at his telescope; and this led to a visit +from the electrician to the amateur astronomer. Dr. Watson was just +then engaged in getting up a Philosophical Society at Bath (a far rarer +institution at that time in a provincial town than now), and he invited +William Herschel to join it. Here Herschel learned for the first time +to mix with those who were more nearly his intellectual equals, and to +measure his strength against other men's. + +It was in 1781 that Herschel made the great discovery which immediately +established his fame as an astronomer, and enabled him to turn from +conducting concerts to the far higher work of professionally observing +the stars. On the night of Tuesday, March 13th, Herschel was engaged +in his usual systematic survey of the sky, a bit at a time, when his +telescope lighted among a group of small fixed stars upon what he at +first imagined to be a new comet. It proved to be no comet, however, +but a true planet--a veritable world, revolving like our own in a +nearly circular path around the sun as centre, though far more remote +from it than the most distant planet then known, Saturn. Herschel +called his new world the Georgium Sidus (King George's star) in honour +of the reigning monarch; but it has since been known as Uranus. +Astronomers all over Europe were soon apprised of this wonderful +discovery, and the path of the freshly found planet was computed by +calculation, its distance from the sun being settled at nineteen times +that of our own earth. + +In order faintly to understand the importance attached at the time to +Herschel's observation of this very remote and seemingly petty world, +we must remember that up to that date all the planets which circle +round our own sun had been familiarly known to everybody from time +immemorial. To suggest that there was yet another world belonging to +our system outside the path of the furthest known planet would have +seemed to most people like pure folly. Since then, we have grown quite +accustomed to the discovery of a fresh small world or two every year, +and we have even had another large planet (Neptune), still more remote +than Herschel's Uranus, added to the list of known orbs in our own +solar system. But in Herschel's day, nobody had ever heard of a new +planet being discovered since the beginning of all things. A hundred +years before, an Italian astronomer, it is true, had found out four +small moons revolving round Saturn, besides the big moon then already +known; but for a whole century, everybody believed that the solar +system was now quite fully explored, and that nothing fresh could be +discovered about it. Hence Herschel's observation produced a very +different effect from, say, the discovery of the two moons which +revolve round Mars, in our own day. Even people who felt no interest +in astronomy were aroused to attention. Mr. Herschel's new planet +became the talk of the town and the subject of much admiring discussion +in the London newspapers. Strange, indeed, that an amateur astronomer +of Bath, a mere German music-master, should have hit upon a planet +which escaped the sight even of the king's own Astronomer Royal at +Greenwich. + +Of course there were not people wanting who ascribed this wonderful +discovery of Herschel's to pure chance. If he hadn't just happened to +turn his telescope in that particular direction on that particular +night, he wouldn't have seen this Georgium Sidus they made such a fuss +about at all. Quite so. And if he hadn't built a twenty-foot +telescope for himself, he wouldn't have turned it anywhere at any time. +But Herschel himself knew better. "This was by no means the result of +chance," he said; "but a simple consequence of the position of the +planet on that particular evening, since it occupied precisely that +spot in the heavens which came in the order of the minute observations +that I had previously mapped out for myself. Had I not seen it just +when I did, I must inevitably have come upon it soon after, since my +telescope was so perfect that I was able to distinguish it from a fixed +star in the first minute of observation." Indeed, when once Herschel's +twenty-foot telescope was made, he could not well have failed in the +long run to discover Uranus, as his own description of his method +clearly shows. "When I had carefully and thoroughly perfected the +great instrument in all its parts," he says, "I made a systematic use +of it in my observation of the heaven, first forming a determination +never to pass by any, the smallest, portion of them without due +investigation. This habit, persisted in, led to the discovery of the +new planet (Georgium Sidus)." As well might one say that a skilled +mining surveyor, digging for coal, came upon the seam by chance, as +ascribe to chance the necessary result of such a careful and methodical +scrutiny as this. + +Before the year was out, the ingenious Mr. Herschel of Bath was elected +a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was also presented with the Copley +gold medal. From this moment all the distinguished people in Bath were +anxious to be introduced to the philosophical music-master; and, +indeed, they intruded so much upon his time that the daily music +lessons were now often interrupted. He was soon, however, to give up +lessons for ever, and devote himself to his more congenial and natural +work in astronomy. In May, 1782, he went up to London, to be formally +admitted to his Fellowship of the Royal Society. There he stayed so +long that poor Carolina was quite frightened. It was "double the time +which my brother could safely be absent from his scholars." The +connection would be broken up, and the astronomy would be the ruin of +the family. (A little of good old dame Herschel's housewifely leaven +here, perhaps.) But William's letters from London to "Dear Lina" must +soon have quieted her womanly fears. William had actually been +presented to the king, and "met with a very gracious reception." He had +explained the solar system to the king and queen, and his telescope was +to be put up first at Greenwich and then at Richmond. The Greenwich +authorities were delighted with his instrument; they have seen what +Herschel calls "MY fine double stars" with it. "All my papers are +printing," he tells Lina with pardonable pride, "and are allowed to be +very valuable." But he himself is far from satisfied as yet with the +results of his work. Evidently no small successes in the field of +knowledge will do for William Herschel. "Among opticians and +astronomers," he writes to Lina, "nothing now is talked of but WHAT +THEY CALL my great discoveries. Alas! this shows how far they are +behind, when such trifles as I have seen and done are called GREAT. +Let me but get at it again! I will make such telescopes and see such +things!" Well, well, William Herschel, in that last sentence we get +the very keynote of true greatness and true genius. + +But must he go back quietly to Bath and the toils of teaching? "An +intolerable waste of time," he thought it. The king happily relieved +him from this intolerable waste. He offered Herschel a salary of 200 +pounds a year if he would come and live at Datchet, and devote himself +entirely to astronomical observations. It was by no means a munificent +sum for a king to offer for such labour; but Herschel gladly accepted +it, as it would enable him to give up the interruption of teaching, and +spend all his time on his beloved astronomy. His Bath friend, Sir +William Watson, exclaimed when he heard of it, "Never bought monarch +honour so cheap." Herschel was forty-three when he removed to Datchet, +and from that day forth he lived almost entirely in his observatory, +wholly given up to his astronomical pursuits. Even when he had to go +to London to read his papers before the Royal Society, he chose a +moonlight night (when the stars would be mostly invisible), so that it +might not interfere with his regular labours. + +Poor Carolina was horrified at the house at Datchet, which seemed +terribly desolate and poor, even to her modest German ideas; but +William declared his willingness to live permanently and cheerfully +upon "eggs and bacon" now that he was at last free to do nothing on +earth but observe the heavens. Night after night he and Carolina +worked together at their silent task--he noting the small features with +his big telescope, she "sweeping for comets" with a smaller glass or +"finder." Herschel could have had no more useful or devoted assistant +than his sister, who idolized him with all her heart. Alexander, too, +came to stay with them during the slack months at Bath, and then the +whole strength of the family was bent together on their labour of love +in gauging the heavens. + +But what use was it all? Why should they wish to go star-gazing? Well, +if a man cannot see for himself what use it was, nobody else can put +the answer into him, any more than they could put into him a love for +nature, or for beauty, or for art, or for music, if he had it not to +start with. What is the good of a great picture, a splendid oratorio, +a grand poem? To the man who does not care for them, nothing; to the +man who loves them, infinite. It is just the same with science. The +use of knowledge to a mind like Herschel's is the mere possession of +it. With such as he, it is a love, an object of desire, a thing to be +sought after for its town sake; and the mere act of finding it is in +itself purely delightful. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and +the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is +better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine +gold. She is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst +desire are not to be compared unto her." So, to such a man as +Herschel, that peaceful astronomer life at Datchet was indeed, in the +truest sense of those much-abused words, "success in life." If you had +asked some vulgar-minded neighbour of the great Sir William in his +later days whether the astronomer had been a successful man or not, he +would doubtless have answered, after his kind, "Certainly. He has been +made a knight, has lands in two counties, and has saved 35,000 pounds." +But if you had asked William Herschel himself, he would probably have +said, with his usual mixture of earnestness and humility, "Yes, I have +been a very fortunate man in life. I have discovered Uranus, and I +have gauged all the depths of heaven, as none before ever gauged them, +with my own great telescope." + +Still, those who cannot sympathize with the pure love of knowledge for +its own sake--one of the highest and noblest of human aims--should +remember that astronomy is also of immense practical importance to +mankind, and especially to navigation and commerce. Unless great +astronomical calculations were correctly performed at Greenwich and +elsewhere, it would be impossible for any ship or steamer to sail with +safety from England to Australia or America. Every defect in our +astronomical knowledge helps to wreck our vessels on doubtful coasts; +every advance helps to save the lives of many sailors and the cargoes +of many merchants. It is this practical utility of astronomy that +justifies the spending of national money on observatories and transits +of Venus, and it is the best apology for an astronomer's life to those +who do not appreciate the use of knowledge for its own beauty. + +At Datchet, Herschel not only made several large telescopes for sale, +for which he obtained large prices, but he also got a grant of 2000 +pounds from the king to aid him in constructing his huge forty-foot +instrument. It was here, too, in 1783, that Herschel married. His +wife was a widow lady of scientific tastes like his own, and she was +possessed of considerable means, which enabled him henceforth to lay +aside all anxiety on the score of money. They had but one child, a +son, afterwards Sir John Herschel, almost as great an astronomer as his +father had been before him. In 1785, the family moved to Clay Hall, in +Old Windsor, and in 1786 to Slough, where Herschel lived for the +remainder of his long life. How completely his whole soul was bound up +in his work is shown in the curious fact recorded for us by Carolina +Herschel. The last night at Clay Hall was spent in sweeping the sky +with the great glass till daylight; and by the next evening the +telescope stood ready for observations once more in the new home at +Slough. + +To follow Herschel through the remainder of his life would be merely to +give a long catalogue of his endless observations and discoveries among +the stars. Such a catalogue would be interesting only to astronomers; +yet it would truly give the main facts of Herschel's existence in his +happy home at Slough. Honoured by the world, dearly loved in his own +family, and engrossed with a passionate affection for his chosen +science, the great astronomer and philosopher grew grey in peace under +his own roof, in the course of a singularly placid and gentle old age. +In 1802 he laid before the Royal Society a list of five thousand new +stars, star-clusters, or other heavenly bodies which he had discovered, +and which formed the great body of his personal additions to +astronomical knowledge. The University of Oxford made him Doctor of +Laws, and very late in life he was knighted by the king--a too tardy +acknowledgment of his immense services to science. To the very last, +however, he worked on with a will; and, indeed, it is one of the great +charms of scientific interest that it thus enables a man to keep his +faculties on the alert to an advanced old age. In 1819, when Herschel +was more than eighty, he writes to his sister a short note--"Lina, +there is a great comet. I want you to assist me. Come to dine and +spend the day here. If you can come soon after one o'clock, we shall +have time to prepare maps and telescopes. I saw its situation last +night. It has a long tail." How delightful to find such a living +interest in life at the age of eighty! + +On the 25th of August, 1822, this truly great and simple man passed +away, in his eighty-fifth year. It has been possible here only to +sketch out the chief personal points in his career, without dwelling +much upon the scientific importance of his later life-long labours; but +it must suffice to say briefly upon this point that Herschel's work was +no mere mechanical star-finding; it was the most profoundly +philosophical astronomical work ever performed, except perhaps Newton's +and Laplace's. Among astronomers proper there has been none +distinguished by such breadth of grasp, such wide conceptions, and such +perfect clearness of view as the self-taught oboe-player of Hanover. + + + + +V. + +JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET, PAINTER. + + +There is no part of France so singularly like England, both in the +aspect of the country itself and in the features and character of the +inhabitants, as Normandy. The wooded hills and dales, the frequent +copses and apple orchards, the numerous thriving towns and villages, +the towers and steeples half hidden among the trees, recall at every +step the very similar scenery of our own beautiful and fruitful +Devonshire. And as the land is, so are the people. Ages ago, about the +same time that the Anglo-Saxon invaders first settled down in England, +a band of similar English pirates, from the old common English home by +the cranberry marshes of the Baltic, drove their long ships upon the +long rocky peninsula of the Cotentin, which juts out, like a French +Cornwall, from the mainland of Normandy up to the steep cliffs and +beetling crags of busy Cherbourg. There they built themselves little +hamlets and villages of true English type, whose very names to this day +remind one of their ancient Saxon origin. Later on, the Danes or +Northmen conquered the country, which they called after their own name, +Normandy, that is to say, the Northmen's land. Mixing with the early +Saxon or English settlers, and with the still more primitive Celtic +inhabitants, the Northmen founded a race extremely like that which now +inhabits our own country. To this day, the Norman peasants of the +Cotentin retain many marks of their origin and their half-forgotten +kinship with the English race. While other Frenchmen are generally +dark and thick-set, the Norman is, as a rule, a tall, fair-haired, +blue-eyed man, not unlike in build to our Yarmouth fisherman, or our +Kentish labourers. In body and mind, there is something about him even +now which makes him seem more nearly akin to us than the true Frenchmen +who inhabit almost all the rest of France. + +In the village of Gruchy, near Greville, in this wild and beautiful +region of the Cotentin, there lived at the beginning of the present +century a sturdy peasant family of the name of Millet. The father of +the family was one of the petty village landholders so common in +France; a labourer who owned and tilled his own tiny patch of farm, +with the aid of his wife and children. We have now no class in England +exactly answering to the French peasant proprietors, who form so large +and important an element in the population just across the Channel. +The small landholder in France belongs by position to about the same +level as our own agricultural labourer, and in many ways is content +with a style of dress and a mode of living against which English +labourers would certainly protest with horror. And yet, he is a +proprietor, with a proprietor's sense of the dignity of his position, +and an ardent love of his own little much-subdivided corner of +agricultural land. On this he spends all his energies, and however +many children he may have, he will try to make a livelihood for all by +their united labour out of the soil, rather than let one of them go to +seek his fortune by any other means in the great cities. Thus the +ground is often tilled up to an almost ridiculous extent, the entire +labour of the family being sometimes expended in cultivating, manuring, +weeding, and tending a patch of land perhaps hardly an acre in size. +It is quite touching to see the care and solicitude with which these +toilsome peasants will laboriously lay out their bit of garden with +fruits or vegetables, making every line almost mathematically regular, +planting every pea at a measured distance, or putting a smooth flat +pebble under every strawberry on the evenly ridged-up vines. It is +only in the very last resort that the peasant proprietor will consent +to let one of his daughters go out to service, or send one of his sons +adrift to seek his fortune as an artisan in the big, unknown, outer +world. + +Millet the elder, however, had nine children, which is an unusually +large number for a French peasant family (where the women ordinarily +marry late in life); and his little son Jean Francois (the second child +and eldest boy), though set to weed and hoe upon the wee farm in his +boyhood, was destined by his father for some other life than that of a +tiller of the soil. He was born in the year before Waterloo--1814--and +was brought up on his father's plot of land, in the hard rough way to +which peasant children in France are always accustomed. Bronzed by sun +and rain, poorly clad, and ill-fed, he acquired as a lad, from the open +air and the toilsome life he led, a vigour of constitution which +enabled him to bear up against the numerous hardships and struggles of +his later days. "A Norman Peasant," he loved to call himself always, +with a certain proud humility; and happily he had the rude health of +one all his life long. + +Hard as he worked, little Francois' time was not entirely taken up with +attending to the fields or garden. He was a studious boy, and learned +not only to read and write in French, but also to try some higher +flights, rare indeed for a lad of his position. His family possessed +remarkable qualities as French peasants go; and one of his +great-uncles, a man of admirable strength of character, a priest in the +days of the great Revolution, had braved the godless republicans of his +time, and though deprived of his cure, and compelled to labour for his +livelihood in the fields, had yet guided the plough in his priestly +garments. His grandmother first taught him his letters; and when she +had instructed him to the length of reading any French book that was +put before him, the village priest took him in hand. In France, the +priest comes often from the peasant class, and remains in social +position a member of that class as long as he lives. But he always +possesses a fair knowledge of Latin, the language in which all his +religious services are conducted; and this knowledge serves as a key to +much that his unlearned parishioners could never dream of knowing. +Young Millet's parish priest taught him as much Latin as he knew +himself; and so the boy was not only able to read the Bible in the +Latin or Vulgate translation, but also to make acquaintance with the +works of Virgil and several others of the great Roman poets. He read, +too, the beautiful "Confessions" of St. Augustine, and the "Lives of +the Saints," which he found in his father's scanty library, as well as +the works of the great French preachers, Bossuet and Fenelon. Such +early acquaintance with these and many other masterpieces of higher +literature, we may be sure, helped greatly to mould the lad's mind into +that grand and sober shape which it finally acquired. + +Jean Francois' love of art was first aroused by the pictures in an old +illustrated Bible which belonged to his father, and which he was +permitted to look at on Sundays and festivals. The child admired these +pictures immensely, and asked leave to be permitted to copy them. The +only time he could find for the purpose, however, was that of the +mid-day rest or siesta. It is the custom in France, as in Southern +Europe generally, for labourers to cease from work for an hour or so in +the middle of the day; and during this "tired man's holiday," young +Millet, instead of resting, used to take out his pencil and paper, and +try his hand at reproducing the pictures in the big Bible. His father +was not without an undeveloped taste for art. "See," he would say, +looking into some beautiful combe or glen on the hillside--"see that +little cottage half buried in the trees; how beautiful it is! I think +it ought to be drawn so--;" and then he would make a rough sketch of it +on some scrap of paper. At times he would model things with a bit of +clay, or cut the outline of a flower or an animal with his knife on a +flat piece of wood. This unexercised talent Francois inherited in a +still greater degree. As time went on, he progressed to making little +drawings on his own account; and we may be sure the priest and all the +good wives of Gruchy had quite settled in their own minds before long +that Jean Francois Millet's hands would be able in time to paint quite +a beautiful altar-piece for the village church. + +By-and-by, when the time came for Francois to choose a trade, he being +then a big lad of about nineteen, it was suggested to his father that +young Millet might really make a regular painter--that is to say, an +artist. In France, the general tastes of the people are far more +artistic than with us; and the number of painters who find work for +their brushes in Paris is something immensely greater than the number +in our own smoky, money-making London. So there was nothing very +remarkable, from a French point of view, in the idea of the young +peasant turning for a livelihood to the profession of an artist. But +Millet's father was a sober and austere man, a person of great dignity +and solemnity, who decided to put his son's powers to the test in a +very regular and critical fashion. He had often watched Francois +drawing, and he thought well of the boy's work. If he had a real +talent for painting, a painter he should be; if not, he must take to +some other craft, where he would have the chance of making himself a +decent livelihood. So he told Francois to prepare a couple of +drawings, which he would submit to the judgment of M. Mouchel, a local +painter at Cherbourg, the nearest large town, and capital of the +department. Francois duly prepared the drawings, and Millet the elder +went with his, son to submit them in proper form for M. Mouchel's +opinion. Happily, M. Mouchel had judgment enough to see at a glance +that the drawings possessed remarkable merit. "You must be playing me +a trick," he said; "that lad could never have made these drawings." "I +saw him do them with my own eyes," answered the father warmly. "Then," +said Mouchel, "all I can say is this: he has in him the making of a +great painter." He accepted Millet as his pupil; and the young man set +off for Cherbourg accordingly, to study with care and diligence under +his new master. + +Cherbourg, though not yet at that time a great naval port, as it +afterwards became, was a busy harbour and fishing town, where the young +artist saw a great deal of a kind of life with which he possessed an +immense sympathy. The hard work of the fishermen putting out to sea on +stormy evenings, or toiling with their nets ashore after a sleepless +night, made a living picture which stamped itself deeply on his +receptive mind. A man of the people himself, born to toil and inured +to it from babyhood, this constant scene of toiling and struggling +humanity touched the deepest chord in his whole nature, so that some of +the most beautiful and noble of his early pictures are really +reminiscences of his first student days at Cherbourg. But after he had +spent a year in Mouchel's studio, sad news came to him from Gruchy. +His father was dying, and Francois was only just in time to see him +before he passed away. If the family was to be kept together at all, +Francois must return from his easel and palette, and take once more to +guiding the plough. With that earnest resolution which never forsook +him, Millet decided to accept the inevitable. He went back home once +more, and gave up his longings for art in order to till the ground for +his fatherless sisters. + +Luckily, however, his friends at Gruchy succeeded after awhile in +sending him back again to Cherbourg, where he began to study under +another master, Langlois, and to have hopes once more for his artistic +future, now that he was free at last to pursue it in his own way. At +this time, he read a great deal--Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Byron, +Goethe's "Faust," Victor Hugo and Chateaubriand; in fact, all the great +works he could lay his hands upon. Peasant as he was, he gave himself, +half unconsciously, a noble education. Very soon, it became apparent +that the Cherbourg masters could do nothing more for him, and that, if +he really wished to perfect himself in art, he must go to Paris. In +France, the national interest felt in painting is far greater and more +general than in England. Nothing is commoner than for towns or +departments to grant pensions (or as we should call them, scholarships) +to promising lads who wish to study art in Paris. Young Millet had +attracted so much attention at Cherbourg, that the Council General of +the Department of the Manche voted him a present of six hundred francs +(about 24 pounds) to start him on the way; and the town of Cherbourg +promised him an annual grant of four hundred francs more (about 16 +pounds). So up to Paris Millet went, and there was duly enrolled as a +student at the Government "School of Fine-Arts." + +Those student days in Paris were days of hunger and cold, very often, +which Millet bore with the steady endurance of a Norman peasant boy. +But they were also days of something worse to him--of effort +misdirected, and of constant struggling against a system for which he +was not fitted. In fact, Millet was an original genius, whereas the +teachers at the School of Fine Arts were careful and methodical +rule-of-thumb martinets. They wished to train Millet into the ordinary +pattern, which he could not follow; and in the end, he left the school, +and attached himself to the studio of Paul Delaroche, then the greatest +painter of historical pictures in all Paris. But even Delaroche, +though an artist of deep feeling and power, did not fully understand +his young Norman pupil. He himself used to paint historical pictures +in the grand style, full of richness and beauty; but his subjects were +almost always chosen from the lives of kings or queens, and treated +with corresponding calmness and dignity. "The Young Princes in the +Tower," "The Execution of Marie Antoinette," "The Death of Queen +Elizabeth," "Cromwell viewing the Body of Charles I."--these were the +kind of pictures on which Delaroche loved to employ himself. Millet, +on the other hand, though also full of dignity and pathos, together +with an earnestness far surpassing Delaroche's, did not care for these +lofty subjects. It was the dignity and pathos of labour that moved him +most; the silent, weary, noble lives of the uncomplaining peasants, +amongst whom his own days had been mostly passed. Delaroche could not +make him out at all; he was such a curious, incomprehensible, odd young +fellow! "There, go your own way, if you will," the great master said +to him at last; "for my part, I can make nothing of you." + +So, shortly after, Millet and his friend Marolle set up a studio for +themselves in the Rue de l'Est in Paris. The precise occasion of their +going was this. Millet was anxious to obtain the Grand Prize of Rome +annually offered to the younger artists, and Delaroche definitely told +him that his own influence would be used on behalf of another pupil. +After this, the young Norman felt that he could do better by following +out his own genius in his own fashion. At the Rue de l'Est, he +continued to study hard, but he also devoted a large part of his time +to painting cheap portraits--what artists call "pot-boilers;" mere +hasty works dashed off anyhow to earn his daily livelihood. For these +pictures he got about ten to fifteen francs apiece,--in English money +from eight to twelve shillings. They were painted in a theatrical +style, which Millet himself detested--all pink cheeks, and red lips, +and blue satin, and lace collars; whereas his own natural style was one +of great austerity and a certain earnest sombreness the exact reverse +of the common Parisian taste to which he ministered. However, he had +to please his patrons--and, like a sensible man, he went on producing +these cheap daubs to any extent required, for a living, while he +endeavoured to perfect himself meanwhile for the higher art he was +meditating for the future. In the great galleries of the Louvre at +Paris he found abundant models which he could study in the works of the +old masters; and there, poring over Michael Angelo and Mantegna, he +could recompense himself a little in his spare hours for the time he +was obliged to waste on pinky-white faces and taffeta gowns. To an +artist by nature there is nothing harder than working perforce against +the bent of one's own innate and instinctive feelings. + +In 1840, Millet found his life in Paris still so hard that he seemed +for a time inclined to give up the attempt, and returned to Greville, +where he painted a marine subject of the sort that was dearest to his +heart--a group of sailors mending a sail. Shortly after, however, he +was back in Paris--the record of these years of hard struggle is not +very clear--with his wife, a Cherbourg girl whom he had imprudently +married while still barely able to support himself in the utmost +poverty. It was not till 1844 that the hard-working painter at last +achieved his first success. It was with a picture of a milkwoman, one +of his own favourite peasant subjects; and the poetry and sympathy +which he had thrown into so commonplace a theme attracted the attention +of many critics among the cultivated Parisian world of art. The +"Milkwoman" was exhibited at the Salon (the great annual exhibition of +works of art in Paris, like that of the Royal Academy in London, but on +a far larger scale); and several good judges of art began immediately +to inquire, "Who is Jean Francois Millet?" Hunting his address out, a +party of friendly critics presented themselves at his lodgings, only to +learn that Madame Millet had just died, and that her husband, half in +despair, had gone back again once more to his native Norman hills and +valleys. + +But Millet was the last man on earth to sit down quietly with his hands +folded, waiting for something or other to turn up. At Cherbourg, he +set to work once more, no doubt painting more "pot-boilers" for the +respectable shopkeepers of the neighbourhood--complacent portraits, +perhaps, of a stout gentleman with a large watch-chain fully displayed, +and of a stout lady in a black silk dress and with a vacant smile; and +by hook or by crook he managed to scrape together a few hundred francs, +with which once more he might return to Paris. But before he did so, +he married again, this time more wisely. His wife, Catharine Lemaire, +was a brave and good woman, who knew how to appreciate her husband, and +to second him well in all his further struggles and endeavours. They +went for a while to Havre, where Millet, in despair of getting better +work, and not ashamed of doing anything honest to pay his way, actually +took to painting sign-boards. In this way he saved money enough to +make a fresh start in Paris. There, he continued his hard battle +against the taste of the time; for French art was then dominated by the +influence of men like Delaroche, or like Delacroix and Horace Vernet, +who had accustomed the public to pictures of a very lofty, a very +romantic, or a very fiery sort; and there were few indeed who cared for +stern and sympathetic delineations of the French peasant's unlovely +life of unremitting toil, such as Millet loved to set before them. +Yet, in spite of discouragement, he did well to follow out this inner +prompting of his own soul; for in that direction he could do his best +work--and the best work is always the best worth doing in the long run. +There are some minds, of which Franklin's is a good type, so versatile +and so shifty that they can turn with advantage to any opening that +chances to offer, no matter in what direction; and such minds do right +in seizing every opportunity, wherever it occurs. But there are other +minds, of which Gibson and Millet are excellent examples, naturally +restricted to certain definite lines of thought or work; and such minds +do right in persistently following up their own native talent, and +refusing to be led aside by circumstances into any less natural or less +promising channel. + +While living in Paris at this time, Millet painted several of his +favourite peasant pictures, amongst others "The Workman's Monday," +which is a sort of parallel in painting to Burns's "Cotter's Saturday +Night" in poetry. Indeed, there is a great deal in Millet which +strongly reminds one at every step of Burns. Both were born of the +agricultural labouring class; both remained peasants at heart, in +feelings and sympathies, all their lives long; neither was ashamed of +his origin, even in the days of his greatest fame; painter and poet +alike loved best to choose their themes from the simple life of the +poor whose trials and hardships they knew so well by bitter experience; +and in each case they succeeded best in touching the hearts of others +when they did not travel outside their own natural range of subjects. +Only (if Scotchmen will allow one to say so) there was in Millet a far +deeper vein of moral earnestness than in Burns; he was more profoundly +impressed by the dignity and nobility of labour; in his tender sympathy +there was a touch of solemn grandeur which was wanting in the too +genial and easy-going Ayrshire ploughman. + +In 1848, the year of revolutions, Millet painted his famous picture of +"The Winnower," since considered as one of his finest works. Yet for a +long time, though the critics praised it, it could not find a +purchaser; till at last M. Ledru Rollin, a well-known politician, +bought it for what Millet considered the capital price of five hundred +francs (about 20 pounds). It would now fetch a simply fabulous price, +if offered for sale. Soon after this comparative success Millet +decided to leave Paris, where the surroundings indeed were little +fitted to a man of his peculiarly rural and domestic tastes. He would +go where he might see the living models of his peasant friends for ever +before him; where he could watch them leaning over the plough pressed +deep into the earth; cutting the faggots with stout arms in the +thick-grown copses; driving the cattle home at milking time with weary +feet, along the endless, straight white high-roads of the French rural +districts. At the same time, he must be within easy reach of Paris; +for though he had almost made up his mind not to exhibit any more at +the Salon--people didn't care to see his reapers or his fishermen--he +must still manage to keep himself within call of possible purchasers; +and for this purpose he selected the little village of Barbizon, on the +edge of the forest of Fontainebleau. + +The woods of Fontainebleau stand to Paris in somewhat the same relation +that Windsor Great Park stands to London; only, the scenery is more +forest-like, and the trees are big and antique looking. By the +outskirts of this great wood stands the pretty hamlet of Barbizon, a +single long street of small peasant cottages, built with the usual +French rural disregard of beauty or cleanliness. At the top of the +street, in a little three-roomed house, the painter and his wife +settled down quietly; and here they lived for twenty-seven years, long +after Millet's name had grown to be famous in the history of +contemporary French painting. An English critic, who visited the spot +in the days of Millet's greatest celebrity, was astonished to find the +painter, whom he had come to see, strolling about the village in rustic +clothes, and even wearing the sabots or wooden shoes which are in +France the social mark of the working classes, much as the smock-frock +used once to be in the remoter country districts of England. Perhaps +this was a little bit of affectation on Millet's part--a sort of proud +declaration of the fact that in spite of fame and honours he still +insisted upon counting himself a simple peasant; but if so, it was, +after all, a very pretty and harmless affectation indeed. Better to see +a man sticking pertinaciously to his wooden shoes, than turning his +back upon old friends and old associations in the days of his worldly +prosperity. + +At Barbizon Millet's life moved on so quietly that there is nothing to +record in it almost, save a long list of pictures painted, and a +gradual growth, not in popularity (for THAT Millet never really +attained at all), but in the esteem of the best judges, which of course +brought with it at last, first ease, then comfort, and finally +comparative riches. Millet was able now to paint such subjects as +pleased him best, and he threw himself into his work with all the +fervour of his intensely earnest and poetical nature. Whatever might be +the subject which he undertook, he knew how to handle it so that it +became instinct with his own fine feeling for the life he saw around +him. In 1852 he painted his "Man spreading Manure." In itself, that +is not a very exalted or beautiful occupation; but what Millet saw in +it was the man, not the manure--the toiling, sorrowing, human +fellow-being, whose labour and whose spirit he knew so well how to +appreciate. And in this view of the subject he makes us all at once +sympathize. Other pictures of this period are such as "The Gleaners," +"The Reapers," "A Peasant grafting a Tree," "The Potato Planters," and +so forth. These were very different subjects indeed from the dignified +kings and queens painted by Delaroche, or the fiery battle-pieces of +Delacroix but they touch a chord in our souls which those great +painters fail to strike, and his treatment of them is always truthful, +tender, melancholy, and exquisite. + +Bit by bit, French artistic opinion began to recognize the real +greatness of the retiring painter at Barbizon. He came to be looked +upon as a true artist, and his pictures sold every year for +increasingly large prices. Still, he had not been officially +recognized; and in France, where everything, even to art and the +theatre, is under governmental regulation, this want of official +countenance is always severely felt. At last, in 1867, Millet was +awarded the medal of the first class, and was appointed a Chevalier of +the Legion of Honour. The latter distinction carries with it the right +to wear that little tag of ribbon on the coat which all Frenchmen prize +so highly; for to be "decorated," as it is called, is in France a spur +to ambition of something the same sort as a knighthood or a peerage in +England, though of course it lies within the reach of a far greater +number of citizens. There is something to our ideas rather absurd in +the notion of bestowing such a tag of ribbon on a man of Millet's aims +and occupations; but all honours are honours just according to the +estimation of the man who receives them and the society in which he +lives; and Millet no doubt prized his admission to the Legion of Honour +all the more because it had been so long delayed and so little truckled +for. + +To the end of his days, Millet never left his beloved Barbizon. He +stopped there, wandering about the fields, watching peasants at work, +imprinting their images firmly upon his eye and brain, and then going +home again to put the figures he had thus observed upon his vivid +canvas. For, strange to say, unlike almost every other great painter, +Millet never painted from a model. Instead of getting a man or woman +to sit for him in the pose he required, he would go out into the +meadows and look at the men and women at their actual daily +occupations; and so keen and acute was his power of observation, and so +retentive was his inner eye, that he could then recall almost every +detail of action or manner as clearly as if he had the original present +in his studio before him. As a rule, such a practice is not to be +recommended to any one who wishes to draw with even moderate accuracy; +constant study of the actual object, and frequent comparison by +glancing from object to copy, are absolutely necessary for forming a +correct draughtsman. But Millet knew his own way best; and how +wonderfully minute and painstaking must his survey have been when it +enabled him to reproduce the picture of a person afterwards in every +detail of dress or movement. + +He did not paint very fast. He preferred doing good work to much +work--an almost invariable trait of all the best workmen. During the +thirty-one years that he worked independently, he produced only eighty +pictures--not more, on an average, than two or three a year. Compared +with the rate at which most successful artists cover canvas to sell, +this was very slow. But then, Millet did not paint mainly to sell; he +painted to satisfy his own strict ideas of what constituted the highest +art. His pictures are usually very simple in their theme; take, for +example, his "Angelus," painted at the height of his fame, in 1867. A +man and a woman are working in the fields--two poor, simple-minded, +weather-beaten, devout French peasants. It is nightfall; the bell +called the "Angelus" rings out from the church steeple, and the two +poor souls, resting for a moment from their labours, devote a few +seconds to the silent prayers enjoined by their church. That is all; +and yet in that one picture the sorrows, the toils, and the +consolations of the needy French peasantry are summed up in a single +glimpse of a pair of working and praying partners. + +Millet died somewhat suddenly in 1875. Strong and hearty as he was, +even the sturdy health of the Norman peasant had been undermined by the +long hardships of his early struggles, and his constitution gave way at +last with comparative rapidity. Still, he had lived long enough to see +his fame established, to enjoy ten years of ease and honour, and to +find his work cordially admired by all those for whose admiration he +could have cared to make an effort. After his death, the pictures and +unfinished sketches in his studio were sold for 321,000 francs, a +little less than 13,000 pounds. The peasant boy of Greville had at +last conquered all the difficulties which obstructed his path, and had +fought his own way to fame and dignity. And in so fighting, he had +steadily resisted the temptation to pander to the low and coarse taste +in art of the men by whom he was surrounded. In spite of cold, and +hunger, and poverty, he had gone on trying to put upon his canvas the +purer, truer, and higher ideas with which his own beautiful soul was +profoundly animated. In that endeavour he nobly succeeded. While too +many contemporary French pictures are vicious and sensual in tone and +feeling, every one of Millet's pictures is a sermon in colour--a thing +to make us sympathize more deeply with our kind, and to send us away, +saddened perhaps, yet ennobled and purified. + + + + +VI. + +JAMES GARFIELD, CANAL BOY. + + +At the present time, the neighbourhood of Cleveland, Ohio, the busiest +town along the southern shore of Lake Erie, may fairly rank as one of +the richest agricultural districts in all America. But when Abram +Garfield settled down in the township of Orange in 1830, it was one of +the wildest and most unpeopled woodland regions in the whole of the +United States. Pioneers from the older states had only just begun to +make little clearings for themselves in the unbroken forest; and land +was still so cheap that Abram Garfield was able to buy himself a tract +of fifty acres for no more than 20 pounds. His brother-in-law's family +removed there with him; and the whole strength of the two households +was immediately employed in building a rough log hut for their common +accommodation, where both the Garfields and the Boyntons lived together +during the early days of their occupation. The hut consisted of a mere +square box, made by piling logs on top of one another, the spaces +between being filled with mud, while the roof was formed of loose stone +slabs. Huts of that sort are everywhere common among the isolation of +the American backwoods; and isolated indeed they were, for the +Garfields' nearest neighbours, when they first set up house, lived as +far as seven miles away, across the uncleared forest. + +When Abram Garfield came to this lonely lodge in the primaeval +woodlands, he had one son and one daughter. In 1831, the year after +his removal to his new home, a second boy was born into the family, +whom his father named James Abram. Before the baby was eighteen months +old, the father died, and was buried alone, after the only possible +fashion among such solitary settlers, in a corner of the wheat field +which he himself had cleared of its stumps. A widow's life is always a +hard one, but in such a country and under such conditions it is even +harder and more lonely than elsewhere. Mrs. Garfield's eldest boy, +Thomas, was only eleven years old; and with the aid of this one +ineffectual helper, she managed herself to carry on the farm for many +years. Only those who know the hard toil of a raw American township +can have any idea what that really means. A farmer's work in America +is not like a farmer's work in England. The man who occupies the soil +is there at once his own landlord and his own labourer; and he has to +contend with nature as nobody in England has had to contend with it for +the last five centuries at least. He finds the land covered with +trees, which he has first to fell and sell as timber; then he must dig +or burn out the stumps; clear the plot of boulders and large stones; +drain it, fence it, plough it, and harrow it; build barns for the +produce and sheds for the cows; in short, MAKE his farm, instead of +merely TAKING it. This is labour from which many strong men shrink in +dismay, especially those who have come out fresh from a civilized and +fully occupied land. For a woman and a boy, it is a task that seems +almost above their utmost powers. Nevertheless, Mrs. Garfield and her +son did not fail under it. With her own hands, the mother split up the +young trees info rude triangular rails to make the rough snake fences +of the country--mere zigzags of wood laid one bit above the other; +while the lad worked away bravely at sowing fall and spring wheat, +hoeing Indian corn, and building a little barn for the harvest before +the arrival of the long cold Ohio winter. To such a family did the +future President originally belong; and with them he must have shared +those strong qualities of perseverance and industry which more than +anything else at length secured his ultimate success in life. + +For James Garfield's history differs greatly in one point from that of +most other famous working men, whose stories have been told in this +volume. There is no reason to believe that he was a man of exceptional +or commanding intellect. On the contrary, his mental powers appear to +have been of a very respectable but quite ordinary and commonplace +order. It was not by brilliant genius that James Garfield made his way +up in life; it was rather by hard work, unceasing energy, high +principle, and generous enthusiasm for the cause of others. Some of +the greatest geniuses among working men, such as Burns, Tannahill, and +Chatterton, though they achieved fame, and though they have enriched +the world with many touching and beautiful works, must be considered to +have missed success in life, so far as their own happiness was +concerned, by their unsteadiness, want of self-control, or lack of +fixed principle. Garfield, on the other hand, was not a genius; but by +his sterling good qualities he nevertheless achieved what cannot but be +regarded as a true success, and left an honourable name behind him in +the history of his country. + +However poor an American township may be, it is seldom too poor to +afford its children a moderate and humble education. While James +Garfield was still very young, the settlers in the neighbourhood +decided to import a schoolmaster, whom they "boarded about" between +them, after a fashion very common in rural western districts. The +school-house was only a log hut; the master was a lad of twenty; and +the textbooks were of the very meagrest sort. But at least James +Garfield was thus enabled to read and write, which after all is the +great first step on the road to all possible promotion. The raw, +uncouth Yankee lad who taught the Ohio boys, slept at Widow Garfield's, +with Thomas and James; and the sons of the neighbouring settlers worked +on the farm during the summer months, but took lessons when the long +ice and snow of winter along the lake shore put a stop almost entirely +for the time to their usual labours. + +James continued at school till he was twelve years old, and then, his +brother Thomas (being by that time twenty-one) went away by agreement +still further west to Michigan, leaving young Jim to take his place +upon the little farm. The fences were all completed, by this time; the +barn was built, the ground was fairly brought under cultivation, and it +required comparatively little labour to keep the land cropped after the +rough fashion which amply satisfies American pioneers, with no rent to +pay, and only their bare living to make out of the soil. Thomas was +going to fell trees in Michigan, to clear land there for a farmer; and +he proposed to use his earnings (when he got them) for the purpose of +building a "frame house" (that is to say, a house built of planks) +instead of the existing log hut. It must be added, in fairness, that +hard as were the circumstances under which the young Garfields lived, +they were yet lucky in their situation in a new country, where wages +were high, and where the struggle for life is far less severe or +competitive than in old settled lands like France and England. Thomas, +in fact; would get boarded for nothing in Michigan, and so would be +able easily to save almost all his high wages for the purpose of +building the frame house. + +So James had to take to the farm in summer, while in the winter he +began to work as a sort of amateur carpenter in a small way. As yet he +had lived entirely in the backwoods, and had never seen a town or even +a village; but his education in practical work had begun from his very +babyhood, and he was handy after the usual fashion of American or +colonial boys--ready to turn his hand to anything that happened to +present itself. In new countries, where everybody has not got +neighbours and workmen within call, such rough-and-ready handiness is +far more common than in old England. The one carpenter of the +neighbourhood asked James to help him, on the proud day when Tom +brought back his earnings from Michigan, and set about the building of +the frame house, for which he had already collected the unhewn timber. +From that first beginning, by the time he was thirteen, James was +promoted to assist in building a barn; and he might have taken +permanently to a carpenter's life, had it not been that his boyish +passion for reading had inspired him with an equal passion for going to +sea. He had read Marryatt's novels and other sailor tales--what boy +has not?--and he was fired with the usual childish desire to embark +upon that wonderful life of chasing buccaneers, fighting pirates, +capturing prizes, or hunting hidden treasure, which is a lad's +brilliantly coloured fancy picture of an everyday sailor's wet, cold, +cheerless occupation. + +At last, when James was about fifteen, his longing for the sea grew so +strong that his mother, by way of a compromise, allowed him to go and +try his luck with the Lake Erie captains at Cleveland. Shipping on the +great lakes, where one can see neither bank from the middle of the wide +blue sheet of water, and where wrecks are unhappily as painfully +frequent as on our own coasts, was quite sufficiently like going to sea +to suit the adventurous young backwoodsman to the top of his bent. But +when he got to Cleveland, a fortunate disappointment awaited him. The +Cleveland captains declined his services in such vigorous seafaring +language (not unmixed with many unnecessary oaths), that he was glad +enough to give up the idea of sailoring, and take a place as driver of +a canal boat from Cleveland to Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, the boat +being under the charge of one of his own cousins. Copper ore was then +largely mined on Lake Superior, where it is very abundant, carried by +ship to Cleveland, down the chain of lakes, and there transferred to +canal boats, which took it on to Pittsburg, the centre of a great coal +and manufacturing district in Pennsylvania, to be smelted and employed +in various local arts. Young Garfield stuck for a little while to the +canal business. He plodded along wearily upon the bank, driving his +still wearier horse before him, and carrying ore down to Pittsburg with +such grace as he best might; but it didn't somehow quite come up to his +fancy picture of the seaman's life. It was dull and monotonous, and he +didn't care for it much. In genuine American language, "he didn't find +it up to sample." The sea might be very well in its way; but a canal +was a very different matter indeed. So after a fair trial, James +finally gave the business up, and returned to his mother on the little +homestead, ill and tired with his long tramping. + +While he was at home, the schoolmaster of the place, who saw that the +lad had abilities, was never tired of urging him to go to school, and +do himself justice by getting himself a first-rate education, or at +least as good a one as could be obtained in America. James was ready +enough to take this advice, if the means were forthcoming; but how was +he to do so? "Oh, that's easy enough," said young Bates, the master. +"You'll only have to work out of hours as a carpenter, take odd jobs in +your vacations, live plainly, and there you are." In England there are +few schools where such a plan would be practicable; but in +rough-and-ready America, where self-help is no disgrace, there are +many, and they are all well attended. In the neighbouring town of +Chester, a petty Baptist sect had started a young school which they +named Geauga Seminary (there are no plain schools in America--they are +all "academies" or "institutes"); and to this simple place young +Garfield went, to learn and work as best he might for his own +advancement. A very strange figure he must then have cut, indeed; for +a person who saw him at the time described him as wearing a pair of +trousers he had long outworn, rough cow-hide boots, a waistcoat much +too short for him, and a thread-bare coat, with sleeves that only +reached a little below the elbows. Of such stuff as that, with a stout +heart and an eager brain, the budding presidents of the United States +are sometimes made. + +James soon found himself humble lodgings at an old woman's in Chester, +and he also found himself a stray place at a carpenter's shop in the +town, where he was able to do three hours' work out of school time +every day, besides giving up the whole of his Saturday holiday to +regular labour. It was hard work, this schooling and carpentering side +by side; but James throve upon it; and at the end of the first term he +was not only able to pay all his bill for board and lodging, but also +to carry home a few dollars in his pocket by way of savings. + +James stopped three years at the "seminary" at Chester; and in the +holidays he employed himself by teaching in the little township schools +among the country districts. There is generally an opening for young +students to earn a little at such times by instructing younger boys +than themselves in reading, writing, and arithmetic; and the +surrounding farmers, who want schooling for their boys, are glad enough +to take the master in on the "boarding round" system, for the sake of +his usefulness in overlooking the lads in the preparation of their home +lessons. It is a simple patriarchal life, very different from anything +we know in England; and though Ohio was by this time a far more settled +and populated place than when Abram Garfield first went there, it was +still quite possible to manage in this extremely primitive and family +fashion. The fact is, though luxuries were comparatively unknown, food +was cheap and abundant; and a young teacher who was willing to put his +heart into his work could easily earn more than enough to live upon in +rough comfort. Sometimes the school-house was a mere log hut, like +that in which young Garfield had been born; but, at any rate, it was +work to do, and food to eat, and that alone was a great thing for a lad +who meant to make his own way in the world by his own exertions. + +Near the end of his third year at Chester, James met, quite +accidentally, with a young man who had come from a little embryo +"college," of the sort so common in rising American towns, at a place +called Hiram in Ohio. American schools are almost as remarkable as +American towns for the oddity and ugliness of their names; and this +"college" was known by the queer and meaningless title of the "Eclectic +Institute." It was conducted by an obscure sect who dub themselves +"The Disciples' Church," to which young Garfield's father and mother +had both belonged. His casual acquaintance urged upon him strongly the +desirability of attending the institute; and James, who had already +begun to learn Latin, and wished to learn more, was easily persuaded to +try this particular school rather than any other. + +In August, 1851, James Garfield, then aged nearly twenty, presented +himself at the "Eclectic Institute," in the farm-labourer's clothes +which were his only existing raiment. He asked to see the "president" +of the school, and told him plainly that he wished to come there for +education, but that he was poor, and if he came, he must work for his +living. "What can you do?" asked the president. "Sweep the floors, +light the fires, ring the bell, and make myself generally useful," +answered the young backwoodsman. The president, pleased with his +eagerness, promised to try him for a fortnight; and at the end of the +fortnight, Garfield had earned his teaching so well that he was excused +from all further fees during the remainder of his stay at the little +institute. His post was by no mean an easy one, for he was +servant-of-all-work as well as student; but he cared very little for +that as long as he could gain the means for self-improvement. + +Hiram was a small town, as ugly as its name. Twelve miles from a +railway, a mere agricultural centre, of the rough back-country sort, +all brand new and dreary looking, with a couple of wooden churches, +half a dozen wooden shops, two new intersecting streets with wooden +sidewalks, and that was all. The "institute" was a square brick block, +planted incongruously in the middle of an Indian-corn plantation; and +the students were the sons and daughters of the surrounding farmers, +for (as in most western schools) both sexes were here educated +together. But the place suited Garfield far better than an older and +more dignified university would have done. The other students knew no +more than he did, so that he did not feel himself at a disadvantage; +they were dressed almost as plainly as himself; and during the time he +was at Hiram he worked away with a will at Latin, Greek, and the higher +mathematics, so as to qualify himself for a better place hereafter. +Meanwhile, the local carpenter gave him plenty of planing to do, with +which he managed to pay his way; and as he had to rise before five +every morning to ring the first bell, he was under no danger of +oversleeping himself. By 1853, he had made so much progress in his +studies that he was admitted as a sort of pupil teacher, giving +instruction himself in the English department and in rudimentary Greek +and Latin, while he went on with his own studies with the aid of the +other teachers. + +James had now learnt as much as the little "Eclectic Institute" could +possibly teach him, and he began to think of going to some better +college in the older-settled and more cultivated eastern states, where +he might get an education somewhat higher than was afforded him by the +raw "seminaries" and "academies" of his native Ohio. True, his own +sect, the "Disciples' Church," had got up a petty university of their +own, "Bethany College"--such self-styled colleges swarm all over the +United States; but James didn't much care for the idea of going to it. +"I was brought up among the Disciples," he said; "I have mixed chiefly +among them; I know little of other people; it will enlarge my views and +give me more liberal feelings if a try a college elsewhere, conducted +otherwise; if I see a little of the rest of the world." Moreover, +those were stirring times in the States. The slavery question was +beginning to come uppermost. The men of the free states in the north +and west were beginning to say among themselves that they would no +longer tolerate that terrible blot upon American freedom--the +enslavement of four million negroes in the cotton-growing south. James +Garfield felt all his soul stirred within him by this great national +problem--the greatest that any modern nation has ever had to solve for +itself. Now, his own sect, the Disciples, and their college, Bethany, +were strongly tinctured with a leaning in favour of slavery, which +young James Garfield utterly detested. So he made up his mind to +having nothing to do with the accursed thing, but to go east to some +New England college, where he would mix among men of culture, and where +he would probably find more congenial feelings on the slavery question. + +Before deciding, he wrote to three eastern colleges, amongst others to +Yale, the only American university which by its buildings and +surroundings can lay any claim to compare, even at a long distance, in +beauty and associations, with the least among European universities. +The three colleges gave him nearly similar answers; but one of them, in +addition to the formal statement of terms and so forth, added the short +kindly sentence, "If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can +for you." It was only a small polite phrase; but it took the heart of +the rough western boy. If other things were about the same, he said, he +would go to the college which offered him, as it were, a friendly grasp +of the hand. He had saved a little money at Hiram; and he proposed now +to go on working for his living, as he had hitherto done, side by side +with his regular studies. But his brother, who was always kind and +thoughtful to him, would not hear of this. Thomas had prospered +meanwhile in his own small way, and he insisted upon lending James such +a sum as would cover his necessary expenses for two years at an eastern +university. James insured his life for the amount, so that Thomas +might not be a loser by his brotherly generosity in case of his death +before repayment could be made; and then, with the money safe in his +pocket, he started off for his chosen goal, the Williams College, in +one of the most beautiful and hilly parts of Massachusetts. + +During the three years that Garfield was at this place, he studied hard +and regularly, so much so that at one time his brain showed symptoms of +giving way under the constant strain. In the vacations, he took a trip +into Vermont, a romantic mountain state, where he opened a writing +school at a little country village; and another into the New York +State, where he engaged himself in a similar way at a small town on the +banks of the lovely Hudson river. At college, in spite of his rough +western dress and manners, he earned for himself the reputation of a +thoroughly good fellow. Indeed, geniality and warmth of manner, +qualities always much prized by the social American people, were very +marked traits throughout of Garfield's character, and no doubt helped +him greatly in after life in, rising to the high summit which he +finally reached. It was here, too, that he first openly identified +himself with the anti-slavery party, which was then engaged in fighting +out the important question whether any new slave states should be +admitted to the Union. Charles Sumner, the real grand central figure +of that noble struggle, was at that moment thundering in Congress +against the iniquitous extension of the slave-holding area, and was +employing all his magnificent powers to assail the abominable Fugitive +Slave Bill, for the return of runaway negroes, who escaped north, into +the hands of their angry masters. The American colleges are always big +debating societies, where questions of politics are regularly argued +out among the students; and Garfield put himself at the head of the +anti-slavery movement at his own little university. He spoke upon the +subject frequently before the assembled students, and gained himself a +considerable reputation, not only as a zealous advocate of the rights +of the negro, but also as an eloquent orator and a powerful +argumentative debater. + +In 1856, Garfield took his degree at Williams College, and had now +finished his formal education. By that time, he was a fair though not +a great scholar, competently read in the Greek and Latin literatures, +and with a good knowledge of French and German. He was now nearly +twenty-five years old; and his experience was large and varied enough +to make him already into a man of the world. He had been farmer, +carpenter, canal driver, and student; he had seen the primitive life of +the forest, and the more civilized society of the Atlantic shore; he +had taught in schools in many states; he had supported himself for +years by his own labours; and now, at an age when many young men are, +as a rule, only just beginning life on their own account, he had +practically raised himself from his own class into the class of +educated and cultivated gentlemen. As soon as he had taken his degree, +his old friends, the trustees of the "Eclectic Institute" at Hiram, +proud of their former sweeper and bell-ringer, called him back at a +good salary as teacher of Greek and Latin. It was then just ten years +since he had toiled wearily along the tow-path of the Ohio and +Pennsylvania Canal. + +As a teacher, Garfield seems to have been eminently successful. His +genial character and good-natured way of explaining things made him a +favourite at once with the rough western lads he had to teach, who +would perhaps have thought a more formal teacher stiff and stuckup. +Garfield was one of themselves; he knew their ways and their manners; +he could make allowances for their awkwardness and bluntness of speech; +he could adopt towards them the exact tone which put them at home at +once with their easy-going instructor. Certainly, he inspired all his +pupils with an immense love and devotion for him; and it is less easy +to inspire those feelings in a sturdy Ohio farmer than in most other +varieties of the essentially affectionate human species. + +From 1857 to 1861, Garfield remained at Hiram, teaching and working +very hard. His salary, though a good one for the time and place, was +still humble according to our English notions; but it sufficed for his +needs; and as yet it would have seemed hardly credible that in only +twenty years the Ohio schoolmaster would rise to be President of the +United States. Indeed, it is only in America, that country of +peculiarly unencumbered political action, where every kind of talent is +most rapidly recognized and utilized, that this particular form of +swift promotion is really possible. But while Garfield was still at +his Institute, he was taking a vigorous part in local politics, +especially on the slavery question. Whenever there was a political +meeting at Hiram, the young schoolmaster was always called upon to take +the anti-slavery side; and he delivered himself so effectively upon +this favourite topic that he began to be looked upon as a rising +political character. In America, politics are less confined to any one +class than in Europe; and there would be nothing unusual in the +selection of a schoolmaster who could talk to a seat in the local or +general legislature. The practice of paying members makes it possible +for comparatively poor men to offer themselves as candidates; and +politics are thus a career, in the sense of a livelihood, far more than +in any other country. + +In 1858, Garfield married a lady who had been a fellow-student of his +in earlier days, and to whom he had been long engaged. In the +succeeding year, he got an invitation which greatly pleased and +flattered him. The authorities at Williams College asked him to +deliver the "Master's Oration" at their annual festival; an unusual +compliment to pay to so young a man, and one who had so recently taken +his degree. It was the first opportunity he had ever had for a +pleasure-trip, and taking his young wife with him (proud indeed, we may +be sure, at this earliest honour of his life, the precursor of so many +more) he went to Massachusetts by a somewhat roundabout but very +picturesque route, down the Great Lakes, through the Thousand Islands, +over the St. Lawrence rapids, and on to Quebec, the only town in +America which from its old-world look can lay claim to the sort of +beauty which so many ancient European cities abundantly possess. He +delivered his address with much applause, and returned to his Ohio home +well satisfied with this pleasant outing. + +Immediately on his return, the speech-making schoolmaster was met by a +very sudden and unexpected request that he would allow himself to be +nominated for the State legislature. Every state of the Union has its +own separate little legislative body, consisting of two houses; and it +was to the upper of these, the Senate of Ohio, that James Garfield was +asked to become a candidate. The schoolmaster consented; and as those +were times of very great excitement, when the South was threatening to +secede if a President hostile to the slave-owning interest was elected, +the contest was fought out almost entirely along those particular +lines. Garfield was returned as senator by a large majority, and took +his seat in the Ohio Senate in January, 1860. There, his voice was +always raised against slavery, and he was recognized at once as one of +the ablest speakers in the whole legislature. + +In 1861, the great storm burst over the States. In the preceding +November, Abraham Lincoln had been elected President. Lincoln was +himself, like Garfield, a self-made man, who had risen from the very +same pioneer labourer class;--a wood-cutter and rail-splitter in the +backwoods of Illinois, he had become a common boatman on the +Mississippi, and had there improved his mind by reading eagerly in all +his spare moments. With one of those rapid rises so commonly made by +self-taught lads in America, he had pushed his way into the Illinois +legislature by the time he was twenty-five, and qualified himself to +practise as a barrister at Springfield. His shrewd original talents +had raised him with wonderful quickness into the front ranks of his own +party; and when the question between the North and South rose into the +region of practical politics, Lincoln was selected by the republicans +(the antislavery group) as their candidate for the Presidency of the +United States. This selection was a very significant one in several +ways; Lincoln was a very strong opponent of slavery, and his +candidature showed the southern slave-owners that if the Republicans +were successful in the contest, a vigorous move against the +slave-holding oligarchy would at once be made. But it was also +significant in the fact that Lincoln was a western man; it was a sign +that the farmers and grangers of the agricultural west were beginning +to wake up politically and throw themselves into the full current of +American State affairs. On both these grounds, Lincoln's nomination +must have been deeply interesting to Garfield, whose own life had been +so closely similar, and who was destined, twenty years later, to follow +him to the same goal. + +Lincoln was duly elected, and the southern states began to secede. The +firing upon Fort Sumter by the South Carolina secessionists was the +first blow struck in that terrible war. Every man who was privileged +to live in America at that time (like the present writer) cannot recall +without a glow of recollection the memory of the wild eagerness with +which the North answered that note of defiance, and went forth with +overpowering faith and eagerness to fight the good fight on behalf of +human freedom. Such a spontaneous outburst of the enthusiasm of +humanity has never been known, before or since. President Lincoln +immediately called for a supply of seventy-five thousand men. In the +Ohio Senate, his message was read amid tumultuous applause; and the +moment the sound of the cheers died away, Garfield, as natural +spokesman of the republican party, sprang to his feet, and moved in a +short and impassioned speech that the state of Ohio should contribute +twenty thousand men and three million dollars as its share in the +general preparations. The motion was immediately carried with the +wildest demonstrations of fervour, and Ohio, with all the rest of the +North, rose like one man to put down by the strong hand the hideous +traffic in human flesh and blood. + +During those fiery and feverish days, every citizen of the loyal states +felt himself to be, in reserve at least, a possible soldier. It was +necessary to raise, drill, and render effective in an incredibly short +time a large army; and it would have been impossible to do so had it +not been for the eager enthusiasm with which civilians of every sort +enlisted, and threw themselves into their military duties with almost +incredible devotion. Garfield felt that he must bear his own part in +the struggle by fighting it out, not in the Senate but on the field; +and his first move was to obtain a large quantity of arms from the +arsenal in the doubtfully loyal state of Missouri. In this mission he +was completely successful; and he was next employed to raise and +organize two new regiments of Ohio infantry. Garfield, of course, knew +absolutely nothing of military matters at that time; but it was not a +moment to stand upon questions of precedence or experience; the born +organizers came naturally to the front, and Garfield was one of them. +Indeed, the faculty for organization seems innate in the American +people, so that when it became necessary to raise and equip so large a +body of men at a few weeks' notice, the task was undertaken offhand by +lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, and schoolmasters, without a minute's +hesitation, and was performed on the whole with distinguished success. + +When Garfield had organized his regiments, the Governor asked him to +accept the post of colonel to one of them. But Garfield at first +mistrusted his own powers in this direction. How should he, who had +hitherto been poring chiefly over the odes of Horace (his favourite +poet), now take so suddenly to leading a thousand men into actual +battle? He would accept only a subordinate position, he said, if a +regular officer of the United States army, trained at the great +military academy at West Point, was placed in command. So the Governor +told him to go among his own farmer friends in his native district, and +recruit a third regiment, promising to find him a West Point man as +colonel, if one was available. Garfield accepted the post of +lieutenant-colonel, raised the 42nd Ohio regiment, chiefly among his +own old pupils at Hiram, and set off for the seat of operations. At +the last moment the Governor failed to find a regular officer to lead +these raw recruits, every available man being already occupied, and +Garfield found himself, against his will, compelled to undertake the +responsible task of commanding the regiment. He accepted the task thus +thrust upon him, and as if by magic transformed himself at once from a +schoolmaster into an able soldier. + +In less than one month, Colonel Garfield took his raw troops into +action in the battle of Middle Creek, and drove the Confederate General +Marshall, with far larger numbers, out of his intrenchments, compelling +him to retreat into Virginia. This timely victory did much to secure +the northern advance along the line of the Mississippi. During the +whole of the succeeding campaign Garfield handled his regiment with +such native skill and marked success that the Government appointed him +Brigadier-General for his bravery and military talent. In spite of all +his early disadvantages, he had been the youngest member of the Ohio +Senate, and now he was the youngest general in the whole American army. + +Shortly after, the important victory of Chickamauga was gained almost +entirely by the energy and sagacity of General Garfield. For this +service, he was raised one degree in dignity, receiving his commission +as Major-General. He served altogether only two years and three months +in the army. + +But while Garfield was at the head of his victorious troops in +Kentucky, his friends in Ohio were arranging, without his consent or +knowledge, to call him away to a very different sphere of work. They +nominated Garfield as their candidate for the United States House of +Representatives at Washington. The General himself was unwilling to +accede to their request, when it reached him. He thought he could +serve the country better in the field than in Congress. Besides, he +was still a comparatively poor man. His salary as Major-General was +double that of a member of the House; and for his wife's and children's +sake he hesitated to accept the lesser position. Had he continued in +the army to the end of the war, he would doubtless have risen to the +very highest honours of that stirring epoch. But President Lincoln was +very anxious that Garfield should come into the Congress, where his +presence would greatly strengthen the President's hands; and with a +generous self-denial which well bespeaks his thorough loyalty, Garfield +gave up his military post and accepted a place in the House of +Representatives. He took his seat in December, 1863. + +For seventeen years, General Garfield sat in the general legislature of +the United States as one of the members for Ohio. During all that time, +he distinguished himself most honourably as the fearless advocate of +honest government, and the pronounced enemy of those underhand dodges +and wire-pulling machinery which are too often the disgrace of American +politics. He was opposed to all corruption and chicanery, especially +to the bad system of rewarding political supporters with places under +Government, which has long been the chief blot upon American republican +institutions. As a person of stalwart honesty and singleness of +purpose, he made himself respected by both sides alike. Politically +speaking, different men will judge very differently of Garfield's acts +in the House of Representatives. Englishmen especially cannot fail to +remark that his attitude towards ourselves was almost always one of +latent hostility; but it is impossible for anybody to deny that his +conduct was uniformly guided by high principle, and a constant +deference to what he regarded as the right course of action. + +In 1880, when General Garfield had already risen to be the acknowledged +leader of the House of Representatives, his Ohio supporters put him in +nomination for the upper chamber, the Senate. They wished Garfield to +come down to the state capital and canvas for support; but this the +General would not hear of. "I never asked for any place yet," he said, +"except the post of bell-ringer and general sweeper at the Hiram +Institute, and I won't ask for one now." But at least, his friends +urged, he would be on the spot to encourage and confer with his +partisans. No, Garfield answered; if they wished to elect him they +must elect him in his absence; he would avoid all appearance, even, of +angling for office. The result was that all the other candidates +withdrew, and Garfield was elected by acclamation. + +After the election he went down to Ohio and delivered a speech to his +constituents, a part of which strikingly illustrates the courage and +independence of the backwoods schoolmaster. "During the twenty years +that I have been in public life," he said, "almost eighteen of it in +the Congress of the United States, I have tried to do one thing. +Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to +follow my conviction, at whatever personal cost to myself. I have +represented for many years a district in Congress whose approbation I +greatly desired; but though it may seem, perhaps, a little egotistical +to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person, and +his name was Garfield. He is the only man that I am compelled to sleep +with, and eat with, and live with, and die with; and if I could not +have his approbation I should have bad companionship." + +Only one higher honour could now fall to the lot of a citizen of the +United States. The presidency was the single post to which Garfield's +ambition could still aspire. That honour came upon him, like all the +others, without his seeking; and it came, too, quite unexpectedly. +Five months later, in the summer of 1880, the National Republican +Convention met to select a candidate for their party at the forthcoming +presidential election. Every four years, before the election, each +party thus meets to decide upon the man to whom its votes will be given +at the final choice. After one or two ineffectual attempts to secure +unanimity in favour of other and more prominent politicians, the +Convention with one accord chose James Garfield for its candidate--a +nomination which was quite as great a surprise to Garfield himself as +to all the rest of the world. He was elected President of the United +States in November, 1880. + +It was a marvellous rise for the poor canal boy, the struggling +student, the obscure schoolmaster, thus to find himself placed at the +head of one among the greatest nations of the earth. He was still less +than fifty, and he might reasonably have looked forward to many years +of a happy, useful, and honourable life. Nevertheless, it is +impossible to feel that Garfield's death was other than a noble and +enviable one. He was cut off suddenly in the very moment of his +brightest success, before the cares and disappointments of office had +begun to dim the pleasure of his first unexpected triumph. He died a +martyr to a good and honest cause, and his death-bed was cheered and +alleviated by the hushed sorrow and sympathy of an entire nation--one +might almost truthfully add, of the whole civilized world. + +From the first, President Garfield set his face sternly against the bad +practice of rewarding political adherents by allowing them to nominate +officials in the public service--a species of covert corruption +sanctioned by long usage in the United States. This honest and +independent conduct raised up for him at once a host of enemies among +his own party. The talk which they indulged in against the President +produced a deep effect upon a half-crazy and wildly egotistic +French-Canadian of the name of Guiteau, who had emigrated to the States +and become an American citizen. General Garfield had arranged a trip +to New England in the summer of 1881, to attend the annual festival at +his old school, the Williams College, Massachusetts; and for that +purpose he left the White House (the President's official residence at +Washington) on July 2. As he stood in the station of the Baltimore and +Potomac Railway, arm in arm with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, +Guiteau approached him casually, and, drawing out a pistol, fired two +shots in rapid succession, one of which took effect on the President +above the third rib. The assassin was at once secured, and the wounded +President was carried back carefully to the White House. + +Almost everybody who reads this book will remember the long suspense, +while the President lay stretched upon his bed for weeks and weeks +together, with all Europe and America watching anxiously for any sign +of recovery, and sympathizing deeply with the wounded statesman and his +devoted wife. Every effort that was possible was made to save him, but +the wound was past all surgical skill. After lingering long with the +stored-up force of a good constitution, James Garfield passed away at +last of blood-poisoning, more deeply regretted perhaps than any other +man whom the present generation can remember. + +It is only in America that precisely such a success as Garfield's is +possible for people who spring, as he did, from the midst of the +people. In old-settled and wealthy countries we must be content, at +best, with slower and less lofty promotion. But the lesson of +Garfield's life is not for America only, but for the whole world of +workers everywhere. The same qualities which procured his success +there will produce a different, but still a solid success, anywhere +else. As Garfield himself fittingly put it, with his usual keen +American common sense, "There is no more common thought among young +people than the foolish one, that by-and-by something will turn up by +which they will suddenly achieve fame or fortune. No, young gentlemen; +things don't turn up in this world unless somebody turns them up." + + + + +VII. + +THOMAS EDWARD, SHOEMAKER. + + +It is the object of this volume to set forth the lives of working men +who through industry, perseverance, and high principle have raised +themselves by their own exertions from humble beginnings. Raised +themselves! Yes; but to what? Not merely, let us hope, to wealth and +position, not merely to worldly respect and high office, but to some +conspicuous field of real usefulness to their fellow men. Those whose +lives we have hitherto examined did so raise themselves by their own +strenuous energy and self-education. Either, like Garfield and +Franklin, they served the State zealously in peace or war; or else, +like Stephenson and Telford, they improved human life by their +inventions and engineering works; or, again, like Herschel and +Fraunhofer, they added to the wide field of scientific knowledge; or +finally, like Millet and Gibson, they beautified the world with their +noble and inspiring artistic productions. But in every one of these +cases, the men whose lives we have been here considering did actually +rise, sooner or later, from the class of labourers into some other +class socially and monetarily superior to it. Though they did great +good in other ways to others, they did still as a matter of fact +succeed themselves in quitting the rank in which they were born, and +rising to some other rank more or less completely above it. + +Now, it will be clear to everybody that so long as our present social +arrangements exist, it must be impossible for the vast mass of +labouring men ever to do anything of the sort. It is to be desired, +indeed, that every labouring man should by industry and thrift secure +independence in the end for himself and his family; but however much +that may be the case, it will still rest certain that the vast mass of +men will necessarily remain workers to the last; and that no attempt to +raise individual working men above their own class into the +professional or mercantile classes can ever greatly benefit the working +masses as a whole. What is most of all desirable is that the +condition, the aims, and the tastes of working men, as working men, +should be raised and bettered; that without necessarily going outside +their own ranks, they should become more prudent, more thrifty, better +educated, and wider-minded than many of their predecessors have been in +the past. Under such circumstances, it is surely well to set before +ourselves some examples of working men who, while still remaining +members of their own class, have in the truest and best sense "raised +themselves" so as to attain the respect and admiration of others +whether their equals or superiors in the artificial scale. Dr. Smiles, +who has done much to illustrate the history of the picked men among the +labouring orders, has chosen two or three lives of such a sort for +investigation, and from them we may select a single one as an example +of a working man's career rendered conspicuous by qualities other than +those that usually secure external success. + +Thomas Edward, associate of the Linnean Society, though a Scotchman all +his life long, was accidentally born (so to speak) at Gosport, near +Portsmouth, on Christmas Day, 1814. His father was in the Fifeshire +militia, and in those warlike days, when almost all the regulars were +on the Continent, fighting Napoleon, militia regiments used to be +ordered about the country from one place to another, to watch the coast +or mount guard over the French prisoners, in the most unaccountable +fashion. So it happened, oddly enough, that Thomas Edward, a Scotchman +of the Scotch, was born close under the big forts of Portsmouth harbour. + +After Waterloo, however, the Fifeshire regiment was sent home again; +and the militia being before long disbanded, John Edward, our hero's +father, went to live at Aberdeen, where he plied his poor trade of a +hand-loom linen weaver for many years. It was on the green at +Aberdeen, surrounded by small labourers' cottages, that Thomas Edward +passed his early days. From his babyhood, almost, the boy had a strong +love for all the beasties he saw everywhere around him; a fondness for +birds and animals, and a habit of taming them which can seldom be +acquired, but which seems with some people to come instinctively by +nature. While Tam was still quite a child, he loved to wander by +himself out into the country, along the green banks of the Dee, or +among the tidal islands at the mouth of the river, overgrown by waving +seaweeds, and fringed with great white bunches of blossoming +scurvy-grass. He loved to hunt for crabs and sea-anemones beside the +ebbing channels, or to watch the jelly-fish left high and dry upon the +shore by the retreating water. Already, in his simple way, the little +ragged bare-footed Scotch laddie was at heart a born naturalist. + +Very soon, Tam was not content with looking at the "venomous beasts," +as the neighbours called them, but he must needs begin to bring them +home, and set up a small aquarium and zoological garden on his own +account. All was fish that came to Tam's net: tadpoles, newts, and +stickleback from the ponds, beetles from the dung-heaps, green crabs +from the sea-shore--nay, even in time such larger prizes as hedgehogs, +moles, and nestfuls of birds. Nothing delighted him so much as to be +out in the fields, hunting for and taming these his natural pets. + +Unfortunately, Tam's father and mother did not share the boy's passion +for nature, and instead of encouraging him in pursuing his inborn +taste, they scolded him and punished him bitterly for bringing home the +nasty creatures. But nothing could win away Tam from the love of the +beasties; and in the end, he had his own way, and lived all his life, +as he himself afterwards beautifully put it, "a fool to nature." Too +often, unhappily, fathers and mothers thus try to check the best +impulses in their children, under mistaken notions of right, and +especially is this the case in many instances as regards the love of +nature. Children are constantly chidden for taking an interest in the +beautiful works of creation, and so have their first intelligent +inquiries and aspirations chilled at once; when a little care and +sympathy would get rid of the unpleasantness of having white mice or +lizards crawling about the house, without putting a stop to the young +beginner's longing for more knowledge of the wonderful and beautiful +world in whose midst he lives. + +When Tam was nearly five years old, he was sent to school, chiefly no +doubt to get him out of the way; but Scotch schools for the children of +the working classes were in those days very rough hard places, where +the taws or leather strap was still regarded as the chief instrument of +education. Little Edward was not a child to be restrained by that +particular form of discipline; and after he had had two or three +serious tussles with his instructors, he was at last so cruelly beaten +by one of his masters that he refused to return, and his parents, who +were themselves by no means lacking in old Scotch severity, upheld him +in his determination. He had picked up reading by this time, and now +for a while he was left alone to hunt about to his heart's content +among his favourite fields and meadows. But by the time he was six +years old, he felt he ought to be going to work, brave little mortal +that he was; and as his father and mother thought so too, the poor wee +mite was sent to join his elder brother in working at a tobacco factory +in the town, at the wages of fourteen-pence a week. So, for the next +two years, little Tam waited upon a spinner (as the workers are called) +and began life in earnest as a working man. + +At the end of two years, however, the brothers heard that better wages +were being given, a couple of miles away, at Grandholm, up the river +Don. So off the lads tramped, one fast-day (a recognized Scotch +institution), to ask the manager of the Grandholm factory if he could +give them employment. They told nobody of their intention, but trudged +away on their own account; and when they came back and told their +parents what they had done, the father was not very well satisfied with +the proposal, because he thought it too far for so small a boy as Tam +to walk every day to and from his work. Tam, however, was very anxious +to go, not only on account of the increased wages, but also (though +this was a secret) because of the beautiful woods and crags round +Grandholm, through which he hoped to wander during the short dinner +hour. In the end, John Edward gave way, and the boys were allowed to +follow their own fancy in going to the new factory. + +It was very hard work; the hours were from six in the morning till +eight at night, for there was no Factory Act then to guard the interest +of helpless children; so the boys had to be up at four in the morning, +and were seldom home again till nine at night. In winter, the snow +lies long and deep on those chilly Aberdeenshire roads, and the east +winds from the German Ocean blow cold and cutting up the narrow valley +of the Don; and it was dreary work toiling along them in the dark of +morning or of night in bleak and cheerless December weather. Still, +Tam liked it on the whole extremely well. His wages were now three +shillings a week; and then, twice a day in summer, there was the +beautiful walk to and fro along the leafy high-road. "People may say +of factories what they please," Edward wrote much later, "but I liked +this factory. It was a happy time for me whilst I remained there. The +woods were easy of access during our meal-hours. What lots of nests! +What insects, wild flowers, and plants, the like of which I had never +seen before." The boy revelled in the beauty of the birds and beasts +he saw here, and he retained a delightful recollection of them +throughout his whole after life. + +This happy time, however, was not to last for ever. When young Edward +was eleven years old, his father took him away from Grandholm, and +apprenticed him to a working shoemaker. The apprenticeship was to go +on for six years; the wages to begin at eighteen-pence a week; and the +hours, too sadly long, to be from six in the morning till nine at +night. Tam's master, one Charles Begg, was a drunken London workman, +who had wandered gradually north; a good shoemaker, but a quarrelsome, +rowdy fellow, loving nothing on earth so much as a round with his fists +on the slightest provocation. From this unpromising teacher, Edward +took his first lessons in the useful art of shoemaking; and though he +learned fast--for he was not slothful in business--he would have +learned faster, no doubt, but for his employer's very drunken and +careless ways. When Begg came home from the public-house, much the +worse for whisky, he would first beat Tam, and then proceed upstairs to +beat his wife. For three years young Edward lived under this +intolerable tyranny, till he could stand it no longer. At last, Begg +beat and ill-treated him so terribly that Tam refused outright to +complete his apprenticeship. Begg was afraid to compel him to do +so--doubtless fearing to expose his ill-usage of the lad. So Tam went +to a new master, a kindly man, with whom he worked in future far more +happily. + +The boy now began to make himself a little botanical garden in the back +yard of his mother's house--a piece of waste ground covered with +rubbish, such as one often sees behind the poorer class of cottages in +towns. Tam determined to alter all that, so he piled up all the stones +into a small rockery, dug up the plot, manured it, and filled it with +wild and garden flowers. The wild flowers, of course, he found in the +woods and hedgerows around him; but the cultivated kinds he got in a +very ingenious fashion, by visiting all the rubbish heaps of the +neighbourhood, on which garden refuse was usually piled. A good many +roots and plants can generally be found in such places, and by digging +them up, Tam was soon able to make himself a number of bright and +lively beds. Such self-help in natural history always lay very much in +Edward's way. + +At the same time, young Edward was now beginning to feel the desire for +knowing something more about the beasts and birds of which he was so +fond. He used to go in all his spare moments among the shops in the +town, to look at the pictures in the windows, especially the pictures +of animals; and though his earnings were still small, he bought a book +whenever he was able to afford one. In those days, cheap papers for the +people were only just beginning to come into existence; and Tam, who +was now eighteen, bought the first number of the Penny Magazine, an +excellent journal of that time, which he liked so much that he +continued to take in the succeeding numbers. Some of the papers in it +were about natural history, and these, of course, particularly +delighted the young man's heart. He also bought the Weekly Visitor, +which he read through over and over again. + +In 1831, when Tam was still eighteen, he enlisted in the Aberdeenshire +militia, and during his brief period of service an amusing circumstance +occurred which well displays the almost irresistible character of +Edward's love of nature. While he was drilling with the awkward squad +one morning, a butterfly of a kind that he had never seen before +happened to flit in front of him as he stood in the ranks. It was a +beautiful large brown butterfly, and Edward was so fascinated by its +appearance that he entirely forgot, in a moment, where he was and what +he was doing. Without a second's thought, he darted wildly out of the +ranks, and rushed after the butterfly, cap in hand. It led him a +pretty chase, over sandhills and shore, for five minutes. He was just +on the point of catching it at last, when he suddenly felt a heavy hand +laid upon his shoulder, and looking round, he saw the corporal of the +company and several soldiers come to arrest him. Such a serious +offence against military discipline might have cost him dear indeed, +for corporals have little sympathy with butterfly hunting; but luckily +for Edward, as he was crossing the parade ground under arrest, he +happened to meet an officer walking with some ladies. The officer +asked the nature of his offence, and when the ladies heard what it was +they were so much interested in such a strange creature as a +butterfly-loving militiaman, that they interceded for him, and finally +begged him off his expected punishment. The story shows us what sort +of stuff Edward was really made of. He felt so deep an interest in all +the beautiful living creatures around him for their own sake, that he +could hardly restrain his feelings even under the most untoward +circumstances. + +When Edward was twenty, he removed from Aberdeen to Banff where he +worked as a journeyman for a new master. The hours were very long, but +by taking advantage of the summer evenings, he was still able to hunt +for his beloved birds, caterpillars, and butterflies. Still, the low +wages in the trade discouraged him much, and he almost made up his mind +to save money and emigrate to America. But one small accident alone +prevented him from carrying out this purpose. Like a good many other +young men, the naturalist shoemaker fell in love. Not only so, but his +falling in love took practical shape a little later in his getting +married; and at twenty-three, the lonely butterfly hunter brought back +a suitable young wife to his little home. The marriage was a very +happy one. Mrs. Edward not only loved her husband deeply, but showed +him sympathy in his favourite pursuits, and knew how to appreciate his +sterling worth. Long afterwards she said, that though many of her +neighbours could not understand her husband's strange behaviour, she +had always felt how much better it was to have one who spent his spare +time on the study of nature than one who spent it on the public-house. + +As soon as Edward got a home of his own, he began to make a regular +collection of all the animals and plants in Banffshire. This was a +difficult thing for him to do, for he knew little of books, and had +access to very few, so that he couldn't even find out the names of all +the creatures he caught and preserved. But, though he didn't always +know what they were called, he did know their natures and habits and +all about them; and such first-hand knowledge in natural history is +really the rarest and the most valuable of all. He saw little of his +fellow-workmen. They were usually a drunken, careless lot; Edward was +sober and thoughtful, and had other things to think of than those that +they cared to talk about with one another. But he went out much into +the fields, with invincible determination, having made up his mind that +he would get to know all about the plants and beasties, however much +the knowledge might cost him. + +For this object, he bought a rusty old gun for four-and-sixpence, and +invested in a few boxes and bottles for catching insects. His working +hours were from six in the morning till nine at night, and for that +long day he always worked hard to support his wife, and (when they +came) his children. He had therefore only the night hours between nine +and six to do all his collecting. Any other man, almost, would have +given up the attempt as hopeless; but Edward resolved never to waste a +single moment or a single penny, and by care and indomitable energy he +succeeded in making his wished-for collection. Sometimes he was out +tramping the whole night; sometimes he slept anyhow, under a hedge or +haystack; sometimes he took up temporary quarters in a barn, an +outhouse, or a ruined castle. But night after night he went on +collecting, whenever he was able; and he watched the habits and manners +of the fox, the badger, the otter, the weasel, the stoat, the pole-cat, +and many other regular night-roamers as no one else, in all +probability, had ever before watched them in the whole world. + +Sometimes he suffered terrible disappointments, due directly or +indirectly to his great poverty. Once, he took all his cases of +insects, containing nine hundred and sixteen specimens, and +representing the work of four years, up to his garret to keep them +there till he was able to glaze them. When he came to take them down +again he found to his horror that rats had got at the boxes, eaten +almost every insect in the whole collection, and left nothing behind +but the bare pins, with a few scattered legs, wings, and bodies, +sticking amongst them. Most men would have been so disgusted with this +miserable end to so much labour, that they would have given up moth +hunting for ever. But Edward was made of different stuff. He went to +work again as zealously as ever, and in four years more, he had got +most of the beetles, flies, and chafers as carefully collected as +before. + +By the year 1845, Edward had gathered together about two thousand +specimens of beasts, birds, and insects found in the neighbourhood of +his own town of Banff. He made the cases to hold them himself, and did +it so neatly that, in the case of his shells, each kind had even a +separate little compartment all of its own. And now he unfortunately +began to think of making money by exhibiting his small museum. If only +he could get a few pounds to help him in buying books, materials, +perhaps even a microscope, to help him in prosecuting his scientific +work, what a magnificent thing that would be for him! Filled with this +grand idea, he took a room in the Trades Hall at Banff, and exhibited +his collection during a local fair. A good many people came to see it, +and the Banff paper congratulated the poor shoemaker on his energy in +gathering together such a museum of curiosities "without aid, and under +discouraging circumstances which few would have successfully +encountered." He was so far lucky in this first venture that he +covered his expenses and was able even to put away a little money for +future needs. Encouraged by this small triumph, the unwearied +naturalist set to work during the next year, and added several new +attractions to his little show. At the succeeding fair he again +exhibited, and made still more money out of his speculation. Unhappily, +the petty success thus secured led him to hope he might do even better +by moving his collection to Aberdeen. + +To Aberdeen, accordingly, Edward went. He took a shop in the great gay +thoroughfare of that cold northern city--Union Street--and prepared to +receive the world at large, and to get the money for the longed-for +books and the much-desired microscope. Now, Aberdeen is a big, busy, +bustling town; it has plenty of amusements and recreations; it has two +colleges and many learned men of its own; and the people did not care +to come and see the working shoemaker's poor small collection. If he +had been a president of the British Association for the Advancement of +Science, now--some learned knight or baronet come down by special train +from London--the Aberdeen doctors and professors might have rushed to +hear his address; or if he had been a famous music-hall singer or an +imitation negro minstrel, the public at large might have flocked to be +amused and degraded by his parrot-like buffoonery; but as he was only a +working shoemaker from Banff, with a heaven-born instinct for watching +and discovering all the strange beasts and birds of Scotland, and the +ways and thoughts of them, why, of course, respectable Aberdeen, high +or low, would have nothing in particular to say to him. Day after day +went by, and hardly anybody came, till at last poor Edward's heart sank +terribly within him. Even the few who did come were loth to believe +that a working shoemaker could ever have gathered together such a large +collection by his own exertions. + +"Do you mean to say," said one of the Aberdeen physicians to Edward, +"that you've maintained your wife and family by working at your trade, +all the while that you've been making this collection?" + +"Yes, I do," Edward answered. + +"Oh, nonsense!" the doctor said. "How is it possible you could have +done that?" + +"By never losing a single minute or part of a minute," was the brave +reply, "that I could by any means improve." + +It is wonderful indeed that when once Edward had begun to attract +anybody's attention at all, he and his exhibition should ever have been +allowed to pass so unnoticed in a great, rich, learned city like +Aberdeen. But it only shows how very hard it is for unassuming merit +to push its way; for the Aberdeen people still went unheeding past the +shop in Union Street, till Edward at last began to fear and tremble as +to how he should ever meet the expenses of the exhibition. After the +show had been open four weeks, one black Friday came when Edward never +took a penny the whole day. As he sat there alone and despondent in +the empty room, the postman brought him a letter. It was from his +master at Banff. "Return immediately," it said, "or you will be +discharged." What on earth could he do? He couldn't remove his +collection; he couldn't pay his debt. A few more days passed, and he +saw no way out of it. At last, in blank despair, he offered the whole +collection for sale. A gentleman proposed to pay him the paltry sum of +20 pounds 10s. for the entire lot, the slow accumulations of ten long +years. It was a miserable and totally inadequate price, but Edward +could get no more. In the depths of his misery, he accepted it. The +gentleman took the collection home, gave it to his boy, and finally +allowed it all, for want of care and attention, to go to rack and ruin. +And so that was the end of ten years of poor Thomas Edward's +unremitting original work in natural history. A sadder tale of +unrequited labour in the cause of science has seldom been written. + +How he ever recovered from such a downfall to all his hopes and +expectations is extraordinary. But the man had a wonderful power of +bearing up against adverse circumstances; and when, after six weeks' +absence, he returned to Banff, ruined and dispirited, he set to work +once more, as best he might, at the old, old trade of shoemaking. He +was obliged to leave his wife and children in Aberdeen, and to tramp +himself on foot to Banff, so that he might earn the necessary money to +bring them back; for the cash he had got for the collection had all +gone in paying expenses. It is almost too sad to relate; and no wonder +poor Edward felt crushed indeed when he got back once more to his +lonely shoemaker's bench and fireless fireside. He was very lonely +until his wife and children came. But when the carrier generously +brought them back free (with that kindliness which the poor so often +show to the poor), and the home was occupied once more, and the fire +lighted, he felt as if life might still be worth living, at least for +his wife and children. So he went back to his trade as heartily as he +might, and worked at it well and successfully. For it is to be noted, +that though Thomas Edward was so assiduous a naturalist and collector, +he was the best hand, too, at making first-class shoes in all Banff. +The good workman is generally the best man at whatever he undertakes. +Certainly the best man is almost always a good workman at his own trade. + +But of course he made no more natural history collections? Not a bit +of it. Once a naturalist, always a naturalist. Edward set to work +once more, nothing daunted, and by next spring he was out everywhere +with his gun, exactly as before, replacing the sold collection as fast +as ever his hand was able. + +By this time Edward began to make a few good friends. Several +magistrates for the county signed a paper for him, stating that they +knew him to be a naturalist, and no poacher; and on presenting this +paper to the gamekeepers, he was generally allowed to pursue his +researches wherever he liked, and shoot any birds or animals he needed +for his new museum. Soon after his return from Aberdeen, too, he made +the acquaintance of a neighbouring Scotch minister, Mr. Smith of +Monquhitter, who proved a very kind and useful friend to him. Mr. +Smith was a brother naturalist, and he had books--those precious +books--which he lent Edward freely; and there for the first time the +shoemaker zoologist learned the scientific names of many among the +birds and animals with whose lives and habits he had been so long +familiar. Another thing the good minister did for his shoemaker +friend: he constantly begged him to write to scientific journals the +results of his observations in natural history. At first Edward was +very timid; he didn't like to appear in print; thought his grammar and +style wouldn't be good enough; fought shy of the proposal altogether. +But at last Edward made up his mind to contribute a few notes to the +Banffshire Journal, and from that he went on slowly to other papers, +until at last he came to be one of the most valued occasional writers +for several of the leading scientific periodicals in England. +Unfortunately, science doesn't pay. All this work was done for love +only; and Edward's only reward was the pleasure he himself derived from +thus jotting down the facts he had observed about the beautiful +creatures he loved so well. + +Soon Mr. Smith induced the indefatigable shoemaker to send a few papers +on the birds and beasts to the Zoologist. Readers began to perceive +that these contributions were sent by a man of the right sort--a man +who didn't merely read what other men had said about the creatures in +books, but who watched their ways on his own account, and knew all +about their habits and manners in their own homes. Other friends now +began to interest themselves in him; and Edward obtained at last, what +to a man of his tastes must have been almost as much as money or +position--the society of people who could appreciate him, and could +sympathize in all that interested him. Mr. Smith in particular always +treated him, says Dr. Smiles, "as one intelligent man treats another." +The paltry distinctions of artificial rank were all forgotten between +them, and the two naturalists talked together with endless interest +about all those lovely creatures that surround us every one on every +side, but that so very few people comparatively have ever eyes to see +or hearts to understand. It was a very great loss to Edward when Mr. +Smith died, in 1854. + +In the year 1858 the untiring shoemaker had gathered his third and last +collection, the finest and best of all. By this time he had become an +expert stuffer of birds, and a good preserver of fish and flowers. But +his health was now beginning to fail. He was forty-four, and he had +used his constitution very severely, going out at nights in cold and +wet, and cheating himself of sleep during the natural hours of rest and +recuperation. Happily, during all these years, he had resisted the +advice of his Scotch labouring friends, to take out whisky with him on +his nightly excursions. He never took a drop of it, at home or abroad. +If he had done so, he himself believed, he could not have stood the +cold, the damp, and the exposure in the way he did. His food was +chiefly oatmeal-cake; his drink was water. "Sometimes, when I could +afford it," he says, "my wife boiled an egg or two, and these were my +only luxuries." He had a large family, and the task of providing for +them was quite enough for his slender means, without leaving much +margin for beer or whisky. + +But the best constitution won't stand privation and exposure for ever. +By-and-by Edward fell ill, and had a fever. He was ill for a month, +and when he came round again the doctor told him that he must at once +give up his nightly wandering. This was a real and serious blow to +poor Edward; it was asking him to give up his one real pleasure and +interest in life. All the happiest moments he had ever known were +those which he had spent in the woods and fields, or among the lonely +mountains with the falcons, and the herons, and the pine-martens, and +the ermines. All this delightful life he was now told he must abandon +for ever. Nor was that all. Illness costs money. While a man is +earning nothing, he is running up a doctor's bill. Edward now saw that +he must at last fall back upon his savings bank, as he rightly called +it--his loved and cherished collection of Banffshire animals. He had +to draw upon it heavily. Forty cases of birds were sold; and Edward +now knew that he would never be able to replace the specimens he had +parted with. + +Still, his endless patience wasn't yet exhausted. No more of wandering +by night, to be sure, upon moor or fell, gun in hand, chasing the +merlin or the polecat to its hidden lair; no more of long watching +after the snowy owl or the long-tailed titmouse among the frozen winter +woods; but there remained one almost untried field on which Edward +could expend his remaining energy, and in which he was to do better +work for science than in all the rest--the sea. + +This new field he began to cultivate in a novel and ingenious way. He +got together all the old broken pails, pots, pans, and kettles he could +find in the neighbourhood, filled them with straw or bits of rag, and +then sank them with a heavy stone into the rocky pools that abound +along that weather-beaten coast. A rope was tied to one end, by which +he could raise them again; and once a month he used to go his rounds to +visit these very primitive but effectual sea-traps. Lots of living +things had meanwhile congregated in the safe nests thus provided for +them, and Edward sorted them all over, taking home with him all the +newer or more valuable specimens. In this way he was enabled to make +several additions to our knowledge of the living things that inhabit +the sea off the north-east coast of Scotland. + +The fishermen also helped him not a little, by giving him many rare +kinds of fish or refuse from their nets, which he duly examined and +classified. As a rule, the hardy men who go on the smacks have a +profound contempt for natural history, and will not be tempted, even by +offers of money, to assist those whom they consider as half-daft +gentlefolk in what seems to them a perfectly useless and almost +childish amusement. But it was different with Tam Edward, the strange +shoemaker whom they all knew so well; if HE wanted fish or rubbish for +his neat collection in the home-made glass cases, why, of course he +could have them, and welcome. So they brought him rare sand-suckers, +and blue-striped wrasse, and saury pike, and gigantic cuttle-fish, four +feet long, to his heart's content. Edward's daughters were now also old +enough to help him in his scientific studies. They used to watch for +the clearing of the nets, and pick out of the refuse whatever they +thought would interest or please their father. But the fish themselves +were Edward's greatest helpers and assistants. As Dr. Smiles quaintly +puts it, they were the best of all possible dredgers. His daughters +used to secure him as many stomachs as possible, and from their +contents he picked out an immense number of beautiful and valuable +specimens. The bill of fare of the cod alone comprised an incredible +variety of small crabs, shells, shrimps, sea-mice, star-fish, +jelly-fish, sea anemones, eggs, and zoophytes. All these went to swell +Edward's new collection of marine animals. + +To identify and name so many small and little-known creatures was a +very difficult task for the poor shoemaker, with so few books, and no +opportunities for visiting museums and learned societies. But his +industry and ingenuity managed to surmount all obstacles. Naturalists +everywhere are very willing to aid and instruct one another; especially +are the highest authorities almost always eager to give every help and +encouragement in their power to local amateurs. Edward used to wait +till he had collected a batch of specimens of a single class or order, +and then he would send them by post to learned men in different parts +of the country, who named them for him, and sent them back with some +information as to their proper place in the classification of the group +to which they belonged. Mr. Spence Bate of Plymouth is the greatest +living authority on crustaceans, such as the lobsters, shrimps, +sea-fleas, and hermit crabs; and to him Edward sent all the queer +crawling things of that description that he found in his original +sea-traps. Mr. Couch, of Polperro in Cornwall, was equally versed in +the true backboned fishes; and to him Edward sent any doubtful midges, +or gurnards, or gobies, or whiffs. So numerous are the animals and +plants of the sea-shore, even in the north of Scotland alone, that if +one were to make a complete list of all Edward's finds it would occupy +an entire book almost as large as this volume. + +Naturalists now began to help Edward in another way, the way that he +most needed, by kind presents of books, especially their own +writings--a kind of gift which cost them nothing, but was worth to him +a very great deal. Mr. Newman, the editor of the Zoologist paper, was +one of his most useful correspondents, and gave him several excellent +books on natural history. Mr. Bate made him a still more coveted +present--a microscope, with which he could examine several minute +animals, too small to be looked at by the naked eye. The same good +friend also gave him a little pocket-lens (or magnifying glass) for use +on the sea-shore. + +As Edward went on, his knowledge increased rapidly, and his discoveries +fully kept pace with it. The wretchedly paid Banff shoemaker was now +corresponding familiarly with half the most eminent men of science in +the kingdom, and was a valued contributor to all the most important +scientific journals. Several new animals which he had discovered were +named in his honour, and frequent references were made to him in +printed works of the first importance. It occurred to Mr. Couch and +Mr. Bate, therefore, both of whom were greatly indebted to the +working-man naturalist for specimens and information, that Edward ought +to be elected a member of some leading scientific society. There is no +such body of greater distinction in the world of science than the +Linnean Society; and of this learned institution Edward was duly +elected an associate in 1866. The honour was one which he had richly +deserved, and which no doubt he fully appreciated. + +And yet he was nothing more even now than a working shoemaker, who was +earning not more but less wages even than he once used to do. He had +brought up a large family honestly and respectably; he had paid his way +without running into debt; his children were all growing up; and he had +acquired a wide reputation among naturalists as a thoroughly +trustworthy observer and an original worker in many different fields of +botany and zoology. But his wages were now only eight shillings a +week, and his science had brought him, as many people would say, only +the barren honour of being an associate of the Linnean Society, or the +respected friend of many among the noblest and greatest men of his +country. He began life as a shoemaker, and he remained a shoemaker to +the end. "Had I pursued money," he said, "with half the ardour and +perseverance that I have pursued nature, I have no hesitation in saying +that by this time I should have been a rich man." + +In 1876, Dr. Smiles, the historian of so many truly great working men, +attracted by Edward's remarkable and self-sacrificing life, determined +to write the good shoemaker's biography while he was still alive. +Edward himself gave Dr. Smiles full particulars as to his early days +and his later struggles; and that information the genial biographer +wove into a delightful book, from which all the facts here related have +been borrowed. The "Life of a Scotch Naturalist" attracted an immense +deal of attention when it was first published, and led many people, +scientific or otherwise, to feel a deep interest in the man who had +thus made himself poor for the love of nature. The result was such a +spontaneous expression of generous feeling towards Edward that he was +enabled to pass the evening of his days not only in honour, but also in +substantial ease and comfort. + +And shall we call such a life as this a failure? Shall we speak of it +carelessly as unsuccessful? Surely not. Edward had lived his life +happily, usefully, and nobly; he had attained the end he set before +himself; he had conquered all his difficulties by his indomitable +resolution; and he lived to see his just reward in the respect and +admiration of all those whose good opinion was worth the having. If he +had toiled and moiled all the best days of his life, at some work, +perhaps, which did not even benefit in any way his fellow-men; if he +had given up all his time to enriching himself anyhow, by fair means or +foul; if he had gathered up a great business by crushing out +competition and absorbing to himself the honest livelihood of a dozen +other men; if he had speculated in stocks and shares, and piled up at +last a vast fortune by doubtful transactions, all the world would have +said, in its unthinking fashion, that Mr. Edward was a wonderfully +successful man. But success in life does not consist in that only, if +in that at all. Edward lived for an aim, and that aim he amply +attained. He never neglected his home duties or his regular work; but +in his stray moments he found time to amass an amount of knowledge +which rendered him the intellectual equal of men whose opportunities +and education had been far more fortunate than his own. The pleasure +he found in his work was the real reward that science gave him. All his +life long he had that pleasure: he saw the fields grow green in spring, +the birds build nests in early summer, the insects flit before his eyes +on autumn evenings, the stoat and hare put on their snow-white coat to +his delight in winter weather. And shall we say that the riches he +thus beheld spread ever before him were any less real or less +satisfying to a soul like his than the mere worldly wealth that other +men labour and strive for? Oh no. Thomas Edward was one of those who +work for higher and better ends than outward show, and verily he had +his reward. The monument raised up to that simple and earnest working +shoemaker in the "Life of a Scotch Naturalist" is one of which any +scientific worker in the whole world might well be proud. In his old +age, he had the meed of public encouragement and public recognition, +the one thing that the world at large can add to a scientific worker's +happiness; and his name will be long remembered hereafter, when those +of more pretentious but less useful labourers are altogether forgotten. +How many men whom the world calls successful might gladly have + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Biographies of Working Men, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 4529.txt or 4529.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/5/2/4529/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. 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THOMAS EDWARD, SHOEMAKER + + + + + + +PREFACE. + + + + + +My acknowledgments are due to Dr. Smiles's "Lives of the +Engineers," "Life of the Stephensons," and "Life of a Scotch +Naturalist;" to Lady Eastlake's "Life of Gibson;" to Mr. Holden's +"Life of Sir William Herschel;" to M. Seusier's "J. F. Millet, Sa +Vie et Ses Oeuvres;" and to Mr. Thayer's "Life of President +Garfield;" from which most of the facts here narrated have been +derived. + +G.A. + + + + + + +BIOGRAPHIES OF WORKING MEN. + +I. + +THOMAS TELFORD, STONEMASON. + + + + + +High up among the heather-clad hills which form the broad dividing +barrier between England and Scotland, the little river Esk brawls +and bickers over its stony bed through a wild land of barren +braesides and brown peat mosses, forming altogether some of the +gloomiest and most forbidding scenery in the whole expanse of +northern Britain. Almost the entire bulk of the counties of +Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Ayr is composed of just such solemn +desolate upland wolds, with only a few stray farms or solitary +cottages sprinkled at wide distances over their bare bleak surface, +and with scarcely any sign of life in any part save the little +villages which cluster here and there at long intervals around some +stern and simple Scottish church. Yet the hardy people who inhabit +this wild and chilly moorland country may well be considered to rank +among the best raw material of society in the whole of Britain; for +from the peasant homes of these southern Scotch Highlands have come +forth, among a host of scarcely less distinguished natives, three +men, at least, who deserve to take their place in the very front +line of British thinkers or workers--Thomas Telford, Robert Burns, +and Thomas Carlyle. By origin, all three alike belonged in the very +strictest sense to the working classes; and the story of each is +full of lessons or of warnings for every one of us: but that of +Telford is perhaps the most encouraging and the most remarkable of +all, as showing how much may be accomplished by energy and +perseverance, even under the most absolutely adverse and difficult +circumstances. + +Near the upper end of Eskdale, in the tiny village of Westerkirk, +a young shepherd's wife gave birth to a son on the 9th of August, +1757. Her husband, John Telford, was employed in tending sheep on +a neighbouring farm, and he and his Janet occupied a small cottage +close by, with mud walls and rudely thatched roof, such as in +southern England even the humblest agricultural labourer would +scarcely consent willingly to inhabit. Before the child was three +months old, his father died; and Janet Telford was left alone in +the world with her unweaned baby. But in remote country districts, +neighbours are often more neighbourly than in great towns; and a +poor widow can manage to eke out a livelihood for herself with an +occasional lift from the helping hands of friendly fellow- +villagers. Janet Telford had nothing to live upon save her own ten +fingers; but they were handy enough, after the sturdy Scotch +fashion, and they earned some sort of livelihood in a humble way +for herself and her fatherless boy. The farmers about found her +work on their farms at haymaking or milking, and their wives took +the child home with them while its mother was busy labouring in the +harvest fields. Amid such small beginnings did the greatest of +English engineers before the railway era receive his first hard +lessons in the art of life. + +After her husband's death, the poor widow removed from her old +cottage to a still more tiny hut, which she shared with a +neighbour--a very small hut, with a single door for both families; +and here young Tam Telford spent most of his boyhood in the quiet +honourable poverty of the uncomplaining rural poor. As soon as he +was big enough to herd sheep, he was turned out upon the hillside +in summer like any other ragged country laddie, and in winter he +tended cows, receiving for wages only his food and money enough to +cover the cost of his scanty clothing. He went to school, too; +how, nobody now knows: but he DID go, to the parish school of +Westerkirk, and there he learnt with a will, in the winter months, +though he had to spend the summer on the more profitable task of +working in the fields. To a steady earnest boy like young Tam +Telford, however, it makes all the difference in the world that he +should have been to school, no matter how simply. Those twenty-six +letters of the alphabet, once fairly learnt, are the key, after +all, to all the book-learning in the whole world. Without them, +the shepherd-boy might remain an ignorant, unprogressive shepherd +all his life long, even his undeniable native energy using itself +up on nothing better than a wattled hurdle or a thatched roof; with +them, the path is open before him which led Tam Telford at last to +the Menai Bridge And Westminster Abbey. + +When Tam had gradually eaten his way through enough thin oatmeal +porridge (with very little milk, we fear) to make him into a hearty +lad of fifteen, it began to be high time for him to choose himself +a final profession in life, such as he was able. And here already +the born tastes of the boy began to show themselves: for he had no +liking for the homely shepherd's trade; he felt a natural desire +for a chisel and a hammer--the engineer was there already in the +grain--and he was accordingly apprenticed to a stonemason in the +little town of Lochmaben, beyond the purple hills to eastward. But +his master was a hard man; he had small mercy for the raw lad; and +after trying to manage with him for a few months, Tam gave it up, +took the law into his own hands, and ran away. Probably the +provocation was severe, for in after-life Telford always showed +himself duly respectful to constituted authority; and we know that +petty self-made master-workmen are often apt to be excessively +severe to their own hired helpers, and especially to helpless lads +or young apprentices. At any rate, Tam wouldn't go back; and in +the end, a well-to-do cousin, who had risen to the proud position +of steward at the great hall of the parish, succeeded in getting +another mason at Langholm, the little capital of Eskdale, to take +over the runaway for the remainder of the term of his indentures. + +At Langholm, a Scotch country town of the quietest and sleepiest +description, Tam Telford passed the next eight years of his +uneventful early life, first as an apprentice, and afterwards as a +journeyman mason of the humblest type. He had a good mother, and +he was a good son. On Saturday nights he generally managed to walk +over to the cottage at Westerkirk, and accompany the poor widow to +the Sunday services at the parish kirk. As long as she lived, +indeed, he never forgot her; and one of the first tasks he set +himself when he was out of his indentures was to cut a neat +headstone with a simple but beautiful inscription for the grave of +that shepherd father whom he had practically never seen. At +Langholm, an old maiden lady, Miss Pasley, interested herself +kindly in Janet Telford's rising boy. She lent him what of all +things the eager lad most needed--books; and the young mason +applied himself to them in all his spare moments with the vigorous +ardour and perseverance of healthy youth. The books he read were +not merely those which bore directly or indirectly upon his own +craft: if they had been, Tam Telford might have remained nothing +more than a journeyman mason all the days of his life. It is a +great mistake, even from the point of view of mere worldly success, +for a young man to read or learn only what "pays" in his particular +calling; the more he reads and learns, the more will he find that +seemingly useless things "pay" in the end, and that what apparently +pays least, often really pays most in the long run. This is not +the only or the best reason why every man should aim at the highest +possible cultivation of his own talents, be they what they may; but +it is in itself a very good reason, and it is a sufficient answer +for those who would deter us from study of any high kind on the +ground that it "does no good." Telford found in after-life that +his early acquaintance with sound English literature did do him a +great deal of good: it opened and expanded his mind; it trained his +intelligence; it stored his brain with images and ideas which were +ever after to him a source of unmitigated delight and unalloyed +pleasure. He read whenever he had nothing else to do. He read +Milton with especial delight; and he also read the verses that his +fellow-countryman, Rob Burns, the Ayrshire ploughman, was then just +beginning to speak straight to the heart of every aspiring Scotch +peasant lad. With these things Tam Telford filled the upper +stories of his brain quite as much as with the trade details of his +own particular useful handicraft; and the result soon showed that +therein Tam Telford had not acted uncannily or unwisely. + +Nor did he read only; he wrote too--verses, not very good, nor yet +very bad, but well expressed, in fairly well chosen language, and +with due regard to the nice laws of metre and of grammar, which is +in itself a great point. Writing verse is an occupation at which +only very few even among men of literary education ever really +succeed; and nine-tenths of published verse is mere mediocre +twaddle, quite unworthy of being put into the dignity of print. +Yet Telford did well for all that in trying his hand, with but poor +result, at this most difficult and dangerous of all the arts. His +rhymes were worth nothing as rhymes; but they were worth a great +deal as discipline and training: they helped to form the man, and +that in itself is always something. Most men who have in them the +power to do any great thing pass in early life through a verse- +making stage. The verses never come to much; but they leave their +stamp behind them; and the man is all the better in the end for +having thus taught himself the restraint, the command of language, +the careful choice of expressions, the exercise of deliberate pains +in composition, which even bad verse-making necessarily implies. +It is a common mistake of near-sighted minds to look only at the +immediate results of things, without considering their remoter +effects. When Tam Telford, stonemason of Langholm, began at +twenty-two years of age to pen poetical epistles to Robert Burns, +most of his fellow-workmen doubtless thought he was giving himself +up to very foolish and nonsensical practices; but he was really +helping to educate Thomas Telford, engineer of the Holyhead Road +and the Caledonian Canal, for all his future usefulness and +greatness. + +As soon as Tam was out of his indentures, he began work as a +journeyman mason at Langholm on his own account, at the not very +magnificent wages of eighteenpence a day. That isn't much; but at +any rate it is an independence. Besides building many houses in +his own town, Tam made here his first small beginning in the matter +of roads and highways, by helping to build a bridge over the Esk at +Langholm. He was very proud of his part in this bridge, and to the +end of his life he often referred to it as his first serious +engineering work. Many of the stones still bear his private mark, +hewn with the tool into their solid surface, with honest +workmanship which helps to explain his later success. But the +young mason was beginning to discover that Eskdale was hardly a +wide enough field for his budding ambition. He could carve the +most careful headstones; he could cut the most ornamental copings +for doors or windows; he could even build a bridge across the +roaring flooded Esk; but he wanted to see a little of the great +world, and learn how men and masons went about their work in the +busy centres of the world's activity. So, like a patriotic +Scotchman that he was, he betook himself straight to Edinburgh, +tramping it on foot, of course, for railways did not yet exist, and +coaches were not for the use of such as young Thomas Telford. + +He arrived in the grey old capital of Scotland in the very nick +of time. The Old Town, a tangle of narrow alleys and close +courtyards, surrounded by tall houses with endless tiers of floors, +was just being deserted by the rich and fashionable world for the +New Town, which lies beyond a broad valley on the opposite +hillside, and contains numerous streets of solid and handsome stone +houses, such as are hardly to be found in any other town in +Britain, except perhaps Bath and Aberdeen. Edinburgh is always, +indeed, an interesting place for an enthusiastic lover of building, +be he architect or stonemason; for instead of being built of brick +like London and so many other English centres, it is built partly +of a fine hard local sandstone and partly of basaltic greenstone; +and besides its old churches and palaces, many of the public +buildings are particularly striking and beautiful architectural +works. But just at the moment when young Telford walked wearily +into Edinburgh at the end of his long tramp, there was plenty for a +stout strong mason to do in the long straight stone fronts of the +rising New Town. For two years, he worked away patiently at his +trade in "the grey metropolis of the North;" and he took advantage +of the special opportunities the place afforded him to learn +drawing, and to make minute sketches in detail of Holyrood Palace, +Heriot's Hospital, Roslyn Chapel, and all the other principal old +buildings' in which the neighbourhood of the capital is particularly +rich. So anxious, indeed, was the young mason to perfect himself by +the study of the very best models in his own craft, that when at the +end of two years he walked back to revisit his good mother in +Eskdale, he took the opportunity of making drawings of Melrose +Abbey, the most exquisite and graceful building that the artistic +stone-cutters of the Middle Ages have handed down to our time in all +Scotland. + +This visit to Eskdale was really Telford's last farewell to his old +home, before setting out on a journey which was to form the +turning-point in his own history, and in the history of British +engineering as well. In Scotch phrase, he was going south. And +after taking leave of his mother (not quite for the last time) he +went south in good earnest, doing this journey on horseback; for +his cousin the steward had lent him a horse to make his way +southward like a gentleman. Telford turned where all enterprising +young Scotchmen of his time always turned: towards the unknown +world of London--that world teeming with so many possibilities of +brilliant success or of miserable squalid failure. It was the year +1782, and the young man was just twenty-five. No sooner had he +reached the great city than he began looking about him for suitable +work. He had a letter of introduction to the architect of Somerset +House, whose ornamental fronts were just then being erected, facing +the Strand and the river; and Telford was able to get a place at +once on the job as a hewer of the finer architectural details, for +which both his taste and experience well fitted him. He spent some +two years in London at this humble post as a stone-cutter; but +already he began to aspire to something better. He earned first- +class mason's wages now, and saved whatever he did not need for +daily expenses. In this respect, the improvidence of his English +fellow-workmen struck the cautious young Scotchman very greatly. +They lived, he said, from week to week entirely; any time beyond a +week seemed unfortunately to lie altogether outside the range of +their limited comprehension. + +At the end of two years in London, Telford's skill and study began +to bear good fruit. His next engagement was one which raised him +for the first time in his life above the rank of a mere journeyman +mason. The honest workman had attracted the attention of competent +judges. He obtained employment as foreman of works of some +important buildings in Portsmouth Dockyard. A proud man indeed was +Thomas Telford at this change of fortune, and very proudly he wrote +to his old friends in Eskdale, with almost boyish delight, about +the trust reposed in him by the commissioners and officers, and the +pains he was taking with the task entrusted to him. For he was +above all things a good workman, and like all good workmen he felt +a pride and an interest in all the jobs he took in hand. His sense +of responsibility and his sensitiveness, indeed, were almost too +great at times for his own personal comfort. Things WILL go wrong +now and then, even with the greatest care; well-planned undertakings +will not always pay, and the best engineering does not necessarily +succeed in earning a dividend; but whenever such mishaps occurred to +his employers, Telford felt the disappointment much too keenly, as +though he himself had been to blame for their miscalculations or +over-sanguine hopes. Still, it is a good thing to put one's heart +in one's work, and so much Thomas Telford certainly did. + +About this time, too, the rising young mason began to feel that he +must get a little more accurate scientific knowledge. The period +for general study had now passed by, and the period for special +trade reading had set in. This was well. A lad cannot do better +than lay a good foundation of general knowledge and general +literature during the period when he is engaged in forming his +mind: a young man once fairly launched in life may safely confine +himself for a time to the studies that bear directly upon his own +special chosen subject. The thing that Telford began closely to +investigate was--lime. Now, lime makes mortar; and without lime, +accordingly, you can have no mason. But to know anything really +about lime, Telford found he must read some chemistry; and to know +anything really about chemistry he must work at it hard and +unremittingly. A strict attention to one's own business, understood +in this very broad and liberal manner, is certainly no bad thing for +any struggling handicraftsman, whatever his trade or profession may +happen to be. + +In 1786, when Telford was nearly thirty, a piece of unexpected good +luck fell to his lot. And yet it was not so much good luck as due +recognition of his sterling qualities by a wealthy and appreciative +person. Long before, while he was still in Eskdale, one Mr. +Pulteney, a man of social importance, who had a large house in the +bleak northern valley, had asked his advice about the repairs of +his own mansion. We may be sure that Telford did his work on that +occasion carefully and well; for now, when Mr. Pulteney wished to +restore the ruins of Shrewsbury Castle as a dwelling-house, he +sought out the young mason who had attended to his Scotch property, +and asked him to superintend the proposed alterations in his +Shropshire castle. Nor was that all: by Mr. Pulteney's influence, +Telford was shortly afterwards appointed to be county surveyor of +public works, having under his care all the roads, bridges, gaols, +and public buildings in the whole of Shropshire. Thus the Eskdale +shepherd-boy rose at last from the rank of a working mason, and +attained the well-earned dignity of an engineer and a professional +man. + +Telford had now a fair opportunity of showing the real stuff of +which he was made. Those, of course, were the days when railroads +had not yet been dreamt of; when even roads were few and bad; when +communications generally were still in a very disorderly and +unorganized condition. It is Telford's special glory that he +reformed and altered this whole state of things; he reduced the +roads of half Britain to system and order; he made the finest +highways and bridges then ever constructed; and by his magnificent +engineering works, especially his aqueducts, he paved the way +unconsciously but surely for the future railways. If it had not +been for such great undertakings as Telford's Holyhead Road, which +familiarized men's minds with costly engineering operations, it is +probable that projectors would long have stood aghast at the +alarming expense of a nearly level iron road running through tall +hills and over broad rivers the whole way from London to +Manchester. + +At first, Telford's work as county surveyor lay mostly in very +small things indeed--mere repairs of sidepaths or bridges, which +gave him little opportunity to develop his full talents as a born +engineer. But in time, being found faithful in small things, his +employers, the county magistrates, began to consult him more and +more on matters of comparative importance. First, it was a bridge +to be built across the Severn; then a church to be planned at +Shrewsbury, and next, a second church in Coalbrookdale. If he was +thus to be made suddenly into an architect, Telford thought, almost +without being consulted in the matter, he must certainly set out to +study architecture. So, with characteristic vigour, he went to +work to visit London, Worcester, Gloucester, Bath, and Oxford, at +each place taking care to learn whatever was to be learned in the +practice of his new art. Fortunately, however, for Telford and for +England, it was not architecture in the strict sense that he was +finally to practise as a real profession. Another accident, as +thoughtless people might call it, led him to adopt engineering in +the end as the path in life he elected to follow. In 1793, he was +appointed engineer to the projected Ellesmere Canal. + +In the days before railways, such a canal as this was an +engineering work of the very first importance. It was to connect +the Mersey, the Dee, and the Severn, and it passed over ground +which rendered necessary some immense aqueducts on a scale never +before attempted by British engineers. Even in our own time, every +traveller by the Great Western line between Chester and Shrewsbury +must have observed on his right two magnificent ranges as high +arches, which are as noticeable now as ever for their boldness, +their magnitude, and their exquisite construction. The first of +these mighty archways is the Pont Cysylltau aqueduct which carries +the Ellesmere Canal across the wide valley of the Dee, known as the +Vale of Llangollen; the second is the Chirk aqueduct, which takes +it over the lesser glen of a minor tributary, the Ceriog. Both +these beautiful works were designed and carried out entirely by +Telford. They differ from many other great modern engineering +achievements in the fact that, instead of spoiling the lovely +mountain scenery into whose midst they have been thrown, they +actually harmonize with it and heighten its natural beauty. Both +works, however, are splendid feats, regarded merely as efforts of +practical skill; and the larger one is particularly memorable for +the peculiarity that the trough for the water and the elegant +parapet at the side are both entirely composed of iron. Nowadays, +of course, there would be nothing remarkable in the use of such a +material for such a purpose; but Telford was the first engineer to +see the value of iron in this respect, and the Pont Cysylltau +aqueduct was one of the earliest works in which he applied the new +material to these unwonted uses. Such a step is all the more +remarkable, because Telford's own education had lain entirely in +what may fairly be called the "stone age" of English engineering; +while his natural predilections as a stonemason might certainly +have made him rather overlook the value of the novel material. But +Telford was a man who could rise superior to such little accidents +of habit or training; and as a matter of fact there is no other +engineer to whom the rise of the present "iron age" in engineering +work is more directly and immediately to be attributed than to +himself. + +Meanwhile, the Eskdale pioneer did not forget his mother. For +years he had constantly written to her, in PRINT HAND, so that the +letters might be more easily read by her aged eyes; he had sent her +money in full proportion to his means; and he had taken every +possible care to let her declining years be as comfortable as his +altered circumstances could readily make them. And now, in the +midst of this great and responsible work, he found time to "run +down" to Eskdale (very different "running down" from that which we +ourselves can do by the London and North Western Railway), to see +his aged mother once more before she died. What a meeting that +must have been, between the poor old widow of the Eskdale shepherd, +and her successful son, the county surveyor of Shropshire, and +engineer of the great and important Ellesmere Canal! + +While Telford was working busily upon his wonderful canal, he had +many other schemes to carry out of hardly less importance, in +connection with his appointment as county surveyor. His beautiful +iron bridge across the Severn at Buildwas was another application +of his favourite metal to the needs of the new world that was +gradually growing up in industrial England; and so satisfied was he +with the result of his experiment (for though not absolutely the +first, it was one of the first iron bridges ever built) that he +proposed another magnificent idea, which unfortunately was never +carried into execution. Old London Bridge had begun to get a +trifle shaky; and instead of rebuilding it, Telford wished to span +the whole river by a single iron arch, whose splendid dimensions +would have formed one of the most remarkable engineering triumphs +ever invented. The scheme, for some good reason, doubtless, was +not adopted; but it is impossible to look at Telford's grand +drawing of the proposed bridge--a single bold arch, curving across +the Thames from side to side, with the dome of St. Paul's rising +majestically above it--without a feeling of regret that such a +noble piece of theoretical architecture was never realized in +actual fact. + +Telford had now come to be regarded as the great practical +authority upon all that concerned roads or communications; and he +was reaping the due money-reward of his diligence and skill. Every +day he was called upon to design new bridges and other important +structures in all parts of the kingdom, but more especially in +Scotland and on the Welsh border. Many of the most picturesque +bridges in Britain, which every tourist has admired, often without +inquiring or thinking of the hand that planned them, were designed +by his inventive brain. The exquisite stone arch which links the +two banks of the lesser Scotch Dee in its gorge at Tongueland is +one of the most picturesque; for Telford was a bit of an artist at +heart, and, unlike too many modern railway constructors, he always +endeavoured to make his bridges and aqueducts beautify rather than +spoil the scenery in whose midst they stood. Especially was he +called in to lay out the great system of roads by which the Scotch +Highlands, then so lately reclaimed from a state of comparative +barbarism, were laid open for the great development they have since +undergone. In the earlier part of the century, it is true, a few +central highways had been run through the very heart of that great +solid block of mountains; but these were purely military roads, to +enable the king's soldiers more easily to march against the +revolted clans, and they had hardly more connection with the life +of the country than the bare military posts, like Fort William and +Fort Augustus, which guarded their ends, had to do with the +ordinary life of a commercial town. Meanwhile, however, the +Highlands had begun gradually to settle down; and Telford's roads +were intended for the far higher and better purpose of opening out +the interior of northern Scotland to the humanizing influences of +trade and industry. + +Fully to describe the great work which the mature engineer +constructed in the Highland region, would take up more space than +could be allotted to such a subject anywhere save in a complete +industrial history of roads and travelling in modern Britain. It +must suffice to say that when Telford took the matter in hand, the +vast block of country north and west of the Great Glen of Caledonia +(which divides the Highlands in two between Inverness and Ben +Nevis)--a block comprising the counties of Caithness, Sutherland, +Ross, Cromarty, and half Inverness--had literally nothing within it +worthy of being called a road. Wheeled carts or carriages were +almost unknown, and all burdens were conveyed on pack-horses, or, +worse still, on the broad backs of Highland lassies. The people +lived in small scattered villages, and communications from one to +another were well-nigh impossible. Telford set to work to give the +country, not a road or two, but a main system of roads. First, he +bridged the broad river Tay at Dunkeld, so as to allow of a direct +route straight into the very jaws of the Highlands. Then, he also +bridged over the Beauly at Inverness, so as to connect the opposite +sides of the Great Glen with one another. Next, he laid out a +number of trunk lines, running through the country on both banks, +to the very north of Caithness, and the very west of the Isle of +Skye. Whoever to this day travels on the main thoroughfares in the +greater Scottish Islands--in Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull; or in the +wild peninsula of Morvern, and the Land of Lorne; or through the +rugged regions of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, where the railway +has not yet penetrated,--travels throughout on Telford's roads. +The number of large bridges and other great engineering +masterpieces on this network of roads is enormous; among the most +famous and the most beautiful, are the exquisite single arch which +spans the Spey just beside the lofty rearing rocks of Craig +Ellachie, and the bridge across the Dee, beneath the purple +heather-clad braes of Ballater. Altogether, on Telford's Highland +roads alone, there are no fewer than twelve hundred bridges. + +Nor were these the only important labours by which Telford +ministered to the comfort and well-being of his Scotch fellow- +countrymen. Scotland's debt to the Eskdale stonemason is indeed +deep and lasting. While on land, he improved her communications by +his great lines of roads, which did on a smaller scale for the +Highland valleys what railways have since done for the whole of the +civilized world; he also laboured to improve her means of transit +at sea by constructing a series of harbours along that bare and +inhospitable eastern coast, once almost a desert, but now teeming +with great towns and prosperous industries. It was Telford who +formed the harbour of Wick, which has since grown from a miserable +fishing village into a large town, the capital of the North Sea +herring fisheries. It was he who enlarged the petty port of +Peterhead into the chief station of the flourishing whaling trade. +It was he who secured prosperity for Fraserburgh, and Banff, and +many other less important centres; while even Dundee and Aberdeen, +the chief commercial cities of the east coast, owe to him a large +part of their present extraordinary wealth and industry. When one +thinks how large a number of human beings have been benefited by +Telford's Scotch harbour works alone, it is impossible not to envy +a great engineer his almost unlimited power of permanent usefulness +to unborn thousands of his fellow-creatures. + +As a canal-maker, Telford was hardly less successful than as a +constructor of roads and harbours. It is true, his greatest work +in this direction was in one sense a failure. He was employed by +Government for many years as the engineer of the Caledonian Canal, +which runs up the Great Glen of Caledonia, connecting the line of +lakes whose basins occupy that deep hollow in the Highland ranges, +and so avoiding the difficult and dangerous sea voyage round the +stormy northern capes of Caithness. Unfortunately, though the +canal as an engineering work proved to be of the most successful +character, it has never succeeded as a commercial undertaking. It +was built just at the exact moment when steamboats were on the +point of revolutionizing ocean traffic; and so, though in itself a +magnificent and lordly undertaking, it failed to satisfy the +sanguine hopes of its projectors. But though Telford felt most +bitterly the unavoidable ill success of this great scheme, he might +well have comforted himself by the good results of his canal- +building elsewhere. He went to Sweden to lay out the Gotha Canal, +which still forms the main high-road of commerce between Stockholm +and the sea; while in England itself some of his works in this +direction--such as the improvements on the Birmingham Canal, with +its immense tunnel--may fairly be considered as the direct +precursors of the great railway efforts of the succeeding +generation. + +The most remarkable of all Telford's designs, however, and the one +which most immediately paved the way for the railway system, was +his magnificent Holyhead Road. This wonderful highway he carried +through the very midst of the Welsh mountains, at a comparatively +level height for its whole distance, in order to form a main road +from London to Ireland. On this road occurs Telford's masterpiece +of engineering, the Menai suspension bridge, long regarded as one +of the wonders of the world, and still one of the most beautiful +suspension bridges in all Europe. Hardly less admirable, however, +in its own way is the other suspension bridge which he erected at +Conway, to carry his road across the mouth of the estuary, beside +the grey old castle, with which its charming design harmonizes so +well. Even now it is impossible to drive or walk along this famous +and picturesque highway without being struck at every turn by the +splendid engineering triumphs which it displays throughout its +entire length. The contrast, indeed, between the noble grandeur of +Telford's bridges, and the works on the neighbouring railways, is +by no means flattering in every respect to our too exclusively +practical modern civilization. + +Telford was now growing an old man. The Menai bridge was begun in +1819 and finished in 1826, when he was sixty-eight years of age; +and though he still continued to practise his profession, and to +design many valuable bridges, drainage cuts, and other small jobs, +that great undertaking was the last masterpiece of his long and +useful life. His later days were passed in deserved honour and +comparative opulence; for though never an avaricious man, and +always anxious to rate his services at their lowest worth, he had +gathered together a considerable fortune by the way, almost without +seeking it. To the last, his happy cheerful disposition enabled +him to go on labouring at the numerous schemes by which he hoped to +benefit the world of workers; and so much cheerfulness was surely +well earned by a man who could himself look back upon so good a +record of work done for the welfare of humanity. At last, on the +2nd of September, 1834, his quiet and valuable life came gently to +a close, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was buried in +Westminster Abbey, and few of the men who sleep within that great +national temple more richly deserve the honour than the Westerkirk +shepherd-boy. For Thomas Telford's life was not merely one of +worldly success; it was still more pre-eminently one of noble ends +and public usefulness. Many working men have raised themselves by +their own exertions to a position of wealth and dignity far +surpassing his; few indeed have conferred so many benefits upon +untold thousands of their fellow-men. It is impossible, even now, +to travel in any part of England, Wales, or Scotland, without +coming across innumerable memorials of Telford's great and useful +life; impossible to read the full record of his labours without +finding that numberless structures we have long admired for their +beauty or utility, owe their origin to the honourable, upright, +hardworking, thorough-going, journeyman mason of the quiet little +Eskdale village. Whether we go into the drained fens of +Lincolnshire, or traverse the broad roads of the rugged Snowdon +region; whether we turn to St. Katharine's Docks in London, or to +the wide quays of Dundee and those of Aberdeen; whether we sail +beneath the Menai suspension bridge at Bangor, or drive over the +lofty arches that rise sheer from the precipitous river gorge at +Cartland, we meet everywhere the lasting traces of that inventive +and ingenious brain. And yet, what lad could ever have started in +the world under apparently more hopeless circumstances than widow +Janet Telford's penniless orphan shepherd-boy Tam, in the bleakest +and most remote of all the lonely border valleys of southern +Scotland? + + + + + + +II. + +GEORGE STEPHENSON, ENGINE-MAN. + + + + + +Any time about the year 1786, a stranger in the streets of the +grimy colliery village of Wylam, near Newcastle, might have passed +by without notice a ragged, barefooted, chubby child of five years +old, Geordie Stephenson by name, playing merrily in the gutter and +looking to the outward eye in no way different from any of the +other colliers' children who loitered about him. Nevertheless, +that ragged boy was yet destined in after-life to alter the whole +face of England and the world by those wonderful railways, which he +more than any other man was instrumental in first constructing; and +the story of his life may rank perhaps as one of the most marvellous +in the whole marvellous history of able and successful British +working men. + +George Stephenson was born in June, 1781, the son of a fireman who +tended the pumping engine of the neighbouring colliery, and one of +a penniless family of six children. So poor was his father, +indeed, that the whole household lived in a single room, with bare +floor and mud wall; and little Geordie grew up in his own unkempt +fashion without any schooling whatever, not even knowing A from B +when he was a big lad of seventeen. At an age when he ought to +have been learning his letters, he was bird's-nesting in the fields +or running errands to the Wylam shops; and as soon as he was old +enough to earn a few pence by light work, he was set to tend cows +at the magnificent wages of twopence a day, in the village of +Dewley Burn, close by, to which his father had then removed. It +might have seemed at first as though the future railway engineer +was going to settle down quietly to the useful but uneventful life +of an agricultural labourer; for from tending cows he proceeded in +due time (with a splendid advance of twopence) to leading the +horses at the plough, spudding thistles, and hoeing turnips on his +employer's farm. But the native bent of a powerful mind usually +shows itself very early; and even during the days when Geordie was +still stumbling across the freshly ploughed clods or driving the +cows to pasture with a bunch of hazel twigs, his taste for +mechanics already made itself felt in a very marked and practical +fashion. During all his leisure time, the future engineer and his +chum Bill Thirlwall occupied themselves with making clay models of +engines, and fitting up a winding machine with corks and twine like +those which lifted the colliery baskets. Though Geordie Stephenson +didn't go to school at the village teacher's, he was teaching +himself in his own way by close observation and keen comprehension +of all the machines and engines he could come across. + +Naturally, to such a boy, the great ambition of his life was to be +released from the hoeing and spudding, and set to work at his +father's colliery. Great was Geordie's joy, therefore, when at +last he was taken on there in the capacity of a coal-picker, to +clear the loads from stones and rubbish. It wasn't a very +dignified position, to be sure, but it was the first step that led +the way to the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester +Railway. Geordie was now fairly free from the uncongenial drudgery +of farm life, and able to follow his own inclinations in the +direction of mechanical labour. Besides, was he not earning the +grand sum of sixpence a day as picker, increased to eightpence a +little later on, when he rose to the more responsible and serious +work of driving the gin-horse? A proud day indeed it was for him +when, at fourteen, he was finally permitted to aid his father in +firing the colliery engine; though he was still such a very small +boy that he used to run away and hide when the owner went his +rounds of inspection, for fear he should be thought too little to +earn his untold wealth of a shilling a day in such a grown-up +occupation. Humbler beginnings were never any man's who lived to +become the honoured guest, not of kings and princes only, but of +the truly greatest and noblest in the land. + +A coal-miner's life is often a very shifting one; for the coal in +particular collieries gets worked out from time to time; and he has +to remove, accordingly, to fresh quarters, wherever employment +happens to be found. This was very much the case with George +Stephenson and his family; all of them being obliged to remove +several times over during his childish days in search of new +openings. Shortly after Geordie had attained to the responsible +position of assistant fireman, his father was compelled, by the +closing of Dewley Burn mine, to get a fresh situation hard by at +Newburn. George accompanied him, and found employment as full +fireman at a small working, whose little engine he undertook to +manage in partnership with a mate, each of them tending the fire +night and day by twelve-hour shifts. Two years later, his wages +were raised to twelve shillings a week, a sure mark of his diligent +and honest work; so that George was not far wrong in remarking to a +fellow-workman at the time that he now considered himself a made +man for life. + +During all this time, George Stephenson never for a moment ceased +to study and endeavour to understand the working of every part in +the engine that he tended. He was not satisfied, as too many +workmen are, with merely learning the routine work of his own +trade; with merely knowing that he must turn such and such a tap or +valve in order to produce such and such a desired result: he wanted +to see for himself how and why the engine did this or that, what +was the use and object of piston and cylinder and crank and joint +and condenser--in short, fully to understand the underlying +principle of its construction. He took it to pieces for cleaning +whenever it was needful; he made working models of it after his old +childish pattern; he even ventured to tinker it up when out of +order on his own responsibility. Thus he learnt at last something +of the theory of the steam-engine, and learnt also by the way a +great deal about the general principles of mechanical science. +Still, even now, incredible as it seems, the future father of +railways couldn't yet read; and he found this terrible drawback +told fatally against his further progress. Whenever he wanted to +learn something that he didn't quite understand, he was always +referred for information to a Book. Oh, those books; those +mysterious, unattainable, incomprehensible books; how they must +have bothered and worried poor intelligent and aspiring but still +painfully ignorant young George Stephenson! Though he was already +trying singularly valuable experiments in his own way, he hadn't +yet even begun to learn his letters. + +Under these circumstances, George Stephenson, eager and anxious for +further knowledge, took a really heroic resolution. He wasn't +ashamed to go to school. Though now a full workman on his own +account, about eighteen years old, he began to attend the night +school at the neighbouring village of Walbottle, where he took +lessons in reading three evenings every week. It is a great thing +when a man is not ashamed to learn. Many men are; they consider +themselves so immensely wise that they look upon it as an +impertinence in anybody to try to tell them anything they don't +know already. Truly wise or truly great men--men with the +capability in them for doing anything worthy in their generation-- +never feel this false and foolish shame. They know that most other +people know some things in some directions which they do not, and +they are glad to be instructed in them whenever opportunity offers. +This wisdom George Stephenson possessed in sufficient degree to +make him feel more ashamed of his ignorance than of the steps +necessary in order to conquer it. Being a diligent and willing +scholar, he soon learnt to read, and by the time he was nineteen he +had learnt how to write also. At arithmetic, a science closely +allied to his native mechanical bent, he was particularly apt, and +beat all the other scholars at the village night school. This +resolute effort at education was the real turning-point in George +Stephenson's remarkable career, the first step on the ladder whose +topmost rung led him so high that he himself must almost have felt +giddy at the unwonted elevation. + +Shortly after, young Stephenson gained yet another promotion in +being raised to the rank of brakesman, whose duty it was to slacken +the engine when the full baskets of coal reached the top of the +shaft. This was a more serious and responsible post than any he +had yet filled, and one for which only the best and steadiest +workmen were ever selected. His wages now amounted to a pound a +week, a very large sum in those days for a skilled working-man. + +Meanwhile, George, like most other young men, had fallen in love. +His sweetheart, Fanny Henderson, was servant at the small farmhouse +where he had taken lodgings since leaving his father's home; and +though but little is known about her (for she unhappily died before +George had begun to rise to fame and fortune), what little we do +know seems to show that she was in every respect a fitting wife for +the active young brakesman, and a fitting mother for his equally +celebrated son, Robert Stephenson. Fired by the honourable desire +to marry Fanny, with a proper regard for prudence, George set +himself to work to learn cobbling in his spare moments; and so +successfully did he cobble the worn shoes of his fellow-colliers +after working hours, that before long he contrived to save a whole +guinea out of his humble earnings. That guinea was the first step +towards an enormous fortune; a fortune, too, all accumulated by +steady toil and constant useful labour for the ultimate benefit of +his fellow-men. To make a fortune is the smallest and least noble +of all possible personal ambitions; but to save the first guinea +which leads us on at last to independence and modest comfort is +indeed an important turning-point in every prudent man's career. +Geordie Stephenson was so justly proud of his achievement in this +respect that he told a friend in confidence he might now consider +himself a rich man. + +By the time George was twenty-one, he had saved up enough by +constant care to feel that he might safely embark on the sea of +housekeeping. He was able to take a small cottage lodging for +himself and Fanny, at Willington Quay, near his work at the moment, +and to furnish it with the simple comfort which was all that their +existing needs demanded. He married Fanny on the 28th of November, +1802; and the young couple proceeded at once to their new home. +Here George laboured harder than ever, as became the head of a +family. He was no more ashamed of odd jobs than he had been of +learning the alphabet. He worked overtime at emptying ballast from +ships; he continued to cobble, to cut lasts, and even to try his +hand at regular shoemaking; furthermore, he actually acquired the +art of mending clocks, a matter which lay strictly in his own line, +and he thus earned a tidy penny at odd hours by doctoring all the +rusty or wheezy old timepieces of all his neighbours. Nor did he +neglect his mechanical education meanwhile for he was always at +work upon various devices for inventing a perpetual motion machine. +Now, perpetual motion is the most foolish will-o'-the-wisp that +ever engaged a sane man's attention: the thing has been proved to +be impossible from every conceivable point of view, and the attempt +to achieve it, if pursued to the last point, can only end in +disappointment if not in ruin. Still, for all that, the work +George Stephenson spent upon this unpractical object did really +help to give him an insight into mechanical science which proved +very useful to him at a later date. He didn't discover perpetual +motion, but he did invent at last the real means for making the +locomotive engine a practical power in the matter of travelling. + +A year later, George's only son Robert was born; and from that +moment the history of those two able and useful lives is almost +inseparable. During the whole of George Stephenson's long upward +struggle, and during the hard battle he had afterwards to fight on +behalf of his grand design of railways, he met with truer sympathy, +appreciation, and comfort from his brave and gifted son than from +any other person whatsoever. Unhappily, his pleasure and delight +in the up-bringing of his boy was soon to be clouded for a while by +the one great bereavement of an otherwise singularly placid and +happy existence. Some two years after her marriage, Fanny +Stephenson died, as yet a mere girl, leaving her lonely husband to +take care of their baby boy alone and unaided. Grief for this +irretrievable loss drove the young widower away for a while from +his accustomed field of work among the Tyneside coal-pits; he +accepted an invitation to go to Montrose in Scotland, to overlook +the working of a large engine in some important spinning-works. He +remained in this situation for one year only; but during that time +he managed to give clear evidence of his native mechanical insight +by curing a defect in the pumps which supplied water to his engine, +and which had hitherto defied the best endeavours of the local +engineers. The young father was not unmindful, either, of his duty +to his boy, whom he had left behind with his grandfather on +Tyneside; for he saved so large a sum as 28 pounds during his +engagement, which he carried back with him in his pocket on his +return to England. + +A sad disappointment awaited him when at last he arrived at home. +Old Robert Stephenson, the father, had met with an accident during +George's absence which made him quite blind, and incapacitated him +for further work. Helpless and poor, he had no resource to save +him from the workhouse except George; but George acted towards him +exactly as all men who have in them a possibility of any good thing +always do act under similar circumstances. He spent 15 pounds of +his hard-earned savings to pay the debts the poor blind old engine- +man had necessarily contracted during his absence, and he took a +comfortable cottage for his father and mother at Killingworth, +where he had worked before his removal to Scotland, and where he +now once more obtained employment, still as a brakesman. In that +cottage this good and brave son supported his aged parents till +their death, in all the simple luxury that his small means would +then permit him. + +That, however, was not the end of George's misfortunes. Shortly +after, he was drawn by lot as a militiaman; and according to the +law of that time (for this was in 1807, during the very height of +the wars against Napoleon) he must either serve in person or else +pay heavily to secure a substitute. George chose regretfully the +latter course--the only one open to him if he wished still to +support his parents and his infant son. But in order to do so, he +had to pay away the whole remainder of his carefully hoarded +savings, and even to borrow 6 pounds to make up the payment for the +substitute. It must have seemed very hard to him to do this, and +many men would have sunk under the blow, become hopeless, or taken +to careless rowdy drinking habits. George Stephenson felt it +bitterly, and gave way for a while to a natural despondency; he +would hardly have been human if he had not; but still, he lived +over it, and in the end worked on again with fuller resolution and +vigour than ever. + +For several years Geordie, as his fellow-colliers affectionately +called him, continued to live on at one or other of the Killingworth +collieries. In a short time, he entered into a small contract with +his employers for "brakeing" the engines; and in the course of this +contract, he invented certain improvements in the matter of saving +wear and tear of ropes, which were both profitable to himself and +also in some small degree pointed the way toward his future plans +for the construction of railways. It is true, the two subjects have +not, apparently, much in common; but they are connected in this way, +that both proceed upon the principle of reducing the friction to the +smallest possible quantity. It was this principle that Stephenson +was gradually learning to appreciate more and more at its proper +value; and it was this which finally led him to the very summit of a +great and pre-eminently useful profession. The great advantage, +indeed, of a level railway over an up-and-down ordinary road is +simply that in the railway the resistance and friction are almost +entirely got rid of. + +It was in 1810, when Stephenson was twenty-nine, that his first +experiment in serious engineering was made. A coal-pit had been +sunk at Killingworth, and a rude steam-engine of that time had been +set to pump the water out of its shaft; but, somehow, the engine +made no headway against the rising springs at the bottom of the +mine. For nearly a year the engine worked away in vain, till at +last, one Saturday afternoon, Geordie Stephenson went over to +examine her. "Well, George," said a pitman, standing by, "what do +you think of her?" "Man," said George, boldly, "I could alter her +and make her draw. In a week I could let you all go the bottom." +The pitman reported this confident speech of the young brakesman +to the manager; and the manager, at his wits' end for a remedy, +determined to let this fellow Stephenson try his hand at her. +After all, if he did no good, he would be much like all the others; +and anyhow he seemed to have confidence in himself, which, if well +grounded, is always a good thing. + +George's confidence WAS well grounded. It was not the confidence +of ignorance, but that of knowledge. He UNDERSTOOD the engine now, +and he saw at once the root of the evil. He picked the engine to +pieces, altered it to suit the requirements of the case, and set it +to work to pump without delay. Sure enough, he kept his word; and +within the week, the mine was dry, and the men were sent to the +bottom. This was a grand job for George's future. The manager, a +Mr. Dodds, not only gave him ten pounds at once as a present, in +acknowledgment of his practical skill, but also appointed him +engine-man of the new pit, another rise in the social scale as well +as in the matter of wages. Dodds kept him in mind for the future, +too; and a couple of years later, on a vacancy occurring, he +promoted the promising hand to be engine-wright of all the +collieries under his management, at a salary of 100 pounds a year. +When a man's income comes to be reckoned by the year, rather than +by the week or month, it is a sign that he is growing into a person +of importance. George had now a horse to ride upon, on his visits +of inspection to the various engines; and his work was rather one +of mechanical engineering than of mere ordinary labouring +handicraft. + +The next few years of George Stephenson's life were mainly taken up +in providing for the education of his boy Robert. He had been a +good son, and he was now a good father. Feeling acutely how much +he himself had suffered, and how many years he had been put back, +by his own want of a good sound rudimentary education, he +determined that Robert should not suffer from a similar cause. +Indeed, George Stephenson's splendid abilities were kept in the +background far too long, owing to his early want of regular +instruction. So the good father worked hard to send his boy to +school; not to the village teacher's only, but to a school for +gentlemen's sons at Newcastle. By mending clocks and watches in +spare moments, and by rigid economy in all unnecessary expenses +(especially beer), Stephenson had again gathered together a little +hoard, which mounted up this time to a hundred guineas. A hundred +guineas is a fortune and a capital to a working man. He was +therefore rich enough, not only to send little Robert to school, +but even to buy him a donkey, on which the boy made the journey +every day from Killingworth to Newcastle. This was in 1815, when +George was thirty-four, and Robert twelve. Perhaps no man who ever +climbed so high as George Stephenson, had ever reached so little of +the way at so comparatively late an age. For in spite of his +undoubted success, viewed from the point of view of his origin and +early prospects, he was as yet after all nothing more than the +common engine-wright of the Killingworth collieries--a long way off +as yet from the distinguished father of the railway system. + +George Stephenson's connection with the locomotive, however, was +even now beginning. Already, in 1816, he and his boy had tried a +somewhat higher flight of mechanical and scientific skill than +usual, in the construction of a sun-dial, which involves a +considerable amount of careful mathematical work; and now George +found that the subject of locomotive engines was being forced by +circumstances upon his attention. From the moment he was appointed +engine-wright of the Killingworth collieries, he began to think +about all possible means of hauling coal at cheaper rates from the +pit's mouth to the shipping place on the river. For that humble +object alone--an object that lay wholly within the line of his own +special business--did the great railway projector set out upon his +investigations into the possibilities of the locomotive. Indeed, +in its earliest origin, the locomotive was almost entirely +connected with coals and mining; its application to passenger +traffic on the large scale was quite a later and secondary +consideration. It was only by accident, so to speak, that the true +capabilities of railways were finally discovered in the actual +course of their practical employment. + +George Stephenson was not the first person to construct either a +locomotive or a tramway. Both were already in use, in more or less +rude forms, at several collieries. But he WAS the first person to +bring the two to such a pitch of perfection, that what had been at +first a mere clumsy mining contrivance, became developed into a +smooth and easy iron highway for the rapid and convenient +conveyance of goods and passengers over immense distances. Of +course, this great invention, like all other great inventions, was +not the work of one day or one man. Many previous heads had helped +to prepare the way for George Stephenson; and George Stephenson +himself had been working at the subject for many years before he +even reached the first stage of realized endeavour. As early as +1814 he constructed his first locomotive at Killingworth colliery; +it was not until 1822 that he laid the first rail of his first +large line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway. + +Stephenson's earliest important improvement in the locomotive +consisted in his invention of what is called the steam-blast, by +which the steam is made to increase the draught of the fire, and +so largely add to the effectiveness of the engine. It was this +invention that enabled him at last to make the railway into the +great carrier of the world, and to begin the greatest social and +commercial upheaval that has ever occurred in the whole history of +the human race. + +Meanwhile, however, George was not entirely occupied with the +consideration of his growing engine. He had the clocks and watches +to mend; he had Robert's schooling to look after; and he had +another practical matter even nearer home than the locomotive on +which to exercise his inventive genius. One day, in 1814, the main +gallery of the colliery caught fire. Stephenson at once descended +into the burning pit, with a chosen band of volunteers, who +displayed the usual heroic courage of colliers in going to the +rescue of their comrades; and, at the risk of their lives, these +brave men bricked up the burning portion, and so, by excluding the +air, put out the dangerous fire. Still, even so, several of the +workmen had been suffocated, and one of the pitmen asked Geordie in +dismay whether nothing could be done to prevent such terrible +disasters in future. "The price of coal-mining now," he said, "is +pitmen's lives." Stephenson promised to think the matter over; and +he did think it over with good effect. The result of his thought +was the apparatus still affectionately known to the pitmen as "the +Geordie lamp." It is a lamp so constructed that the flame cannot +pass out into the air outside, and so cause explosions in the +dangerous fire-damp which is always liable to occur abundantly in +the galleries of coal mines. By this invention alone George +Stephenson's name and memory might have been kept green for ever; +for his lamp has been the means of saving thousands of lives from a +sudden, a terrible, and a pitiful death. Most accidents that now +occur in mines are due to the neglect of ordinary precautions, and +to the perverse habit of carrying a naked lighted candle in the +hand (contrary to regulations) instead of a carefully guarded +safety lamp. Yet so culpably reckless of their own and other men's +lives are a large number of people everywhere, that in spite of the +most stringent and salutary rules, explosions from this cause (and, +therefore, easily avoidable) take place constantly to the present +day, though far less frequently than before the invention of the +Geordie lamp. + +Curiously enough, at the very time when George Stephenson was busy +inventing his lamp at Killingworth, Sir Humphrey Davy was working +at just the same matter in London; and the two lamps, though a +little different in minor points of construction, are practically +the same in general principle. Now, Sir Humphrey was then the +great fashionable natural philosopher of the day, the favourite of +London society, and the popular lecturer of the Royal Institution. +His friends thought it a monstrous idea that his splendid life- +saving apparatus should have been independently devised by "an +engine-wright of Killingworth of the name of Stephenson--a person +not even possessing a knowledge of the elements of chemistry." +This sounds very odd reading at the present day, when the engine- +wright of the name of Stephenson has altered the whole face of the +world, while Davy is chiefly remembered as a meritorious and able +chemist; but at the time, Stephenson's claim to the invention met +with little courtesy from the great public of London, where a +meeting was held on purpose to denounce his right to the credit of +the invention. What the coal-owners and colliers of the North +Country thought about the matter was sufficiently shown by their +subscription of 1000 pounds, as a Stephenson testimonial fund. +With part of the money, a silver tankard was presented to the +deserving engine-wright, while the remainder of the sum was handed +over to him in ready cash. A very acceptable present it was, and +one which George Stephenson remembered with pride down to his dying +day. The Geordie lamp continues in use to the present moment in +the Tyneside collieries with excellent effect. + +For some years more, Mr. Stephenson (he is now fairly entitled to +that respectable prefix) went on still further experimenting on the +question of locomotives and railways. He was now beginning to +learn that much unnecessary wear and tear arose on the short lines +of rail down from the pit's mouths to the loading-places on the +river by the inequalities and roughnesses of the joints; and he +invented a method of overlapping the rails which quite got over +this source of loss--loss of speed, loss of power, and loss of +material at once. It was in 1819 that he laid down his first +considerable piece of road, the Hetton railway. The owners of a +colliery at the village of Hetton, in Durham, determined to replace +their waggon road by a locomotive line; and they invited the now +locally famous Killingworth engine-wright to act as their engineer. +Stephenson gladly undertook the post; and he laid down a railway of +eight miles in length, on the larger part of which the trucks were +to be drawn by "the iron horse," as people now began to style the +altered and improved locomotive. The Hetton railway was opened in +1822, and the assembled crowd were delighted at beholding a single +engine draw seventeen loaded trucks after it, at the extraordinary +rate of four miles an hour--nearly as fast as a man could walk. +Whence it may be gathered that Stephenson's ideas upon the question +of speed were still on a very humble scale indeed. + +Before the Hetton railway was opened, however, George Stephenson +had shown one more proof of his excellence as a father by sending +his boy Robert, now nineteen, to Edinburgh University. It was a +serious expense for a man who was even now, after all, hardly more +than a working man of the superior grade; but George Stephenson was +well repaid for the sacrifice he thus made on behalf of his only +son. He lived to see him the greatest practical engineer of his +own time, and to feel that his success was in large measure due to +the wider and more accurate scientific training the lad had +received from his Edinburgh teachers. + +In 1819 George married again, his second wife being the daughter of +a farmer at Black Callerton. + +The work which finally secured the position of George Stephenson +and of his dearly loved locomotive was the Stockton and Darlington +railway. Like all the other early railways, it was originally +projected simply as a mineral line. Darlington lies in the centre +of a rich inland mining district; but the impossibility of getting +the coal carried to the sea by cart or donkey, long prevented the +opening up of its immense natural wealth. At last, as early as +1817, Edward Pease and a few other enterprising Darlington Quakers +determined to build a line of railway from the mining region to +Stockton, on the river Tees, where the coal could be loaded into +sea-going ships. It was a very long line, compared to any railway +that had yet been constructed; but it was still only to be worked +by horse-power--to be, in fact, what we now call a tramway, rather +than a railway in the modern sense. However, while the plan was +still undecided, George Stephenson, who had heard about the +proposed scheme, went over to Darlington one day, and boldly asked +to see Mr. Pease. The good Quaker received him kindly, and +listened to his arguments in favour of the locomotive. "Come over +to Killingworth some day and see my engine at work," said +Stephenson, confidently; "and if you do you will never think of +horses again." Mr. Pease, with Quaker caution, came and looked. +George put the engine through its paces, and showed off its +marvellous capabilities to such good effect that Edward Pease was +immediately converted. Henceforth, he became a decided advocate of +locomotives, and greatly aided by his wealth and influence in +securing their final triumph. + +Not only that, but Mr. Pease also aided Stephenson in carrying out +a design which George had long had upon his mind--the establishment +of a regular locomotive factory, where the work of engine-making +for this particular purpose might be carried on with all the +necessary finish and accuracy. George himself put into the concern +his precious 1000 pounds, not one penny of which he had yet +touched; while Pease and a friend advanced as much between them. A +factory was forthwith started at Newcastle on a small scale, and +the hardworking engine-wright found himself now fully advanced to +the commercial dignity of Stephenson and Co. With the gradual +growth of railways, that humble Newcastle factory grew gradually +into one of the largest and wealthiest manufacturing establishments +in all England. + +Meanwhile, Stephenson was eagerly pushing on the survey of the +Stockton and Darlington railway, all the more gladly now that he +knew it was to be worked by means of his own adopted child, the +beloved locomotive. He worked at his line early and late; he took +the sights with the spirit-level with his own eye; he was +determined to make it a model railway. It was a long and heavy +work, for railway surveying was then a new art, and the appliances +were all fresh and experimental; but in the end, Stephenson brought +it to a happy conclusion, and struck at once the death-blow of the +old road-travelling system. The line was opened successfully in +1825, and the engine started off on the inaugural ceremony with a +magnificent train of thirty-eight vehicles. "Such was its +velocity," says a newspaper of the day, "that in some parts the +speed was frequently twelve miles an hour." + +The success of the Stockton and Darlington railway was so immense +and unexpected, the number of passengers who went by it was so +great, and the quantity of coal carried for shipment so far beyond +anything the projectors themselves could have anticipated, that a +desire soon began to be felt for similar works in other places. +There are no two towns in England which absolutely need a railway +communication from one to the other so much as Liverpool and +Manchester. The first is the great port of entry for cotton, the +second is the great centre of its manufacture. The Bridgewater +canal had helped for a time to make up for the want of water +communication between those two closely connected towns; but as +trade developed, the canal became too small for the demands upon +it, and the need for an additional means of intercourse was deeply +felt. A committee was formed to build a railway in this busy +district, and after a short time George Stephenson was engaged to +superintend its construction. + +A long and severe fight was fought over the Liverpool and Manchester +railway, and it was at first doubtful whether the scheme would ever +be carried out. Many great landowners were strongly opposed to it, +and tried their best to keep the bill for authorizing it from +passing through Parliament. Stephenson himself was compelled to +appear in London as a witness before a parliamentary committee, and +was closely cross-examined as to the possibilities of his plan. In +those days, even after the success of the Stockton and Darlington +line, his views about the future of railways were still regarded by +most sober persons as ridiculously wild and enthusiastic; while the +notion that trains might be made to travel twice as fast as +stage-coaches, was scouted as the most palpable and ridiculous +delusion. One of the members of the committee pressed Stephenson +very hard with questions. "Suppose," he said, "a cow were to get +upon the line, and the engine were to come into collision with it; +wouldn't that be very awkward, now?" George looked up at him with +a merry twinkle of the eye, and answered in his broad North Country +dialect, "Oo, ay, very awkward for the COO." + +In spite of all Stephenson's earnestness and mother wit, however, +Parliament refused to pass the bill (in 1825), and for the moment +the engineer's vexation was bitter to behold. He and his friends +plucked up heart, however; they were fighting the winning battle +against prejudice and obstruction, and they were sure to conquer in +the long run. The line was resurveyed by other engineers; the +lands of the hostile owners were avoided; the causes of offence +were dexterously smoothed down; and after another hard fight, in +1826, the bill authorizing the construction of the Liverpool and +Manchester railway was finally passed. The board at once appointed +Stephenson engineer for constructing the line, at a salary of 1000 +pounds a year. George might now fairly consider himself entitled +to the honours of an Esquire. + +The line was a difficult one to construct; but George Stephenson +set about it with the skill and knowledge acquired during many +years of slow experience; and he performed it with distinguished +success. He was now forty-four; and he had had more to do with the +laying down of rails than any other man then living. The great +difficulty of the Liverpool and Manchester line lay in the fact +that it had to traverse a vast shaking bog or morass, Chat Moss, +which the best engineers had emphatically declared it would be +impossible to cross. George Stephenson, however, had a plan for +making the impossible possible. He simply floated his line on a +broad bottom, like a ship, on the top of the quaking quagmire; and +proceeded to lay down his rails on this seemingly fragile support +without further scruple. It answered admirably, and still answers +to the present day. The other works on the railway, especially the +cuttings, were such as might well have appalled the boldest heart +in those experimental ages of railway enterprise. It is easy +enough for us now to undertake tunnelling great hills or filling up +wide valleys with long ranges of viaduct, because the thing has +been done so often, and the prospect of earning a fair return on +the money sunk can be calculated with so high a degree of +reasonable probability. But it required no little faith for George +Stephenson and his backers to drive a level road, for the first +time, through solid rocks and over trembling morasses, the whole +way from Liverpool to Manchester. He persevered, however, and in +1830, after four years' toilsome and ceaseless labour, during which +he had worked far-harder than the sturdiest navvy on the line, his +railway was finally opened for regular traffic. + +Before the completion of the railway, George Stephenson had taken +part in a great contest for the best locomotive at Liverpool, a +prize of 500 pounds having been offered by the company to the +successful competitor. Stephenson sent in his improved model, the +Rocket, constructed after plans of his own and his son Robert's, +and it gained the prize against all its rivals, travelling at what +was then considered the incredible rate of 35 miles an hour. It +was thus satisfactorily settled that the locomotive was the best +power for drawing carriages on railways, and George Stephenson's +long battle was thus at last practically won. + +The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway was an era in +the history of the world. From the moment that great undertaking +was complete, there could no longer be any doubt about the utility +and desirability of railways, and all opposition died away almost +at once. New lines began immediately to be laid out, and in an +incredibly short time the face of England was scarred by the main +trunks in that network of iron roads with which its whole surface +is now so closely covered. The enormous development of the railway +system benefited the Stephenson family in more than one way. +Robert Stephenson became the engineer of the vast series of lines +now known as the London and North Western; and the increased demand +for locomotives caused George Stephenson's small factory at +Newcastle to blossom out suddenly into an immense and flourishing +manufacturing concern. + +The rest of George Stephenson's life is one long story of unbroken +success. In 1831, the year after the opening of the Liverpool and +Manchester line, George, being now fifty, began to think of +settling down in a more permanent home. His son Robert, who was +surveying the Leicester and Swannington railway, observed on an +estate called Snibston, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, what to his +experienced geological eye looked like the probable indications of +coal beneath the surface. He wrote to his father about it, and as +the estate was at the time for sale, George, now a comparatively +wealthy man, bought it up on his son's recommendation. He also +pitched his home close by at Alton Grange, and began to sink shafts +in search of coal. He found it in due time; and thus, in addition +to his Newcastle works, he became a flourishing colliery +proprietor. It is pleasing to note that Stephenson, unlike too +many other self-made men, always treated his workmen with the +greatest kindness and consideration, erecting admirable cottages +for their accommodation, and providing them with church, chapel, +and schools for their religious and social education. + +While living at Alton Grange, Stephenson was engaged in laying out +several new lines in the middle and north of England, especially +the Grand Junction and the Midland, both of which he constructed +with great boldness and practical skill. As he grew older and more +famous, he began to mix in the truly best society of England; his +acquaintance being sought by all the most eminent men in +literature, science, and political life. Though but an uneducated +working man by origin, George Stephenson had so improved his mind +by constant thought and expansive self-education, that he was able +to meet these able and distinguished friends of his later days on +terms of perfect intellectual and social equality. To the last, +however, he never forgot his older and poorer friends, nor was he +ever ashamed of their acquaintance. A pleasant trait is narrated +by his genial biographer, Dr. Smiles, who notices that on one +occasion he stopped to speak to one of his wealthy acquaintances in +a fine carriage, and then turned to shake hands with the coachman +on the box, whom he had known and respected in his earlier days. +He enjoyed, too, the rare pleasure of feeling his greatness +recognized in his own time: and once, when he went over to Brussels +on a visit to the king of the Belgians, he was pleased and +surprised, as the royal party entered the ball-room at the Town +Hall, to hear a general murmur among the guests of "Which is +Stephenson?" + +George Stephenson continued to live for sixteen years, first at +Alton Grange, and afterwards at Tapton House, near Chesterfield, in +comfort and opulence; growing big pines and melons, keeping birds +and dogs, and indulging himself towards the end in the well-earned +repose to which his useful and laborious life fully entitled him. +At last, on the 12th of August, 1848, he died suddenly of +intermittent fever, in his sixty-seventh year, and was peacefully +buried in Chesterfield church. Probably no one man who ever lived +did so much to change and renovate the whole aspect of human life +as George Stephenson; and, unlike many other authors of great +revolutions, he lived long enough to see the full result of his +splendid labours in the girdling of England by his iron roads. A +grand and simple man, he worked honestly and steadfastly throughout +his days, and he found his reward in the unprecedented benefits +which his locomotive was even then conferring upon his fellow-men. +It is indeed wonderful to think how very different is the England +in which we live to-day, from that in which we might possibly have +been living were it not for the barefooted little collier boy who +made clay models of engines at Wylam, and who grew at last into the +great and famous engineer of the marvellous Liverpool and Manchester +railway. The main characteristic of George Stephenson was +perseverance; and it was that perseverance that enabled him at last +to carry out his magnificent schemes in the face of so much bitter +and violent opposition. + + + + + + +III. + +JOHN GIBSON, SCULPTOR. + + + + + +In most cases, the working man who raises himself to wealth and +position, does so by means of trade, which is usually the natural +outgrowth of his own special handicraft or calling. If he attains, +not only to riches, but to distinction as well, it is in general by +mechanical talent, the direction of the mind being naturally biased +by the course of one's own ordinary occupations. England has been +exceptionally rich in great engineers and inventive geniuses of +such humble origin--working men who have introduced great +improvements in manufactures or communications; and our modern +English civilization has been immensely influenced by the lives of +these able and successful mechanical toilers. From Brindley, the +constructor of the earliest great canal, to Joseph Gillott, the +inventor of the very steel pen with which this book is written; +from Arkwright the barber who fashioned the first spinning-machine, +to Crompton the weaver, whose mule gave rise to the mighty +Manchester cotton trade; from Newcomen, who made the first rough +attempt at a steam-engine, to Stephenson, who sent the iron horse +from end to end of the land,--the chief mechanical improvements in +the country have almost all been due to the energy, intelligence, +and skill of our labouring population. The English mind is +intensely practical, and the English working man, for the last two +centuries at least, has been mainly distinguished for his great +mechanical aptitude, bursting out, here and there, in exceptional +persons, under the form of exceedingly high inventive genius. + +At our very doors, however, there is a small nation of largely +different blood and of wholly different speech from our own; a +nation forming a part of our own kingdom, even more closely than +the Scotch or the Irish, and yet in some respects further from us +in mind and habit of life than either; a nation marked rather by +the poetical and artistic, than by the mechanical and practical +temperament--the ancient and noble Welsh people. It would hardly +be reasonable to expect from the Welsh exactly the same kind of +success in life which we often find in English workmen; the aims +and ideals of the two races are so distinct, and it must be frankly +confessed the advantage is not always on the side of the Englishman. +The Welsh peasants, living among their own romantic hills and +valleys, speaking their own soft and exquisite language, treasuring +their own plaintive and melodious poetry, have grown up with an +intense love for beauty and the beautiful closely intwined into the +very warp and woof of their inmost natures. They have almost always +a natural refinement of manner and delicacy of speech which is +unfortunately too often wanting amongst our rougher English +labouring classes, especially in large towns. They are intensely +musical, producing a very large proportion of the best English +singers and composers. They are fond of literature, for which they +have generally some natural capacity, and in which they exercise +themselves to an extent unknown, probably, among people of their +class in any other country. At the local meetings of bards (as they +call themselves) in Wales, it is not at all uncommon to hear that +the first prize for Welsh poetry has been carried off by a shepherd, +and the first prize for Welsh prose composition by a domestic +servant. In short, the susceptibilities of the race run rather +toward art and imagination, than toward mere moneymaking and +practical ingenuity. + +John Gibson, sculptor, of Rome, as he loved to call himself, was +a remarkable embodiment, in many ways, of this self-respecting, +artistic, ideal Welsh peasant temperament. In a little village +near Conway, in North Wales, there lived at the end of the last +century a petty labouring market gardener of the name of Gibson, +who knew and spoke no other tongue than his native Welsh. In 1790, +his wife gave birth to a son whom they christened John, and who +grew up, a workman's child, under the shadow of the great castle, +and among the exquisite scenery of the placid land-locked Conway +river. John Gibson's parents, like the mass of labouring Welsh +people, were honest, God-fearing folk, with a great earnestness of +principle, a profound love of truth, and a hatred of all mean or +dirty actions. They brought up the boy in these respects in the +way he should go; and when he was old he indeed did not depart from +them. Throughout his life, John Gibson was remarkable for his +calm, earnest, straightforward simplicity, a simplicity which +seemed almost childish to those who could not understand so grand +and uncommon and noble a nature as his. + +From his babyhood, almost, the love of art was innate in the boy; +and when he was only seven years old, he began to draw upon a slate +a scene that particularly pleased him--a line of geese sailing upon +the smooth glassy surface of a neighbouring pond. He drew them as +an ordinary child almost always does draw--one goose after another, +in profile, as though they were in procession, without any attempt +at grouping or perspective in any way. His mother praised the +first attempt, saying to him in Welsh, "Indeed, Jack, this is very +like the geese;" and Jack, encouraged by her praise, decided +immediately to try again. But not being an ordinary child, he +determined this time to do better; he drew the geese one behind the +other as one generally sees them in actual nature. His mother then +asked him to draw a horse; and "after gazing long and often upon +one," he says, "I at last ventured to commit him to the slate." +When he had done so, the good mother was even more delighted. So, +to try his childish art, she asked him to put a rider on the +horse's back. Jack went out once more, "carefully watched men on +horseback," and then returning, made his sketch accordingly. In +this childish reminiscence one can see already the first workings +of that spirit which made Gibson afterwards into the greatest +sculptor of all Europe. He didn't try even then to draw horse or +man by mere guesswork; he went out and studied the subject at first +hand. There are in that single trait two great elements of success +in no matter what line of life--supreme carefulness, and perfect +honesty of workmanship. + +When Jack was nine years old, his father determined to emigrate to +America, and for that purpose went to Liverpool to embark for the +United States. But when he had got as far as the docks, Mrs. +Gibson, good soul, frightened at the bigness of the ships (a queer +cause of alarm), refused plumply ever to put her foot on one of +them. So her husband, a dutiful man with a full sense of his +wife's government upon him, consented unwillingly to stop in +Liverpool, where he settled down to work again as a gardener. +Hitherto, Jack and his brothers had spoken nothing but Welsh; but +at Liverpool he was put to school, and soon learned to express +himself correctly and easily in English. Liverpool was a very +different place for young Jack Gibson from Conway: there were no +hills and valleys there, to be sure, but there were shops--such +shops! all full of the most beautiful and highly coloured prints +and caricatures, after the fashion of the days when George IV. was +still Prince Regent. All his spare time he now gave up to +diligently copying the drawings which he saw spread out in tempting +array before him in the shop-windows. Flattening his little nose +against the glass panes, he used to look long and patiently at a +single figure, till he had got every detail of its execution fixed +firmly on his mind's eye; and then he would go home hastily and +sketch it out at once while the picture was still quite fresh in +his vivid memory. Afterwards he would return to the shop-window, +and correct his copy by the original till it was completely +finished. No doubt the boy did all this purely for his own +amusement; but at the same time he was quite unconsciously teaching +himself to draw under a very careful and accurate master--himself. +Already, however, he found his paintings had patrons, for he sold +them when finished to the other boys; and once he got as much as +sixpence for a coloured picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps--"the +largest sum," he says brightly in his memoirs long after, "I had +yet received for a work of art." + +Opportunities always arise for those who know how to use them. +Little Jack Gibson used to buy his paper and colours at a +stationer's in Liverpool, who one day said to him kindly, "My lad, +you're a constant customer here: I suppose you're a painter." +"Yes, sir," Jack answered, with childish self-complacency, "I do +paint." The stationer, who had himself studied at the Royal +Academy, asked him to bring his pictures on view; and when Jack did +so, his new friend, Mr. Tourmeau, was so much pleased with them +that he lent the boy drawings to copy, and showed him how to draw +for himself from plaster casts. These first amateur lessons must +have given the direction to all Gibson's later life: for when the +time came for him to choose a trade, he was not set to till the +ground like his father, but was employed at once on comparatively +artistic and intelligent handicraft. + +Jack was fourteen when his father apprenticed him to a firm of +cabinet-makers. For the first year, he worked away contentedly at +legs and mouldings; but as soon as he had learnt the rudiments of +the trade he persuaded his masters to change his indentures, and +let him take the more suitable employment of carving woodwork for +ornamental furniture. He must have been a good workman and a +promising boy, one may be sure, or his masters would never have +countenanced such a revolutionary proceeding on the part of a raw +apprentice. Young Gibson was delighted with his new occupation, +and pursued it so eagerly that he carved even during his leisure +hours from plaster casts. But after another year, as ill-luck or +good fortune would have it, he happened to come across a London +marble-cutter, who had come down to Liverpool to carve flowers in +marble for a local firm. The boy was enchanted with his freer and +more artistic work; when the marble-cutter took him over a big +yard, and showed him the process of modelling and cutting, he began +to feel a deep contempt for his own stiff and lifeless occupation +of woodcarving. Inspired with the desire to learn this higher +craft, he bought some clay, took it home, and moulded it for +himself after all the casts he could lay his hands on. Mr. +Francis, the proprietor of the marble works, had a German workman +in his employ of the name of Luge, who used to model small figures, +chiefly, no doubt, for monumental purposes. Young Gibson borrowed +a head of Bacchus that Luge had composed, and made a copy of it +himself in clay. Mr. Francis was well pleased with this early +attempt, and also with a clever head of Mercury in marble, which +Gibson carved in his spare moments. + +The more the lad saw of clay and marble, the greater grew his +distaste for mere woodwork. At last, he determined to ask Mr. +Francis to buy out his indentures from the cabinet-makers, and let +him finish his apprenticeship as a sculptor. But unfortunately the +cabinet-makers found Gibson too useful a person to be got rid of so +easily: they said he was the most industrious lad they had ever +had; and so his very virtues seemed as it were to turn against him. +Not so, really: Mr. Francis thought so well of the boy that he +offered the masters 70 pounds to be quit of their bargain; and in +the end, Gibson himself having made a very firm stand in the +matter, he was released from his indentures and handed over finally +to Mr. Francis and a sculptor's life. + +And now the eager boy was at last "truly happy." He had to model +all day long, and he worked away at it with a will. Shortly after +he went to Mr. Francis's yard, a visitor came upon business, a +magnificent-looking old man, with snowy hair and Roman features. +It was William Roscoe, the great Liverpool banker, himself a poor +boy who had risen, and who had found time not only to build up for +himself an enormous fortune, but also to become thoroughly well +acquainted with literature and art by the way. Mr. Roscoe had +written biographies of Lorenzo de Medici, the great Florentine, and +of Leo X., the art-loving pope; and throughout his whole life he +was always deeply interested in painting and sculpture and +everything that related to them. He was a philanthropist, too, who +had borne his part bravely in the great struggle for the abolition +of the slave trade; and to befriend a struggling lad of genius like +John Gibson was the very thing that was nearest and dearest to his +benevolent heart. Mr. Francis showed Roscoe the boy's drawings and +models; and Roscoe's appreciative eye saw in them at once the +visible promise of great things to be. He had come to order a +chimney-piece for his library at Allerton, where his important +historical works were all composed; and he determined that the +clever boy should have a chief hand in its production. A few days +later he returned again with a valuable old Italian print. "I want +you to make a bas-relief in baked clay," he said to Gibson, "from +this print for the centres of my mantelpiece." Gibson was +overjoyed. The print was taken from a fresco of Raphael's in the +Vatican at Rome, and Gibson's work was to reproduce it in clay in +low relief, as a sculpture picture. He did so entirely to his new +patron's satisfaction, and this his first serious work is now duly +preserved in the Liverpool Institution which Mr. Roscoe had been +mainly instrumental in founding. + +Roscoe had a splendid collection of prints and drawings at Allerton; +and he invited the clever Welsh lad over there frequently, and +allowed him to study them all to his heart's content. To a lad like +John Gibson, such an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the +works of Raphael and Michael Angelo was a great and pure delight. +Before he was nineteen, he began to think of a big picture which he +hoped to paint some day; and he carried it out as well as he was +able in his own self-taught fashion. For as yet, it must be +remembered, Gibson had had no regular artistic instruction: there +was none such, indeed, to be had at all in Liverpool in his day; and +there was no real art going on in the town in any way. Mr. Francis, +his master, was no artist; nor was there anybody at the works who +could teach him: for as soon as Mr. Francis found out the full +measure of Gibson's abilities, he dismissed his German artist Luge, +and put the clever boy entirely in his place. At this time, Gibson +was only receiving six shillings a week as wages; but Mr. Francis +got good prices for many of his works, and was not ashamed even to +put his own name upon the promising lad's artistic performances. + +Mr. Roscoe did not merely encourage the young sculptor; he set him +also on the right road for ultimate success. He urged Gibson to +study anatomy, without which no sculpture worthy of the name is +possible. Gibson gladly complied, for he knew that Michael Angelo +had been a great anatomist, and Michael was just at that moment the +budding sculptor's idol and ideal. But how could he learn? A +certain Dr. Vose was then giving lectures on anatomy to young +surgeons at Liverpool, and on Roscoe's recommendation he kindly +admitted the eager student gratis to his dissecting-room. Gibson +dissected there with a will in all his spare moments, and as he put +his mind into the work he soon became well versed in the +construction of the human body. + +From the day that Gibson arrived at man's estate, the great dream +of his life was to go to Rome. For Rome is to art what London is +to industry--the metropolis in its own way of the entire earth. +But travelling in 1810 cost a vast deal of money; and the poor +Liverpool marble-cutter (for as yet he was really nothing more) +could hardly hope to earn the immense sum that such an expedition +would necessarily cost him. So for six years more he went on +working at Liverpool in his own native untaught fashion, doing his +best to perfect himself, but feeling sadly the lack of training and +competition. One of the last works he executed while still in Mr. +Francis's service was a chimney-piece for Sir John Gladstone, +father of the future premier. Sir John was so pleased with the +execution, that he gave the young workman ten pounds as a present. +But in spite of occasional encouragement like this, Gibson felt +himself at Liverpool, as he says, "chained down by the leg, and +panting for liberation." + +In 1817, when he was just twenty-seven, he determined to set off to +London. He took with him good introductions from Mr. Roscoe to Mr. +Brougham (afterwards Lord Chancellor), to Christie, the big +picture-dealer, and to several other influential people. Later on, +Roscoe recommended him to still more important leaders in the world +of art--Flaxman the great sculptor, Benjamin West, the Quaker +painter and President of the Royal Academy, and others of like +magnitude. Mr. Watson Taylor, a wealthy art patron, gave Gibson +employment, and was anxious that he should stop in London. But +Gibson wanted more than employment; he wanted to LEARN, to perfect +himself, to become great in his art. He could do that nowhere but +at Rome, and to Rome therefore he was determined to go. Mr. Taylor +still begged him to wait a little. "Go to Rome I will," Gibson +answered boldly, "even if I have to go there on foot." + +He was not quite reduced to this heroic measure, however, for his +Liverpool friends made up a purse of 150 pounds for him (we may be +sure it was repaid later on); and with that comparatively large sum +in his pocket the young stone-cutter started off gaily on his +continental tour, from which he was not to return for twenty-seven +years. He drove from Paris to Rome, sharing a carriage with a +Scotch gentleman; and when he arrived in the Pope's city (as it +then was) he knew absolutely not a single word of Italian, or of +any other language on earth save Welsh and English. In those days, +Canova, the great Venetian sculptor, was the head of artistic +society in Rome; and as ALL society in Rome is more or less +artistic, he might almost be said to have led the whole life of the +great and lively city. Indeed, the position of such a man in Italy +resembles far more that of a duke in England than of an artist as +we here are accustomed to think of him. Gibson had letters of +introduction to this prince of sculptors from his London friends; +and when he went to present them, he found Canova in his studio, +surrounded by his numerous scholars and admirers. The Liverpool +stone-cutter had brought a few of his drawings with him, and Canova +examined them with great attention. Instinctively he recognized +the touch of genius. When he had looked at them keenly for a few +minutes, he turned kindly to the trembling young man, and said at +once, "Come to me alone next week, for I want to have a talk with +you." + +On the appointed day, Gibson, quivering with excitement; presented +himself once more at the great master's studio. Canova was +surrounded as before by artists and visitors; but in a short time +he took Gibson into a room by himself, and began to speak with him +in his very broken English. Many artists came to Rome, he said, +with very small means, and that perhaps might be Gibson's case. +"Let me have the gratification, then," he went on, "of assisting +you to prosecute your studies. I am rich. I am anxious to be of +use to you. Let me forward you in your art as long as you stay in +Rome." + +Gibson replied, with many stammerings, that he hoped his slender +means would suffice for his personal needs, but that if Canova +would only condescend to give him instruction, to make him his +pupil, to let him model in his studio, he would be eternally +grateful. Canova was one of the most noble and lovable of men. He +acceded at once to Gibson's request, and Gibson never forgot his +kind and fatherly assistance. "Dear generous master," the Welsh +sculptor wrote many years after, when Canova had long passed away, +"I see you before me now. I hear your soft Venetian dialect, and +your kindly words inspiring my efforts and gently correcting my +defects. My heart still swells with grateful recollection of you." + +Canova told his new pupil to devote a few days first to seeing the +sights of Rome; but Gibson was impatient to begin at once. "I +shall be at your studio to-morrow morning," the ardent Welshman +said; and he kept his word. Canova, pleased with so much +earnestness and promptitude, set him to work forthwith upon a clay +model from his own statue of the Pugilist. Gibson went to the task +with a will, moulding the clay as best he could into shape; but he +still knew so little of the technical ways of regular sculptors +that he tried to model this work from the clay alone, though its +pose was such that it could not possibly hold together without an +iron framework. Canova saw his error and smiled, but let him go on +so that he might learn his business by experience. In a day or two +the whole thing, of course, collapsed by its own weight; and then +Canova called in a blacksmith and showed the eager beginner how the +mechanical skeleton was formed with iron bars, and interlacing +crosses of wood and wire. This was quite a new idea to Gibson, who +had modelled hitherto only in his own self-taught fashion with +moist clay, letting it support its own weight as best it might. +Another pupil then fleshed out the iron skeleton with clay, and +roughly shaped it to the required figure, so that it stood as firm +as a rock for Gibson to work upon. The new hand turned to +vigorously once more; and, in spite of his seeming rawness, +finished the copy so well that Canova admitted him at once to the +Academy to model from life. At this Academy Canova himself, who +loved art far more than money, used to attend twice a week to give +instruction to students without receiving any remuneration +whatsoever. It is of such noble men as this that the world of art +is largely made up--that world which we too-practical English have +always undervalued or even despised. + +Gibson's student period at Rome under Canova was a very happy +episode in a uniformly happy and beautiful life. His only trouble +was that he had not been able to come there earlier. Singularly +free from every taint of envy (like all the great sculptors of his +time), he could not help regretting when he saw other men turning +out work of such great excellence while he was still only a +learner. "When I observed the power and experience of youths much +younger than myself," he says in his generous appreciative fashion, +"their masterly manner of sketching in the figure, and their +excellent imitation of nature, my spirits fell many degrees, and I +felt humbled and unhappy." He need not have done so, for the man +who thus distrusts his own work is always the truest workman; it is +only fools or poor creatures who are pleased and self-satisfied +with their own first bungling efforts. But the great enjoyment of +Rome to Gibson consisted in the free artistic society which he +found there. At Liverpool, he had felt almost isolated; there was +hardly anybody with whom he could talk on an equality about his +artistic interests; nobody but himself cared about the things that +pleased and engrossed his earnest soul the most. But at Rome, +there was a great society of artists; every man's studio was open +to his friends and fellow-workers; and a lively running fire of +criticism went on everywhere about all new works completed or in +progress. He was fortunate, too, in the exact moment of his +residence: Rome then contained at once, besides himself, the two +truest sculptors of the present century, Canova the Venetian, and +Thorwaldsen the Dane. Both these great masters were singularly +free from jealousy, rivalry, or vanity. In their perfect +disinterestedness and simplicity of character they closely +resembled Gibson himself. The ardent and pure-minded young +Welshman, who kept himself so unspotted from the world in his utter +devotion to his chosen art, could not fail to derive an elevated +happiness from his daily intercourse with these two noble and +sympathetic souls. + +After Gibson had been for some time in Canova's studio, his +illustrious master told him that the sooner he took to modelling a +life-size figure of his own invention, the better. So Gibson hired +a studio (with what means he does not tell us in his short sketch +of his own life) close to Canova's, so that the great Venetian was +able to drop in from time to time and assist him with his criticism +and judgment. How delightful is the friendly communion of work +implied in all this graceful artistic Roman life! How different +from the keen competition and jealous rivalry which too often +distinguishes our busy money-getting English existence! In 1819, +two years after Gibson's arrival at Rome, he began to model his +Mars and Cupid, a more than life-size group, on which he worked +patiently and lovingly for many months. When it was nearly +finished, one day a knock came at the studio door. After the +knock, a handsome young man entered, and announced himself +brusquely as the Duke of Devonshire. "Canova sent me," he said, +"to see what you were doing." Gibson wasn't much accustomed to +dukes in those days--he grew more familiar with them later on--and +we may be sure the poor young artist's heart beat a little more +fiercely than usual when the stranger asked him the price of his +Mars and Cupid in marble. The sculptor had never yet sold a +statue, and didn't know how much he ought to ask; but after a few +minutes' consideration he said, "Five hundred pounds. But, +perhaps," he added timidly, "I have said too much." "Oh no," the +duke answered, "not at all too much;" and he forthwith ordered (or, +as sculptors prefer to say, commissioned) the statue to be executed +for him in marble. Gibson was delighted, and ran over at once to +tell Canova, thinking he had done a splendid stroke of business. +Canova shared his pleasure, till the young man came to the price; +then the older sculptor's face fell ominously. "Five hundred +pounds!" he cried in dismay; "why, it won't cover the cost of +marble and workmanship." And so indeed it turned out; for when the +work was finished, it had stood Gibson in 520 pounds for marble and +expenses, and left him twenty pounds out of pocket in the end. So +he got less than nothing after all for his many months of thought +and labour over clay and marble alike. + +Discouraging as this beginning must have proved, it was nevertheless +in reality the first important step in a splendid and successful +career. It is something to have sold your first statue, even if you +sell it at a disadvantage. In 1821 Gibson modelled a group of +Pysche and the Zephyrs. That winter Sir George Beaumont, himself a +distinguished amateur artist, and a great patron of art, came to +Rome; and Canova sent him to see the young Welshman's new +composition. Sir George asked the price, and Gibson, this time more +cautious, asked for time to prepare an estimate, and finally named +700 pounds. To his joy, Sir George immediately ordered it, and also +introduced many wealthy connoisseurs to the rising sculptor's +studio. That same winter, also, the Duke of Devonshire came again, +and commissioned a bas-relief in marble (which is now at Chatsworth +House, with many other of Gibson's works), at a paying price, too, +which was a great point for the young man's scanty exchequer. + +Unfortunately, Gibson has not left us any notice of how he managed +to make both ends meet during this long adult student period at +Rome. Information on that point would indeed be very interesting; +but so absorbed was the eager Welshman always in his art, that he +seldom tells us anything at all about such mere practical every-day +matters as bread and butter. To say the truth, he cared but little +about them. Probably he had lived in a very simple penurious style +during his whole studenthood, taking his meals at a cafe or eating- +house, and centering all his affection and ideas upon his beloved +studio. But now wealth and fame began to crowd in upon him, almost +without the seeking. Visitors to Rome began to frequent the +Welshman's rooms, and the death of "the great and good Canova," +which occurred in 1822, while depriving Gibson of a dearly loved +friend, left him, as it were, that great master's successor. +Towards him and Thorwaldsen, indeed, Gibson always cherished a most +filial regard. "May I not be proud," he writes long after, "to +have known such men, to have conversed with them, watched all their +proceedings, heard all their great sentiments on art? Is it not a +pleasure to be so deeply in their debt for instruction?" And now +the flood of visitors who used to flock to Canova's studio began to +transfer their interest to Gibson's. Commission after commission +was offered him, and he began to make money faster than he could +use it. His life had always been simple and frugal--the life of a +working man with high aims and grand ideals: he hardly knew now how +to alter it. People who did not understand Gibson used to say in +his later days that he loved money, because he made much and spent +little. Those who knew him better say rather that he worked much +for the love of art, and couldn't find much to do with his money +when he had earned it. He was singularly indifferent to gain; he +cared not what he eat or drank; he spent little on clothes, and +nothing on entertainments; but he paid his workmen liberally or +even lavishly; he allowed one of his brothers more than he ever +spent upon himself, and he treated the other with uniform kindness +and generosity. The fact is, Gibson didn't understand money, and +when it poured in upon him in large sums, he simply left it in the +hands of friends, who paid him a very small percentage on it, and +whom he always regarded as being very kind to take care of the +troublesome stuff on his account. In matters of art, Gibson was a +great master; in matters of business, he was hardly more than a +simple-minded child. + +Sometimes queer incidents occurred at Gibson's studio from the +curious ignorance of our countrymen generally on the subject of +art. One day, a distinguished and wealthy Welsh gentleman called +on the sculptor, and said that, as a fellow Welshman, he was +anxious to give him a commission. As he spoke, he cast an admiring +eye on Gibson's group of Psyche borne by the Winds. Gibson was +pleased with his admiration, but rather taken aback when the old +gentleman said blandly, "If you were to take away the Psyche and +put a dial in the place, it'd make a capital design for a clock." +Much later, the first Duke of Wellington called upon him at Rome +and ordered a statue of Pandora, in an attitude which he described. +Gibson at once saw that the Duke's idea was a bad one, and told him +so. By-and-by, on a visit to England, Gibson waited on the duke, +and submitted photographs of the work he had modelled. "But, Mr. +Gibson," said the old soldier, looking at them curiously, "you +haven't followed my idea." "No," answered the sculptor, "I have +followed MY OWN." "You are very stubborn," said Wellington. +"Duke," answered the sturdy sculptor, "I am a Welshman, and all the +world knows that we are a stubborn race." The Iron Duke ought to +have been delighted to find another man as unbending as himself, +but he wasn't; and in the end he refused the figure, which Gibson +sold instead to Lady Marian Alford. + +For twenty-seven years Gibson remained at Rome, working assiduously +at his art, and rising gradually but surely to the very first place +among then living sculptors. His studio now became the great +centre of all fashionable visitors to Rome. Still, he made no +effort to get rich, though he got rich without wishing it; he +worked on merely for art's sake, not for money. He would not do as +many sculptors do, keep several copies in marble of his more +popular statues for sale; he preferred to devote all his time to +new works. "Gibson was always absorbed in one subject," says Lady +Eastlake, "and that was the particular work or part of a work--were +it but the turn of a corner of drapery--which was then under his +modelling hands. Time was nothing to him; he was long and +fastidious." His favourite pupil, Miss Hosmer, once expressed +regret to him that she had been so long about a piece of work on +which she was engaged. "Always try to do the best you can," Gibson +answered. "Never mind how long you are upon a work--no. No one +will ask how long you have been, except fools. You don't care what +fools think." + +During his long life at Rome, he was much cheered by the presence +and assistance of his younger brother, Mr. Ben, as he always called +him, who was also a sculptor, though of far less merit than John +Gibson himself. Mr. Ben came to Rome younger than John, and he +learned to be a great classical scholar, and to read those Greek +and Latin books which John only knew at second hand, but from whose +beautiful fanciful stories of gods and heroes he derived all the +subjects for his works of statuary. His other brother, Solomon, a +strange, wild, odd man, in whom the family genius had degenerated +into mere eccentricity, never did anything for his own livelihood, +but lived always upon John Gibson's generous bounty. In John's +wealthy days, he and Mr. Ben used to escape every summer from the +heat and dust of Rome--which is unendurable in July and August--to +the delightfully cool air and magnificent mountain scenery of the +Tyrol. "I cannot tell you how well I am," he writes on one of +these charming visits, "and so is Mr. Ben. Every morning we take +our walks in the woods here. I feel as if I were new modelled." +Another passage in one of these summer tourist letters well +deserves to be copied here, as it shows the artist's point of view +of labours like Telford's and Stephenson's. "From Bormio," he +says, "the famous road begins which passes over the Stelvio into +the Tyrol; the highest carriage-road in the world. We began the +ascent early in the morning. It is magnificent and wonderful. Man +shows his talents, his power over great difficulties, in the +construction of these roads. Behold the cunning little workman--he +comes, he explores, and he says, 'Yes, I will send a carriage and +horses over these mighty mountains;' and, by Jove, you are drawn up +among the eternal snows. I am a great admirer of these roads." + +In 1844 Gibson paid his first visit to England, a very different +England indeed to the one he had left twenty-seven years earlier. +His Liverpool friends, now thoroughly proud of their stone-cutter, +insisted upon giving him a public banquet. Glasgow followed the +same example; and the simple-minded sculptor, unaccustomed to such +honours, hardly knew how to bear his blushes decorously upon him. +During this visit, he received a command to execute a statue of the +queen. Gibson was at first quite disconcerted at such an awful +summons. "I don't know how to behave to queens," he said. "Treat +her like a lady," said a friend; and Gibson, following the advice, +found it sufficiently answered all the necessities of the +situation. But when he went to arrange with the Prince Consort +about the statue, he was rather puzzled what he should do about +measuring the face, which he always did for portrait sculpture with +a pair of compasses. All these difficulties were at last smoothed +over; and Gibson was also permitted to drape the queen's statue in +Greek costume, for in his artistic conscientiousness he absolutely +refused to degrade sculpture by representing women in the +fashionable gown of the day, or men in swallow-tail coats and high +collars. + +Another work which Gibson designed during this visit possesses for +us a singular and exceptional interest. It was a statue of George +Stephenson, to be erected at Liverpool. Thus, by a curious +coincidence, the Liverpool stone-cutter was set to immortalize the +features and figure of the Killingworth engine-man. Did those two +great men, as they sat together in one room, sculptor and sitter, +know one another's early history and strange struggles, we wonder? +Perhaps not; but if they did, it must surely have made a bond of +union between them. At any rate, Gibson greatly admired +Stephenson, just as he had admired the Stelvio road. "I will +endeavour to give him a look capable of action and energy," he +said; "but he must be contemplative, grave, simple. He is a good +subject. I wish to make him look like an Archimedes." + +If Gibson admired Stephenson, however, he did not wholly admire +Stephenson's railways. The England he had left was the England of +mail-coaches. In Italy, he had learnt to travel by carriage, after +the fashion of the country; but these new whizzing locomotives, +with their time-tables, and their precision, and their inscrutable +mysteries of shunts and junctions, were quite too much for his +simple, childish, old-world habits. He had a knack of getting out +too soon or too late, which often led him into great confusion. +Once, when he wanted to go to Chichester, he found himself landed +at Portsmouth, and only discovered his mistake when, on asking the +way to the cathedral, he was told there was no cathedral in the +town at all. Another story of how he tried to reach Wentworth, +Lord Fitzwilliam's place, is best told in his own words. "The +train soon stopped at a small station, and, seeing some people get +out, I also descended; when, in a moment, the train moved on-- +faster and faster--and left me standing on the platform. I walked +a few paces backward and forward in disagreeable meditation. 'I +wish to Heaven,' thought I to myself, 'that I was on my way back to +Rome with a postboy.' Then I observed a policeman darting his eyes +upon me, as if he would look me through. Said I to the fellow, +'Where is that cursed train gone to? It's off with my luggage and +here am I.' The man asked me the name of the place where I took my +ticket. 'I don't remember,' said I. 'How should I know the name +of any of these places?--it's as long as my arm. I've got it +written down somewhere.' 'Pray, sir,' said the man, after a little +pause, 'are you a foreigner?' 'No,' I replied, 'I am not a +foreigner; I'm a sculptor.'" + +The consequence of this almost childish carelessness was that +Gibson had always to be accompanied on his long journeys either by +a friend or a courier. While Mr. Ben lived, he usually took his +brother in charge to some extent; and the relation between them was +mutual, for while John Gibson found the sculpture, Mr. Ben found +the learning, so that Gibson used often to call him "my classical +dictionary." In 1847, however, Mr. Ben was taken ill. He got a +bad cold, and would have no doctor, take no medicine. "I consider +Mr. Ben," his brother writes, "as one of the most amiable of human +beings--too good for this world--but he will take no care against +colds, and when ill he is a stubborn animal." That summer Gibson +went again to England, and when, he came back found Mr. Ben no +better. For four years the younger brother lingered on, and in +1851 died suddenly from the effects of a fall in walking. Gibson +was thus left quite alone, but for his pupil Miss Hosmer, who +became to him more than a daughter. + +During his later years Gibson took largely to tinting his statues-- +colouring them faintly with flesh-tones and other hues like nature; +and this practice he advocated with all the strength of his single- +minded nature. All visitors to the great Exhibition of 1862 will +remember his beautiful tinted Venus, which occupied the place of +honour in a light temple erected for the purpose by another +distinguished artistic Welshman, Mr. Owen Jones, who did much +towards raising the standard of taste in the English people. + +In January, 1866, John Gibson had a stroke of paralysis, from which +he never recovered. He died within the month, and was buried in +the English cemetery at Rome. Both his brothers had died before +him; and he left the whole of his considerable fortune to the Royal +Academy in England. An immense number of his works are in the +possession of the Academy, and are on view there throughout the +year. + +John Gibson's life is very different in many respects from that of +most other great working men whose story is told in this volume. +Undoubtedly, he was deficient in several of those rugged and stern +qualities to which English working men have oftenest owed their +final success. But there was in him a simple grandeur of +character, a purity of soul, and an earnestness of aim which raised +him at once far above the heads of most among those who would have +been the readiest to laugh at and ridicule him. Besides his +exquisite taste, his severe love of beauty, and his marvellous +power of expressing the highest ideals of pure form, he had one +thing which linked him to all the other great men whose lives we +have here recounted--his steadfast and unconquerable personal +energy. In one sense it may be said that he was not a practical +man; and yet in another and higher sense, what could possibly be +more practical than this accomplished resolve of the poor Liverpool +stone-cutter to overcome all obstacles, to go to, Rome, and to make +himself into a great sculptor? It is indeed a pity that in writing +for Englishmen of the present day such a life should even seem for +a moment to stand in need of a practical apology. For purity, for +guilelessness, for exquisite appreciation of the true purpose of +sculpture as the highest embodiment of beauty of form, John +Gibson's art stands unsurpassed in all the annals of modern +statuary. + + + + + + +IV. + +WILLIAM HERSCHEL, BANDSMAN. + + + + + +Old Isaac Herschel, the oboe-player of the King's Guard in Hanover, +had served with his regiment for many years in the chilly climate +of North Germany, and was left at last broken down in health and +spirits by the many hardships of several severe European campaigns. +Isaac Herschel was a man of tastes and education above his +position; but he had married a person in some respects quite +unfitted for him. His good wife, Anna, though an excellent +housekeeper and an estimable woman in her way, had never even +learned to write; and when the pair finally settled down to old age +in Hanover, they were hampered by the cares of a large family of +ten children. Respectable poverty in Germany is even more pressing +than in England; the decent poor are accustomed to more frugal fare +and greater privations than with us; and the domestic life of the +Herschel family circle must needs have been of the most careful and +penurious description. Still, Isaac Herschel dearly loved his art, +and in it he found many amends and consolations for the sordid +shifts and troubles of a straitened German household. All his +spare time was given to music, and in his later days he was enabled +to find sufficient pupils to eke out his little income with +comparative comfort. + +William Herschel, the great astronomer (born in 1738), was the +fourth child of his mother, and with his brothers he was brought up +at the garrison school in Hanover, together with the sons of the +other common soldiers. There he learned, not only the three R's, +but also a little French and English. Still, the boy was not +content with these ordinary studies; in his own playtime he took +lessons in Latin and mathematics privately with the regimental +schoolmaster. The young Herschels, indeed, were exceptionally +fortunate in the possession of an excellent and intelligent father, +who was able to direct their minds into channels which few people +of their position in life have the opportunity of entering. Isaac +Herschel was partly of Jewish descent, and he inherited in a marked +degree two very striking Jewish gifts--a turn for music, and a turn +for philosophy. The Jews are probably the oldest civilized race +now remaining on earth; and their musical faculties have been +continuously exercised from a time long before the days of David, +so that now they produce undoubtedly a far larger proportion of +musicians and composers than any other class of the population +whatsoever. They are also deeply interested in the same profound +theological and philosophical problems which were discussed with so +much acuteness and freedom in the Book of Ecclesiastes and the +subtle argument of Job and his friends. There has never been a +time when the Jewish mind has not exercised itself profoundly on +these deep and difficult questions; and the Hanover bandsman +inherited from his Jewish ancestry an unusual interest in similar +philosophical subjects. Thus, while the little ones were sleeping +in the same common room at night, William and his father were often +heard discussing the ideas of such abstruse thinkers as Newton and +Leibnitz, whose names must have sounded strange indeed to the +ordinary frequenters of the Hanover barracks. On such occasions +good dame Herschel was often compelled to interpose between them, +lest the loudness of their logic should wake the younger children +in the crib hard by. + +William, however, possessed yet another gift, which he is less +likely to have derived from the Jewish side of the house. He and +his brother Alexander were both distinguished by a natural taste +for mechanics, and early gave proof of their learning by turning +neat globes with the equator and ecliptic accurately engraved upon +them, or by making model instruments for their own amusement out of +bits of pasteboard. Thus, in early opportunities and educational +advantages, the young Herschels certainly started in life far +better equipped than most working men's sons; and, considering +their father's doubtful position, it may seem at first sight rather +a stretch of language to describe him as a working man at all. +Nevertheless, when one remembers the humble grade of military +bandsmen in Germany, even at the present day, and the fact that +most of the Herschel family remained in that grade during all their +lives, it is clear that William Herschel's life may be fairly +included within the scope of the present series. "In my fifteenth +year," he says himself, "I enlisted in military service," and he +evidently looked upon his enlistment in exactly the same light as +that of any ordinary soldier. + +England and Hanover were, of course, very closely connected +together at the middle of the last century. The king moved about a +great deal from one country to the other; and in 1755 the regiment +of Hanoverian Guards was ordered on service to England for a year. +William Herschel, then seventeen years of age, and already a member +of the band, went together with his father; and it was in this +modest capacity that he first made acquaintance with the land where +he was afterwards to attain the dignity of knighthood and the post +of the king's astronomer. He played the oboe, like his father +before him, and no doubt underwent the usual severe military +discipline of that age of stiff stocks and stern punishments. His +pay was very scanty, and out of it he only saved enough to carry +home one memento of his English experiences. That memento was in +itself a sufficient mark of the stuff from which young Herschel was +compounded. It was a copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding." +Now, Locke's famous work, oftener named than read, is a very tough +and serious bit of philosophical exposition; and a boy of seventeen +who buys such a book out of his meagre earnings as a military +bandsman is pretty sure not to end his life within the four dismal +bare walls of the barrack. It is indeed a curious picture to +imagine young William Herschel, among a group of rough and +boisterous German soldiers, discussing high mathematical problems +with his father, or sitting down quietly in a corner to read "Locke +on the Human Understanding." + +In 1757, during the Seven Years' War, Herschel was sent with his +regiment to serve in the campaign of Rossbach against the French. +He was not physically strong, and the hardships of active service +told terribly upon the still growing lad. His parents were alarmed +at his appearance when he returned, and were very anxious to +"remove" him from the service. That, however, was by no means an +easy matter for them to accomplish. They had no money to buy his +discharge, and so, not to call the transaction by any other than +its true name, William Herschel was forced to run away from the +army. We must not judge too harshly of this desertion, for the +times were hard, and the lives of men in Herschel's position were +valued at very little by the constituted authorities. Long after, +it is said, when Herschel had distinguished himself by the +discovery of the planet Uranus, a pardon for this high military +offence was duly handed to him by the king in person on the +occasion of his first presentation. George III. was not a +particularly wise or brilliant man; but even he had sense enough to +perceive that William Herschel could serve the country far better +by mapping out the stars of heaven than by playing the oboe to the +royal regiment of Hanoverian Guards. + +William was nineteen when he ran away. His good mother packed his +boxes for him with such necessaries as she could manage, and sent +them after him to Hamburg; but, to the boy's intense disgust, she +forgot to send the copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding." +What a sturdy deserter we have here, to be sure! "She, dear +woman," he says plaintively, "knew no other wants than good linen +and clothing!" So William Herschel the oboe-player started off +alone to earn his living as best he might in the great world of +England. It is strange he should have chosen that, of all European +countries; for there alone he was liable to be arrested as a +deserter: but perhaps his twelvemonth's stay in London may have +given him a sense of being at home amongst us which he would have +lacked in any other part of Europe. At any rate, hither he came, +and for the next three years picked up a livelihood, we know not +how, as many other excellent German bandsmen have done before and +since him. Our information about his early life is very meagre, +and at this period we lose sight of him for a while altogether. + +About the year 1760, however, we catch another incidental glimpse +of the young musician in his adopted country. By that time, he had +found himself once more a regular post as oboist to the Durham +militia, then quartered for its muster at Pontefract. A certain +Dr. Miller, an organist at Doncaster, was dining one evening at the +officers' mess; when his host happened to speak to him in high +praise of a young German they had in their band, who was really, he +said, a most remarkable and spirited performer. Dr. Miller asked +to see (or rather hear) this clever musician; so Herschel was +called up, and made to go through a solo for the visitor's +gratification. The organist was surprised at his admirable +execution, and asked him on what terms he was engaged to the Durham +militia. "Only from month to month," Herschel answered. "Then +leave them at the end of your month," said Miller, "and come to +live with me. I'm a single man; I think we can manage together; +and I'm sure I can get you a better situation." Herschel frankly +accepted the offer so kindly made, and seems to have lived for much +of the next five years with Miller in his little two-roomed cottage +at Doncaster. Here he took pupils and performed in the orchestra +at public concerts, always in a very quiet and modest fashion. He +also lived for part of the time with a Mr. Bulman at Leeds, for +whom he afterwards generously provided a place as clerk to the +Octagon Chapel at Bath. Indeed, it is a very pleasing trait in +William Herschel's character that to the end he was constantly +engaged in finding places for his early friends, as well as for the +less energetic or less fortunate members of his own family. + +During these years, Herschel also seems to have given much +attention to the organ, which enabled him to make his next step in +life in 1765, when he was appointed organist at Halifax. Now, +there is a great social difference between the position of an oboe- +player in a band and a church organist; and it was through his +organ-playing that Herschel was finally enabled to leave his needy +hand-to-mouth life in Yorkshire. A year later, he obtained the +post of organist to the Octagon Chapel at Bath, an engagement which +gave him new opportunities of turning his mind to the studies for +which he possessed a very marked natural inclination. Bath was in +those days not only the most fashionable watering-place in England, +but almost the only fashionable watering-place in the whole +kingdom. It was, to a certain extent, all that Brighton, +Scarborough, Buxton, and Harrogate are to-day, and something more. +In our own time, when railways and steamboats have so altered the +face of the world, the most wealthy and fashionable English society +resorts a great deal to continental pleasure towns like Cannes, +Nice, Florence, Vichy, Baden, Ems, and Homburg; but in the +eighteenth century it resorted almost exclusively to Bath. The +Octagon Chapel was in one sense the centre of life in Bath; and +through his connection with it, Herschel was thrown into a far more +intelligent and learned society than that which he had left behind +him in still rural Yorkshire. New books came early to Bath, and +were read and discussed in the reading-rooms; famous men and women +came there, and contributed largely to the intellectual life of the +place; the theatre was the finest out of London; the Assembly Rooms +were famous as the greatest resort of wit and culture in the whole +kingdom. Herschel here was far more in his element than in the +barracks of Hanover, or in the little two-roomed cottage at rustic +Doncaster. + +He worked very hard indeed, and his work soon brought him comfort +and comparative wealth. Besides his chapel services, and his later +engagement in the orchestra of the Assembly Rooms, he had often as +many as thirty-eight private pupils in music every week; and he +also composed a few pieces, which were published in London with +some modest success. Still, in spite of all these numerous +occupations, the eager young German found a little leisure time to +devote to self-education; so much so that, after a fatiguing day of +fourteen or sixteen hours spent in playing the organ and teaching, +he would "unbend his mind" by studying the higher mathematics, or +give himself a lesson in Greek and Italian. At the same time; he +was also working away at a line of study, seemingly useless to him, +but in which he was afterwards to earn so great and deserved a +reputation. Among the books he read during this Bath period were +Smith's "Optics" and Lalande's "Astronomy." Throughout all his own +later writings, the influence of these two books, thoroughly +mastered by constant study in the intervals of his Bath music +lessons, makes itself everywhere distinctly felt. + +Meanwhile, the family at Hanover had not been flourishing quite so +greatly as the son William was evidently doing in wealthy England. +During all those years, the young man had never forgotten to keep +up a close correspondence with his people in Germany. Already, in +1764, during his Yorkshire days, William Herschel had managed out +of his Savings as an oboe-player to make a short trip to his old +home; and his sister Carolina, afterwards his chief assistant in +his astronomical labours, notes with pleasure the delight she felt +in having her beloved brother with her once more, though she, poor +girl, being cook to the household apparently, could only enjoy his +society when she was not employed "in the drudgery of the +scullery." A year later, when William had returned to England +again, and had just received his appointment as organist at +Halifax, his father, Isaac, had a stroke of paralysis which ended +his violin-playing for ever, and forced him to rely thenceforth +upon copying music for a precarious livelihood. In 1767 he died, +and poor Carolina saw before her in prospect nothing but a life of +that domestic drudgery which she so disliked. "I could not bear +the idea of being turned into a housemaid," she says; and she +thought that if only she could take a few lessons in music and +fancy work she might get "a place as governess in some family where +the want of a knowledge of French would be no objection." But, +unhappily, good dame Herschel, like many other uneducated and +narrow-minded persons, had a strange dread of too much knowledge. +She thought that "nothing further was needed," says Carolina, "than +to send me two or three months to a sempstress to be taught to make +household linen; so all that my father could do was to indulge me +sometimes with a short lesson on the violin when my mother was +either in good humour or out of the way. It was her certain belief +that my brother William would have returned to his country, and my +eldest brother would not have looked so high, if they had had a +little less learning." Poor, purblind, well-meaning, obstructive +old dame Herschel! what a boon to the world that children like +yours are sometimes seized with this incomprehensible fancy for +"looking too high"! + +Nevertheless, Carolina managed by rising early to take a few +lessons at daybreak from a young woman whose parents lived in the +same cottage with hers; and so she got through a little work before +the regular daily business of the family began at seven. Imagine +her delight then, just as the difficulties after her father's death +are making that housemaid's place seem almost inevitable, when she +gets a letter from William at Bath, asking her to come over to +England and join him at that gay and fashionable city. He would +try to prepare her for singing at his concerts; but if after two +years' trial she didn't succeed, he would take her back again to +Hanover himself. In 1772, indeed, William in person came over to +fetch her, and thenceforth the brother and sister worked +unceasingly together in all their undertakings to the day of the +great astronomer's death. + +About this time Herschel had been reading Ferguson's "Astronomy," +and felt very desirous of seeing for himself the objects in the +heavens, invisible to the naked eye, of which he there found +descriptions. For this purpose he must of course have a telescope. +But how to obtain one? that was the question. There was a small +two-and-a-half foot instrument on hire at one of the shops at Bath; +and the ambitious organist borrowed this poor little glass for a +time, not merely to look through, but to use as a model for +constructing one on his own account. Buying was impossible, of +course, for telescopes cost much money: but making would not be +difficult for a determined mind. He had always been of a +mechanical turn, and he was now fired with a desire to build +himself a telescope eighteen or twenty feet long. He sent to +London for the lenses, which could not be bought at Bath; and +Carolina amused herself by making a pasteboard tube to fit them in +her leisure hours. It was long before he reached twenty feet, +indeed: his first effort was a seven-foot, attained only "after +many continuous determined trials." The amateur pasteboard frame +did not fully answer Herschel's expectations, so he was obliged to +go in grudgingly for the expense of a tin tube. The reflecting +mirror which he ought to have had proved too dear for his still +slender purse, and he thus had to forego it with much regret. But +he found a man at Bath who had once been in the mirror-polishing +line; and he bought from him for a bargain all his rubbish of +patterns, tools, unfinished mirrors and so forth, with which he +proceeded to experiment on the manufacture of a proper telescope. +In the summer, when the season was over, and all the great people +had left Bath, the house, as Carolina says ruefully, "was turned +into a workshop." William's younger brother Alexander was busy +putting up a big lathe in a bedroom, grinding glasses and turning +eyepieces; while in the drawing-room itself, sacred to William's +aristocratic pupils, a carpenter, sad to relate, was engaged in +making a tube and putting up stands for the future telescopes. Sad +goings on, indeed, in the family of a respectable music-master and +organist! Many a good solid shopkeeper in Bath must no doubt have +shaken his grey head solemnly as he passed the door, and muttered +to himself that that young German singer fellow was clearly going +on the road to ruin with his foolish good-for-nothing star-gazing. + +In 1774, when William Herschel was thirty six, he had at last +constructed himself a seven-foot telescope, and began for the first +time in his life to view the heavens in a systematic manner. From +this he advanced to a ten-foot, and then to one of twenty, for he +meant to see stars that no astronomer had ever yet dreamt of +beholding. It was comparatively late in life to begin, but +Herschel had laid a solid foundation already and he was enabled +therefore to do an immense deal in the second half of those +threescore years and ten which are the allotted average life of +man, but which he himself really overstepped by fourteen winters. +As he said long afterwards with his modest manner to the poet +Campbell, "I have looked further into space than ever human being +did before me. I have observed stars of which the light, it can be +proved, must take two millions of years to reach this earth." That +would have been a grand thing for any man to be able truthfully to +say under any circumstances: it was a marvellous thing for a man +who had laboured under all the original disadvantages of Herschel-- +a man who began life as a penniless German bandsman, and up to the +age of thirty-six had never even looked through a telescope. + +At this time, Herschel was engaged in playing the harpsichord in +the orchestra of the theatre; and it was during the interval +between the acts that he made his first general survey of the +heavens. The moment his part was finished, he would rush out to +gaze through his telescope; and in these short periods he managed +to observe all the visible stars of what are called the first, +second, third, and fourth magnitudes. Henceforth he went on +building telescope after telescope, each one better than the last; +and now all his glasses were ground and polished either by his own +hand or by his brother Alexander's. Carolina meanwhile took her +part in the workshop; but as she had also to sing at the oratorios, +and her awkward German manners might shock the sensitive nerves of +the Bath aristocrats, she took two lessons a week for a whole +twelvemonth (she tells us in her delightfully straightforward +fashion) "from Miss Fleming, the celebrated dancing mistress, +to drill me for a gentlewoman." Poor Carolina, there she was +mistaken: Miss Fleming could make her into no gentlewoman, for she +was born one already, and nothing proves it more than the perfect +absence of false shame with which in her memoirs she tells us all +these graphic little details of their early humble days. + +While they were thus working at Bath an incident occurred which is +worth mentioning because it shows the very different directions in +which the presence or the want of steady persistence may lead the +various members of the very self-same family. William received a +letter from his widowed mother at Hanover to say, in deep distress, +that Dietrich, the youngest brother, had run away from home, it was +supposed for the purpose of going to India, "with a young idler no +older than himself." Forthwith, the budding astronomer left the +lathe where he was busy turning an eye-piece from a cocoa-nut +shell, and, like a good son and brother as he always was, hurried +off to Holland and thence to Hanover. No Dietrich was anywhere to +be found. But while he was away, Carolina at Bath received a +letter from Dietrich himself, to tell her ruefully he was "laid up +very ill" at a waterside tavern in Wapping--not the nicest or most +savoury East End sailor-suburb of London. Alexander immediately +took the coach to town, put the prodigal into a decent lodging, +nursed him carefully for a fortnight, and then took him down with +him in triumph to the family home at Bath. There brother William +found him safe and sound on his return, under the sisterly care of +good Carolina. A pretty dance he had led the two earnest and +industrious astronomers; but they seem always to have treated this +black sheep of the family with uniform kindness, and long +afterwards Sir William remembered him favourably in his last will. + +In 1779 and the succeeding years the three Herschels were engaged +during all their spare time in measuring the heights of about one +hundred mountains in the moon, which William gauged by three +different methods. In the same year, he made an acquaintance of +some importance to him, as forming his first introduction to the +wider world of science in London and elsewhere. Dr. Watson, a +Fellow of the Royal Society, happened, to see him working at his +telescope; and this led to a visit from the electrician to the +amateur astronomer. Dr. Watson was just then engaged in getting up +a Philosophical Society at Bath (a far rarer institution at that +time in a provincial town than now), and he invited William +Herschel to join it. Here Herschel learned for the first time to +mix with those who were more nearly his intellectual equals, and to +measure his strength against other men's. + +It was in 1781 that Herschel made the great discovery which +immediately established his fame as an astronomer, and enabled him +to turn from conducting concerts to the far higher work of +professionally observing the stars. On the night of Tuesday, March +13th, Herschel was engaged in his usual systematic survey of the +sky, a bit at a time, when his telescope lighted among a group of +small fixed stars upon what he at first imagined to be a new comet. +It proved to be no comet, however, but a true planet--a veritable +world, revolving like our own in a nearly circular path around the +sun as centre, though far more remote from it than the most distant +planet then known, Saturn. Herschel called his new world the +Georgium Sidus (King George's star) in honour of the reigning +monarch; but it has since been known as Uranus. Astronomers all +over Europe were soon apprised of this wonderful discovery, and the +path of the freshly found planet was computed by calculation, its +distance from the sun being settled at nineteen times that of our +own earth. + +In order faintly to understand the importance attached at the time +to Herschel's observation of this very remote and seemingly petty +world, we must remember that up to that date all the planets which +circle round our own sun had been familiarly known to everybody +from time immemorial. To suggest that there was yet another world +belonging to our system outside the path of the furthest known +planet would have seemed to most people like pure folly. Since +then, we have grown quite accustomed to the discovery of a fresh +small world or two every year, and we have even had another large +planet (Neptune), still more remote than Herschel's Uranus, added +to the list of known orbs in our own solar system. But in +Herschel's day, nobody had ever heard of a new planet being +discovered since the beginning of all things. A hundred years +before, an Italian astronomer, it is true, had found out four small +moons revolving round Saturn, besides the big moon then already +known; but for a whole century, everybody believed that the solar +system was now quite fully explored, and that nothing fresh could +be discovered about it. Hence Herschel's observation produced a +very different effect from, say, the discovery of the two moons +which revolve round Mars, in our own day. Even people who felt no +interest in astronomy were aroused to attention. Mr. Herschel's +new planet became the talk of the town and the subject of much +admiring discussion in the London newspapers. Strange, indeed, +that an amateur astronomer of Bath, a mere German music-master, +should have hit upon a planet which escaped the sight even of the +king's own Astronomer Royal at Greenwich. + +Of course there were not people wanting who ascribed this wonderful +discovery of Herschel's to pure chance. If he hadn't just happened +to turn his telescope in that particular direction on that +particular night, he wouldn't have seen this Georgium Sidus they +made such a fuss about at all. Quite so. And if he hadn't built a +twenty-foot telescope for himself, he wouldn't have turned it +anywhere at any time. But Herschel himself knew better. "This was +by no means the result of chance," he said; "but a simple +consequence of the position of the planet on that particular +evening, since it occupied precisely that spot in the heavens which +came in the order of the minute observations that I had previously +mapped out for myself. Had I not seen it just when I did, I must +inevitably have come upon it soon after, since my telescope was so +perfect that I was able to distinguish it from a fixed star in the +first minute of observation." Indeed, when once Herschel's twenty- +foot telescope was made, he could not well have failed in the long +run to discover Uranus, as his own description of his method +clearly shows. "When I had carefully and thoroughly perfected the +great instrument in all its parts," he says, "I made a systematic +use of it in my observation of the heaven, first forming a +determination never to pass by any, the smallest, portion of them +without due investigation. This habit, persisted in, led to the +discovery of the new planet (Georgium Sidus)." As well might one +say that a skilled mining surveyor, digging for coal, came upon the +seam by chance, as ascribe to chance the necessary result of such a +careful and methodical scrutiny as this. + +Before the year was out, the ingenious Mr. Herschel of Bath was +elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was also presented with +the Copley gold medal. From this moment all the distinguished +people in Bath were anxious to be introduced to the philosophical +music-master; and, indeed, they intruded so much upon his time that +the daily music lessons were now often interrupted. He was soon, +however, to give up lessons for ever, and devote himself to his +more congenial and natural work in astronomy. In May, 1782, he +went up to London, to be formally admitted to his Fellowship of the +Royal Society. There he stayed so long that poor Carolina was +quite frightened. It was "double the time which my brother could +safely be absent from his scholars." The connection would be +broken up, and the astronomy would be the ruin of the family. (A +little of good old dame Herschel's housewifely leaven here, +perhaps.) But William's letters from London to "Dear Lina" must +soon have quieted her womanly fears. William had actually been +presented to the king, and "met with a very gracious reception." +He had explained the solar system to the king and queen, and his +telescope was to be put up first at Greenwich and then at Richmond. +The Greenwich authorities were delighted with his instrument; they +have seen what Herschel calls "MY fine double stars" with it. "All +my papers are printing," he tells Lina with pardonable pride, "and +are allowed to be very valuable." But he himself is far from +satisfied as yet with the results of his work. Evidently no small +successes in the field of knowledge will do for William Herschel. +"Among opticians and astronomers," he writes to Lina, "nothing now +is talked of but WHAT THEY CALL my great discoveries. Alas! this +shows how far they are behind, when such trifles as I have seen and +done are called GREAT. Let me but get at it again! I will make +such telescopes and see such things!" Well, well, William +Herschel, in that last sentence we get the very keynote of true +greatness and true genius. + +But must he go back quietly to Bath and the toils of teaching? +"An intolerable waste of time," he thought it. The king happily +relieved him from this intolerable waste. He offered Herschel a +salary of 200 pounds a year if he would come and live at Datchet, +and devote himself entirely to astronomical observations. It was +by no means a munificent sum for a king to offer for such labour; +but Herschel gladly accepted it, as it would enable him to give up +the interruption of teaching, and spend all his time on his beloved +astronomy. His Bath friend, Sir William Watson, exclaimed when he +heard of it, "Never bought monarch honour so cheap." Herschel was +forty-three when he removed to Datchet, and from that day forth he +lived almost entirely in his observatory, wholly given up to his +astronomical pursuits. Even when he had to go to London to read +his papers before the Royal Society, he chose a moonlight night +(when the stars would be mostly invisible), so that it might not +interfere with his regular labours. + +Poor Carolina was horrified at the house at Datchet, which seemed +terribly desolate and poor, even to her modest German ideas; but +William declared his willingness to live permanently and cheerfully +upon "eggs and bacon" now that he was at last free to do nothing on +earth but observe the heavens. Night after night he and Carolina +worked together at their silent task--he noting the small features +with his big telescope, she "sweeping for comets" with a smaller +glass or "finder." Herschel could have had no more useful or +devoted assistant than his sister, who idolized him with all her +heart. Alexander, too, came to stay with them during the slack +months at Bath, and then the whole strength of the family was bent +together on their labour of love in gauging the heavens. + +But what use was it all? Why should they wish to go star-gazing? +Well, if a man cannot see for himself what use it was, nobody else +can put the answer into him, any more than they could put into him +a love for nature, or for beauty, or for art, or for music, if he +had it not to start with. What is the good of a great picture, a +splendid oratorio, a grand poem? To the man who does not care for +them, nothing; to the man who loves them, infinite. It is just the +same with science. The use of knowledge to a mind like Herschel's +is the mere possession of it. With such as he, it is a love, an +object of desire, a thing to be sought after for its town sake; and +the mere act of finding it is in itself purely delightful. "Happy +is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth +understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the +merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is +more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst desire are +not to be compared unto her." So, to such a man as Herschel, that +peaceful astronomer life at Datchet was indeed, in the truest sense +of those much-abused words, "success in life." If you had asked +some vulgar-minded neighbour of the great Sir William in his later +days whether the astronomer had been a successful man or not, he +would doubtless have answered, after his kind, "Certainly. He has +been made a knight, has lands in two counties, and has saved 35,000 +pounds." But if you had asked William Herschel himself, he would +probably have said, with his usual mixture of earnestness and +humility, "Yes, I have been a very fortunate man in life. I have +discovered Uranus, and I have gauged all the depths of heaven, as +none before ever gauged them, with my own great telescope." + +Still, those who cannot sympathize with the pure love of knowledge +for its own sake--one of the highest and noblest of human aims-- +should remember that astronomy is also of immense practical +importance to mankind, and especially to navigation and commerce. +Unless great astronomical calculations were correctly performed at +Greenwich and elsewhere, it would be impossible for any ship or +steamer to sail with safety from England to Australia or America. +Every defect in our astronomical knowledge helps to wreck our +vessels on doubtful coasts; every advance helps to save the lives +of many sailors and the cargoes of many merchants. It is this +practical utility of astronomy that justifies the spending of +national money on observatories and transits of Venus, and it is +the best apology for an astronomer's life to those who do not +appreciate the use of knowledge for its own beauty. + +At Datchet, Herschel not only made several large telescopes for +sale, for which he obtained large prices, but he also got a grant +of 2000 pounds from the king to aid him in constructing his huge +forty-foot instrument. It was here, too, in 1783, that Herschel +married. His wife was a widow lady of scientific tastes like his +own, and she was possessed of considerable means, which enabled him +henceforth to lay aside all anxiety on the score of money. They +had but one child, a son, afterwards Sir John Herschel, almost as +great an astronomer as his father had been before him. In 1785, +the family moved to Clay Hall, in Old Windsor, and in 1786 to +Slough, where Herschel lived for the remainder of his long life. +How completely his whole soul was bound up in his work is shown in +the curious fact recorded for us by Carolina Herschel. The last +night at Clay Hall was spent in sweeping the sky with the great +glass till daylight; and by the next evening the telescope stood +ready for observations once more in the new home at Slough. + +To follow Herschel through the remainder of his life would be +merely to give a long catalogue of his endless observations and +discoveries among the stars. Such a catalogue would be interesting +only to astronomers; yet it would truly give the main facts of +Herschel's existence in his happy home at Slough. Honoured by the +world, dearly loved in his own family, and engrossed with a +passionate affection for his chosen science, the great astronomer +and philosopher grew grey in peace under his own roof, in the +course of a singularly placid and gentle old age. In 1802 he laid +before the Royal Society a list of five thousand new stars, star- +clusters, or other heavenly bodies which he had discovered, and +which formed the great body of his personal additions to +astronomical knowledge. The University of Oxford made him Doctor +of Laws, and very late in life he was knighted by the king--a too +tardy acknowledgment of his immense services to science. To the +very last, however, he worked on with a will; and, indeed, it is +one of the great charms of scientific interest that it thus enables +a man to keep his faculties on the alert to an advanced old age. +In 1819, when Herschel was more than eighty, he writes to his +sister a short note--"Lina, there is a great comet. I want you to +assist me. Come to dine and spend the day here. If you can come +soon after one o'clock, we shall have time to prepare maps and +telescopes. I saw its situation last night. It has a long tail." +How delightful to find such a living interest in life at the age of +eighty! + +On the 25th of August, 1822, this truly great and simple man passed +away, in his eighty-fifth year. It has been possible here only to +sketch out the chief personal points in his career, without +dwelling much upon the scientific importance of his later life-long +labours; but it must suffice to say briefly upon this point that +Herschel's work was no mere mechanical star-finding; it was the +most profoundly philosophical astronomical work ever performed, +except perhaps Newton's and Laplace's. Among astronomers proper +there has been none distinguished by such breadth of grasp, such +wide conceptions, and such perfect clearness of view as the self- +taught oboe-player of Hanover. + + + + + + +V. + +JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET, PAINTER. + + + + + +There is no part of France so singularly like England, both in the +aspect of the country itself and in the features and character of +the inhabitants, as Normandy. The wooded hills and dales, the +frequent copses and apple orchards, the numerous thriving towns and +villages, the towers and steeples half hidden among the trees, +recall at every step the very similar scenery of our own beautiful +and fruitful Devonshire. And as the land is, so are the people. +Ages ago, about the same time that the Anglo-Saxon invaders first +settled down in England, a band of similar English pirates, from +the old common English home by the cranberry marshes of the Baltic, +drove their long ships upon the long rocky peninsula of the +Cotentin, which juts out, like a French Cornwall, from the mainland +of Normandy up to the steep cliffs and beetling crags of busy +Cherbourg. There they built themselves little hamlets and villages +of true English type, whose very names to this day remind one of +their ancient Saxon origin. Later on, the Danes or Northmen +conquered the country, which they called after their own name, +Normandy, that is to say, the Northmen's land. Mixing with the +early Saxon or English settlers, and with the still more primitive +Celtic inhabitants, the Northmen founded a race extremely like that +which now inhabits our own country. To this day, the Norman +peasants of the Cotentin retain many marks of their origin and +their half-forgotten kinship with the English race. While other +Frenchmen are generally dark and thick-set, the Norman is, as a +rule, a tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed man, not unlike in build to +our Yarmouth fisherman, or our Kentish labourers. In body and +mind, there is something about him even now which makes him seem +more nearly akin to us than the true Frenchmen who inhabit almost +all the rest of France. + +In the village of Gruchy, near Greville, in this wild and beautiful +region of the Cotentin, there lived at the beginning of the present +century a sturdy peasant family of the name of Millet. The father +of the family was one of the petty village landholders so common in +France; a labourer who owned and tilled his own tiny patch of farm, +with the aid of his wife and children. We have now no class in +England exactly answering to the French peasant proprietors, who +form so large and important an element in the population just +across the Channel. The small landholder in France belongs by +position to about the same level as our own agricultural labourer, +and in many ways is content with a style of dress and a mode of +living against which English labourers would certainly protest with +horror. And yet, he is a proprietor, with a proprietor's sense of +the dignity of his position, and an ardent love of his own little +much-subdivided corner of agricultural land. On this he spends all +his energies, and however many children he may have, he will try to +make a livelihood for all by their united labour out of the soil, +rather than let one of them go to seek his fortune by any other +means in the great cities. Thus the ground is often tilled up to +an almost ridiculous extent, the entire labour of the family being +sometimes expended in cultivating, manuring, weeding, and tending a +patch of land perhaps hardly an acre in size. It is quite touching +to see the care and solicitude with which these toilsome peasants +will laboriously lay out their bit of garden with fruits or +vegetables, making every line almost mathematically regular, +planting every pea at a measured distance, or putting a smooth flat +pebble under every strawberry on the evenly ridged-up vines. It is +only in the very last resort that the peasant proprietor will +consent to let one of his daughters go out to service, or send one +of his sons adrift to seek his fortune as an artisan in the big, +unknown, outer world. + +Millet the elder, however, had nine children, which is an unusually +large number for a French peasant family (where the women ordinarily +marry late in life); and his little son Jean Francois (the second +child and eldest boy), though set to weed and hoe upon the wee farm +in his boyhood, was destined by his father for some other life than +that of a tiller of the soil. He was born in the year before +Waterloo--1814--and was brought up on his father's plot of land, in +the hard rough way to which peasant children in France are always +accustomed. Bronzed by sun and rain, poorly clad, and ill-fed, he +acquired as a lad, from the open air and the toilsome life he led, +a vigour of constitution which enabled him to bear up against the +numerous hardships and struggles of his later days. "A Norman +Peasant," he loved to call himself always, with a certain proud +humility; and happily he had the rude health of one all his life +long. + +Hard as he worked, little Francois' time was not entirely taken up +with attending to the fields or garden. He was a studious boy, and +learned not only to read and write in French, but also to try some +higher flights, rare indeed for a lad of his position. His family +possessed remarkable qualities as French peasants go; and one of +his great-uncles, a man of admirable strength of character, a +priest in the days of the great Revolution, had braved the godless +republicans of his time, and though deprived of his cure, and +compelled to labour for his livelihood in the fields, had yet +guided the plough in his priestly garments. His grandmother first +taught him his letters; and when she had instructed him to the +length of reading any French book that was put before him, the +village priest took him in hand. In France, the priest comes often +from the peasant class, and remains in social position a member of +that class as long as he lives. But he always possesses a fair +knowledge of Latin, the language in which all his religious +services are conducted; and this knowledge serves as a key to much +that his unlearned parishioners could never dream of knowing. +Young Millet's parish priest taught him as much Latin as he knew +himself; and so the boy was not only able to read the Bible in the +Latin or Vulgate translation, but also to make acquaintance with +the works of Virgil and several others of the great Roman poets. +He read, too, the beautiful "Confessions" of St. Augustine, and +the "Lives of the Saints," which he found in his father's scanty +library, as well as the works of the great French preachers, +Bossuet and Fenelon. Such early acquaintance with these and many +other masterpieces of higher literature, we may be sure, helped +greatly to mould the lad's mind into that grand and sober shape +which it finally acquired. + +Jean Francois' love of art was first aroused by the pictures in an +old illustrated Bible which belonged to his father, and which he +was permitted to look at on Sundays and festivals. The child +admired these pictures immensely, and asked leave to be permitted +to copy them. The only time he could find for the purpose, +however, was that of the mid-day rest or siesta. It is the custom +in France, as in Southern Europe generally, for labourers to cease +from work for an hour or so in the middle of the day; and during +this "tired man's holiday," young Millet, instead of resting, used +to take out his pencil and paper, and try his hand at reproducing +the pictures in the big Bible. His father was not without an +undeveloped taste for art. "See," he would say, looking into some +beautiful combe or glen on the hillside--"see that little cottage +half buried in the trees; how beautiful it is! I think it ought to +be drawn so--;" and then he would make a rough sketch of it on some +scrap of paper. At times he would model things with a bit of clay, +or cut the outline of a flower or an animal with his knife on a +flat piece of wood. This unexercised talent Francois inherited in +a still greater degree. As time went on, he progressed to making +little drawings on his own account; and we may be sure the priest +and all the good wives of Gruchy had quite settled in their own +minds before long that Jean Francois Millet's hands would be able +in time to paint quite a beautiful altar-piece for the village +church. + +By-and-by, when the time came for Francois to choose a trade, he +being then a big lad of about nineteen, it was suggested to his +father that young Millet might really make a regular painter--that +is to say, an artist. In France, the general tastes of the people +are far more artistic than with us; and the number of painters who +find work for their brushes in Paris is something immensely greater +than the number in our own smoky, money-making London. So there +was nothing very remarkable, from a French point of view, in the +idea of the young peasant turning for a livelihood to the +profession of an artist. But Millet's father was a sober and +austere man, a person of great dignity and solemnity, who decided +to put his son's powers to the test in a very regular and critical +fashion. He had often watched Francois drawing, and he thought +well of the boy's work. If he had a real talent for painting, a +painter he should be; if not, he must take to some other craft, +where he would have the chance of making himself a decent +livelihood. So he told Francois to prepare a couple of drawings, +which he would submit to the judgment of M. Mouchel, a local +painter at Cherbourg, the nearest large town, and capital of the +department. Francois duly prepared the drawings, and Millet the +elder went with his, son to submit them in proper form for M. +Mouchel's opinion. Happily, M. Mouchel had judgment enough to see +at a glance that the drawings possessed remarkable merit. "You +must be playing me a trick," he said; "that lad could never have +made these drawings." "I saw him do them with my own eyes," +answered the father warmly. "Then," said Mouchel, "all I can say +is this: he has in him the making of a great painter." He accepted +Millet as his pupil; and the young man set off for Cherbourg +accordingly, to study with care and diligence under his new master. + +Cherbourg, though not yet at that time a great naval port, as it +afterwards became, was a busy harbour and fishing town, where the +young artist saw a great deal of a kind of life with which he +possessed an immense sympathy. The hard work of the fishermen +putting out to sea on stormy evenings, or toiling with their nets +ashore after a sleepless night, made a living picture which stamped +itself deeply on his receptive mind. A man of the people himself, +born to toil and inured to it from babyhood, this constant scene of +toiling and struggling humanity touched the deepest chord in his +whole nature, so that some of the most beautiful and noble of his +early pictures are really reminiscences of his first student days +at Cherbourg. But after he had spent a year in Mouchel's studio, +sad news came to him from Gruchy. His father was dying, and +Francois was only just in time to see him before he passed away. +If the family was to be kept together at all, Francois must return +from his easel and palette, and take once more to guiding the +plough. With that earnest resolution which never forsook him, +Millet decided to accept the inevitable. He went back home once +more, and gave up his longings for art in order to till the ground +for his fatherless sisters. + +Luckily, however, his friends at Gruchy succeeded after awhile in +sending him back again to Cherbourg, where he began to study under +another master, Langlois, and to have hopes once more for his +artistic future, now that he was free at last to pursue it in his +own way. At this time, he read a great deal--Shakespeare, Walter +Scott, Byron, Goethe's "Faust," Victor Hugo and Chateaubriand; in +fact, all the great works he could lay his hands upon. Peasant as +he was, he gave himself, half unconsciously, a noble education. +Very soon, it became apparent that the Cherbourg masters could do +nothing more for him, and that, if he really wished to perfect +himself in art, he must go to Paris. In France, the national +interest felt in painting is far greater and more general than in +England. Nothing is commoner than for towns or departments to +grant pensions (or as we should call them, scholarships) to +promising lads who wish to study art in Paris. Young Millet had +attracted so much attention at Cherbourg, that the Council General +of the Department of the Manche voted him a present of six hundred +francs (about 24 pounds) to start him on the way; and the town of +Cherbourg promised him an annual grant of four hundred francs more +(about 16 pounds). So up to Paris Millet went, and there was duly +enrolled as a student at the Government "School of Fine-Arts." + +Those student days in Paris were days of hunger and cold, very +often, which Millet bore with the steady endurance of a Norman +peasant boy. But they were also days of something worse to him--of +effort misdirected, and of constant struggling against a system for +which he was not fitted. In fact, Millet was an original genius, +whereas the teachers at the School of Fine Arts were careful and +methodical rule-of-thumb martinets. They wished to train Millet +into the ordinary pattern, which he could not follow; and in the +end, he left the school, and attached himself to the studio of Paul +Delaroche, then the greatest painter of historical pictures in all +Paris. But even Delaroche, though an artist of deep feeling and +power, did not fully understand his young Norman pupil. He himself +used to paint historical pictures in the grand style, full of +richness and beauty; but his subjects were almost always chosen +from the lives of kings or queens, and treated with corresponding +calmness and dignity. "The Young Princes in the Tower," "The +Execution of Marie Antoinette," "The Death of Queen Elizabeth," +"Cromwell viewing the Body of Charles I."--these were the kind of +pictures on which Delaroche loved to employ himself. Millet, on +the other hand, though also full of dignity and pathos, together +with an earnestness far surpassing Delaroche's, did not care for +these lofty subjects. It was the dignity and pathos of labour that +moved him most; the silent, weary, noble lives of the uncomplaining +peasants, amongst whom his own days had been mostly passed. +Delaroche could not make him out at all; he was such a curious, +incomprehensible, odd young fellow! "There, go your own way, if +you will," the great master said to him at last; "for my part, I +can make nothing of you." + +So, shortly after, Millet and his friend Marolle set up a studio +for themselves in the Rue de l'Est in Paris. The precise occasion +of their going was this. Millet was anxious to obtain the Grand +Prize of Rome annually offered to the younger artists, and +Delaroche definitely told him that his own influence would be used +on behalf of another pupil. After this, the young Norman felt that +he could do better by following out his own genius in his own +fashion. At the Rue de l'Est, he continued to study hard, but he +also devoted a large part of his time to painting cheap portraits-- +what artists call "pot-boilers;" mere hasty works dashed off anyhow +to earn his daily livelihood. For these pictures he got about ten +to fifteen francs apiece,--in English money from eight to twelve +shillings. They were painted in a theatrical style, which Millet +himself detested--all pink cheeks, and red lips, and blue satin, +and lace collars; whereas his own natural style was one of great +austerity and a certain earnest sombreness the exact reverse of the +common Parisian taste to which he ministered. However, he had to +please his patrons--and, like a sensible man, he went on producing +these cheap daubs to any extent required, for a living, while he +endeavoured to perfect himself meanwhile for the higher art he was +meditating for the future. In the great galleries of the Louvre at +Paris he found abundant models which he could study in the works of +the old masters; and there, poring over Michael Angelo and +Mantegna, he could recompense himself a little in his spare hours +for the time he was obliged to waste on pinky-white faces and +taffeta gowns. To an artist by nature there is nothing harder than +working perforce against the bent of one's own innate and +instinctive feelings. + +In 1840, Millet found his life in Paris still so hard that he +seemed for a time inclined to give up the attempt, and returned to +Greville, where he painted a marine subject of the sort that was +dearest to his heart--a group of sailors mending a sail. Shortly +after, however, he was back in Paris--the record of these years of +hard struggle is not very clear--with his wife, a Cherbourg girl +whom he had imprudently married while still barely able to support +himself in the utmost poverty. It was not till 1844 that the hard- +working painter at last achieved his first success. It was with a +picture of a milkwoman, one of his own favourite peasant subjects; +and the poetry and sympathy which he had thrown into so commonplace +a theme attracted the attention of many critics among the +cultivated Parisian world of art. The "Milkwoman" was exhibited at +the Salon (the great annual exhibition of works of art in Paris, +like that of the Royal Academy in London, but on a far larger +scale); and several good judges of art began immediately to +inquire, "Who is Jean Francois Millet?" Hunting his address out, +a party of friendly critics presented themselves at his lodgings, +only to learn that Madame Millet had just died, and that her +husband, half in despair, had gone back again once more to his +native Norman hills and valleys. + +But Millet was the last man on earth to sit down quietly with his +hands folded, waiting for something or other to turn up. At +Cherbourg, he set to work once more, no doubt painting more "pot- +boilers" for the respectable shopkeepers of the neighbourhood-- +complacent portraits, perhaps, of a stout gentleman with a large +watch-chain fully displayed, and of a stout lady in a black silk +dress and with a vacant smile; and by hook or by crook he managed +to scrape together a few hundred francs, with which once more he +might return to Paris. But before he did so, he married again, +this time more wisely. His wife, Catharine Lemaire, was a brave +and good woman, who knew how to appreciate her husband, and to +second him well in all his further struggles and endeavours. They +went for a while to Havre, where Millet, in despair of getting +better work, and not ashamed of doing anything honest to pay his +way, actually took to painting sign-boards. In this way he saved +money enough to make a fresh start in Paris. There, he continued +his hard battle against the taste of the time; for French art was +then dominated by the influence of men like Delaroche, or like +Delacroix and Horace Vernet, who had accustomed the public to +pictures of a very lofty, a very romantic, or a very fiery sort; +and there were few indeed who cared for stern and sympathetic +delineations of the French peasant's unlovely life of unremitting +toil, such as Millet loved to set before them. Yet, in spite of +discouragement, he did well to follow out this inner prompting of +his own soul; for in that direction he could do his best work--and +the best work is always the best worth doing in the long run. +There are some minds, of which Franklin's is a good type, so +versatile and so shifty that they can turn with advantage to any +opening that chances to offer, no matter in what direction; and +such minds do right in seizing every opportunity, wherever it +occurs. But there are other minds, of which Gibson and Millet are +excellent examples, naturally restricted to certain definite lines +of thought or work; and such minds do right in persistently +following up their own native talent, and refusing to be led aside +by circumstances into any less natural or less promising channel. + +While living in Paris at this time, Millet painted several of his +favourite peasant pictures, amongst others "The Workman's Monday," +which is a sort of parallel in painting to Burns's "Cotter's +Saturday Night" in poetry. Indeed, there is a great deal in Millet +which strongly reminds one at every step of Burns. Both were born +of the agricultural labouring class; both remained peasants at +heart, in feelings and sympathies, all their lives long; neither +was ashamed of his origin, even in the days of his greatest fame; +painter and poet alike loved best to choose their themes from the +simple life of the poor whose trials and hardships they knew so +well by bitter experience; and in each case they succeeded best in +touching the hearts of others when they did not travel outside +their own natural range of subjects. Only (if Scotchmen will allow +one to say so) there was in Millet a far deeper vein of moral +earnestness than in Burns; he was more profoundly impressed by the +dignity and nobility of labour; in his tender sympathy there was a +touch of solemn grandeur which was wanting in the too genial and +easy-going Ayrshire ploughman. + +In 1848, the year of revolutions, Millet painted his famous picture +of "The Winnower," since considered as one of his finest works. +Yet for a long time, though the critics praised it, it could not +find a purchaser; till at last M. Ledru Rollin, a well-known +politician, bought it for what Millet considered the capital price +of five hundred francs (about 20 pounds). It would now fetch a +simply fabulous price, if offered for sale. Soon after this +comparative success Millet decided to leave Paris, where the +surroundings indeed were little fitted to a man of his peculiarly +rural and domestic tastes. He would go where he might see the +living models of his peasant friends for ever before him; where he +could watch them leaning over the plough pressed deep into the +earth; cutting the faggots with stout arms in the thick-grown +copses; driving the cattle home at milking time with weary feet, +along the endless, straight white high-roads of the French rural +districts. At the same time, he must be within easy reach of +Paris; for though he had almost made up his mind not to exhibit any +more at the Salon--people didn't care to see his reapers or his +fishermen--he must still manage to keep himself within call of +possible purchasers; and for this purpose he selected the little +village of Barbizon, on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau. + +The woods of Fontainebleau stand to Paris in somewhat the same +relation that Windsor Great Park stands to London; only, the +scenery is more forest-like, and the trees are big and antique +looking. By the outskirts of this great wood stands the pretty +hamlet of Barbizon, a single long street of small peasant cottages, +built with the usual French rural disregard of beauty or +cleanliness. At the top of the street, in a little three-roomed +house, the painter and his wife settled down quietly; and here they +lived for twenty-seven years, long after Millet's name had grown to +be famous in the history of contemporary French painting. An +English critic, who visited the spot in the days of Millet's +greatest celebrity, was astonished to find the painter, whom he had +come to see, strolling about the village in rustic clothes, and +even wearing the sabots or wooden shoes which are in France the +social mark of the working classes, much as the smock-frock used +once to be in the remoter country districts of England. Perhaps +this was a little bit of affectation on Millet's part--a sort of +proud declaration of the fact that in spite of fame and honours he +still insisted upon counting himself a simple peasant; but if so, +it was, after all, a very pretty and harmless affectation indeed. +Better to see a man sticking pertinaciously to his wooden shoes, +than turning his back upon old friends and old associations in the +days of his worldly prosperity. + +At Barbizon Millet's life moved on so quietly that there is nothing +to record in it almost, save a long list of pictures painted, and a +gradual growth, not in popularity (for THAT Millet never really +attained at all), but in the esteem of the best judges, which of +course brought with it at last, first ease, then comfort, and +finally comparative riches. Millet was able now to paint such +subjects as pleased him best, and he threw himself into his work +with all the fervour of his intensely earnest and poetical nature. +Whatever might be the subject which he undertook, he knew how to +handle it so that it became instinct with his own fine feeling for +the life he saw around him. In 1852 he painted his "Man spreading +Manure." In itself, that is not a very exalted or beautiful +occupation; but what Millet saw in it was the man, not the manure-- +the toiling, sorrowing, human fellow-being, whose labour and whose +spirit he knew so well how to appreciate. And in this view of the +subject he makes us all at once sympathize. Other pictures of this +period are such as "The Gleaners," "The Reapers," "A Peasant +grafting a Tree," "The Potato Planters," and so forth. These were +very different subjects indeed from the dignified kings and queens +painted by Delaroche, or the fiery battle-pieces of Delacroix but +they touch a chord in our souls which those great painters fail to +strike, and his treatment of them is always truthful, tender, +melancholy, and exquisite. + +Bit by bit, French artistic opinion began to recognize the real +greatness of the retiring painter at Barbizon. He came to be +looked upon as a true artist, and his pictures sold every year for +increasingly large prices. Still, he had not been officially +recognized; and in France, where everything, even to art and the +theatre, is under governmental regulation, this want of official +countenance is always severely felt. At last, in 1867, Millet was +awarded the medal of the first class, and was appointed a Chevalier +of the Legion of Honour. The latter distinction carries with it +the right to wear that little tag of ribbon on the coat which all +Frenchmen prize so highly; for to be "decorated," as it is called, +is in France a spur to ambition of something the same sort as a +knighthood or a peerage in England, though of course it lies within +the reach of a far greater number of citizens. There is something +to our ideas rather absurd in the notion of bestowing such a tag of +ribbon on a man of Millet's aims and occupations; but all honours +are honours just according to the estimation of the man who +receives them and the society in which he lives; and Millet no +doubt prized his admission to the Legion of Honour all the more +because it had been so long delayed and so little truckled for. + +To the end of his days, Millet never left his beloved Barbizon. +He stopped there, wandering about the fields, watching peasants at +work, imprinting their images firmly upon his eye and brain, and +then going home again to put the figures he had thus observed upon +his vivid canvas. For, strange to say, unlike almost every other +great painter, Millet never painted from a model. Instead of +getting a man or woman to sit for him in the pose he required, he +would go out into the meadows and look at the men and women at +their actual daily occupations; and so keen and acute was his power +of observation, and so retentive was his inner eye, that he could +then recall almost every detail of action or manner as clearly as +if he had the original present in his studio before him. As a +rule, such a practice is not to be recommended to any one who +wishes to draw with even moderate accuracy; constant study of the +actual object, and frequent comparison by glancing from object to +copy, are absolutely necessary for forming a correct draughtsman. +But Millet knew his own way best; and how wonderfully minute and +painstaking must his survey have been when it enabled him to +reproduce the picture of a person afterwards in every detail of +dress or movement. + +He did not paint very fast. He preferred doing good work to much +work--an almost invariable trait of all the best workmen. During +the thirty-one years that he worked independently, he produced only +eighty pictures--not more, on an average, than two or three a year. +Compared with the rate at which most successful artists cover +canvas to sell, this was very slow. But then, Millet did not paint +mainly to sell; he painted to satisfy his own strict ideas of what +constituted the highest art. His pictures are usually very simple +in their theme; take, for example, his "Angelus," painted at the +height of his fame, in 1867. A man and a woman are working in the +fields--two poor, simple-minded, weather-beaten, devout French +peasants. It is nightfall; the bell called the "Angelus" rings out +from the church steeple, and the two poor souls, resting for a +moment from their labours, devote a few seconds to the silent +prayers enjoined by their church. That is all; and yet in that one +picture the sorrows, the toils, and the consolations of the needy +French peasantry are summed up in a single glimpse of a pair of +working and praying partners. + +Millet died somewhat suddenly in 1875. Strong and hearty as he +was, even the sturdy health of the Norman peasant had been +undermined by the long hardships of his early struggles, and his +constitution gave way at last with comparative rapidity. Still, he +had lived long enough to see his fame established, to enjoy ten +years of ease and honour, and to find his work cordially admired by +all those for whose admiration he could have cared to make an +effort. After his death, the pictures and unfinished sketches in +his studio were sold for 321,000 francs, a little less than 13,000 +pounds. The peasant boy of Greville had at last conquered all the +difficulties which obstructed his path, and had fought his own way +to fame and dignity. And in so fighting, he had steadily resisted +the temptation to pander to the low and coarse taste in art of the +men by whom he was surrounded. In spite of cold, and hunger, and +poverty, he had gone on trying to put upon his canvas the purer, +truer, and higher ideas with which his own beautiful soul was +profoundly animated. In that endeavour he nobly succeeded. While +too many contemporary French pictures are vicious and sensual in +tone and feeling, every one of Millet's pictures is a sermon in +colour--a thing to make us sympathize more deeply with our kind, +and to send us away, saddened perhaps, yet ennobled and purified. + + + + + + +VI. + +JAMES GARFIELD, CANAL BOY. + + + + + +At the present time, the neighbourhood of Cleveland, Ohio, the +busiest town along the southern shore of Lake Erie, may fairly rank +as one of the richest agricultural districts in all America. But +when Abram Garfield settled down in the township of Orange in 1830, +it was one of the wildest and most unpeopled woodland regions in +the whole of the United States. Pioneers from the older states had +only just begun to make little clearings for themselves in the +unbroken forest; and land was still so cheap that Abram Garfield +was able to buy himself a tract of fifty acres for no more than 20 +pounds. His brother-in-law's family removed there with him; and +the whole strength of the two households was immediately employed +in building a rough log hut for their common accommodation, where +both the Garfields and the Boyntons lived together during the early +days of their occupation. The hut consisted of a mere square box, +made by piling logs on top of one another, the spaces between being +filled with mud, while the roof was formed of loose stone slabs. +Huts of that sort are everywhere common among the isolation of the +American backwoods; and isolated indeed they were, for the +Garfields' nearest neighbours, when they first set up house, lived +as far as seven miles away, across the uncleared forest. + +When Abram Garfield came to this lonely lodge in the primaeval +woodlands, he had one son and one daughter. In 1831, the year +after his removal to his new home, a second boy was born into the +family, whom his father named James Abram. Before the baby was +eighteen months old, the father died, and was buried alone, after +the only possible fashion among such solitary settlers, in a corner +of the wheat field which he himself had cleared of its stumps. A +widow's life is always a hard one, but in such a country and under +such conditions it is even harder and more lonely than elsewhere. +Mrs. Garfield's eldest boy, Thomas, was only eleven years old; and +with the aid of this one ineffectual helper, she managed herself to +carry on the farm for many years. Only those who know the hard +toil of a raw American township can have any idea what that really +means. A farmer's work in America is not like a farmer's work in +England. The man who occupies the soil is there at once his own +landlord and his own labourer; and he has to contend with nature as +nobody in England has had to contend with it for the last five +centuries at least. He finds the land covered with trees, which he +has first to fell and sell as timber; then he must dig or burn out +the stumps; clear the plot of boulders and large stones; drain it, +fence it, plough it, and harrow it; build barns for the produce and +sheds for the cows; in short, MAKE his farm, instead of merely +TAKING it. This is labour from which many strong men shrink in +dismay, especially those who have come out fresh from a civilized +and fully occupied land. For a woman and a boy, it is a task that +seems almost above their utmost powers. Nevertheless, Mrs. +Garfield and her son did not fail under it. With her own hands, +the mother split up the young trees info rude triangular rails to +make the rough snake fences of the country--mere zigzags of wood +laid one bit above the other; while the lad worked away bravely at +sowing fall and spring wheat, hoeing Indian corn, and building a +little barn for the harvest before the arrival of the long cold +Ohio winter. To such a family did the future President originally +belong; and with them he must have shared those strong qualities of +perseverance and industry which more than anything else at length +secured his ultimate success in life. + +For James Garfield's history differs greatly in one point from that +of most other famous working men, whose stories have been told in +this volume. There is no reason to believe that he was a man of +exceptional or commanding intellect. On the contrary, his mental +powers appear to have been of a very respectable but quite ordinary +and commonplace order. It was not by brilliant genius that James +Garfield made his way up in life; it was rather by hard work, +unceasing energy, high principle, and generous enthusiasm for the +cause of others. Some of the greatest geniuses among working men, +such as Burns, Tannahill, and Chatterton, though they achieved +fame, and though they have enriched the world with many touching +and beautiful works, must be considered to have missed success in +life, so far as their own happiness was concerned, by their +unsteadiness, want of self-control, or lack of fixed principle. +Garfield, on the other hand, was not a genius; but by his sterling +good qualities he nevertheless achieved what cannot but be regarded +as a true success, and left an honourable name behind him in the +history of his country. + +However poor an American township may be, it is seldom too poor to +afford its children a moderate and humble education. While James +Garfield was still very young, the settlers in the neighbourhood +decided to import a schoolmaster, whom they "boarded about" between +them, after a fashion very common in rural western districts. The +school-house was only a log hut; the master was a lad of twenty; +and the textbooks were of the very meagrest sort. But at least +James Garfield was thus enabled to read and write, which after all +is the great first step on the road to all possible promotion. The +raw, uncouth Yankee lad who taught the Ohio boys, slept at Widow +Garfield's, with Thomas and James; and the sons of the neighbouring +settlers worked on the farm during the summer months, but took +lessons when the long ice and snow of winter along the lake shore +put a stop almost entirely for the time to their usual labours. + +James continued at school till he was twelve years old, and then, +his brother Thomas (being by that time twenty-one) went away by +agreement still further west to Michigan, leaving young Jim to take +his place upon the little farm. The fences were all completed, by +this time; the barn was built, the ground was fairly brought under +cultivation, and it required comparatively little labour to keep +the land cropped after the rough fashion which amply satisfies +American pioneers, with no rent to pay, and only their bare living +to make out of the soil. Thomas was going to fell trees in +Michigan, to clear land there for a farmer; and he proposed to use +his earnings (when he got them) for the purpose of building a +"frame house" (that is to say, a house built of planks) instead of +the existing log hut. It must be added, in fairness, that hard as +were the circumstances under which the young Garfields lived, they +were yet lucky in their situation in a new country, where wages +were high, and where the struggle for life is far less severe or +competitive than in old settled lands like France and England. +Thomas, in fact; would get boarded for nothing in Michigan, and so +would be able easily to save almost all his high wages for the +purpose of building the frame house. + +So James had to take to the farm in summer, while in the winter he +began to work as a sort of amateur carpenter in a small way. As +yet he had lived entirely in the backwoods, and had never seen a +town or even a village; but his education in practical work had +begun from his very babyhood, and he was handy after the usual +fashion of American or colonial boys--ready to turn his hand to +anything that happened to present itself. In new countries, where +everybody has not got neighbours and workmen within call, such +rough-and-ready handiness is far more common than in old England. +The one carpenter of the neighbourhood asked James to help him, on +the proud day when Tom brought back his earnings from Michigan, and +set about the building of the frame house, for which he had already +collected the unhewn timber. From that first beginning, by the +time he was thirteen, James was promoted to assist in building a +barn; and he might have taken permanently to a carpenter's life, +had it not been that his boyish passion for reading had inspired +him with an equal passion for going to sea. He had read Marryatt's +novels and other sailor tales--what boy has not?--and he was fired +with the usual childish desire to embark upon that wonderful life +of chasing buccaneers, fighting pirates, capturing prizes, or +hunting hidden treasure, which is a lad's brilliantly coloured +fancy picture of an everyday sailor's wet, cold, cheerless +occupation. + +At last, when James was about fifteen, his longing for the sea grew +so strong that his mother, by way of a compromise, allowed him to +go and try his luck with the Lake Erie captains at Cleveland. +Shipping on the great lakes, where one can see neither bank from +the middle of the wide blue sheet of water, and where wrecks are +unhappily as painfully frequent as on our own coasts, was quite +sufficiently like going to sea to suit the adventurous young +backwoodsman to the top of his bent. But when he got to Cleveland, +a fortunate disappointment awaited him. The Cleveland captains +declined his services in such vigorous seafaring language (not +unmixed with many unnecessary oaths), that he was glad enough to +give up the idea of sailoring, and take a place as driver of a +canal boat from Cleveland to Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, the boat +being under the charge of one of his own cousins. Copper ore was +then largely mined on Lake Superior, where it is very abundant, +carried by ship to Cleveland, down the chain of lakes, and there +transferred to canal boats, which took it on to Pittsburg, the +centre of a great coal and manufacturing district in Pennsylvania, +to be smelted and employed in various local arts. Young Garfield +stuck for a little while to the canal business. He plodded along +wearily upon the bank, driving his still wearier horse before him, +and carrying ore down to Pittsburg with such grace as he best +might; but it didn't somehow quite come up to his fancy picture of +the seaman's life. It was dull and monotonous, and he didn't care +for it much. In genuine American language, "he didn't find it up +to sample." The sea might be very well in its way; but a canal was +a very different matter indeed. So after a fair trial, James +finally gave the business up, and returned to his mother on the +little homestead, ill and tired with his long tramping. + +While he was at home, the schoolmaster of the place, who saw that +the lad had abilities, was never tired of urging him to go to +school, and do himself justice by getting himself a first-rate +education, or at least as good a one as could be obtained in +America. James was ready enough to take this advice, if the means +were forthcoming; but how was he to do so? "Oh, that's easy +enough," said young Bates, the master. "You'll only have to work +out of hours as a carpenter, take odd jobs in your vacations, live +plainly, and there you are." In England there are few schools +where such a plan would be practicable; but in rough-and-ready +America, where self-help is no disgrace, there are many, and they +are all well attended. In the neighbouring town of Chester, a +petty Baptist sect had started a young school which they named +Geauga Seminary (there are no plain schools in America--they are +all "academies" or "institutes"); and to this simple place young +Garfield went, to learn and work as best he might for his own +advancement. A very strange figure he must then have cut, indeed; +for a person who saw him at the time described him as wearing a +pair of trousers he had long outworn, rough cow-hide boots, a +waistcoat much too short for him, and a thread-bare coat, with +sleeves that only reached a little below the elbows. Of such stuff +as that, with a stout heart and an eager brain, the budding +presidents of the United States are sometimes made. + +James soon found himself humble lodgings at an old woman's in +Chester, and he also found himself a stray place at a carpenter's +shop in the town, where he was able to do three hours' work out of +school time every day, besides giving up the whole of his Saturday +holiday to regular labour. It was hard work, this schooling and +carpentering side by side; but James throve upon it; and at the end +of the first term he was not only able to pay all his bill for +board and lodging, but also to carry home a few dollars in his +pocket by way of savings. + +James stopped three years at the "seminary" at Chester; and in the +holidays he employed himself by teaching in the little township +schools among the country districts. There is generally an opening +for young students to earn a little at such times by instructing +younger boys than themselves in reading, writing, and arithmetic; +and the surrounding farmers, who want schooling for their boys, are +glad enough to take the master in on the "boarding round" system, +for the sake of his usefulness in overlooking the lads in the +preparation of their home lessons. It is a simple patriarchal +life, very different from anything we know in England; and though +Ohio was by this time a far more settled and populated place than +when Abram Garfield first went there, it was still quite possible +to manage in this extremely primitive and family fashion. The fact +is, though luxuries were comparatively unknown, food was cheap and +abundant; and a young teacher who was willing to put his heart into +his work could easily earn more than enough to live upon in rough +comfort. Sometimes the school-house was a mere log hut, like that +in which young Garfield had been born; but, at any rate, it was +work to do, and food to eat, and that alone was a great thing for +a lad who meant to make his own way in the world by his own +exertions. + +Near the end of his third year at Chester, James met, quite +accidentally, with a young man who had come from a little embryo +"college," of the sort so common in rising American towns, at a +place called Hiram in Ohio. American schools are almost as +remarkable as American towns for the oddity and ugliness of their +names; and this "college" was known by the queer and meaningless +title of the "Eclectic Institute." It was conducted by an obscure +sect who dub themselves "The Disciples' Church," to which young +Garfield's father and mother had both belonged. His casual +acquaintance urged upon him strongly the desirability of attending +the institute; and James, who had already begun to learn Latin, and +wished to learn more, was easily persuaded to try this particular +school rather than any other. + +In August, 1851, James Garfield, then aged nearly twenty, presented +himself at the "Eclectic Institute," in the farm-labourer's clothes +which were his only existing raiment. He asked to see the +"president" of the school, and told him plainly that he wished to +come there for education, but that he was poor, and if he came, he +must work for his living. "What can you do?" asked the president. +"Sweep the floors, light the fires, ring the bell, and make myself +generally useful," answered the young backwoodsman. The president, +pleased with his eagerness, promised to try him for a fortnight; +and at the end of the fortnight, Garfield had earned his teaching +so well that he was excused from all further fees during the +remainder of his stay at the little institute. His post was by no +mean an easy one, for he was servant-of-all-work as well as +student; but he cared very little for that as long as he could gain +the means for self-improvement. + +Hiram was a small town, as ugly as its name. Twelve miles from a +railway, a mere agricultural centre, of the rough back-country +sort, all brand new and dreary looking, with a couple of wooden +churches, half a dozen wooden shops, two new intersecting streets +with wooden sidewalks, and that was all. The "institute" was a +square brick block, planted incongruously in the middle of an +Indian-corn plantation; and the students were the sons and +daughters of the surrounding farmers, for (as in most western +schools) both sexes were here educated together. But the place +suited Garfield far better than an older and more dignified +university would have done. The other students knew no more than +he did, so that he did not feel himself at a disadvantage; they +were dressed almost as plainly as himself; and during the time he +was at Hiram he worked away with a will at Latin, Greek, and the +higher mathematics, so as to qualify himself for a better place +hereafter. Meanwhile, the local carpenter gave him plenty of +planing to do, with which he managed to pay his way; and as he had +to rise before five every morning to ring the first bell, he was +under no danger of oversleeping himself. By 1853, he had made so +much progress in his studies that he was admitted as a sort of +pupil teacher, giving instruction himself in the English department +and in rudimentary Greek and Latin, while he went on with his own +studies with the aid of the other teachers. + +James had now learnt as much as the little "Eclectic Institute" +could possibly teach him, and he began to think of going to some +better college in the older-settled and more cultivated eastern +states, where he might get an education somewhat higher than was +afforded him by the raw "seminaries" and "academies" of his native +Ohio. True, his own sect, the "Disciples' Church," had got up a +petty university of their own, "Bethany College"--such self-styled +colleges swarm all over the United States; but James didn't much +care for the idea of going to it. "I was brought up among the +Disciples," he said; "I have mixed chiefly among them; I know +little of other people; it will enlarge my views and give me more +liberal feelings if a try a college elsewhere, conducted otherwise; +if I see a little of the rest of the world." Moreover, those were +stirring times in the States. The slavery question was beginning +to come uppermost. The men of the free states in the north and +west were beginning to say among themselves that they would no +longer tolerate that terrible blot upon American freedom--the +enslavement of four million negroes in the cotton-growing south. +James Garfield felt all his soul stirred within him by this great +national problem--the greatest that any modern nation has ever had +to solve for itself. Now, his own sect, the Disciples, and their +college, Bethany, were strongly tinctured with a leaning in favour +of slavery, which young James Garfield utterly detested. So he +made up his mind to having nothing to do with the accursed thing, +but to go east to some New England college, where he would mix +among men of culture, and where he would probably find more +congenial feelings on the slavery question. + +Before deciding, he wrote to three eastern colleges, amongst others +to Yale, the only American university which by its buildings and +surroundings can lay any claim to compare, even at a long distance, +in beauty and associations, with the least among European +universities. The three colleges gave him nearly similar answers; +but one of them, in addition to the formal statement of terms and +so forth, added the short kindly sentence, "If you come here, we +shall be glad to do what we can for you." It was only a small +polite phrase; but it took the heart of the rough western boy. +If other things were about the same, he said, he would go to the +college which offered him, as it were, a friendly grasp of the +hand. He had saved a little money at Hiram; and he proposed now to +go on working for his living, as he had hitherto done, side by side +with his regular studies. But his brother, who was always kind and +thoughtful to him, would not hear of this. Thomas had prospered +meanwhile in his own small way, and he insisted upon lending James +such a sum as would cover his necessary expenses for two years at +an eastern university. James insured his life for the amount, so +that Thomas might not be a loser by his brotherly generosity in +case of his death before repayment could be made; and then, with +the money safe in his pocket, he started off for his chosen goal, +the Williams College, in one of the most beautiful and hilly parts +of Massachusetts. + +During the three years that Garfield was at this place, he studied +hard and regularly, so much so that at one time his brain showed +symptoms of giving way under the constant strain. In the +vacations, he took a trip into Vermont, a romantic mountain state, +where he opened a writing school at a little country village; and +another into the New York State, where he engaged himself in a +similar way at a small town on the banks of the lovely Hudson +river. At college, in spite of his rough western dress and +manners, he earned for himself the reputation of a thoroughly good +fellow. Indeed, geniality and warmth of manner, qualities always +much prized by the social American people, were very marked traits +throughout of Garfield's character, and no doubt helped him greatly +in after life in, rising to the high summit which he finally +reached. It was here, too, that he first openly identified himself +with the anti-slavery party, which was then engaged in fighting out +the important question whether any new slave states should be +admitted to the Union. Charles Sumner, the real grand central +figure of that noble struggle, was at that moment thundering in +Congress against the iniquitous extension of the slave-holding +area, and was employing all his magnificent powers to assail the +abominable Fugitive Slave Bill, for the return of runaway negroes, +who escaped north, into the hands of their angry masters. The +American colleges are always big debating societies, where +questions of politics are regularly argued out among the students; +and Garfield put himself at the head of the anti-slavery movement +at his own little university. He spoke upon the subject frequently +before the assembled students, and gained himself a considerable +reputation, not only as a zealous advocate of the rights of the +negro, but also as an eloquent orator and a powerful argumentative +debater. + +In 1856, Garfield took his degree at Williams College, and had now +finished his formal education. By that time, he was a fair though +not a great scholar, competently read in the Greek and Latin +literatures, and with a good knowledge of French and German. He +was now nearly twenty-five years old; and his experience was large +and varied enough to make him already into a man of the world. He +had been farmer, carpenter, canal driver, and student; he had seen +the primitive life of the forest, and the more civilized society of +the Atlantic shore; he had taught in schools in many states; he had +supported himself for years by his own labours; and now, at an age +when many young men are, as a rule, only just beginning life on +their own account, he had practically raised himself from his own +class into the class of educated and cultivated gentlemen. As soon +as he had taken his degree, his old friends, the trustees of the +"Eclectic Institute" at Hiram, proud of their former sweeper and +bell-ringer, called him back at a good salary as teacher of Greek +and Latin. It was then just ten years since he had toiled wearily +along the tow-path of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal. + +As a teacher, Garfield seems to have been eminently successful. +His genial character and good-natured way of explaining things made +him a favourite at once with the rough western lads he had to +teach, who would perhaps have thought a more formal teacher stiff +and stuckup. Garfield was one of themselves; he knew their ways +and their manners; he could make allowances for their awkwardness +and bluntness of speech; he could adopt towards them the exact tone +which put them at home at once with their easy-going instructor. +Certainly, he inspired all his pupils with an immense love and +devotion for him; and it is less easy to inspire those feelings in +a sturdy Ohio farmer than in most other varieties of the essentially +affectionate human species. + +From 1857 to 1861, Garfield remained at Hiram, teaching and working +very hard. His salary, though a good one for the time and place, +was still humble according to our English notions; but it sufficed +for his needs; and as yet it would have seemed hardly credible that +in only twenty years the Ohio schoolmaster would rise to be +President of the United States. Indeed, it is only in America, +that country of peculiarly unencumbered political action, where +every kind of talent is most rapidly recognized and utilized, that +this particular form of swift promotion is really possible. But +while Garfield was still at his Institute, he was taking a vigorous +part in local politics, especially on the slavery question. +Whenever there was a political meeting at Hiram, the young +schoolmaster was always called upon to take the anti-slavery side; +and he delivered himself so effectively upon this favourite topic +that he began to be looked upon as a rising political character. +In America, politics are less confined to any one class than in +Europe; and there would be nothing unusual in the selection of a +schoolmaster who could talk to a seat in the local or general +legislature. The practice of paying members makes it possible for +comparatively poor men to offer themselves as candidates; and +politics are thus a career, in the sense of a livelihood, far more +than in any other country. + +In 1858, Garfield married a lady who had been a fellow-student of +his in earlier days, and to whom he had been long engaged. In the +succeeding year, he got an invitation which greatly pleased and +flattered him. The authorities at Williams College asked him to +deliver the "Master's Oration" at their annual festival; an unusual +compliment to pay to so young a man, and one who had so recently +taken his degree. It was the first opportunity he had ever had for +a pleasure-trip, and taking his young wife with him (proud indeed, +we may be sure, at this earliest honour of his life, the precursor +of so many more) he went to Massachusetts by a somewhat roundabout +but very picturesque route, down the Great Lakes, through the +Thousand Islands, over the St. Lawrence rapids, and on to Quebec, +the only town in America which from its old-world look can lay +claim to the sort of beauty which so many ancient European cities +abundantly possess. He delivered his address with much applause, +and returned to his Ohio home well satisfied with this pleasant +outing. + +Immediately on his return, the speech-making schoolmaster was met +by a very sudden and unexpected request that he would allow himself +to be nominated for the State legislature. Every state of the +Union has its own separate little legislative body, consisting of +two houses; and it was to the upper of these, the Senate of Ohio, +that James Garfield was asked to become a candidate. The +schoolmaster consented; and as those were times of very great +excitement, when the South was threatening to secede if a President +hostile to the slave-owning interest was elected, the contest was +fought out almost entirely along those particular lines. Garfield +was returned as senator by a large majority, and took his seat in +the Ohio Senate in January, 1860. There, his voice was always +raised against slavery, and he was recognized at once as one of the +ablest speakers in the whole legislature. + +In 1861, the great storm burst over the States. In the preceding +November, Abraham Lincoln had been elected President. Lincoln was +himself, like Garfield, a self-made man, who had risen from the +very same pioneer labourer class;--a wood-cutter and rail-splitter +in the backwoods of Illinois, he had become a common boatman on the +Mississippi, and had there improved his mind by reading eagerly in +all his spare moments. With one of those rapid rises so commonly +made by self-taught lads in America, he had pushed his way into the +Illinois legislature by the time he was twenty-five, and qualified +himself to practise as a barrister at Springfield. His shrewd +original talents had raised him with wonderful quickness into the +front ranks of his own party; and when the question between the +North and South rose into the region of practical politics, Lincoln +was selected by the republicans (the antislavery group) as their +candidate for the Presidency of the United States. This selection +was a very significant one in several ways; Lincoln was a very +strong opponent of slavery, and his candidature showed the southern +slave-owners that if the Republicans were successful in the +contest, a vigorous move against the slave-holding oligarchy would +at once be made. But it was also significant in the fact that +Lincoln was a western man; it was a sign that the farmers and +grangers of the agricultural west were beginning to wake up +politically and throw themselves into the full current of American +State affairs. On both these grounds, Lincoln's nomination must +have been deeply interesting to Garfield, whose own life had been +so closely similar, and who was destined, twenty years later, to +follow him to the same goal. + +Lincoln was duly elected, and the southern states began to secede. +The firing upon Fort Sumter by the South Carolina secessionists was +the first blow struck in that terrible war. Every man who was +privileged to live in America at that time (like the present +writer) cannot recall without a glow of recollection the memory of +the wild eagerness with which the North answered that note of +defiance, and went forth with overpowering faith and eagerness to +fight the good fight on behalf of human freedom. Such a spontaneous +outburst of the enthusiasm of humanity has never been known, before +or since. President Lincoln immediately called for a supply of +seventy-five thousand men. In the Ohio Senate, his message was read +amid tumultuous applause; and the moment the sound of the cheers +died away, Garfield, as natural spokesman of the republican party, +sprang to his feet, and moved in a short and impassioned speech that +the state of Ohio should contribute twenty thousand men and three +million dollars as its share in the general preparations. The +motion was immediately carried with the wildest demonstrations of +fervour, and Ohio, with all the rest of the North, rose like one man +to put down by the strong hand the hideous traffic in human flesh +and blood. + +During those fiery and feverish days, every citizen of the loyal +states felt himself to be, in reserve at least, a possible soldier. +It was necessary to raise, drill, and render effective in an +incredibly short time a large army; and it would have been +impossible to do so had it not been for the eager enthusiasm with +which civilians of every sort enlisted, and threw themselves into +their military duties with almost incredible devotion. Garfield +felt that he must bear his own part in the struggle by fighting it +out, not in the Senate but on the field; and his first move was to +obtain a large quantity of arms from the arsenal in the doubtfully +loyal state of Missouri. In this mission he was completely +successful; and he was next employed to raise and organize two new +regiments of Ohio infantry. Garfield, of course, knew absolutely +nothing of military matters at that time; but it was not a moment +to stand upon questions of precedence or experience; the born +organizers came naturally to the front, and Garfield was one of +them. Indeed, the faculty for organization seems innate in the +American people, so that when it became necessary to raise and +equip so large a body of men at a few weeks' notice, the task was +undertaken offhand by lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, and +schoolmasters, without a minute's hesitation, and was performed on +the whole with distinguished success. + +When Garfield had organized his regiments, the Governor asked him +to accept the post of colonel to one of them. But Garfield at +first mistrusted his own powers in this direction. How should he, +who had hitherto been poring chiefly over the odes of Horace (his +favourite poet), now take so suddenly to leading a thousand men +into actual battle? He would accept only a subordinate position, +he said, if a regular officer of the United States army, trained at +the great military academy at West Point, was placed in command. +So the Governor told him to go among his own farmer friends in his +native district, and recruit a third regiment, promising to find +him a West Point man as colonel, if one was available. Garfield +accepted the post of lieutenant-colonel, raised the 42nd Ohio +regiment, chiefly among his own old pupils at Hiram, and set off +for the seat of operations. At the last moment the Governor failed +to find a regular officer to lead these raw recruits, every +available man being already occupied, and Garfield found himself, +against his will, compelled to undertake the responsible task of +commanding the regiment. He accepted the task thus thrust upon +him, and as if by magic transformed himself at once from a +schoolmaster into an able soldier. + +In less than one month, Colonel Garfield took his raw troops into +action in the battle of Middle Creek, and drove the Confederate +General Marshall, with far larger numbers, out of his intrenchments, +compelling him to retreat into Virginia. This timely victory did +much to secure the northern advance along the line of the +Mississippi. During the whole of the succeeding campaign Garfield +handled his regiment with such native skill and marked success that +the Government appointed him Brigadier-General for his bravery and +military talent. In spite of all his early disadvantages, he had +been the youngest member of the Ohio Senate, and now he was the +youngest general in the whole American army. + +Shortly after, the important victory of Chickamauga was gained +almost entirely by the energy and sagacity of General Garfield. +For this service, he was raised one degree in dignity, receiving +his commission as Major-General. He served altogether only two +years and three months in the army. + +But while Garfield was at the head of his victorious troops in +Kentucky, his friends in Ohio were arranging, without his consent +or knowledge, to call him away to a very different sphere of work. +They nominated Garfield as their candidate for the United States +House of Representatives at Washington. The General himself was +unwilling to accede to their request, when it reached him. He +thought he could serve the country better in the field than in +Congress. Besides, he was still a comparatively poor man. His +salary as Major-General was double that of a member of the House; +and for his wife's and children's sake he hesitated to accept the +lesser position. Had he continued in the army to the end of the +war, he would doubtless have risen to the very highest honours of +that stirring epoch. But President Lincoln was very anxious that +Garfield should come into the Congress, where his presence would +greatly strengthen the President's hands; and with a generous self- +denial which well bespeaks his thorough loyalty, Garfield gave +up his military post and accepted a place in the House of +Representatives. He took his seat in December, 1863. + +For seventeen years, General Garfield sat in the general +legislature of the United States as one of the members for Ohio. +During all that time, he distinguished himself most honourably as +the fearless advocate of honest government, and the pronounced +enemy of those underhand dodges and wire-pulling machinery which +are too often the disgrace of American politics. He was opposed to +all corruption and chicanery, especially to the bad system of +rewarding political supporters with places under Government, which +has long been the chief blot upon American republican institutions. +As a person of stalwart honesty and singleness of purpose, he made +himself respected by both sides alike. Politically speaking, +different men will judge very differently of Garfield's acts in the +House of Representatives. Englishmen especially cannot fail to +remark that his attitude towards ourselves was almost always one of +latent hostility; but it is impossible for anybody to deny that his +conduct was uniformly guided by high principle, and a constant +deference to what he regarded as the right course of action. + +In 1880, when General Garfield had already risen to be the +acknowledged leader of the House of Representatives, his Ohio +supporters put him in nomination for the upper chamber, the Senate. +They wished Garfield to come down to the state capital and canvas +for support; but this the General would not hear of. "I never +asked for any place yet," he said, "except the post of bell-ringer +and general sweeper at the Hiram Institute, and I won't ask for one +now." But at least, his friends urged, he would be on the spot to +encourage and confer with his partisans. No, Garfield answered; if +they wished to elect him they must elect him in his absence; he +would avoid all appearance, even, of angling for office. The +result was that all the other candidates withdrew, and Garfield was +elected by acclamation. + +After the election he went down to Ohio and delivered a speech to +his constituents, a part of which strikingly illustrates the +courage and independence of the backwoods schoolmaster. "During +the twenty years that I have been in public life," he said, "almost +eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States, I have tried +to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been +the plan of my life to follow my conviction, at whatever personal +cost to myself. I have represented for many years a district in +Congress whose approbation I greatly desired; but though it may +seem, perhaps, a little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still +more the approbation of one person, and his name was Garfield. He +is the only man that I am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, +and live with, and die with; and if I could not have his +approbation I should have bad companionship." + +Only one higher honour could now fall to the lot of a citizen of +the United States. The presidency was the single post to which +Garfield's ambition could still aspire. That honour came upon him, +like all the others, without his seeking; and it came, too, quite +unexpectedly. Five months later, in the summer of 1880, the +National Republican Convention met to select a candidate for their +party at the forthcoming presidential election. Every four years, +before the election, each party thus meets to decide upon the man +to whom its votes will be given at the final choice. After one or +two ineffectual attempts to secure unanimity in favour of other and +more prominent politicians, the Convention with one accord chose +James Garfield for its candidate--a nomination which was quite as +great a surprise to Garfield himself as to all the rest of the +world. He was elected President of the United States in November, +1880. + +It was a marvellous rise for the poor canal boy, the struggling +student, the obscure schoolmaster, thus to find himself placed at +the head of one among the greatest nations of the earth. He was +still less than fifty, and he might reasonably have looked forward +to many years of a happy, useful, and honourable life. Nevertheless, +it is impossible to feel that Garfield's death was other than a +noble and enviable one. He was cut off suddenly in the very moment +of his brightest success, before the cares and disappointments of +office had begun to dim the pleasure of his first unexpected +triumph. He died a martyr to a good and honest cause, and his +death-bed was cheered and alleviated by the hushed sorrow and +sympathy of an entire nation--one might almost truthfully add, of +the whole civilized world. + +From the first, President Garfield set his face sternly against the +bad practice of rewarding political adherents by allowing them to +nominate officials in the public service--a species of covert +corruption sanctioned by long usage in the United States. This +honest and independent conduct raised up for him at once a host of +enemies among his own party. The talk which they indulged in +against the President produced a deep effect upon a half-crazy and +wildly egotistic French-Canadian of the name of Guiteau, who had +emigrated to the States and become an American citizen. General +Garfield had arranged a trip to New England in the summer of 1881, +to attend the annual festival at his old school, the Williams +College, Massachusetts; and for that purpose he left the White +House (the President's official residence at Washington) on July 2. +As he stood in the station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railway, +arm in arm with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, Guiteau +approached him casually, and, drawing out a pistol, fired two shots +in rapid succession, one of which took effect on the President +above the third rib. The assassin was at once secured, and the +wounded President was carried back carefully to the White House. + +Almost everybody who reads this book will remember the long +suspense, while the President lay stretched upon his bed for weeks +and weeks together, with all Europe and America watching anxiously +for any sign of recovery, and sympathizing deeply with the wounded +statesman and his devoted wife. Every effort that was possible was +made to save him, but the wound was past all surgical skill. After +lingering long with the stored-up force of a good constitution, +James Garfield passed away at last of blood-poisoning, more deeply +regretted perhaps than any other man whom the present generation +can remember. + +It is only in America that precisely such a success as Garfield's +is possible for people who spring, as he did, from the midst of the +people. In old-settled and wealthy countries we must be content, +at best, with slower and less lofty promotion. But the lesson of +Garfield's life is not for America only, but for the whole world of +workers everywhere. The same qualities which procured his success +there will produce a different, but still a solid success, anywhere +else. As Garfield himself fittingly put it, with his usual keen +American common sense, "There is no more common thought among young +people than the foolish one, that by-and-by something will turn up +by which they will suddenly achieve fame or fortune. No, young +gentlemen; things don't turn up in this world unless somebody turns +them up." + + + + + + +VII. + +THOMAS EDWARD, SHOEMAKER. + + + + + +It is the object of this volume to set forth the lives of working +men who through industry, perseverance, and high principle have +raised themselves by their own exertions from humble beginnings. +Raised themselves! Yes; but to what? Not merely, let us hope, to +wealth and position, not merely to worldly respect and high office, +but to some conspicuous field of real usefulness to their fellow +men. Those whose lives we have hitherto examined did so raise +themselves by their own strenuous energy and self-education. +Either, like Garfield and Franklin, they served the State zealously +in peace or war; or else, like Stephenson and Telford, they +improved human life by their inventions and engineering works; or, +again, like Herschel and Fraunhofer, they added to the wide field +of scientific knowledge; or finally, like Millet and Gibson, they +beautified the world with their noble and inspiring artistic +productions. But in every one of these cases, the men whose lives +we have been here considering did actually rise, sooner or later, +from the class of labourers into some other class socially and +monetarily superior to it. Though they did great good in other +ways to others, they did still as a matter of fact succeed +themselves in quitting the rank in which they were born, and rising +to some other rank more or less completely above it. + +Now, it will be clear to everybody that so long as our present +social arrangements exist, it must be impossible for the vast mass +of labouring men ever to do anything of the sort. It is to be +desired, indeed, that every labouring man should by industry and +thrift secure independence in the end for himself and his family; +but however much that may be the case, it will still rest certain +that the vast mass of men will necessarily remain workers to the +last; and that no attempt to raise individual working men above +their own class into the professional or mercantile classes can +ever greatly benefit the working masses as a whole. What is most +of all desirable is that the condition, the aims, and the tastes of +working men, as working men, should be raised and bettered; that +without necessarily going outside their own ranks, they should +become more prudent, more thrifty, better educated, and wider- +minded than many of their predecessors have been in the past. +Under such circumstances, it is surely well to set before ourselves +some examples of working men who, while still remaining members of +their own class, have in the truest and best sense "raised +themselves" so as to attain the respect and admiration of others +whether their equals or superiors in the artificial scale. Dr. +Smiles, who has done much to illustrate the history of the picked +men among the labouring orders, has chosen two or three lives of +such a sort for investigation, and from them we may select a single +one as an example of a working man's career rendered conspicuous by +qualities other than those that usually secure external success. + +Thomas Edward, associate of the Linnean Society, though a Scotchman +all his life long, was accidentally born (so to speak) at Gosport, +near Portsmouth, on Christmas Day, 1814. His father was in the +Fifeshire militia, and in those warlike days, when almost all the +regulars were on the Continent, fighting Napoleon, militia +regiments used to be ordered about the country from one place to +another, to watch the coast or mount guard over the French +prisoners, in the most unaccountable fashion. So it happened, +oddly enough, that Thomas Edward, a Scotchman of the Scotch, was +born close under the big forts of Portsmouth harbour. + +After Waterloo, however, the Fifeshire regiment was sent home +again; and the militia being before long disbanded, John Edward, +our hero's father, went to live at Aberdeen, where he plied his +poor trade of a hand-loom linen weaver for many years. It was on +the green at Aberdeen, surrounded by small labourers' cottages, +that Thomas Edward passed his early days. From his babyhood, +almost, the boy had a strong love for all the beasties he saw +everywhere around him; a fondness for birds and animals, and a +habit of taming them which can seldom be acquired, but which seems +with some people to come instinctively by nature. While Tam was +still quite a child, he loved to wander by himself out into the +country, along the green banks of the Dee, or among the tidal +islands at the mouth of the river, overgrown by waving seaweeds, +and fringed with great white bunches of blossoming scurvy-grass. +He loved to hunt for crabs and sea-anemones beside the ebbing +channels, or to watch the jelly-fish left high and dry upon the +shore by the retreating water. Already, in his simple way, the +little ragged bare-footed Scotch laddie was at heart a born +naturalist. + +Very soon, Tam was not content with looking at the "venomous +beasts," as the neighbours called them, but he must needs begin to +bring them home, and set up a small aquarium and zoological garden +on his own account. All was fish that came to Tam's net: tadpoles, +newts, and stickleback from the ponds, beetles from the dung-heaps, +green crabs from the sea-shore--nay, even in time such larger +prizes as hedgehogs, moles, and nestfuls of birds. Nothing +delighted him so much as to be out in the fields, hunting for and +taming these his natural pets. + +Unfortunately, Tam's father and mother did not share the boy's +passion for nature, and instead of encouraging him in pursuing his +inborn taste, they scolded him and punished him bitterly for +bringing home the nasty creatures. But nothing could win away Tam +from the love of the beasties; and in the end, he had his own way, +and lived all his life, as he himself afterwards beautifully put +it, "a fool to nature." Too often, unhappily, fathers and mothers +thus try to check the best impulses in their children, under +mistaken notions of right, and especially is this the case in many +instances as regards the love of nature. Children are constantly +chidden for taking an interest in the beautiful works of creation, +and so have their first intelligent inquiries and aspirations +chilled at once; when a little care and sympathy would get rid of +the unpleasantness of having white mice or lizards crawling about +the house, without putting a stop to the young beginner's longing +for more knowledge of the wonderful and beautiful world in whose +midst he lives. + +When Tam was nearly five years old, he was sent to school, chiefly +no doubt to get him out of the way; but Scotch schools for the +children of the working classes were in those days very rough hard +places, where the taws or leather strap was still regarded as the +chief instrument of education. Little Edward was not a child to be +restrained by that particular form of discipline; and after he had +had two or three serious tussles with his instructors, he was at +last so cruelly beaten by one of his masters that he refused to +return, and his parents, who were themselves by no means lacking in +old Scotch severity, upheld him in his determination. He had +picked up reading by this time, and now for a while he was left +alone to hunt about to his heart's content among his favourite +fields and meadows. But by the time he was six years old, he felt +he ought to be going to work, brave little mortal that he was; and +as his father and mother thought so too, the poor wee mite was sent +to join his elder brother in working at a tobacco factory in the +town, at the wages of fourteen-pence a week. So, for the next two +years, little Tam waited upon a spinner (as the workers are called) +and began life in earnest as a working man. + +At the end of two years, however, the brothers heard that better +wages were being given, a couple of miles away, at Grandholm, up +the river Don. So off the lads tramped, one fast-day (a recognized +Scotch institution), to ask the manager of the Grandholm factory if +he could give them employment. They told nobody of their +intention, but trudged away on their own account; and when they +came back and told their parents what they had done, the father was +not very well satisfied with the proposal, because he thought it +too far for so small a boy as Tam to walk every day to and from his +work. Tam, however, was very anxious to go, not only on account of +the increased wages, but also (though this was a secret) because of +the beautiful woods and crags round Grandholm, through which he +hoped to wander during the short dinner hour. In the end, John +Edward gave way, and the boys were allowed to follow their own +fancy in going to the new factory. + +It was very hard work; the hours were from six in the morning till +eight at night, for there was no Factory Act then to guard the +interest of helpless children; so the boys had to be up at four in +the morning, and were seldom home again till nine at night. In +winter, the snow lies long and deep on those chilly Aberdeenshire +roads, and the east winds from the German Ocean blow cold and +cutting up the narrow valley of the Don; and it was dreary work +toiling along them in the dark of morning or of night in bleak and +cheerless December weather. Still, Tam liked it on the whole +extremely well. His wages were now three shillings a week; and +then, twice a day in summer, there was the beautiful walk to and +fro along the leafy high-road. "People may say of factories what +they please," Edward wrote much later, "but I liked this factory. +It was a happy time for me whilst I remained there. The woods were +easy of access during our meal-hours. What lots of nests! What +insects, wild flowers, and plants, the like of which I had never +seen before." The boy revelled in the beauty of the birds and +beasts he saw here, and he retained a delightful recollection of +them throughout his whole after life. + +This happy time, however, was not to last for ever. When young +Edward was eleven years old, his father took him away from +Grandholm, and apprenticed him to a working shoemaker. The +apprenticeship was to go on for six years; the wages to begin at +eighteen-pence a week; and the hours, too sadly long, to be from +six in the morning till nine at night. Tam's master, one Charles +Begg, was a drunken London workman, who had wandered gradually +north; a good shoemaker, but a quarrelsome, rowdy fellow, loving +nothing on earth so much as a round with his fists on the slightest +provocation. From this unpromising teacher, Edward took his first +lessons in the useful art of shoemaking; and though he learned +fast--for he was not slothful in business--he would have learned +faster, no doubt, but for his employer's very drunken and careless +ways. When Begg came home from the public-house, much the worse +for whisky, he would first beat Tam, and then proceed upstairs to +beat his wife. For three years young Edward lived under this +intolerable tyranny, till he could stand it no longer. At last, +Begg beat and ill-treated him so terribly that Tam refused outright +to complete his apprenticeship. Begg was afraid to compel him to +do so--doubtless fearing to expose his ill-usage of the lad. So +Tam went to a new master, a kindly man, with whom he worked in +future far more happily. + +The boy now began to make himself a little botanical garden in the +back yard of his mother's house--a piece of waste ground covered +with rubbish, such as one often sees behind the poorer class of +cottages in towns. Tam determined to alter all that, so he piled +up all the stones into a small rockery, dug up the plot, manured +it, and filled it with wild and garden flowers. The wild flowers, +of course, he found in the woods and hedgerows around him; but the +cultivated kinds he got in a very ingenious fashion, by visiting +all the rubbish heaps of the neighbourhood, on which garden refuse +was usually piled. A good many roots and plants can generally be +found in such places, and by digging them up, Tam was soon able to +make himself a number of bright and lively beds. Such self-help in +natural history always lay very much in Edward's way. + +At the same time, young Edward was now beginning to feel the desire +for knowing something more about the beasts and birds of which he +was so fond. He used to go in all his spare moments among the +shops in the town, to look at the pictures in the windows, +especially the pictures of animals; and though his earnings were +still small, he bought a book whenever he was able to afford one. +In those days, cheap papers for the people were only just beginning +to come into existence; and Tam, who was now eighteen, bought the +first number of the Penny Magazine, an excellent journal of that +time, which he liked so much that he continued to take in the +succeeding numbers. Some of the papers in it were about natural +history, and these, of course, particularly delighted the young +man's heart. He also bought the Weekly Visitor, which he read +through over and over again. + +In 1831, when Tam was still eighteen, he enlisted in the +Aberdeenshire militia, and during his brief period of service an +amusing circumstance occurred which well displays the almost +irresistible character of Edward's love of nature. While he was +drilling with the awkward squad one morning, a butterfly of a kind +that he had never seen before happened to flit in front of him as +he stood in the ranks. It was a beautiful large brown butterfly, +and Edward was so fascinated by its appearance that he entirely +forgot, in a moment, where he was and what he was doing. Without a +second's thought, he darted wildly out of the ranks, and rushed +after the butterfly, cap in hand. It led him a pretty chase, over +sandhills and shore, for five minutes. He was just on the point of +catching it at last, when he suddenly felt a heavy hand laid upon +his shoulder, and looking round, he saw the corporal of the company +and several soldiers come to arrest him. Such a serious offence +against military discipline might have cost him dear indeed, for +corporals have little sympathy with butterfly hunting; but luckily +for Edward, as he was crossing the parade ground under arrest, he +happened to meet an officer walking with some ladies. The officer +asked the nature of his offence, and when the ladies heard what it +was they were so much interested in such a strange creature as a +butterfly-loving militiaman, that they interceded for him, and +finally begged him off his expected punishment. The story shows us +what sort of stuff Edward was really made of. He felt so deep an +interest in all the beautiful living creatures around him for their +own sake, that he could hardly restrain his feelings even under the +most untoward circumstances. + +When Edward was twenty, he removed from Aberdeen to Banff where he +worked as a journeyman for a new master. The hours were very long, +but by taking advantage of the summer evenings, he was still able +to hunt for his beloved birds, caterpillars, and butterflies. +Still, the low wages in the trade discouraged him much, and he +almost made up his mind to save money and emigrate to America. But +one small accident alone prevented him from carrying out this +purpose. Like a good many other young men, the naturalist +shoemaker fell in love. Not only so, but his falling in love took +practical shape a little later in his getting married; and at +twenty-three, the lonely butterfly hunter brought back a suitable +young wife to his little home. The marriage was a very happy one. +Mrs. Edward not only loved her husband deeply, but showed him +sympathy in his favourite pursuits, and knew how to appreciate his +sterling worth. Long afterwards she said, that though many of her +neighbours could not understand her husband's strange behaviour, +she had always felt how much better it was to have one who spent +his spare time on the study of nature than one who spent it on the +public-house. + +As soon as Edward got a home of his own, he began to make a regular +collection of all the animals and plants in Banffshire. This was a +difficult thing for him to do, for he knew little of books, and had +access to very few, so that he couldn't even find out the names of +all the creatures he caught and preserved. But, though he didn't +always know what they were called, he did know their natures and +habits and all about them; and such first-hand knowledge in natural +history is really the rarest and the most valuable of all. He saw +little of his fellow-workmen. They were usually a drunken, +careless lot; Edward was sober and thoughtful, and had other things +to think of than those that they cared to talk about with one +another. But he went out much into the fields, with invincible +determination, having made up his mind that he would get to know +all about the plants and beasties, however much the knowledge might +cost him. + +For this object, he bought a rusty old gun for four-and-sixpence, +and invested in a few boxes and bottles for catching insects. His +working hours were from six in the morning till nine at night, and +for that long day he always worked hard to support his wife, and +(when they came) his children. He had therefore only the night +hours between nine and six to do all his collecting. Any other +man, almost, would have given up the attempt as hopeless; but +Edward resolved never to waste a single moment or a single penny, +and by care and indomitable energy he succeeded in making his +wished-for collection. Sometimes he was out tramping the whole +night; sometimes he slept anyhow, under a hedge or haystack; +sometimes he took up temporary quarters in a barn, an outhouse, or +a ruined castle. But night after night he went on collecting, +whenever he was able; and he watched the habits and manners of the +fox, the badger, the otter, the weasel, the stoat, the pole-cat, +and many other regular night-roamers as no one else, in all +probability, had ever before watched them in the whole world. + +Sometimes he suffered terrible disappointments, due directly or +indirectly to his great poverty. Once, he took all his cases of +insects, containing nine hundred and sixteen specimens, and +representing the work of four years, up to his garret to keep them +there till he was able to glaze them. When he came to take them +down again he found to his horror that rats had got at the boxes, +eaten almost every insect in the whole collection, and left nothing +behind but the bare pins, with a few scattered legs, wings, and +bodies, sticking amongst them. Most men would have been so +disgusted with this miserable end to so much labour, that they +would have given up moth hunting for ever. But Edward was made of +different stuff. He went to work again as zealously as ever, and +in four years more, he had got most of the beetles, flies, and +chafers as carefully collected as before. + +By the year 1845, Edward had gathered together about two thousand +specimens of beasts, birds, and insects found in the neighbourhood +of his own town of Banff. He made the cases to hold them himself, +and did it so neatly that, in the case of his shells, each kind had +even a separate little compartment all of its own. And now he +unfortunately began to think of making money by exhibiting his +small museum. If only he could get a few pounds to help him in +buying books, materials, perhaps even a microscope, to help him in +prosecuting his scientific work, what a magnificent thing that +would be for him! Filled with this grand idea, he took a room in +the Trades Hall at Banff, and exhibited his collection during a +local fair. A good many people came to see it, and the Banff paper +congratulated the poor shoemaker on his energy in gathering +together such a museum of curiosities "without aid, and under +discouraging circumstances which few would have successfully +encountered." He was so far lucky in this first venture that he +covered his expenses and was able even to put away a little money +for future needs. Encouraged by this small triumph, the unwearied +naturalist set to work during the next year, and added several new +attractions to his little show. At the succeeding fair he again +exhibited, and made still more money out of his speculation. +Unhappily, the petty success thus secured led him to hope he might +do even better by moving his collection to Aberdeen. + +To Aberdeen, accordingly, Edward went. He took a shop in the great +gay thoroughfare of that cold northern city--Union Street--and +prepared to receive the world at large, and to get the money for +the longed-for books and the much-desired microscope. Now, +Aberdeen is a big, busy, bustling town; it has plenty of amusements +and recreations; it has two colleges and many learned men of its +own; and the people did not care to come and see the working +shoemaker's poor small collection. If he had been a president of +the British Association for the Advancement of Science, now--some +learned knight or baronet come down by special train from London-- +the Aberdeen doctors and professors might have rushed to hear his +address; or if he had been a famous music-hall singer or an +imitation negro minstrel, the public at large might have flocked to +be amused and degraded by his parrot-like buffoonery; but as he was +only a working shoemaker from Banff, with a heaven-born instinct +for watching and discovering all the strange beasts and birds of +Scotland, and the ways and thoughts of them, why, of course, +respectable Aberdeen, high or low, would have nothing in particular +to say to him. Day after day went by, and hardly anybody came, +till at last poor Edward's heart sank terribly within him. Even +the few who did come were loth to believe that a working shoemaker +could ever have gathered together such a large collection by his +own exertions. + +"Do you mean to say," said one of the Aberdeen physicians to +Edward, "that you've maintained your wife and family by working at +your trade, all the while that you've been making this collection?" + +"Yes, I do," Edward answered. + +"Oh, nonsense!" the doctor said. "How is it possible you could +have done that?" + +"By never losing a single minute or part of a minute," was the +brave reply, "that I could by any means improve." + +It is wonderful indeed that when once Edward had begun to attract +anybody's attention at all, he and his exhibition should ever have +been allowed to pass so unnoticed in a great, rich, learned city +like Aberdeen. But it only shows how very hard it is for +unassuming merit to push its way; for the Aberdeen people still +went unheeding past the shop in Union Street, till Edward at last +began to fear and tremble as to how he should ever meet the +expenses of the exhibition. After the show had been open four +weeks, one black Friday came when Edward never took a penny the +whole day. As he sat there alone and despondent in the empty room, +the postman brought him a letter. It was from his master at Banff. +"Return immediately," it said, "or you will be discharged." What +on earth could he do? He couldn't remove his collection; he +couldn't pay his debt. A few more days passed, and he saw no way +out of it. At last, in blank despair, he offered the whole +collection for sale. A gentleman proposed to pay him the paltry +sum of 20 pounds 10s. for the entire lot, the slow accumulations of +ten long years. It was a miserable and totally inadequate price, +but Edward could get no more. In the depths of his misery, he +accepted it. The gentleman took the collection home, gave it to +his boy, and finally allowed it all, for want of care and +attention, to go to rack and ruin. And so that was the end of ten +years of poor Thomas Edward's unremitting original work in natural +history. A sadder tale of unrequited labour in the cause of +science has seldom been written. + +How he ever recovered from such a downfall to all his hopes and +expectations is extraordinary. But the man had a wonderful power +of bearing up against adverse circumstances; and when, after six +weeks' absence, he returned to Banff, ruined and dispirited, he set +to work once more, as best he might, at the old, old trade of +shoemaking. He was obliged to leave his wife and children in +Aberdeen, and to tramp himself on foot to Banff, so that he might +earn the necessary money to bring them back; for the cash he had +got for the collection had all gone in paying expenses. It is +almost too sad to relate; and no wonder poor Edward felt crushed +indeed when he got back once more to his lonely shoemaker's bench +and fireless fireside. He was very lonely until his wife and +children came. But when the carrier generously brought them back +free (with that kindliness which the poor so often show to the +poor), and the home was occupied once more, and the fire lighted, +he felt as if life might still be worth living, at least for his +wife and children. So he went back to his trade as heartily as he +might, and worked at it well and successfully. For it is to be +noted, that though Thomas Edward was so assiduous a naturalist and +collector, he was the best hand, too, at making first-class shoes +in all Banff. The good workman is generally the best man at +whatever he undertakes. Certainly the best man is almost always a +good workman at his own trade. + +But of course he made no more natural history collections? Not a +bit of it. Once a naturalist, always a naturalist. Edward set to +work once more, nothing daunted, and by next spring he was out +everywhere with his gun, exactly as before, replacing the sold +collection as fast as ever his hand was able. + +By this time Edward began to make a few good friends. Several +magistrates for the county signed a paper for him, stating that +they knew him to be a naturalist, and no poacher; and on presenting +this paper to the gamekeepers, he was generally allowed to pursue +his researches wherever he liked, and shoot any birds or animals he +needed for his new museum. Soon after his return from Aberdeen, +too, he made the acquaintance of a neighbouring Scotch minister, +Mr. Smith of Monquhitter, who proved a very kind and useful friend +to him. Mr. Smith was a brother naturalist, and he had books-- +those precious books--which he lent Edward freely; and there for +the first time the shoemaker zoologist learned the scientific names +of many among the birds and animals with whose lives and habits he +had been so long familiar. Another thing the good minister did for +his shoemaker friend: he constantly begged him to write to +scientific journals the results of his observations in natural +history. At first Edward was very timid; he didn't like to appear +in print; thought his grammar and style wouldn't be good enough; +fought shy of the proposal altogether. But at last Edward made up +his mind to contribute a few notes to the Banffshire Journal, and +from that he went on slowly to other papers, until at last he came +to be one of the most valued occasional writers for several of the +leading scientific periodicals in England. Unfortunately, science +doesn't pay. All this work was done for love only; and Edward's +only reward was the pleasure he himself derived from thus jotting +down the facts he had observed about the beautiful creatures he +loved so well. + +Soon Mr. Smith induced the indefatigable shoemaker to send a few +papers on the birds and beasts to the Zoologist. Readers began to +perceive that these contributions were sent by a man of the right +sort--a man who didn't merely read what other men had said about +the creatures in books, but who watched their ways on his own +account, and knew all about their habits and manners in their own +homes. Other friends now began to interest themselves in him; and +Edward obtained at last, what to a man of his tastes must have been +almost as much as money or position--the society of people who +could appreciate him, and could sympathize in all that interested +him. Mr. Smith in particular always treated him, says Dr. Smiles, +"as one intelligent man treats another." The paltry distinctions +of artificial rank were all forgotten between them, and the two +naturalists talked together with endless interest about all those +lovely creatures that surround us every one on every side, but that +so very few people comparatively have ever eyes to see or hearts to +understand. It was a very great loss to Edward when Mr. Smith +died, in 1854. + +In the year 1858 the untiring shoemaker had gathered his third and +last collection, the finest and best of all. By this time he had +become an expert stuffer of birds, and a good preserver of fish and +flowers. But his health was now beginning to fail. He was forty- +four, and he had used his constitution very severely, going out at +nights in cold and wet, and cheating himself of sleep during the +natural hours of rest and recuperation. Happily, during all these +years, he had resisted the advice of his Scotch labouring friends, +to take out whisky with him on his nightly excursions. He never +took a drop of it, at home or abroad. If he had done so, he +himself believed, he could not have stood the cold, the damp, and +the exposure in the way he did. His food was chiefly oatmeal-cake; +his drink was water. "Sometimes, when I could afford it," he says, +"my wife boiled an egg or two, and these were my only luxuries." +He had a large family, and the task of providing for them was quite +enough for his slender means, without leaving much margin for beer +or whisky. + +But the best constitution won't stand privation and exposure for +ever. By-and-by Edward fell ill, and had a fever. He was ill for +a month, and when he came round again the doctor told him that he +must at once give up his nightly wandering. This was a real and +serious blow to poor Edward; it was asking him to give up his one +real pleasure and interest in life. All the happiest moments he +had ever known were those which he had spent in the woods and +fields, or among the lonely mountains with the falcons, and the +herons, and the pine-martens, and the ermines. All this delightful +life he was now told he must abandon for ever. Nor was that all. +Illness costs money. While a man is earning nothing, he is running +up a doctor's bill. Edward now saw that he must at last fall back +upon his savings bank, as he rightly called it--his loved and +cherished collection of Banffshire animals. He had to draw upon it +heavily. Forty cases of birds were sold; and Edward now knew that +he would never be able to replace the specimens he had parted with. + +Still, his endless patience wasn't yet exhausted. No more of +wandering by night, to be sure, upon moor or fell, gun in hand, +chasing the merlin or the polecat to its hidden lair; no more of +long watching after the snowy owl or the long-tailed titmouse among +the frozen winter woods; but there remained one almost untried +field on which Edward could expend his remaining energy, and in +which he was to do better work for science than in all the rest-- +the sea. + +This new field he began to cultivate in a novel and ingenious way. +He got together all the old broken pails, pots, pans, and kettles +he could find in the neighbourhood, filled them with straw or bits +of rag, and then sank them with a heavy stone into the rocky pools +that abound along that weather-beaten coast. A rope was tied to +one end, by which he could raise them again; and once a month he +used to go his rounds to visit these very primitive but effectual +sea-traps. Lots of living things had meanwhile congregated in the +safe nests thus provided for them, and Edward sorted them all over, +taking home with him all the newer or more valuable specimens. In +this way he was enabled to make several additions to our knowledge +of the living things that inhabit the sea off the north-east coast +of Scotland. + +The fishermen also helped him not a little, by giving him many rare +kinds of fish or refuse from their nets, which he duly examined and +classified. As a rule, the hardy men who go on the smacks have a +profound contempt for natural history, and will not be tempted, +even by offers of money, to assist those whom they consider as +half-daft gentlefolk in what seems to them a perfectly useless and +almost childish amusement. But it was different with Tam Edward, +the strange shoemaker whom they all knew so well; if HE wanted fish +or rubbish for his neat collection in the home-made glass cases, +why, of course he could have them, and welcome. So they brought +him rare sand-suckers, and blue-striped wrasse, and saury pike, and +gigantic cuttle-fish, four feet long, to his heart's content. +Edward's daughters were now also old enough to help him in his +scientific studies. They used to watch for the clearing of the +nets, and pick out of the refuse whatever they thought would +interest or please their father. But the fish themselves were +Edward's greatest helpers and assistants. As Dr. Smiles quaintly +puts it, they were the best of all possible dredgers. His +daughters used to secure him as many stomachs as possible, and from +their contents he picked out an immense number of beautiful and +valuable specimens. The bill of fare of the cod alone comprised an +incredible variety of small crabs, shells, shrimps, sea-mice, star- +fish, jelly-fish, sea anemones, eggs, and zoophytes. All these +went to swell Edward's new collection of marine animals. + +To identify and name so many small and little-known creatures was a +very difficult task for the poor shoemaker, with so few books, and +no opportunities for visiting museums and learned societies. But +his industry and ingenuity managed to surmount all obstacles. +Naturalists everywhere are very willing to aid and instruct one +another; especially are the highest authorities almost always eager +to give every help and encouragement in their power to local +amateurs. Edward used to wait till he had collected a batch of +specimens of a single class or order, and then he would send them +by post to learned men in different parts of the country, who named +them for him, and sent them back with some information as to their +proper place in the classification of the group to which they +belonged. Mr. Spence Bate of Plymouth is the greatest living +authority on crustaceans, such as the lobsters, shrimps, sea-fleas, +and hermit crabs; and to him Edward sent all the queer crawling +things of that description that he found in his original sea-traps. +Mr. Couch, of Polperro in Cornwall, was equally versed in the true +backboned fishes; and to him Edward sent any doubtful midges, or +gurnards, or gobies, or whiffs. So numerous are the animals and +plants of the sea-shore, even in the north of Scotland alone, that +if one were to make a complete list of all Edward's finds it would +occupy an entire book almost as large as this volume. + +Naturalists now began to help Edward in another way, the way that +he most needed, by kind presents of books, especially their own +writings--a kind of gift which cost them nothing, but was worth to +him a very great deal. Mr. Newman, the editor of the Zoologist +paper, was one of his most useful correspondents, and gave him +several excellent books on natural history. Mr. Bate made him a +still more coveted present--a microscope, with which he could +examine several minute animals, too small to be looked at by the +naked eye. The same good friend also gave him a little pocket-lens +(or magnifying glass) for use on the sea-shore. + +As Edward went on, his knowledge increased rapidly, and his +discoveries fully kept pace with it. The wretchedly paid Banff +shoemaker was now corresponding familiarly with half the most +eminent men of science in the kingdom, and was a valued contributor +to all the most important scientific journals. Several new animals +which he had discovered were named in his honour, and frequent +references were made to him in printed works of the first +importance. It occurred to Mr. Couch and Mr. Bate, therefore, both +of whom were greatly indebted to the working-man naturalist for +specimens and information, that Edward ought to be elected a member +of some leading scientific society. There is no such body of +greater distinction in the world of science than the Linnean +Society; and of this learned institution Edward was duly elected an +associate in 1866. The honour was one which he had richly deserved, +and which no doubt he fully appreciated. + +And yet he was nothing more even now than a working shoemaker, who +was earning not more but less wages even than he once used to do. +He had brought up a large family honestly and respectably; he had +paid his way without running into debt; his children were all +growing up; and he had acquired a wide reputation among naturalists +as a thoroughly trustworthy observer and an original worker in many +different fields of botany and zoology. But his wages were now +only eight shillings a week, and his science had brought him, as +many people would say, only the barren honour of being an associate +of the Linnean Society, or the respected friend of many among the +noblest and greatest men of his country. He began life as a +shoemaker, and he remained a shoemaker to the end. "Had I pursued +money," he said, "with half the ardour and perseverance that I have +pursued nature, I have no hesitation in saying that by this time I +should have been a rich man." + +In 1876, Dr. Smiles, the historian of so many truly great working +men, attracted by Edward's remarkable and self-sacrificing life, +determined to write the good shoemaker's biography while he was +still alive. Edward himself gave Dr. Smiles full particulars as to +his early days and his later struggles; and that information the +genial biographer wove into a delightful book, from which all the +facts here related have been borrowed. The "Life of a Scotch +Naturalist" attracted an immense deal of attention when it was +first published, and led many people, scientific or otherwise, to +feel a deep interest in the man who had thus made himself poor for +the love of nature. The result was such a spontaneous expression +of generous feeling towards Edward that he was enabled to pass the +evening of his days not only in honour, but also in substantial +ease and comfort. + +And shall we call such a life as this a failure? Shall we speak of +it carelessly as unsuccessful? Surely not. Edward had lived his +life happily, usefully, and nobly; he had attained the end he set +before himself; he had conquered all his difficulties by his +indomitable resolution; and he lived to see his just reward in the +respect and admiration of all those whose good opinion was worth +the having. If he had toiled and moiled all the best days of his +life, at some work, perhaps, which did not even benefit in any way +his fellow-men; if he had given up all his time to enriching +himself anyhow, by fair means or foul; if he had gathered up a +great business by crushing out competition and absorbing to himself +the honest livelihood of a dozen other men; if he had speculated in +stocks and shares, and piled up at last a vast fortune by doubtful +transactions, all the world would have said, in its unthinking +fashion, that Mr. Edward was a wonderfully successful man. But +success in life does not consist in that only, if in that at all. +Edward lived for an aim, and that aim he amply attained. He never +neglected his home duties or his regular work; but in his stray +moments he found time to amass an amount of knowledge which +rendered him the intellectual equal of men whose opportunities and +education had been far more fortunate than his own. The pleasure +he found in his work was the real reward that science gave him. +All his life long he had that pleasure: he saw the fields grow +green in spring, the birds build nests in early summer, the insects +flit before his eyes on autumn evenings, the stoat and hare put on +their snow-white coat to his delight in winter weather. And shall +we say that the riches he thus beheld spread ever before him were +any less real or less satisfying to a soul like his than the mere +worldly wealth that other men labour and strive for? Oh no. +Thomas Edward was one of those who work for higher and better ends +than outward show, and verily he had his reward. The monument +raised up to that simple and earnest working shoemaker in the "Life +of a Scotch Naturalist" is one of which any scientific worker in +the whole world might well be proud. In his old age, he had the +meed of public encouragement and public recognition, the one thing +that the world at large can add to a scientific worker's happiness; +and his name will be long remembered hereafter, when those of more +pretentious but less useful labourers are altogether forgotten. +How many men whom the world calls successful might gladly have + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Biographies of Working Men, by Grant Allen + diff --git a/old/bgwmn10.zip b/old/bgwmn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..92a5a7f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/bgwmn10.zip |