XII. THE WORKING-MAN IN SEARCH OF KNOWLEDGE. "In dreams, in study, and in ardent thought, Strengthen'd and braced, by breathing in content And drinking from the well of homely life." * The Excursion. ALTHOUGH I have said so much in another place about the ways and means of gaining knowledge amidst the greatest difficulties, I cannot refrain from touching once more upon this favourite topic. For those who have at heart the mental improvement of working-men, ought constantly to keep before their minds the truth, that there is nothing in their situation which need debar them from the attainment of even eminence in literature and science. Most of our young men, however, sit down in a sort of stupor or despondency, as if they said to themselves,"Others may deal with books; but we, who must * See a great number of instances in the American Mechanic, pp. 161-275. work for a living, have no time for such entertainments." There are a great many in whom the desire of knowledge has never yet been awakened. There are the two Riddles, twinbrothers, working at the same trade; I see those young men almost daily, and perceive in their countenances and discourse every sign of intelligence; yet I dare say they no more think of making any advances in learning, than of becoming governors of states. Yet half an hour a day, properly bestowed, would make them men of valuable information in every common branch of science. If I should urge John Crispin to apply himself to books, he would perhaps drop his lapstone and hammer, and exclaim, "What! a shoemaker get learning!" Yes; certainly. Why not? Joseph Pendrell, William Gifford, and Robert Bloomfield were all shoemakers, and all men of learning. Roger Sherman was a shoemaker, and he became first a congress-man and then a judge. He had no education but that of the commonschool, and worked at his trade for some time after he was of age. He used to sit at his bench with a book open before him, giving to reading every moment that his eyes could be spared. In later life, men of the most finished education were accustomed to look up to him with reverence. Mr. Macon once said, 66 Roger Sherman had more common sense than any man I ever knew." Mr. Jefferson once exclaimed, as he pointed to him, "That is Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, who never said a foolish thing in his life." He was a true Christian, a defender of virtue, and a daily student of the Bible. In like manner, my friend Shem Blue, the carpenter, would stare if I should hint to him the possibility of mixing a little study with his work. But I could tell him of SAMUEL LEE, one of the greatest linguists now living, who once handled the plane and chisel. He began to learn the carpenter's trade at the age of twelve, and was seventeen before he ever thought of foreign tongues. He began with the Latin, in order to understand the quotations in English books. By dint of saving and pinching himself, he would buy volume after volume at book-stalls, and, reading at night, went on till he had gained some knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. His learning brought him into notice; he became a schoolmaster, and at length a clergyman and professor. Now I do not advise our young carpenters to study the dead languages, unless they feel an irresistible bent towards them; but I press on them this instance to show, that a little self-denial and perseverance will enable them to lay in a great stock of useful knowledge, such as may fit them for the most intelligent society; and perhaps raise them to high office. A leading journal of New York informs us that but a few years ago JOSEPH RITNER, late governor of Pennsylvania, cracked his whip and whistled to his six horse team as briskly as any other wagoner who crossed the Alleghanies THOMAS EWING, a most distinguished senator, was once known chiefly as an athletic woodsman. But there is perhaps no instance of successful study, in the midst of labour, which is more encouraging than that of the blacksmith whose history has been given to the public through his own letter to Governor Everett of Massachusetts. sketch should not be confined to the newspapers. This "I was the youngest," says the writer, "of many brethren, and my parents were poor. My means of education were limited to the advantages of a district school, and those again were circumscribed by my father's death, which deprived me, at the age of fifteen, of those scanty opportunities which I had previously enjoyed. A few months after his decease, I apprenticed myself to a blacksmith in my native village. Thither I carried an indomitable taste for reading, which I had previously acquired through the medium of the society library; all the historical works in which I had at that time perused. At the expiration of a little more than half my apprenticeship, I suddenly conceived the idea of studying Latin. Through the assistance of my elder brother, who had himself obtained a collegiate education by his own exertions, I completed my Virgil during the evenings of one winter. After some time devoted to Cicero and a few other Latin authors, I commenced the Greek. At this time it was necessary that I should devote every hour of daylight and a part of the evening to the duties of my apprentice ship. Still I carried my Greek grammar in my hat, and often found a moment, when I was heating some large iron, when I could place my book open before me against the chimney of my forge, and go through with tupto, tupteis, tuptei, unperceived by my fellow-apprentices, and, to my confusion of face, with a detrimental effect to the charge in my fire. At evening, I sat down unassisted and alone to the Iliad of Homer, twenty books of which measured my progress in that language during the evenings of another winter. I next turned to the modern languages, and was much gratified to learn that my knowledge of the Latin furnished me with a key to the literature of most of the languages of Europe. "This circumstance gave a new impulse to the desire of acquainting myself with the philosophy, derivation, and affinity of the different European tongues. I could not be reconciled to limit myself in these investigations to a few hours after the arduous labours of the day. I therefore laid down my hammer and went to New Haven, where I recited to native teachers in French, Spanish, German, and Italian. I returned at the expiration of two years to the forge, bringing with me such books in those languages as I could procure. When I had read these books through, I commenced the Hebrew with an awakened desire of examining another field; and by assiduous application I was enabled in a few weeks to read this language with such facility, that I allotted it to myself as a task, to read two chapters in the |