It is related of Dr. Adam, the celebrated rector of the High School of
Edinburgh, that when at college he had to be content with a penny roll
for his dinner. Similar, though more severe, were the early trials of
Samuel Drew, also of Edinburgh. At the age of ten he was apprenticed to
a shoemaker, a calling which he continued to follow long after he had
become celebrated as an author. For days and days together in his early
life he was too poor to spend even a penny for his dinner; and he was
accustomed, when dinner-time came, to tie his apron-string tighter to
lessen the pang of hunger, and go on with his work till evening. Through
years of hardship and drudgery his courage never forsook him; amidst
ceaseless labor he strove unremittingly to improve his mind, studying
astronomy, history, and metaphysics; and finally, from the humblest
circumstances, he rose to occupy a conspicuous place as an author, a
philosopher, and a metaphysician.
The life of Balzac too, the French author, whose brilliant abilities won
for him at last such wealth, fame and influence in France, is a type of
many a literary career. At the age of twenty his wealthy parents wished
to make him a notary. He announced his determination to become an
author. "But" urged the father, "do you not know to what state the
occupation of a writer will lead you? In literature a man must be either
king or a hodman." "Very well," replied Balzac, "I will be king!" The
family left town; the youth was left to his fate in a garret, with the
magnificent allowance of twenty-five francs a month. The first ten years
he fought with poverty and all its evils; the second decade made him his
own master. These ten years, says a writer in a British magazine, were
years of glory, wealth, and luxury. He had won the literary crown, as in
youth he predicted. His later residences were palaces, richly decorated,
and full of rare pictures, statuary, and valuable curiosities.
--_From "Getting on in the World."_
--_By William Mathews, LL. D._
1696
_Scotland_:--With a rigorous climate and a small country, much of it
wild and untillable mountain and moor, and with fewer people in the
whole country than in the city of London, and to-day she wields an
influence in the world out of all proportion to her population and
resources. In fact, the Scotch are in many respects the greatest people
of modern times.
--_From "A Year in Europe."_
--_By Walter W. Moore, D. D., LL. D._
1697
Love the sea? I dote upon it--from the beach.
--_Douglas Jerrold._
1698
How sweet it is, mother, to see the sea from the land, when we are not
sailing!
--_Archippus._
1699