We quote the following from the portion of the _Library of Entertaining
Knowledge_, with the above title--to show the mode in which the heads of
the respective chapters are illustrated:
_Obscure Origin_.
"The parents of SEBASTIAN CASTALIO, the elegant Latin translator of the
Bible, were poor peasants, who lived among the mountains in Dauphiny.
"The Abbé HAUTEFEUILLE, who distinguished himself in the seventeenth
century, by his inventions in clock and watch making, was the son of a
baker.
"PARINI, the modern satiric poet of Italy, was the son of a peasant, who
died when he was in his boyhood, and left him to be the only support of
his widowed mother; while, to add to his difficulties, he was attacked in
his nineteenth year by a paralysis, which rendered him a cripple for life.
"The parents of Dr. JOHN PRIDEAUX, who afterwards rose to be Bishop of
Worcester, were in such poor circumstances, that they were with difficulty
able to keep him at school till he had learned to read and write; and he
obtained the rest of his education by walking on foot to Oxford, and
getting employed in the first instance as assistant in the kitchen of
Exeter College, in which society he remained till he gradually made his
way to a fellowship.
"The father of INIGO JONES, the great architect, who built the
Banqueting-house at Whitehall, and many other well known edifices, was a
cloth-worker; and he himself was also destined originally for a mechanical
employment.
"Sir EDMUND SAUNDERS, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench in the
reign of Charles II., was originally an errand boy at the Inns of Court,
and gradually acquired the elements of his knowledge of the law by being
employed to copy precedents.
"LINNAEUS, the founder of the science of Botany, although the son of the
clergyman of a small village in Sweden, was for some time apprenticed to a
shoemaker; and was only rescued from his humble employment by accidentally
meeting one day a physician named Rothman, who, having entered into
conversation with him, was so much struck with his intelligence, that he
sent him to the university.
"The father of MICHAEL LOMONOSOFF, one of the most celebrated Russian
poets of the last century, and who eventually attained the highest
literary dignities in his own country, was only a simple fisherman. Young
Lomonosoff had great difficulty in acquiring as much education as enabled
him to read and write; and it was only by running away from his father's
house, and taking refuge in a monastery at Moscow, that he found means to
obtain an acquaintance with the higher branches of literature.
"The famous BEN JONSON worked for some time as a bricklayer or mason; 'and
let not them blush,' says Fuller, speaking of this circumstance in his
'English Worthies,' with his usual amusing, but often expressive
quaintness, 'let not them blush that have, but those that have not, a
lawful calling. He helped in the building of the new structure of
Lincoln's Inn, when, having a trowel in his hand, he had a book in his
pocket.'
"PETER RAMUS, one of the most celebrated writers and intrepid thinkers of
the sixteenth century, was employed in his childhood as a shepherd, and
obtained his education by serving as a lacquey in the College of Navarre.
"The Danish astronomer, LONGOMONTANUS, was the son of a labourer, and,
while attending the academical lectures at Wyburg through the day, was
obliged to work for his support during a part of the night.
"The elder DAVID PAREUS, the eminent German Protestant divine, who was
afterwards Professor of Theology at Heidelberg, was placed in his youth as
an apprentice, first with an apothecary, and then with a shoemaker.
"HANS SACHS, one of the most famous of the early German poets, and a
scholar of considerable learning, was the son of a tailor, and served an
apprenticeship himself, first to a shoemaker, and afterwards to a weaver,
at which last trade, indeed, he continued to work during the rest of his
life.
"JOHN FOLCZ, another old German poet, was a barber.
"LUCAS CORNELISZ, a Dutch painter of the sixteenth century, who visited
England during the reign of Henry VIII., and was patronized by that
monarch, was obliged, while in his own country, in order to support his
large family, to betake himself to the profession of a cook.
"Dr. ISAAC MADDOX, who, in the reign of George II., became bishop, first
of St. Asaph, and then of Worcester, and who is well known by his work in
defence of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, lost both
his parents, who belonged to a very humble rank of life, at an early age,
and was, in the first instance, placed by his friends with a pastrycook.
"The late Dr. ISAAC MILNER, Dean of Carlisle, and Lucasian Professor of
the Mathematics at Cambridge, who had the reputation of one of the first
mathematicians of that University, and who published some ingenious papers
on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, in the 'Philosophical Transactions,'
was originally a weaver--as was also his brother JOSEPH, the well known,
author of a 'History of the Church.' Of the same profession was also, in
his younger days, the late Dr. JOSEPH WHITE, Professor of Arabic at Oxford.
"CASSERIO, a well known Italian anatomist, was initiated in the elements
of Medical Science by a surgeon of Padua, with whom he had lived
originally as a domestic servant.
"JOHN CHRISTIAN THEDEN, who rose to be chief surgeon to the Prussian army
under Frederick II. had in his youth been apprenticed to a tailor."
_Influence of Accident in directing Pursuits_.
"The celebrated Bernard Palissy, to whom France was indebted, in the
sixteenth century, for the introduction of the manufacture of enamelled
pottery, had his attention first attracted to the art, his improvements in
which, form to this time the glory of his name among his countrymen, by
having one day seen by chance a beautiful enamelled cup, which had been
brought from Italy. He was then struggling to support his family by his
attempts in the art of painting, in which he was self-taught; and it
immediately occurred to him that, if he could discover the secret of
making these cups, his toils and difficulties would be at an end. From
that moment his whole thoughts were directed to this object; and in one of
his works he has himself given us such an account of the unconquerable
zeal with which he prosecuted his experiments, as it is impossible to read
without the deepest interest. For some time he had little or nothing to
expend upon the pursuit which he had so much at heart; but at last he
happened to receive a considerable sum of money for a work which he had
finished, and this enabled him to commence his researches. He spent the
whole of his money, however, without meeting with any success, and he was
now poorer than ever. Yet it was in vain that his wife and friends
besought him to relinquish what they deemed his chimerical and ruinous
project. He borrowed more money, with which he repeated his experiments;
and, when he had no more fuel wherewith to feed his furnaces, he cut down
his chairs and tables for that purpose. Still his success was
inconsiderable. He was now actually obliged to give a person, who had
assisted him, part of his clothes by way of remuneration, having nothing
else left; and, with his wife and children starving before his eyes, and
by their appearance silently reproaching him as the cause of their
sufferings, he was at heart miserable enough. But he neither despaired,
nor suffered his friends to know what he felt; persevering, in the midst
of all his misery, a gay demeanour, and losing no opportunity of renewing
his pursuit of the object which he all the while felt confident he should
one day accomplish. And at last, after sixteen years of persevering
exertion, his efforts were crowned with complete success, and his fortune
was made. Palissy was, in all respects, one of the most extraordinary men
of his time; in his moral character displaying a high-mindedness and
commanding energy altogether in harmony with the reach and originality of
conception by which his understanding was distinguished. Although a
Protestant, he had escaped, through the royal favour, from the massacre of
St. Bartholomew; but, having been soon after shut up in the Bastille, he
was visited in his prison by the king, who told him, that if he did not
comply with the established religion, he should be forced, however
unwillingly, to leave him in the hands of his enemies. 'Forced!' replied
Palissy, 'This is not to speak like a king; but they who force you cannot
force me; I can die!' He never regained his liberty, but ended his life in
the Bastille, in the ninetieth year of his age."
* * * * *