"'I should rather be in prison, than to sit up nights studying as you
do.'
"'I really enjoy it, David.'
"'I can hardly credit it.'
"'Then you think I do not speak the truth?'
"'Oh, no!... I only meant to say that I cannot understand it.'
"Allusion is here made to an important fact. David could not understand
how Abraham could possess such a love of knowledge as to lead him to
forego all social pleasures, be willing to wear a threadbare coat, live
on the coarsest fare, and labor hard all day, and sit up half the night,
for the sake of learning. But there is just that power in the love of
knowledge, and it was this that caused Lincoln to derive happiness from
doing what would have been a source of misery to David. Some of the most
marked instances of self-forgetfulness recorded are connected with the
pursuit of knowledge. Archimedes was so much in love with the studies of
his profession, that, etc., etc. Professor Heyne, of Goettingen," etc.,
etc., etc.--A clearer explanation than this we have rarely met with
outside the realm of mathematical demonstration.
A shorter example of the same judicious oversight we have when "in
rushed Nat, under great excitement, with his eyes 'as large as saucers,'
to use a hyperbole, which means only that his eyes looked very large
indeed." The impression which would have been made upon the rising
generation, had the testimony been allowed to go forth without its
corrective, that upon a certain occasion _any_ Governor's eyes were
really as large as saucers, even very small tea-saucers, is such as the
imagination refuses to dwell on.
This exuberance of illustration increases the value of these books in
another respect. To use a homely phrase, we get more than we bargained
for. Ostensibly engaged with the life of the Bobbin Boy, we are covertly
introduced to the majority of all the boys that ever were born and came
to anything. The advertised story is a kind of mother-hen who gathers
under her wings a numerous brood of biographical chicks. Quantities of
recondite erudition are poured out on the slightest provocation. Nat's
unquestioned superiority to his schoolmates evokes a disquisition for
the encouragement of dull boys, in which we are told that "the great
philosopher, Newton, was one of the dullest scholars in school when he
was twelve years old. Doctor Isaac Barrow was such a dull, pugnacious,
stupid fellow, etc., etc. The father of Doctor Adam Clarke, the
commentator, called his boy, etc. Cortina," (vernacular for Cortona,
probably,) "a renowned painter, was nicknamed, etc., etc. When the
mother of Sheridan once, etc., etc. One teacher sent Chatterton home,
etc. Napoleon and Wellington, etc., etc. And Sir Walter Scott was
named," etc., etc., etc. All of which makes very pleasantly diversified
reading. Nat's kindness of heart paves the way to our learning, that,
"at the age of ten or twelve years, John Howard, the philanthropist, was
not distinguished above the mass of boys around him, except for the
kindness of his heart, and boyish deeds of benevolence. It was so with
Wilberforce, whose efforts, etc., etc., etc. And Buxton, whose
self-sacrificing heart," etc., etc. While Nat is swimming four rods
under water, we on shore are acquiring useful knowledge of the
Rothschilds, of Samuel Budget, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Buxton again, Sir
Walter Scott again, and the Duke of Wellington again. Nat walks to
Prospect Hill, and is attended by a suite consisting of Sir Francis
Chantrey, "the gifted poet Burns," "the late Hugh Miller," etc., who
also loved to look at prospects. Nat organized a debating-society,
(which by the way was, "in respect of unanimity of feeling and action, a
lesson to most legislative bodies, and to the Congress of the United
States in particular." Congress of the United States, are you
listening?) and "such an organization has proved a valuable means of
improvement to many persons." Witness "the Irish orator, Curran," with
biography; "a living American statesman," with biography; the "highly
distinguished statesman, Canning," more biography; "Henry Clay, the
American orator," with autobiography; and a meteoric shower of lesser
biographies emanating from Tremont Temple. Nat carried a book in his
pocket, and "Pockets have been of great service to self-made men. A more
useful invention was never known, and hundreds are now living who will
have occasion to speak well of pockets till they die, because they were
so handy to carry a book. Roger Sherman had one when he was a
hard-working shoemaker, etc., etc., etc. Napoleon had one in which he
carried the Iliad when, etc. etc., etc. Hugh Miller had one, etc., etc.,
etc. Elihu Burritt had one," etc., etc., for three pages, to which we
might add, from the best authority, the striking fact which our author,
notwithstanding the wide range of his reading, seems unaccountably to
have missed,--
"Lyddy Locket lost her pocket,
Lyddy Fisher found it,
Lyddy Fisher gave it to Mr. Gaines,
And Mr. Gaines ground it."