was proabbly admirably adapted to distinguish himself, and from which he might have drawn, at all events, the most valuable assistance in the prosecution of his favourite investigations. Thus, familiar as he was with the phenomena of astronomy and the practical parts of mechanics, and admirable as was his ingenuity in mechanical invention, he knew nothing, or next to nothing, either of abstract mathematics or of the higher parts of algebra. He remained, in this way, to the end of his life, rather a clever empiric, to use the term in its original and more honourable signification, as meaning a practical and experimenting philosopher, than a man of science. This was more peculiarly the sort of peril to which self-educated men were exposed in Ferguson's day, when books of any kind were comparatively scarce, and good elementary works scarcely existed on any subject. Much has since been done and is now doing to supply that great desideratum; and even already, in many departments, the man who can merely read is provided with the means of instructing himself, both at little expense, and with a facility and completeness such as a century, or even half a century ago, were altogether out of the question. Not a little, however, still remains to be accomplished before the good work can be considered as finished; nor, indeed, is it the nature of it ever to be finished, seeing that, even if we should have perfectly arranged and systematized all our present knowledge, time must be constantly adding to our possessions here, and opening new worlds for philosophy to explore and conquer.

Here, then, are inspiring examples, showing how men may triumph over almost any outward circumstances. Nor let it be said that such victories are reserved only for persons of extraordinary intellectual powers. We repeat that it is not genius, but resolution and perseverance, that are wanted. Simpson was not a man of much original or invent

ive talent; nor did he possess any quality of mind which would have made him one of the wonders of his time, if he had set out in life with the ordinary advantages. His writings are all able, generally useful, and sometimes ingenious; but he is not to be enumerated among those who have carried science forward, or materially assisted in any of its great conquests. Not that he was, in point even of mental capacity, by any means an ordinary man; but there is an immeasurable interval between such men as Simpson, and those whose writings and discoveries are destined to infiuence and mould their own and all succeeding ages. His chief talent was great clearness and quickness of apprehension; and very much of this he owed to the eagerness and devotion with which he gave himself up to the study of whatever he wished to make himself master of, and the unremitting attention which he was consequently enabled to apply to it. This, indeed, is rather a habit of mind which may be acquired, than a talent that one must be born with; or, at least, it depends, much more than many other sorts of talent, on those moral qualities which may be excited and strengthened by proper discipline in every man. It was here that Simpson's superiority principally lay-in that passionate love of knowledge which prompted him to seek it in defiance of all impediments, and in that courage and perseverance with which he encountered and overcame, in this pursuit, a succession of difficulties which many would scarcely have had nerve enough to look in the face. Among those born in the same rank of life to which he originally belonged, there are, undoubtedly, at all times, numbers who occasionally feel something of the ambition that animated him; and would at least be very glad if, without much trouble, they could secure for themselves the profit, and power, and enjoyment attendant upon intellectual cultivation. But the desire dies away in them, and ends in noVOL. I.-H

thing, because they have not fortitude enough to set earnestly and resolvedly about combating the obstacles which oppose its gratification.

These obstacles appear, to their indolence and timidity, far more formidable than they really are. There are few cases in which they can be actually combined in greater force than they were in that of him whose history we have just sketched. It may be hoped, it does not often happen in the present day, that a parent shall obstinately oppose his child's innocent and most praiseworthy efforts in the work of selfimprovement. Instruction in the elements of learning, in reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic, if not already, we trust soon will be, in our own country, within the reach of all; so that the son of the humblest citizen shall not, in any case, have to begin life unprovided with what we may call the great pass-keys to all literary and scientific knowledge. Thus furnished, his future progress will depend upon himself; and any degree of proficiency is within his reach. Let those who doubt this reflect on what Thomas Simpson accomplished in circumstances as unfavourable as can well be imagined. His first acquaintance with books was formed during moments stolen from almost incessant labour, and cost him his domestic peace, the favour of his friends, and, finally, the shelter of his father's roof. He never had afterward either any master to instruct him, or any friend to assist him in providing for the necessities of the passing day; but, on the contrary, when he wished to make himself acquainted with any new subject, he could with difficulty find a book out of which to study it, and had a family to support at an age when many have scarcely begun even to maintain themselves. Yet, with both his days and his evenings employed in toiling for a subsistence, he found time for intellectual acquisitions, such as to a less industrious and ardent student would have sufficed for the occupa

tion of a whole life. This is a striking proof how independent we really are, if we choose, of those external circumstances which seem to make so vast a difference between the situation of man and man; and how possible it is for us, in any situation, at least to enrich our minds, though fortune refuse to us all other riches. It is general ignorance of this great truth, or indifference to it, that prevents it from being oftener exemplified; and it would be rendering a high service to the human species, if we could awaken men's minds to a sufficiently lively trust in it, and a steady sense of its importance.

CHAPTER VI.

Pursuits of Knowledge and Business united. Cicero; Jones; Cæsar; Frederic II.; Sully; De Thou; More; Selden; Hale; Grotius.

THE cultivation of science and literature has often been united with the most active and successful pursuit of business, and with the duties of the most laborious professions. It has been said of CICERO, that "no man whose life had been wholly spent in study, ever left more numerous or more valuable fruits of his learning in every branch of science and the polite arts; in oratory, poetry, philosophy, law, history, criticism, politics, ethics: in each of which he equalled the greatest masters of his time; in some of them excelled all men of all times. His remaining works, as voluminous as they appear, are but a small part of what he really published. His industry was incredible, beyond the example or even conception of our days: this was the secret by which he performed such wonders, and recon

ciled perpetual study with perpetual affairs. He suffered no part of his leisure to be idle, or the least interval of it to be lost." These are the words of his learned and eloquent biographer, Dr. Middleton. He says himself in one of his orations, "What others give to their own affairs, to the public shows and other entertainments, to festivity, to amusement, nay, even to mental and bodily rest, I give to study and philosophy." He tells us, too, in his Letters, that on days of business, when he had anything particular to compose, he had no other time for meditating but when he was taking a few turns in his walks, where he used to dictate his thoughts to his amanuenses, or scribes, who attended him. His Letters afford us, indeed, in every way, the most remarkable evidence of the active habits of his life. Those that have come down to us are all written after he was forty years old; and although many, of course, are lost, they amount in number to about a thousand. "We find many of them," says Middleton, "dated before daylight; some from the senate, others from his meals, and the crowd of his morning levee." "For me," he himself exclaims, addressing one of his friends, "even my leisure hours have their occupation."

In modern times the celebrated Sir WILLIAM JONES afforded the world, in this respect, a like example. We have already mentioned his wonderful attainments in languages. All his philosophical and literary studies were carried on among the duties of a toilsome profession, which he was, nevertheless, so far from neglecting, that his attention to all its demands upon his time and faculties constitute one of the most remarkable of his claims to our admiration. But he was from his boyhood a miracle of industry, and showed, even in earliest years, how intensely his soul glowed with the love of knowledge. He used to relate that, when he was only three or four years of age, if he applied to his moth