CHAPTER VI.

Self-educated Men. T. Simpson.

MANY of the persons who have most remarkably distinguished themselves by their ardour and success in the pursuit of knowledge under adverse circumstances, have had no master to instruct them in anything beyond perhaps the mere elements of reading; and have taught themselves, therefore, whatever else they had acquired, by their own unaided efforts. To have done this indicates, undoubtedly, a decidedly superior mind; but it is more honourable, perhaps, to an individual's force of character, and zeal for intellectual improvement, than even to his strength of native talent. For a teacher is really not so indispensable to the work of education as is often supposed. Every branch of human knowledge has in fact been acquired, as we have already remarked, without the assistance of an instructor, if by no one else, at least by him who first found it out. But this sort of self-instruction, demanding, as it does, the application of original and inventive genius, indicates a much more extraordinary degree of mental capacity than is required merely to gain an acquaintance by solitary study with any department of science, or other species of learning, which is to be found already expounded in books. A good elementary book upon any subject is itself a teacher which, to a person of ordinary intelligence, ought almost to render any other unnecessary. In the present age, especially, when such works abound, persons so circumstanced as not to be able easily to obtain the lessons of a living master, will find com

paratively but little difficulty in teaching themselves any of the common branches of education; if they will but make the attempt with a true desire and determination to succeed in it, and are not devoid of those powers of attention and perseverance without which there can be no success in anything. The truth is, that even those who enjoy to the greatest extent the advantages of what is called a regular education, must be their own instructors as to the greater portion of what they acquire, if they are ever to advance beyond the elements of learning. What they learn at schools and colleges is comparatively of small value, unless their own after-reading and study improve those advantages. Still, however, it may be said, that it is a great matter for the young student to have the first steps of his progress encouraged and facilitated, by thus advancing, as it were, while another holds him by the hand. Compared with him who educates himself from the beginning, such a student may be regarded as entering upon a new country under the conduct of a guide, instead of endeavouring to find his way through it by the aid simply of the road-book. Or rather, he is in the situation of the man who begins the world with a fortune, which, though small, is yet sufficient to set him up in business; while others have to earn even their first shilling by their own ingenuity and industry. Undoubtedly the person thus circumstanced has a somewhat gentler ascent to climb, in the first instance, than his competitors. Still all must owe what they eventually arrive at principally to their own efforts. And if this be, generally speaking, true of commercial prosperity, it is still more strictly so of the acquisition of intellectual riches; for, in this latter case, what is called good-fortune can be of no avail to any one. But the examples which we are going to mention will show how much every man has it in his

own power to do for himself, when placed in the

situation referred to.

The first case we shall detail is that of the wellknown mathematician, THOMAS SIMPSON. He was born in the town of Market-Bosworth, in Leicestershire, in the year 1710. His father was a working stuff-weaver, and was either so poor, or so insensible to the importance of education, that, after keeping his son at school only so long as to enable him to make a very slight progress in reading, he took him home with the view of bringing him up to his own trade. Thomas, however, had already acquired a passionate love of books, and was resolved at all hazards to make himself a scholar. So, beside contriving to teach himself writing, he read with the greatest eagerness every volume that came in his way, or that he could by any means procure; and spent in this manner not only all his leisure, but even occasionally a portion of the time which his father thought he ought to have employed at his work. Instead of giving any encouragement, indeed, to his son's fondness for study, his father did all in his power to cure him of what he deemed so idle and pernicious a propensity; and at last, it is said, after many reprimands, forbade him even to open a book, and insisted upon his confining himself to his loom the whole day. This injudicious severity, however, defeated its own object. The young man's repeated attempts to evade the harsh injunction that had been laid upon him, led to perpetual quarrels between himself and his father, till he was one day ordered by the latter to leave the house altogether, and to go and seek his fortune where and in whatever way he chose. In this extremity he took refuge in the house of a tailor's widow, who let lodgings in the neighbouring village of Nuneaton, and with whose son, two years older than himself, he had been previously acquainted. Here he

contrived to maintain himself for a while by working at his business; and had at least a little time to spare besides for his favourite enjoyment of reading, when he could anywhere borrow a book. It chanced, however, that, among other humble travellers who sometimes took up their abode with the widow, was a pedlar, who followed the profession of an astrologer and fortune-teller, as well as that of an itinerant merchant, and was accordingly accounted a man of no little learning by the rustics of those parts. Young Simpson's curiosity had been, some time before this, greatly excited by a remarkable eclipse of the sun, which happened on the 11th of May, 1724; but, if this was the incident that gave his mind its first bias towards the studies in which he afterwards attained so high a distinction, it was to his casual connexion with the astrologer that he owed the rudiments of his scientific knowledge. This personage, with whom he had become very intimate, had, it appears, a few books relating to the mystery he professed, and to the branches of real learning held to be connected with it. Among these were Cocker's "Arithmetic,' which had, fortunately, a treatise on Algebra bound up with it-as well as the less useful addition of a work written by Partridge, the famous Almanac-maker, on the calculation of nativities. Both these volumes, the pedlar, on setting out upon a tour to Bristol, left in the hands of his young friend. These were the first scientific works Simpson had ever had an opportunity of perusing, and they interested him exceedingly-even the book on nativities, notwithstanding the absurdities it was filled with, probably not a little exciting his wonder and curiosity, both by its mysterious speculations on the prophetic language of the stars, and such scattered intimations as it afforded in regard to the sublime realities of astronomy. He studied his manuals with such

ardour and assiduity, that the pedlar, upon returning from his excursion, was quite confounded at his progress; and looked upon him as so marvellous a genius, that he proceeded forthwith to draw his horoscope (to speak in the jargon of the art), or, in other words, to calculate the position of the planets on the day he was born, in order that he might ascertain the splendid destiny in store for him. He predicted, that in two years more this miraculous pupil would actually turn out a greater philosopher than himself. After this, it cannot surprise us that our young aspirant should give himself to his occult studies with greater devotion than ever; and we find him, in fact, ere long, commencing business as fortune-teller on his own account, and rapidly rising in reputation in that capacity until he became the oracle of the whole neighbourhood. He now gave up working as a weaver; but, to occupy his leisure, he added to his principal profession that of a schoolmaster: so that, his gains being now considerable, he looked upon himself as in the secure high road to prosperity, and accordingly took to himself a wife in the person of his landlady, the tailor's widow, whom we have already mentioned. This was a somewhat singular match; for, if the account commonly given of the lady be correct (which account makes her die in the year 1782, at the age of one hundred and two), she must have been, at the time of this her second marriage, about three times as old as her husband. Indeed, as we have already observed, she had (beside a daughter) a son by her former husband two years older than her new one. Nevertheless it is recorded, that she presented the latter with two successive additions to the family-the juvenile portion of which (excluding the father) now consisted, therefore, of four individuals.

It is necessary to mention these circumstances, in