Self Help | Page 4

infers, from internal evidence in his writings, that
he was probably a parson's clerk; and a distinguished judge of
horse-flesh insists that he must have been a horse-dealer. Shakespeare
was certainly an actor, and in the course of his life "played many parts,"
gathering his wonderful stores of knowledge from a wide field of
experience and observation. In any event, he must have been a close
student and a hard worker; and to this day his writings continue to
exercise a powerful influence on the formation of English character.
The common class of day labourers has given us Brindley the engineer,
Cook the navigator, and Burns the poet. Masons and bricklayers can
boast of Ben Jonson, who worked at the building of Lincoln's Inn, with
a trowel in his hand and a book in his pocket, Edwards and Telford the
engineers, Hugh Miller the geologist, and Allan Cunningham the writer
and sculptor; whilst among distinguished carpenters we find the names
of Inigo Jones the architect, Harrison the chronometer-maker, John
Hunter the physiologist, Romney and Opie the painters, Professor Lee
the Orientalist, and John Gibson the sculptor.
From the weaver class have sprung Simson the mathematician, Bacon
the sculptor, the two Milners, Adam Walker, John Foster, Wilson the
ornithologist, Dr. Livingstone the missionary traveller, and Tannahill
the poet. Shoemakers have given us Sir Cloudesley Shovel the great
Admiral, Sturgeon the electrician, Samuel Drew the essayist, Gifford
the editor of the 'Quarterly Review,' Bloomfield the poet, and William
Carey the missionary; whilst Morrison, another laborious missionary,
was a maker of shoe-lasts. Within the last few years, a profound
naturalist has been discovered in the person of a shoemaker at Banff,
named Thomas Edwards, who, while maintaining himself by his trade,
has devoted his leisure to the study of natural science in all its branches,
his researches in connexion with the smaller crustaceae having been
rewarded by the discovery of a new species, to which the name of
"Praniza Edwardsii" has been given by naturalists.

Nor have tailors been undistinguished. John Stow, the historian,
worked at the trade during some part of his life. Jackson, the painter,
made clothes until he reached manhood. The brave Sir John
Hawkswood, who so greatly distinguished himself at Poictiers, and was
knighted by Edward III. for his valour, was in early life apprenticed to a
London tailor. Admiral Hobson, who broke the boom at Vigo in 1702,
belonged to the same calling. He was working as a tailor's apprentice
near Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight, when the news flew through the
village that a squadron of men-of-war was sailing off the island. He
sprang from the shopboard, and ran down with his comrades to the
beach, to gaze upon the glorious sight. The boy was suddenly inflamed
with the ambition to be a sailor; and springing into a boat, he rowed off
to the squadron, gained the admiral's ship, and was accepted as a
volunteer. Years after, he returned to his native village full of honours,
and dined off bacon and eggs in the cottage where he had worked as an
apprentice. But the greatest tailor of all is unquestionably Andrew
Johnson, the present President of the United States--a man of
extraordinary force of character and vigour of intellect. In his great
speech at Washington, when describing himself as having begun his
political career as an alderman, and run through all the branches of the
legislature, a voice in the crowd cried, "From a tailor up." It was
characteristic of Johnson to take the intended sarcasm in good part, and
even to turn it to account. "Some gentleman says I have been a tailor.
That does not disconcert me in the least; for when I was a tailor I had
the reputation of being a good one, and making close fits; I was always
punctual with my customers, and always did good work."
Cardinal Wolsey, De Foe, Akenside, and Kirke White were the sons of
butchers; Bunyan was a tinker, and Joseph Lancaster a basket-maker.
Among the great names identified with the invention of the steam-
engine are those of Newcomen, Watt, and Stephenson; the first a
blacksmith, the second a maker of mathematical instruments, and the
third an engine-fireman. Huntingdon the preacher was originally a
coalheaver, and Bewick, the father of wood-engraving, a coalminer.
Dodsley was a footman, and Holcroft a groom. Baffin the navigator
began his seafaring career as a man before the mast, and Sir Cloudesley
Shovel as a cabin-boy. Herschel played the oboe in a military band.

Chantrey was a journeyman carver, Etty a journeyman printer, and Sir
Thomas Lawrence the son of a tavern-keeper. Michael Faraday, the son
of a blacksmith, was in early life apprenticed to a bookbinder, and
worked at that trade until he reached his twenty-second year: he now
occupies