Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

a light by which to study, was accustomed to prepare his

lessons by the light of the lamps in the streets and the church

porches, exhibiting a degree of patience and industry which were

the certain forerunners of his future distinction. Of like humble

origin were Hauy, the mineralogist, who was the son of a weaver of

Saint-Just; Hautefeuille, the mechanician, of a baker at Orleans;

Joseph Fourier, the mathematician, of a tailor at Auxerre; Durand,

the architect, of a Paris shoemaker; and Gesner, the naturalist, of

a skinner or worker in hides, at Zurich. This last began his

career under all the disadvantages attendant on poverty, sickness,

and domestic calamity; none of which, however, were sufficient to

damp his courage or hinder his progress. His life was indeed an

eminent illustration of the truth of the saying, that those who

have most to do and are willing to work, will find the most time.

Pierre Ramus was another man of like character. He was the son of

poor parents in Picardy, and when a boy was employed to tend sheep.

But not liking the occupation he ran away to Paris. After

encountering much misery, he succeeded in entering the College of

Navarre as a servant. The situation, however, opened for him the

road to learning, and he shortly became one of the most

distinguished men of his time.

 

The chemist Vauquelin was the son of a peasant of Saint-Andred’Herbetot, in the Calvados. When a boy at school, though poorly

clad, he was full of bright intelligence; and the master, who

taught him to read and write, when praising him for his diligence,

used to say, “Go on, my boy; work, study, Colin, and one day you

will go as well dressed as the parish churchwarden!” A country

apothecary who visited the school, admired the robust boy’s arms,

and offered to take him into his laboratory to pound his drugs, to

which Vauquelin assented, in the hope of being able to continue his

lessons. But the apothecary would not permit him to spend any part

of his time in learning; and on ascertaining this, the youth

immediately determined to quit his service. He therefore left

Saint-Andre and took the road for Paris with his havresac on his

back. Arrived there, he searched for a place as apothecary’s boy,

but could not find one. Worn out by fatigue and destitution,

Vauquelin fell ill, and in that state was taken to the hospital,

where he thought he should die. But better things were in store

for the poor boy. He recovered, and again proceeded in his search

of employment, which he at length found with an apothecary.

Shortly after, he became known to Fourcroy the eminent chemist, who

was so pleased with the youth that he made him his private

secretary; and many years after, on the death of that great

philosopher, Vauquelin succeeded him as Professor of Chemistry.

Finally, in 1829, the electors of the district of Calvados

appointed him their representative in the Chamber of Deputies, and

he re-entered in triumph the village which he had left so many

years before, so poor and so obscure.

 

England has no parallel instances to show, of promotions from the

ranks of the army to the highest military offices; which have been

so common in France since the first Revolution. “La carriere

ouverte aux talents” has there received many striking

illustrations, which would doubtless be matched among ourselves

were the road to promotion as open. Hoche, Humbert, and Pichegru,

began their respective careers as private soldiers. Hoche, while

in the King’s army, was accustomed to embroider waistcoats to

enable him to earn money wherewith to purchase books on military

science. Humbert was a scapegrace when a youth; at sixteen he ran

away from home, and was by turns servant to a tradesman at Nancy, a

workman at Lyons, and a hawker of rabbit skins. In 1792, he

enlisted as a volunteer; and in a year he was general of brigade.

Kleber, Lefevre, Suchet, Victor, Lannes, Soult, Massena, St. Cyr,

D’Erlon, Murat, Augereau, Bessieres, and Ney, all rose from the

ranks. In some cases promotion was rapid, in others it was slow.

Saint Cyr, the son of a tanner of Toul, began life as an actor,

after which he enlisted in the Chasseurs, and was promoted to a

captaincy within a year. Victor, Duc de Belluno, enlisted in the

Artillery in 1781: during the events preceding the Revolution he

was discharged; but immediately on the outbreak of war he re-enlisted, and in the course of a few months his intrepidity and

ability secured his promotion as Adjutant-Major and chief of

battalion. Murat, “le beau sabreur,” was the son of a village

innkeeper in Perigord, where he looked after the horses. He first

enlisted in a regiment of Chasseurs, from which he was dismissed

for insubordination: but again enlisting, he shortly rose to the

rank of Colonel. Ney enlisted at eighteen in a hussar regiment,

and gradually advanced step by step: Kleber soon discovered his

merits, surnaming him “The Indefatigable,” and promoted him to be

Adjutant-General when only twenty-five. On the other hand, Soult

{2} was six years from the date of his enlistment before he reached

the rank of sergeant. But Soult’s advancement was rapid compared

with that of Massena, who served for fourteen years before he was

made sergeant; and though he afterwards rose successively, step by

step, to the grades of Colonel, General of Division, and Marshal,

he declared that the post of sergeant was the step which of all

others had cost him the most labour to win. Similar promotions

from the ranks, in the French army, have continued down to our own

day. Changarnier entered the King’s bodyguard as a private in

1815. Marshal Bugeaud served four years in the ranks, after which

he was made an officer. Marshal Randon, the present French

Minister of War, began his military career as a drummer boy; and in

the portrait of him in the gallery at Versailles, his hand rests

upon a drum-head, the picture being thus painted at his own

request. Instances such as these inspire French soldiers with

enthusiasm for their service, as each private feels that he may

possibly carry the baton of a marshal in his knapsack.

 

The instances of men, in this and other countries, who, by dint of

persevering application and energy, have raised themselves from the

humblest ranks of industry to eminent positions of usefulness and

influence in society, are indeed so numerous that they have long

ceased to be regarded as exceptional. Looking at some of the more

remarkable, it might almost be said that early encounter with

difficulty and adverse circumstances was the necessary and

indispensable condition of success. The British House of Commons

has always contained a considerable number of such self-raised men-

-fitting representatives of the industrial character of the people;

and it is to the credit of our Legislature that they have been

welcomed and honoured there. When the late Joseph Brotherton,

member for Salford, in the course of the discussion on the Ten

Hours Bill, detailed with true pathos the hardships and fatigues to

which he had been subjected when working as a factory boy in a

cotton mill, and described the resolution which he had then formed,

that if ever it was in his power he would endeavour to ameliorate

the condition of that class, Sir James Graham rose immediately

after him, and declared, amidst the cheers of the House, that he

did not before know that Mr. Brotherton’s origin had been so

humble, but that it rendered him more proud than he had ever before

been of the House of Commons, to think that a person risen from

that condition should be able to sit side by side, on equal terms,

with the hereditary gentry of the land.

 

The late Mr. Fox, member for Oldham, was accustomed to introduce

his recollections of past times with the words, “when I was working

as a weaver boy at Norwich;” and there are other members of

parliament, still living, whose origin has been equally humble.

Mr. Lindsay, the well-known ship owner, until recently member for

Sunderland, once told the simple story of his life to the electors

of Weymouth, in answer to an attack made upon him by his political

opponents. He had been left an orphan at fourteen, and when he

left Glasgow for Liverpool to push his way in the world, not being

able to pay the usual fare, the captain of the steamer agreed to

take his labour in exchange, and the boy worked his passage by

trimming the coals in the coal hole. At Liverpool he remained for

seven weeks before he could obtain employment, during which time he

lived in sheds and fared hardly; until at last he found shelter on

board a West Indiaman. He entered as a boy, and before he was

nineteen, by steady good conduct he had risen to the command of a

ship. At twenty-three he retired from the sea, and settled on

shore, after which his progress was rapid “he had prospered,” he

said, “by steady industry, by constant work, and by ever keeping in

view the great principle of doing to others as you would be done

by.”

 

The career of Mr. William Jackson, of Birkenhead, the present

member for North Derbyshire, bears considerable resemblance to that

of Mr. Lindsay. His father, a surgeon at Lancaster, died, leaving

a family of eleven children, of whom William Jackson was the

seventh son. The elder boys had been well educated while the

father lived, but at his death the younger members had to shift for

themselves. William, when under twelve years old, was taken from

school, and put to hard work at a ship’s side from six in the

morning till nine at night. His master falling ill, the boy was

taken into the counting-house, where he had more leisure. This

gave him an opportunity of reading, and having obtained access to a

set of the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica,’ he read the volumes through

from A to Z, partly by day, but chiefly at night. He afterwards

put himself to a trade, was diligent, and succeeded in it. Now he

has ships sailing on almost every sea, and holds commercial

relations with nearly every country on the globe.

 

Among like men of the same class may be ranked the late Richard

Cobden, whose start in life was equally humble. The son of a small

farmer at Midhurst in Sussex, he was sent at an early age to London

and employed as a boy in a warehouse in the City. He was diligent,

well conducted, and eager for information. His master, a man of

the old school, warned him against too much reading; but the boy

went on in his own course, storing his mind with the wealth found

in books. He was promoted from one position of trust to another—

became a traveller for his house—secured a large connection, and

eventually started in business as a calico printer at Manchester.

Taking an interest in public questions, more especially in popular

education, his attention was gradually drawn to the subject of the

Corn Laws, to the repeal of which he may be said to have devoted

his fortune and his life. It may be mentioned as a curious fact

that the first speech he delivered in public was a total failure.

But he had great perseverance, application, and energy; and with

persistency and practice, he became at length one of the most

persuasive and effective of public speakers, extorting the

disinterested eulogy of even Sir Robert Peel himself. M. Drouyn de

Lhuys, the French Ambassador, has eloquently said of Mr. Cobden,

that he was “a living proof of what merit, perseverance, and labour

can accomplish; one of the most complete examples of those men who,

sprung from the humblest ranks of society, raise themselves to the