orth he has put into himself. Franklin was but a poor printer's boy,
whose highest luxury at one time was only a penny roll, eaten in the
streets of Philadelphia.

Michael Faraday was a poor boy, son of a blacksmith, who apprenticed
him at the age of thirteen to a bookbinder in London. Michael laid the
foundations of his future greatness by making himself familiar with the
contents of the books he bound. He remained at night, after others had
gone, to read and study the precious volumes. Lord Tenterden was proud
to point out to his son the shop where he had shaved for a penny. A
French doctor once taunted Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, who had been a
tallow-chandler in his youth, with the meanness of his origin, to which
he replied, "If you had been born in the same condition that I was, you
would still have been but a maker of candles."

Edwin Chadwick, in his report to the British Parliament, stated that
children, working on half time (that is, studying three hours a day and
working the rest of their time out of doors), really made the greatest
intellectual progress during the year. Business men have often
accomplished wonders during the busiest lives by simply devoting one,
two, three, or four hours daily to study or other literary work.

James Watt received only the rudiments of an education at school, for
his attendance was irregular on account of delicate health. He more
than made up for all deficiencies, however, by the diligence with which
he pursued his studies at home. Alexander V was a beggar; he was "born
mud, and died marble." William Herschel, placed at the age of fourteen
as a musician in the band of the Hanoverian Guards, devoted all his
leisure to philosophical studies. He acquired a large fund of general
knowledge, and in astronomy, a science in which he was wholly
self-instructed, his discoveries entitle him to rank with the greatest
astronomers of all time.

George Washington was the son of a widow, born under the roof of a
Westmoreland farmer; almost from infancy his lot had been that of an
orphan. No academy had welcomed him to its shade, no college crowned
him with its honors; to read, to write, to cipher--these had been his
degrees in knowledge. Shakespeare learned little more than reading and
writing at school, but by self-culture he made himself the great master
among literary men. Burns, too, enjoyed few advantages of education,
and his youth was passed in almost abject poverty.