, 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 the lot 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.

James Ferguson, the son of a half-starved peasant, learned to read by
listening to the recitations of one of his elder brothers. While a
mere boy he discovered several mechanical principles, made models of
mills and spinning-wheels, and by means of beads on strings worked out
an excellent map of the heavens. Ferguson made remarkable things with
a common penknife. How many great men have mounted the hill of
knowledge by out-of-the-way paths. Gifford worked his intricate
problems with a shoemaker's awl on a bit of leather. Rittenhouse first
calculated eclipses on his plow-handle. _A will finds a way_.

Julius Caesar, who has been unduly honored for those great military
achievements in which he appears as the scourge of his race, is far
more deserving of respect for those wonderful Commentaries, in which
his military exploits are recorded. He attained distinction by his
writings on astronomy, grammar, history,