but
substituting Welsh when at a loss. He has scarcely ever been at
school, but has learnt English entirely from books. Among other things
he showed us were a Greek Testament and a Hebrew Bible, both of which
he can read. His largest telescope, which is several yards long, he
has named 'Jumbo,' and through it he told us he saw the snowcap on the
pole of Mars. He had another smaller telescope, made by himself, and
had a spectroscope in process of making. He is now quite old, but his
delight in his studies is still unbounded and unabated. It seems so sad
that he has had no right opportunity for developing his talent."

Mr. Wicksteed was very much interested in the case, and called my
attention to it, that I might add the story to my repertory of
self-helping men. While at York I received a communication from Miss
Grace Ellis, the young lady in question, informing me of the name of
the astronomer--John Jones, Albert Street, Upper Bangor--and intimating
that he would be glad to see me any evening after six. As railways
have had the effect of bringing places very close together in point of
time--making of Britain, as it were, one great town--and as the autumn
was brilliant, and the holiday season not at an end, I had no
difficulty in diverging from my journey, and taking Bangor on my way
homeward. Starting from York in the morning, and passing through Leeds,
Manchester, and Chester, I reached Bangor in the afternoon, and had my
first interview with Mr. Jones that very evening.

I found him, as Miss Grace Ellis had described, active, vigorous, and
intelligent; his stature short, his face well-formed, his eyes keen and
bright. I was first shown into his little parlour downstairs,
furnished with his books and some of his instruments; I was then taken
to his tiny room upstairs, where he had his big reflecting telescope,
by means of which he had seen, through the chamber window, the snowcap
of Mars. He is so fond of philology that I found he had no fewer than
twenty-six dictionaries, all bought out of his own earnings. "I am
fond of all knowledge," he said--"of Reuben, Dan, and Issachar; but I
have a favourite, a Benjamin, and that is Astronomy. I would sell all
of them into Egypt, but preserve my Benjamin." His story is briefly as
follows:--

"I was born at Bryngwyn Bach, Anglesey, in 1818, and I am sixty-five
years old. I got the little education I have, when a boy. Owen Owen,
who was a cousin of my mother's,