dependence, that he might devote the rest of his life to
scientific investigation, he declined the offer, saying that "teaching
was a kind of recreation to him, and that if richer he would probably
not spend more time in his investigations than he was accustomed to do."
Faraday's was another instance of moderate means and noble independence.
Lagrange was accustomed to attribute his fame and happiness to the
poverty of his father, the astronomer royal of Turin. "Had I been rich,"
he said, "probably I should not have become a mathematician."

The greatest debtor connected with science was John Hunter, who expended
all his available means--and they were wholly earned by himself--in
accumulating the splendid collection now known as the Hunterian Museum.
All that he could collect in fees went to purchase new objects for
preparation and dissection, or upon carpenters' and bricklayers' work
for the erection of his gallery. Though his family were left in
straitened circumstances at his death, the sale of the collection to the
nation for L15,000 enabled all his debts to be paid, and at the same
time left an enduring monument to his fame.

Great artists have nearly all struggled into celebrity through poverty,
and some have never entirely emerged from it. This, however, has been
mainly because of their improvidence. Jan Steen was always in distress,
arising principally from the habit he had acquired of drinking his own
beer; for he was first a brewer, and afterwards a tavern-keeper. He
drank and painted alternately, sometimes transferring the drinking
scenes of which he had been a witness to the canvas, even while himself
in a state of intoxication. He died in debt, after which his pictures
rose in value, until now they are worth their weight in gold.

Notwithstanding the large income of Vandyck, his style of living was so
splendid and costly as to involve him in heavy debt. To repair his
fortunes, he studied alchemy for a time, in the hope of discovering the
philosopher's stone. But towards the end of his life he was enabled to
retrieve his position, and to leave a comfortable competency to his
widow. Rembrandt, on the other hand, involved himself in debt through
his love of art. He was an insatiable collector of drawings, armour, and
articles of _vertu_, and thus became involved in such difficulties that
he was declared a bankrupt. His property remained under legal control
for thirteen years, until his death.

The great Ital