smuch as the last trials had turned out tolerably well; and
thereafter I thought that I knew enough to get my own living, although
I was far enough from that (as you shall hear afterward)."

This latest experiment filled him with joy, for he had at last
discovered the secret of the enamel. But there was yet much to be
learned, and several years more of extreme poverty and suffering had to
be endured before his labors were rewarded with complete success. But
it came at last in overflowing measure, as it almost invariably does to
those who are willing to work and suffer privation and persevere to the
end.

His work as a potter brought Palissy fame and riches. At the invitation
of Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II of France, he removed to
Paris. He established a workshop in the vicinity of the royal Palace of
the Tuileries, and was thereafter known as "Bernard of the Tuileries."
He was employed by the king and queen and some of the greatest nobles
of France to embellish their palaces and gardens with the products of
his beautiful art.

Notwithstanding his lack of schooling, Bernard Palissy was one of the
most learned men of his day. He founded a Museum of Natural History,
wrote valuable books on natural science, and for several years
delivered lectures on the same subject. His lectures were attended by
the most advanced scholars of Paris, who were astonished at the extent
and accuracy of his knowledge of nature. But he was as modest as he was
wise and good, and when people wondered at his learning, he would reply
with the most unaffected simplicity, "I have had no other book than the
sky and the earth, known to all."

No more touching story of success, in spite of great difficulties, than
Bernard Palissy's has been written. It is bad to think that after the
terrible trials which he endured for the sake of his art, his last
years also should have been clouded by misfortune. During the civil war
which raged in France between the Huguenots and the Catholics, he was,
on account of his religious views, imprisoned in the Bastile, where he
died in 1589, at the age of eighty.

HOW THE "LEARNED BLACKSMITH" FOUND TIME

"The loss of an hour," says the philosopher, Leibnitz, "is the loss of
a part of life." This is a truth that has been appreciated by most men
who have risen to distinction,--who have been world benefactors. The
lives of those great moral heroes put to shame the laggard youth of
to-day, who so