t was a great advantage to him, to enjoy the
opportunity to examine works which he could not possess on account of
his poverty, and such works, too, as the library of his native village
did not contain. It was quite a walk to Harvard College, but necessity
made it comparatively short and pleasant to Nat. Many times he performed
the trip to settle some point of inquiry, or compass some difficult
subject; and the journeys proved to him what similar walks did to Count
Rumford many years before. He, also, was accustomed to visit the
Athenaeum in Boston, at this period of his life, where he spent some
pleasant and profitable hours. To many youth it would seem too great an
outlay of labor to make for an education; but to Nat it was a cheap way
of obtaining knowledge. He was willing to make any sacrifice, and to
perform almost any labor, if he could add thereby to his mental stature.
Often a volume would completely absorb his thoughts upon a given
subject, and he could not let it alone until he had thoroughly canvassed
it; and this was one of the elements of his success--a power of
application, in which all the thoughts were concentrated on the subject
before him. It was thus with Hugh Miller from his boyhood. As an
instance, his biographer relates, that, on one occasion he read a work
on military tactics--a subject that one would think could scarcely
command his attention--and he was so thoroughly controlled by the desire
to understand the military movements described, that he repaired to the
sea-shore, where he got up an imposing battle between the English and
French, with a peck or half bushel of shells, one color representing one
nation, and another color the other nation. Time after time he fought an
imaginary battle with shells, until he definitely understood the
military tactics described in the volume which he read.

Sometimes the perusal of a volume starts off the reader upon a career
that is really different from that which the book describes. By its
hints or suggestions, it awakens the powers to some incidental subject,
upon which they seize with an earnestness and devotion that cannot fail
of success. Thus, when William Carey read the "Voyages of Captain Cook,"
he first conceived the idea of going upon a mission to the heathen
world. There was information imparted in that volume, which, in
connection with the marvellous adventures and success of the great
voyager, fired his soul with the determination to carry the g