Self-help, with illustrations of character and conduct

Front matter

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Introduction

THE origin of this book may be briefly told.

Some fifteen years since, the author was requested to deliver an address before the members of some evening classes, which had been formed in a northern town for mutual improvement, under the following circumstances :—

Two or three young men of the humblest rank resolved to meet in the winter evenings, for the purpose of improving themselves by exchanging knowledge with each other. Their first meetings were held: ‘In the room of a cottage in which one of the members lived ; and, as others shortly joined them, the place soon became inconveniently filled. When summer set in, they adjourned to the cottage garden outside ; and the classes were then held in the open air, round a little boarded hut used as a gardenhouse, in which those who officiated as teachers set the sums, and gave forth the lessons of the evening. When the weather was fine, the youths might be seen, until a late hour, hanging round the door of the hut like a cluster of bees; but sometimes a sudden shower of rain would dash the sums from their slates, and io them for the evening unsatisfied.

Winter, with its cold nights, was drawing near, and what were they to do for shelter? Their numbers had by

a2 iv INTRODUCTION, this time so increased, that no room of an ordinary cottage could accommodate them. But they were youths of pluck, and determined to go forward with the work they had faken in hand. They resolved, therefore, to hire a room; and, on making inquiry, they found a large, dingy apartment to let, which had been used as a temporary Cholera hospital. No tenant could be found for the place, which Was avoided as if a plague still clung to it. But the mutual improvement youths, nothing daunted, hired the éholera room, lit it up, placed a few benches and a deal table in it, and began their winter classes. The place soon présented a busy and cheerful appearance in the evenings. The teaching may have been, as no doubt it was, of a very rude. and imperfect sort; but it was done with a will. Those who knew a little taught those who knew less—improving themselves while they improved the others; and, at all events, setting before them a good working example. Thus these youths—and there were also grown men amongst them—proceeded to teach themselves and each other, reading and writing, arithmetic and geography ; and even mathematics, chemistry, and some of the modern languages. |

About a hundred young men had thus come together, when, growing ambitious, they desired to have lectures delivered to them; and then it was that the author became acquainted with their proceedings. A party of them waited on him, for the purpose of inviting him to deliver an introductory address, or, as they expressed it, “‘ to talk to them a bit;” prefacing the request by a modest statement of what they had done and what they were doing. He could tot fail to be touched by the admirable self-helping spirit

INTRODUCTION. v which they had displayed; and, though entertaining but slight faith in popular lecturing, he felt that a few words of encouragement, honestly and sincerely uttered, might not be without some good effect. And in this spirit he addressed them on more than one occasion, citing examples of what other men had done, as illustrations of what each might, in a greater or less degree, do for himself; and pointing out that their happiness and well-being as individuals in after life, must necessarily depend mainly upon themselves—upon their own diligent self-culture, self-discipline, and self-control—and, above all, on that honest and upright performance of individual duty, which is the glory of manly character.

There was nothing in the slightest degree new or original in this counsel, which was as old as the Proverbs of Solomon, and possibly quite as familiar. But old-fashioned though the advice may have been, it was welcomed. The youths went forward in their course ; worked on with energy and resolution; and, reaching manhood, they went forth in various directions into the world, where many of them now occupy positions of trust and usefulness. Several years after the incidents referred to, the subject was unexpectedly recalled to the author’s recollection by an evening visit from a young man—apparently fresh from the work of a foundry—who explained that he was now an employer of labour and a thriving man; and he was pleased to remember with gratitude the words spoken in all honesty to him and to his fellow-pupils years before, and even to attribute some measure of his success in life to the endeavouts which he had made to work up to their spirit.

vi INTRODUCTION.

The author's personal interest having in this way been attracted to the subject of Self-Help, he was accustomed to add to the memoranda from which he had addressed these young men; and to note down occasionally in his leisure evening moments, after the hours of business, the results of such reading, observation, and experience of life, as he conceived to bear upon it. One of the most prominent illustrations cited in his earlier addresses, was that of George Stephenson, the engineer ; and the original interest of the subject, as well as the special facilities and opportunities which the author possessed for illustrating Mr. Stephenson’s life and career, induced him to prosecute it at his leisure, and eventually to publish his biography. The present volume is written in a similar spirit, as it has been similar in its origin. The illustrative sketches of character introduced, are, however, necessarily less elaborately treated—being busts rather than full-length portraits, and, in many of the cases, only some striking feature has been noted ; the lives of individuals, as indeed of nations, often concentrating their lustre and interest in a | few passages. Such as the book is, the author now leaves it in the hands of the reader; in the hope that the lessons of industry, perseverance, and self-culture, which it contains, will be found useful and instructive, as well as generally interesting.

London, September 1859,

Chapter I. Self-help—national And Individual

Spirit of self-help — Institutions and men— National progress and decay — Government a reflex of the individualism of a nation — True liberty rests on character — Energetic self-help a prominent feature in the English character — The greatest workers have sprung from the ranks — Uses of biography — Marked individuality of the Englishman — His school of practical life — Opinions of foreigners as to English character : Goethe, Wiese, Rendu — Energy of character exhibited in the humbler ranks— Barbers — Shakespeare — Day-labourers — Weavers — Shoemakers — Tailors — Humble origin of many eminent men — Discovery of a geologist by Sir R. Murchison —Industry honourably recognised in England — Joseph Brotherton — W.§. Lindsay — The middle classes — Newton and Adams—Sons of clergymen—Sons of attorneys—Sons of tradesmen — Richard Owen—Individual application the price of success — Riches not necessary — The wealthy classes — Scientific men : Bacon, Boyle, Cavendish, Rosse — Eminent politicians : Peel, Brougham, Bulwer Lytton, Disraeli — The national character put to the test in India — Montalembert’s opinion — Modern heroism

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Chapter II. Leaders Of Industry—inventors And Producers

Industry of the English nation — Work the best educator — The great inventors principally working men— Forgotten inventors — Invention of the steam engine—James Watt — Establishment of the cotton manufacture— Sir Richard Arkwright— Hargreaves, Kay, Crompton, Roberts — Business qualities of Matthew Boulton — The

Vill CONTENTS.

Peels of South Lancashire — Robert Peel — His invention of calico printing — His character described by his son — The first Sir Robert Peel (of Bury), his success as a manufacturer — Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the Staffordshire Potteries ; his industry, energy, and success — Herbert Minton — Industrial heroes be .. 23-45

Chapter III. Application And Perseverance

Fortune on the side of the industrious — Genius is patience — Newton and Kepler—S8. P. Bidder — Industry of eminent men — Repetition of effort — Sir Robert Peel’s cultivation of memory in Drayton church — Facility comes by practice—Impatience deprecated — Cheerfulness — Sydney Smith, Dr. Hook — Hope, an important element in character — Carey, the missionary — Anecdote of Audubon, the ornithologist — Perseverance displayed in the discovery of the Nineveh marbles by Rawlinson and Layard—Sir Walter Scott's perseverance— John Britton — Loudon —Samuel Drew — Joseph | Hume... ide is os = es es «» 46-69

CHAPTER IV, HELPs AND OPPORTUNITIES—SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS

No great result achieved by accident — Newton's discoveries — Dr. Young — Intelligent observation — Galileo — Inventions of Brown, Watt, and Brunel, accidentally suggested — Philosophy in little things — Franklin and Galvani— Discovery of steam power — Op- @ portunity must be seized or made — Humble tools of great workers — Lee and Stone’s opportunities for learning —Sir Walter Scott's — Dr. Priestley —Sir Humphry Davy — Faraday — Davy and (Coleridge —Cuvier and Hugh Miller—Sir Joseph Paxton — Dalton’s industry — Examples of improvement of time— Elihu Burritt — Daguesseau and Bentham — Melanchthon and Baxter — Writing down observations — Great note-makers — John Hunter; his patient study of little things — Harvey — Jenner — Sir Charles Bell —Sir William Herschel — William Smith, the eres ee Miller —Sir R. Murchison .. RF -- 70-100

CONTENTS. - ix

Chapter V. Workers In Art

Sir Joshua Reynolds’ belief in the force of industry — English artists self-educated — Michael Angelo an indefatigable worker — Art, a long labour — Wilson — Early indications of artistic taste -— Hogarth’s habits of observation and industry — Banks — Mulready — Nollekens — Career of Flaxman — Chantrey —Wilkie and Haydon — Turner — Privations endured by artists — Martin — Pugin — Kemp — Gibson — Thorburn — Noel Paton — Industry of musicians : Haydn, open Bach, aici Dr. Arne — William Jacksong oe Sa a i -- 101-131

Chapter VI. Industry And The English Peerage

The peerage fed from the industrial ranks— Intermingling of classes — Peers among mechanics — Peerages founded by London tradesmen and merchants— Perseverance of Richard Foley, founder of the Foley peerage — Adventurous career of Sir William Phipps, founder of the Normanby peerage— Sir William Petty, founder of the Lansdowne peerage — Jedediah Strutt, founder of the Belper peerage — Naval and military peers—Peerages founded by lawyers — Lord Mansfield — Lord Tenterden — Lord aes —Lord Eldon — Lord Langdale = a js ss -- 182-150

Chapter VII. Energy And Courage

Energy characteristic of the Teutonic race—The foundations of strength of character— Force of purpose — Power of will— Courageous working — The will practically free — Words of Lammenais and Buxton — Where there is a will there is a way — Suwarrow — Napoleon — Wellington — Promptitude of action — The energy displayed by Englishmen in India— Warren Hastings — Napier — The Indian swordsman— The recent Rebellion — The Lawrences — Nicholson — Siege of Delhi — Hodson — Missionary labourers — Howard — The career of Jonas Hanway — The labours of Granville Sharp — Clarkson — Fowell Buxton - ae .- 151-189

b x CONTENTS,

CHAPTER VII.

BUSINESS QUALITIES.

Hazlitt’s definition of the man of business — His chief qualities — Men of genius men of business — Shakespeare, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Cowper, Scott, Wordsworth — Ricardo, Grote, Mill — Industry and application the price of success —— Lord Melbourne’s advice — The school of difficulty wholesome — Conditions of success in law — Too much ease not good for a man— Causes of failure — Every man his own best friend or worst enemy —Dr. Johnson on the alleged injustice of “the world” — Practical qualities necessary in business — Attention to small matters — Accuracy — Words of Mr. Dargan—Charles James Fox — Method— Lord Burleigh and De Witt, their despatch of business — Promptitude — Economy of time — Punctuality — Energy — Tact — Routine and Red Tapeism— The Duke of Wellington’s career as a man of business— Honesty the best policy — Integrity in business — Words of Baron Dupin — Trials and temptations of trade — Confidence reposed by business men in each other — Dishonesty in business — The “ happy warrior ” — David Barclay .. “is ee ve sie - 190-214

CHAPTER IX. Monry—Use AND ABUSE

The right use of money a test of practical wisdom — Economy necessary to independence—The improvident classes helpless— Importance of frugality as a public question — Words of Richard Cobden and John Bright— Independence within reach of most working men — High purposes of economy — Advice given to Francis Horner by his father — Robert Burns— Living within the means— Wasters— Running into debt— The debtor a slave — Haydon’s debts— Fichte — Dr. Johnson on debt—The Duke of Wellington on debt — Washington — Earl St. Vincent — Beginning well — Living too high, a vice in England —Napier’s general order to his officers in India— Resistance to temptation — Hugh Miller’s case — High standard of living necessary — Secret of money-making embodied in popular proverbs— Career of Thomas Wright — All honest industry honourable—An illustrious sweep — Mere money-making —The “love of money” — Worldly success — The power of moncy over-estimated — Respectability, its highest standard os ee a ais bs aie »» 215-239

CONTENTS. xi

Chapter X. Self-culture

Culture must include all parts of man’s nature — Physical culture — Words of Milton—Neglect of bodily exercise produces mental green-sickness as well as ill health — Words of Hodson — Free use of the body and limbs neglected — Uses of mechanical work — Early physical self-culture of Newton — Success of professional men very much a question of health —Lawyers and legislators— Lords Palmerston and Brougham — Health of Sir Walter Scott — The divines, Barrow, Fuller, and Clarke— Diligent application necessary for self-culture — Resolute purpose — Plodding is on the road of genius — Thoroughness— Lord St. Leonards and Bulwer Lytton — Definite objects in study— Having to rely upon one’s own resources useful — Evils of want of confidence — Popular roads to knowledge —Labour-saving processes fallacious— Labour indispensable — Impatience to be avoided —The best culture is self-culture — Dr. Arnold — Knowledge and wisdom — “ Knowledge is power,” so is ignorance — Importance of literary culture probably overrated — Books not the best teachers — The discipline of life and action more valuable —Self-discipline and self-control — Self-respect — Knowledge as a means of “getting on’’— Words of Southey — Competitive examination, its possible evils oe ee » 240-264

Chapter XI, Facilities And Difficulties

Facilities of modern times — Mechanism of the age — Words of Ruskin — Mechanical expedients of “ progress” — Mechanical education — Cramming — Knowledge made pleasant — Amusement — Novel-reading — Pursuit of pleasure— Benjamin Constant— Augustin Thierry — Coleridge and Southey — Robert Nicoll— Uses of difficulty— Becthoven’s opinion of Rossini — Mendelssohn — Experience learnt by encounter with difficulty — Adversity and prosperity — The battle of life an up-hill fight— Difficulty the best school of discipline — Disracli, Henry Clay, Curran — Professors Murray and Moor — William Chambers — William Cobbett — Sir Samuel Romilly — Dr. Channing — Professor Lee— Late learners — Ilustrious dunces — Barrow, Clarke, Swift, Chalmers, Sheridan, Scott, Chatterton, Clive, Howard, and others—The difference between boys consists in encrgy — Their success in life depends on perseverance oe - os ws as os -» 260-292 xii CONTENTS,

Chapter XII. Ex Ample— Models

Example a great teacher— Influence of conduct — Parental example —No act without its train of consequences — Words of Babbage — Human responsibility Every person owes a good example to others— Doing, not telling — Mrs. Chisholm — Dr. Guthrie and John Pounds—~ Example works in unseen directions— Good models of conduct—The company of our betters— Francis Horner’s views on personal intercourse—The Marquis of Lansdowne and Malesherbes— Fowell Buxton and the Gurney family — Personal influence of John Sterling — Influence of artistic genius upon others | —Example of the brave an inspiration to the timid — Biography valuable as furnishing high models of character — Lives influenced by biography — Romilly, Franklin, Drew, Alfieri, Loyola, Wolff, Horner, Reynolds — Examples of cheerfulness — Dr. Arnold's influence over others — Career of Sir John Sinclair 54 -- 293-313

Chapter XIII. | Character—the True Gentleman

Character the noblest possession of a man—Character of Francis Horner — Franklin — Character is power —Its higher qualities — Lord Erskine’s rules of conduct — A high standard of life necessary — Truthfulness —Wellington’s character of Peel — Be what you seem — Integrity and honesty of action —Importance of habits — Habits constitute character— Growth of habit in youth—Trivial things indicate character — Manners and morals — Civility and its opposite — Anecdote of Abernethy — Prejudices — Men of the great heart of no exclusive rank or class— The Gentleman — Lord Edward Fitzgerald — Honour, probity, rectitude— The gentleman will not be bribed — Anecdotes of Wellington and Wellesley — The poor may be rich in spirit— A noble peasant— Anecdotes of the Emperor of Austria, and two English navvies— Truth makes the success of the gentleman — Courage and gentleness — Gentlemen in India — Outram, Henry Lawrence, Lord Clyde — Private soldiers at Agra — The wreck of the Birkenhead — The exercise of power the crucial test of the gentleman—Sir Ralph Abercrombie —Fuller’s character of Sir Francis Drake ss ss ai .- 814-334

SELF-HELP, é&e.

Chapter I. Self-help—national And Individual

‘<The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.’”—J, S. Dill,

‘‘We put too much faith in systems, and look too little to men.”— B. Ihsraeli.

‘* HEAVEN helps those who help themselves” is a wellworn maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience. The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual ; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates. Whatever is done for men or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for themselves; and where men are subjected to over-guidance and over-government, the inevitable tendency is to render them comparatively helpless.

Even the best institutions can give a man no active aid. Perhaps the utmost they can do is, to leave him free to develop himself and improve his individual condition. But in all times men have been prone to believe that their happiness and well-being were to be secured by means of institutions rather than by their own conduct. Hence the value of legislation as an agent in human

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2 NATIONAL PROGRESS, . Cuap. [.

advancement has always been greatly over-estimated. To constitute the millionth part ofa Legislature, by voting for one or two men once in three or five years, however conscientiously this duty may be performed, can exercise but little active influence upon any man’s life and character. Moreover, it is every day becoming more clearly understood, that the function of Government is negative and restrictive, rather than positive and active ; being resolvable principally into protection—protection of life, liberty, and property. Hence the chief ‘ reforms” pf the last fifty years have consisted mainly in abolitions and disenactments. But there is no power of law that can make the idle man industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober ; though every individual can be each and all of these if he will, by the exercise of his own free powers of action and self-denial. Indeed all experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a State depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men. For the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal improvement.

National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice. What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be only the outgrowth of our own perverted life; and though we may endeavour to cut then down and extirpate them by means of Law, they will only spring up again with fresh luxuriance in some other form, unless the individual conditions of human life and character are radically improved. If this view be correct, then it follows that the highest patriotism and philanthropy consist, not so much in altering laws and modifying institutions, as in helping and stimulating men to elevate and improve themselves by their own free and independent action as individuals.

The Government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflex of the individuals composing it. The Go-

Cuap. I. WHO ARE THE FREE, 3 vernment that is ahead of the people will be inevitably dragged down to their level, as the Government that is behind them will in the long run be dragged up. In the order of nature, the collective character of a nation will as surely find its befitting results in its law and its government, as water finds its own level. The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly. Indeed, liberty is quite as much a moral as a political growth —the result of free individual action, energy, and independence. It may be of comparatively little consequence how a man is governed from without, whilst everything depends upon how he governs himself from within. The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice. There have been, and perhaps there still are, so-called patriots abroad, who hold it to be the greatest stroke for liberty to kill a tyrant, forgetting that the tyrant usually represents only too faithfully the millions of people over whom he reigns. But nations who are enslaved at heart cannot be freed by any mere changes of masters or of institutions; and so long as the fatal delusion prevails, that liberty solely depends upon and consists in government, so long will such changes, no matter at what cost they be effected, have as little practical and lasting result as the shifting figures in a phantasmagoria. The solid foundations of liberty must rest upon individual character ; which is also the only sure guarantee for social security and national progress. In this consists the real strength of English liberty. Englishmen feel that they are free, not merely because they live under those free institutions which they have so laboriously built up, but because each member of society has to a greater or less extent got the root of the matter within himself; and they continue to hold fast and enjoy their liberty, not by freedom of speech merely, but by their steadfast life and energetic action as free individual men.

Such as England is, she has been made by the thinking

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4 LIFE A SOLDIERS’ BATTLE, CuHap. Is.

and working of many generations; the action of even the least significant person having contributed towards the production of the general result. Laborious and patient men of all ranks—cultivators of the soil and explorers of the “Mine—inventors and discoverers—tradesmen, mechanics, and labourers—poets, thinkers, and politicians—all have worked together, one generation carrying forward the labours of another, building up the character of the country, and establishing its prosperity on solid foundations. This succession of noble workers—the artisans of civilization—has created order out of chaos, in industry, science, and art: and as our forefathers laboured for us, and we have succeeded to the inheritance which they have bequeathed to us, so is it our duty to hand it down, not ‘only unimpaired, but improved, to our successors.

This spirit of self-help, as exhibited in the energetic action of individuals, has in all times been a marked feature in the English character, and furnishes the true measure of our power as a nation. Rising above the heads of the mass, there have always been a series of individuals distinguished beyond others, who have commanded the public homage. But our progress has been owing also to multitudes of smaller and unknown men. Though only the generals’ names may be remembered in the history of any great campaign, it has been mainly through the individual valour and heroism of the privates that victories have been won. And life, too, is ‘‘a soldiers’ battle,” the greatest workers in all times having been men in the ranks. Many are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully influenced civilization and progress as the more fortunate Great whose names are recorded in biography. Even the humblest person, who sets before his fellows an example of industry, sobriety, and upright honesty of purpose in life, has a present as well as a future influence upon the well-being of his country; for his life and character pass unconsciously into the lives of others, and propagate good example for all time to come.

‘CuapP. I, ENGLISH PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 4)

Biographies of great, but especially of good men, are, nevertheless, most instructive and useful, as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best are almost equivalent to Gospels—teaching high living, high thinking, and energetic action for their own and the world’s good. British biography is studded over, as ‘‘ with patines of bright gold,” with illustrious examples of the power of self-help, of patient purpose, resolute working, and steadfast integrity, issuing in the formation of truly noble and manly character; exhibiting in language not to be misunderstood, what it is in the power of each to accomplish for himself; and illustrating the efficacy of self-respect and self-reliance in enabling men of even the humblest rank to work out for themselves an honourable competency and a solid reputation.

Foreign observers have been keen to note, as one of the most marked characteristics of the Englishman, his strong individuality and distinctive personal energy,—refusing to merge himself in institutions, but retaining throughout his perfect freedom of thought, and speech, and action. ‘Que jaime la hardiesse Anglaise! que j’aime les gens qui disent ce qu’ils pensent!” was the expressive exclamation of Voltaire. It is this strong individualism which makes and keeps the Englishman really free, and brings out fully the action of the social body. The energies of the strong form so many living centres of action, round which other individual energies group and cluster themselves; thus the life of all is quickened, and, on great occasions, a powerful energetic action of the nation is secured.

It is this energy of individual life and example acting throughout society, which constitutes the best practical education of Englishmen. Schools, academies, and colleges, give but the merest beginnings of culture in comparison with it. Far higher and more practical is the life-education daily given in our homes, in the streets, behind counters, in workshops, at the loom and the plough, in countinghouses and manufactories, and in all the busy haunts of

6 GOETHE’S OPINION OF ENGLISHMEN. CuaP. I.

men. This is the education that fits Englishmen for doing the work and acting the part of freemen. This is that final instruction as members of society, which Schiller designated ‘the education of the human race,” consisting in action, conduct, self-culture, self-control,—all that tends to discipline a man truly, and fit him for the proper performance of the duties and business of life,—a kind of education not. to be learnt from books, or acquired by any amount of mere literary training. With his usual weight of words, Bacon observes, that ‘‘ Studies teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation ;” a remark that holds true of actual life, as well as _of the cultivation of the intellect itself. For all observation tends to illustrate and enforce the lesson, that a man perfects himself by work much more than by reading,—that it is life rather than literature, action rather than study, and character rather than biography, that tends perpetually to renovate mankind.

Goethe, in one of his conversations with Eckermann at Weimar, once observed, ‘‘It is very strange, and I know not whether it lies in mere race, in climate and soil, or in their healthy education, but certainly Englishmen seem to have a great advantage over most other men. We see here in Weimar only a minimum of them, and those, probably, by no means the best specimens, and yet what splendid fellows they are! And although they come here as seventeen-year-old youths, yet they by no means feel strange in this strange land; on the contrary, their entrance and bearing in society is so confident and quiet that one would think they were everywhere the masters, and the whole world belonged to them.” “I should not like to affirm, for all that,” replied Eckermann, his head filled, like most Germans, with the idea that education consists in the study of books and the grinding of gerunds, ‘1 should not like to affirm that the English gentlemen in Weimar are cleverer, better educated, and better hearted than our young men.”’ ‘That is not the point,” said Goethe; ‘their superiority

Cuap.I. ESSENTIAL VALUE OF THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 7 does not lie in such things; neither does it lie in their birth and fortune; it lies precisely in their having the courage to le what nature made them. There is no halfness about them. They are complete men. Sometimes complete fools also, that I heartily admit; but even that is something, and has its weight.” In Goethe’s eyes the Englishman fulfilled, to a great extent, the injunction given by Lessing to those who would be men: “Think wrongly if you please, but think for yourself.”