Our exemplars, poor and rich; or, Biographical sketches of men and women who have, by an extraordinary use of the opportunities, benefited their fellow-creatures

Contents

Page

Peeface vii

Appendix to the Peeface xv

xques Jasmin 33

OHN BlTNYAN 59

' he King of Poetugal 88

. ridget Bueke 95

Sistee Nathalie. 109

RosaGovebno Ill

Teancoise Caysac 112

Louisa Scheplee 113

Cheistophee Thomson 116

William and Eobeet Chambebs 147

Joseph Tuckeeman, D.D 152

Pathee Mathew 158

De. John Thomson, PJt.S., L. & E 202

Habbiet Ryan 209

Captain Maconochie, E.N., K.H 213

Cathebine Wilkinson 242

John Smeaton 253

CONTENTS.

Page

feedeeic auguste demetz 260

Paul Louis Yeediee 271

Saeah P. Remond 276

John Plummee , 287

Saeah Maettn 297

Sie Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Baet 326

Lady Noel Byeon 338

Preface

At a gathering of Mechanics' Institutions, held at Accrington, in November last, over which I was called upon to preside, it was suggested by Lord Stanley that a biographical w T ork of great interest might be written, describing the rise and progress to wealth and eminence of men who, by the exercise of their own powers of mind and body, have risen from the humbler classes. When offering this excellent suggestion, Lord Stanley was probably not aware that our literature already possessed books written with a nearly similar object, and I referred to one of the earliest — and, perhaps, more widely diffused than any of its successors — u The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties." It was published more than thirty years ago, under the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and was written by Professor Craik, now of Queen's College, Belfast. In this admirable work, too well known to need any description, the object steadily kept in view by the author is not, indeed, the attainment of rank, wealth, or fame, but the acquisition of knowledge ; and, chiefly, the acquisition of knowledge by such as have to encounter the difficulties of self-

Vlll PREFACE.

education. Yet, incidentally, this collection of memoirs and anecdotes shows, that the pursuit of knowledge carries many of its votaries to the heights of worldly fortune, and it therefore supplies, to a certain extent, the want indicated by Lord Stanley ; while, on the other hand, it points to a nobler object of ambition than mere prosperity, in the ordinary sense, however honestly attained.

Within a few weeks after the meeting in Lancashire, there appeared another excellent work, under the title of " Self- Help," which, treating generally of self-advancement, and not being confined to any particular track, realised, perhaps, more completely than the work of Professor Craik, the conception of Lord Stanley.

Nothing can be more worthy of praise than the learned industry with which the author, Dr. Smiles, has collected his almost innumerable instances of success due to self-efforts, or the pleasing manner in which he has displayed them to the reader. It is, however, to be regretted that, in his dissertations — which are generally brief, and always apposite — he now and then promulgates opinions of questionable soundness. Upon one of these instances I am the more disposed to remark, because Dr. Smiles follows in a track in which some writers of eminence have been walking of late. " Solid subjects," he says, u are eschewed, and books demanding application and study lie upon book-shelves unread" (p. 268). And

PREFACE. IX this he attributes to the multiplication of books and newspapers by means of steam-engines and printing-machines, which, he thinks, tends rather towards superficial acquirements than to depth or vigour of thinking. u For," he continues, u while readers are tempted, by the multitude of books, to skim many subjects, they may thereby be so distracted by the variety as to be induced to bottom none of them thoroughly" (p. 266). It cannot be denied that plenty has its temptations, from which we should be protected by famine ; but here, as everywhere else, we must look to the balance of advantage and disadvantage. If printing-machines are criminal, what is to acquit the printing-press ? Indeed, I believe, the art of writing itself has been of late somewhat called in question for relieving the memory, to such an extent as to weaken, by comparative disuse, that noble faculty.

The Editor of this volume has written a statement in answer to the portion of Dr. Smiles's work which I have cited, and it entirely meets my view of the subject; I therefore add it as an appendix to the Preface.

But the exceptions which cajn fairly be made to " Self-Help" on this and one or two other grounds, are as nothing compared to the value of the work ; moreover, the thirty years which have elapsed since the first appearance of the " Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties," have been rich in instances of

X PREFACE.

self-raised men, and of these Dr. Smiles has not been slow to avail himself.

Notices of self-made women, however, are rare in his book — an omission which is disappointing, and which assuredly does not arise from any scarcity of materials.

Professor Craik added a supplementary volume to his work, consisting entirely of female examples. For some reason unknown to me, his last edition is deprived of this volume — a void which* makes the " Lives of Distinguished Women," appearing from month to month in the " English Woman's Journal," all the more acceptable.

Other works are springing up, which the limits of a Preface do not allow me to enumerate. I would, however, especially note the various memoirs of deserving persons of humble origin, which are scattered through the publications of the Brothers Chambers; and also the series called " Self-made Men," in " CasselPs Family Paper." Lastly, I would invite attention to that invaluable repertory of memoirs, Knight's " Biographical Cyclopaedia," their obligations to which I am requested by the authors of this volume to acknowledge.

The present work was suggested by the discussion at the Accrington meeting, although, as the reader is already aware from the title-page, it diverges considerably from the object then held up to view. It seeks to combine Professor Craik's principle, of keep-

PREFACE. XI

ing the reader's mind directed to one final purpose, with the advantage obtained by furnishing him with memoirs of sufficient detail to establish an acquaintance, as it were, between himself and each individual subject of biographical notice ; and thus to engage more completely the sympathies of the student with the toils, the disappointments, the triumphs, the sufferings, and the rewards of the person whose example is set before him. In accordance with the title selected, the biographical sketches illustrate by facts the ability which all, in every rank, possess of adding to the stock of human happiness. The authors have aimed at showing that neither the temptations which beset rank, power, and wealth, nor the hindrances interposed by poverty, ignorance, infirmity, and even disease, are sufficient to prevent man or woman, desirous of doing good, from compassing that great object. In their selection of examples, they have necessarily been under the control of circumstances ; many persons of both sexes, whose histories would have adorned this collection, have been excluded because their lives are already familiar to the public. Of others, the authors were not able to procure information in sufficient detail Xo furnish interesting notices.

And there is yet another class, the omission of which is matter of regret to them, shared by myself. In deference to the wishes of persons whose memoirs would naturally be expected to enrich the work, the

Xll PREFACE, authors have felt bound to abstain from placing them among " Our Exemplars ; " although no lives more worthy to be known could have been inserted. Two individuals of this class must be pointed to, Mary Carpenter and Charles Knight. Fortunately, their labours are too well known, by their duration and their success, for the prohibition imposed to deprive the world of the benefit to be derived from their example.

Every publisher, too, by a self-denying ordinance, must be excluded from a place in a book which he brings before the world ; otherwise a striking instance would have been afforded of early difficulties honourably overcome, and of later opportunities for good well employed, in the life of John Cassell.

After this explanation, the authors will not be for a moment supposed to have undertaken the invidious, and, they desire to add, presumptuous task of selecting the subjects of these memoirs, amid the numberless individuals whose merits command attention, according to any imagined precedence of those taken over those left in a field in which a plenteous harvest remains to be reaped by other labourers. For it may be remarked that in Professor Craik's work, and also to a certain degree in the present volume, persons of eminence have been chosen — persons distinguished from others, generally from all others — for some peculiarity either in talents, acquirements, or success ; but, as will be seen by the reader, there

PREFACE. Xlll

is much to be learnt from the history of t those who have neither gained any renown, nor attained brilliant position, nor even displayed rare capacity ; and the record of their inferior merits and humbler fortunes is both a useful lesson to others, and a benefit to society. But this work does not attempt to fill up the blank left by former writers ; and an account would be both interesting and useful of individuals who, by their honest industry, exerting talents of an ordinary description, have raised themselves from a lowly station, contending with great difficulties of various kinds, till they reached the station of wealthy citizens, or landowners, or successful member of the learned professions ; although their lives presented none of the circumstances which raise our wonder in the biography of the Luthers, the Calvins, the Lauds, the Tillotsons, the Watts, the Arkwrights, the Cooks, the Drakes, the Olives, the Havelocks, the Scotts (brothers), the Scheeles, and the Davys. The power of persevering industry, uniting itself with virtuous dispositions, to exalt ordinary capacity to a high position, deserves to be illustrated by numerous examples ; for these hold out prospects of success to many more than can ever think of the lofty eminence to which the rare gifts of genius claim an exclusive right.

Brougham, October, 1860.

Appendix To The Preface

That many will trifle over novels and newspapers, instead of more vigorously employing their faculties on difficult works, may readily be admitted. But what cannot so easily be conceded is, that frivolous minds, if deprived of light reading, would forthwith plunge into profound study. The trivium and the barber's shop devoured the time of the quidnunc in former days, just as the newspaper does now ; exercising his mind less, and furnishing it with nutriment far inferior, whether as relates to subject, extent, or accuracy; while the ignorant Oriental, who has no novel to read, and who, if he had one, could not read it, spends his hours in smoking his pipe, and listening to his oral novelist, the story-teller. Many a hard student has in his youth exhausted *whole circulating libraries, until satiety and the development of higher powers have forced him to desist. But he has carried away with him an acquaintance with the language of books, a facility of perusal, and the invaluable habit of reading. These are no mean qualifications for attempting loftier pursuits. We are, therefore, not in the least surprised at the statement of Mr. Brown, of Liverpool, who, speaking of the Free Libraries, for which he has

XVI APPENDIX TO THE PREFACE.

just built, at his own cost, a palatial edifice, says, " It is pleasing to observe that the class of books called for is becoming of a higher standard." *

John Plummer's testimony at p. 292 of this little work may be set against the speculations of Dr. Smiles. But the Doctor himself may be cited in refutation of his own argument, which he pushes to the extent of threatening us and our posterity with the gradual decay of moral and mental energy. Yet the diffusion of popular literature in this country has not been the work of a day. It has wonderfully increased, no doubt, within the last few years; but England has always stood at the head of this department of letters, and Dr. Smiles himself shall announce the results. " One of our most distinguished writers," he says, "has, it is true, lamented the decay of that strength of individual character which has been the glory of the English nation ; yet, if we mistake not, no age in our history so little justifies such a lament as the present. Never did sudden calamity more severely test the individual pluck, endurance, and energy of a people, than did the recent outbreak of the rebellion in India ; but it only served to bring out the unflinching self-reliance and dormant heroism of the English race " (p. 21). And he thus continues: — " Equally brilliant instances of individual force of character are also to be found in more peaceful and scientific walks. Is there not Livingstone, with a heroism greater than that of Xavier, penetrating the wilds of South Africa on his mission of Christian civilisation ; Layard, labouring for years to disinter the remains of the buried city of Babylon ; Rawlinson, the decipherer of their

* The Times, October 19, 1860.