THE

ART OF DOING OUR BEST.

"READ AND YOU WILL KNOW;"

Or, the Story of a Great Linguist.

"READ and you will know, my boy," said a mother one day to her little son, in answer to his incessant questioning on the various subjects discussed. before him.

The boy turned somewhat impatiently away, though in perfect good humour. The answer was not what he wanted. He knew his mother could, if she chose, enlighten him at once. She had such a clear easy way of explaining things to him; certainly he could read, but that took such a long time, why would she not tell him at once?

The next reply was almost as unsatisfactory as the first had been. Time and experience would shew him why she bade him find out the information he required for himself: "there was no royal

"NO ROYAL ROAD."

road to knowledge," she added; "it must be sought for with affectionate earnestness, acquired with hard labour, or it would bear no fruit, but lie barren for ever!"

So there was nothing left to William Jones but to follow his mother's advice; and he lived long enough to prove its excellence, and to ascribe to it the whole success of his too short life.

He was about ten years old at the time from which our story commences. A terrible accident, the breaking of his thigh-bone, which made him lame and a prisoner to the sofa for months, gave him ample leisure to indulge his passion for reading, for which he had been remarkable from a very early age. His enthusiasm for poetry had induced his mother to get him such books as Dryden's Translation of the Æneid and Pope's Juvenile Poems, and many a long hour was passed by the sick lad in attempting to write verses in imitation of his favourites. Mrs. Jones being herself a woman of extraordinary ability and cultivated taste, would help him to pass the weary time by reading aloud passages from Shakespeare and from others of our English dramatists; so that the twelve months lost for Harrow were not entirely wasted to the little boy.

William Jones was born in London, in the year 1746. His father died while he was still a child of three years old. This loss, so great a misfortune generally to all children, and especially to boys, Mrs. Jones endeavoured to mitigate

THE MOTHER'S GUIDANCE.

5

to the utmost, by devoting herself entirely to the care and education of her little son. It has become quite a common-place remark, how materially the early training of a mother often affects the future destiny of men of genius. The influence and confidence gained by "that best of friends" has been known, not only to direct and sustain a man through all the varied changes of his youth, but to accompany him to the grave, though absence and a lapse of years may have severed for ever the two individuals thus bound together.

It was thus with Mrs. Jones and her son. Kindling the latent spark of ambition in his young mind, she yet shewed him how imperfectly genius would work, unless aided by the good tools of industry and perseverance. "Read and know" meant "work, and be rewarded." We shall now see how William Jones followed out the oftrepeated axiom.

The good and learned Dr. Thackeray was at this time head-master of Harrow School; and thither, as soon as health and strength were somewhat restored, William Jones was sent to resume his studies. There began his first trials. The master in whose class Jones was placed, made no allowance for the twelve months spent in comparative idleness; and, with a curious want of common sense, expected from his pupil the same proficiency as was shewn by the other lads under his tuition, although they had had the benefit of a whole year's instruction in advance of Jones.

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RESOLUTION AND SUCCESS.

With extreme harshness, he soon made the lad aware that he was expected to know without being taught, and, that unless his lessons were better prepared, severe punishment would be his portion. Jones cared little for the threatened chastisement; but the injustice of the rebuke stung him to the quick. There was but one thing to be done. If no one would teach him, he must teach himself; he would show his tutor his mistake in a very decided manner.

Collecting all the elementary treatises which he could lay hold of, and shutting himself up while his companions were at play, he resolutely worked almost day and night until he had mastered his ignorance. The old place was regained gloriously; prize after prize rewarded his industry and perseverance, and verses in imitation of Ovid were written, such as no boy in the lower school had ever before attempted.

This was the lad of whom Dr. Thackeray declared "that he was a boy of so active a mind, that were he left naked and friendless on Salisbury Plain, he would nevertheless find the road to riches and fame."

The start once made, Jones aspired to keep the lead, and was removed to the upper school at twelve years of age. A little anecdote is related of him at this time, which bears testimony, not only to the naturally retentive power of his memory, but to the thoroughness with which he took up any particular line of reading.

JONES' MEMORY.

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It was proposed by his schoolfellows, that they should act a play among themselves for their own amusement, and by Jones' advice "The Tempest " was the piece chosen. Unfortunately, there was not a copy of Shakespeare to be found; and the plan would necessarily have been relinquished, had not Jones proposed to write out the whole of the play from memory. This was done with sufficient accuracy at least to gratify his schoolfellows; and Jones, himself, acted the part of Prospero. 1

But we must not linger over these boyish days, creditable as they are to a man of whom it was said by one of his schoolmates, William Benet, Bishop of Cloyne,-"That the goodness of his head, admirable as it was, was exceeded by that -of his heart." He seems to have endeared himself alike to masters and boys, and, unlike the generality of "good boys," to have made few enemies at school. It was impossible not to respect him for his unwearied diligence and the true love he displayed for knowledge of all kinds; while the holidays gained for the boys, as rewards of his industry, made him a general favourite. Dr. Sumner, a man of very high attainments and reputation, succeeded Dr. Thackeray at Harrow, when Jones was about fifteen years of age; and a friendship and confidence sprung up between master and pupil which ended only with the death of the former. It was with mutual feelings of regret, therefore, that they separated when Jones