earned. They put themselves in the way of luck. They keep themselves wide awake. They make the best of what opportunities they possess, and always stand ready for more; and when a mechanic does thus much, depend on it, it must be hard luck indeed if he do not get at least employers, customers, and friends. "One needs only," says an American writer, " to turn to the lives of men of mechanical genius to see how, by taking advantage of little things and facts which no one had observed, or which every one had thought unworthy of regard, they have established new and important principles in the arts, and built up for themselves manufactories for the practice of their newlydiscovered processes." "And yet these are the men who are called the lucky fellows, and sometimes envied as such. Who can deny that their luck is well earned? or that it is just as much in my power to "go ahead," as the Yankees say, as it was in theirs.*

A TASTE FOR READING.

In an admirable speech on the subject of common-school education, delivered by Governor Everett at a public meeting at Taunton, Bristol county, in one of the New-England States, the following passages occur on the cultivation of a taste for reading:

"It is a great mistake to suppose that it is necessary to be a professional man in order to have leisure to indulge a taste for reading. Far otherwise. I believe the mechanic, the engineer, the husbandman, the trader, has quite as much leisure as the average of men in the learned professions. I know some men busily engaged in these different callings of active life, whose minds are well stored with various useful knowledge, acquired from books. There would be more such men, if education in our common schools were, as it well might be, of a higher order; and if common-school libraries, well furnished, were introduced into every district, as I trust in due time they will be. It is surprising how much may be effected, even under the most unfavourable circumstances, for the improvement of the mind, by a person resolutely bent on the acquisition of knowledge. A letter has lately been put into my hands, so interesting in itself, and so strongly illustrative of this point, that I will read a portion of it; though it was written, I am sure, without the least view to publicity.

'I was the youngest,' says the writer, 'of many brethren, and my parents were poor. My means of education were limited to the advantages of a district school, and these again were circumscribed by my father's death, which deprived me, at the age of fifteen, of those scanty opportunities which I had previously enjoyed. A few months after his decease, I apprenticed myself to a blacksmith in my native village. Thither I carried an indo

*From an excellent little book called "Hints to Mechanics."

mitable taste for reading, which I had previously acquired through the medium of the society library; all the historical works in which I had at that time perused. At the expiration of a little more than half my apprenticeship, I suddenly conceived the idea of studying Latin. Through the assistance of an elder brother, who had himself obtained a collegiate education by his own exertions, I completed my Virgil during the evenings of one winter. After some time devoted to Cicero, and a few other Latin authors, I commenced the Greek. At this time it was necessary that I should devote every hour of daylight, and a part of the evening, to the duties of my apprenticeship. Still I carried my Greek grammar in my hat, and often found a moment, when I was heating some large iron, when I could place my book open before me against the chimney of my forge, and go through with tupto, tupteis, tuptei, unperceived by my fellow apprentices, and, to my confusion of face, with a detrimental effect to the charge in my fire. At evening I sat down, unassisted and alone, to the Iliad of Homer, twenty books of which measured my progress in that language during the evenings of another winter. I next turned to the modern languages, and was much gratified to learn that my knowledge of the Latin furnished me with a key to the literature of most of the languages of Europe. This circumstance gave a new impulse to the desire of acquainting myself with the philosophy, derivation, and affinity of the different European tongues. I could not be reconciled to limit myself in these investigations to a few hours after the arduous labours of the day. I therefore laid down my hammer, and went to New Haven, where I recited to native teachers in French, Spanish, German, and Italian. I returned at the expiration of two years to the forge, bringing with me such books in those languages as I could procure. When I had read these books through, I commenced the Hebrew with an awakened desire of examining another field; and by assiduous application, I was enabled in a few weeks to read this language with such facility, that I allotted it to myself as a task, to read two chapters in the Hebrew Bible before breakfast each morning; this, and an hour at noon, being all the time that I could devote to myself during the day. After becoming somewhat familiar with this language, I looked around me for the means of initiating myself into the fields of Oriental literature, and to my deep regret and concern, I found my progress in this direction hedged up by the want of requisite books. I immediately began to devise means of obviating this obstacle; and after many plans, ! concluded to seek a place as a sailor on board some ship bound to Europe, thinking in this way to have opportunities of collecting at different ports such works in the modern and Oriental languages as I found necessary for this object. I left the forge and my native place to carry this plan into execution. I travelled on foot to Boston, a distance of more than a hundred miles, to find

some vessel bound to Europe. In this I was disappointed; and while revolving in my mind what steps next to take, I accidentally heard of the hall of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. I immediately bent my steps towards this place. I visited the hall, and found there, to my infinite gratification, such a collection of ancient, modern, and Oriental languages, as I never before conceived to be collected in one place; and, sir, you may imagine with what sentiments of gratitude I was affected, when, upon evincing a desire to examine some of these rich and rare works, I was kindly invited to an unlimited participation in all the benefits of this noble institution. Availing myself of the kindness of the directors, I spend about three hours daily at the hall, which, with an hour at noon, and about three in the evening, make up the portion of the day which I appropriate to my studies, the rest being occupied in arduous manual labour. Through the facilities afforded by this institution, I have been able to add so much to my previous acquaintance with the ancient, modern, and Oriental languages, as to be able to read upwards of fifty of them with more or less facility.'

"I trust I shall be pardoned by the ingenuous author of this letter, and the gentleman to whom it is addressed, for the liberty I have taken, unexpected, I am sure, by both of them, in thus making it public. It discloses a resolute purpose of improvement (under obstacles and difficulties of no ordinary kind) which excites my admiration, I may say my veneration. It is enough to make one who has had good opportunities for education hang his head in shame."

The party thus alluded to is Elihu Burritt, well known as a journalist and a lecturer on Peace.

66

ECONOMY.

Of this indispensable virtue something has already been said. Economy signifies management-the proper management of means. It is an old saying, "that a penny in the purse is better than a friend at court." There is much truth in this; for if we cannot help ourselves by any little reserve which we may have laid up for the day of misfortune, we shall perhaps find that we are held in very little estimation even by those whom we suppose to be our friends. Help yourselves, and your friends will like you the better," is a capital old proverb to keep in remembrance; nothing being more certain than that we shall be the more thought well of, the more we do not require to ask any favours or assistance. To working-men it should be an object of high ambition to attain as great proficiency as possible in the business to which they have attached themselves. In general, this proficiency is only to be acquired by leaving the place of their birth, or where they have been bred, and going to a town where there is more to be learned. Young artisans should, if possible, always see as much as they can of the way of working at their respec

tive handicrafts. But to travel to a distance, to remove from one place to another, is attended with a certain expense; and how is this expense to be borne unless something has been saved? It very often happens, that for want of so small a sum as twenty shillings, a working-man is completely hampered in his designs of bettering his condition, by removal to a better locality, and is likewise totally unable to improve himself by going to see better modes of handicraft.

These should form strong arguments for artisans attempting to save a little money off their wages. True, their wages are frequently small; but if there be a sincere desire to rise in the world, or to maintain permanently a degree of decent comfort, even although a man should remain a hard labourer the greater part of his life, it is essentially requisite that an effort should be made to store up a trifle from the amount of the weekly, quarterly, or halfyearly wage. If the great future-the whole of an after-period of life-is to be for ever sacrificed to the limited present, no good can ever be expected to be done by any one, no matter what be his rank or occupation. How many thousands willingly doom themselves to a life of perpetual struggling with poverty, simply by consuming daily the whole of what they earn daily! If they would but lay by the merest fraction of their daily winnings, there would be no fear of the result; but this they perversely neglect, or are unwilling to do, and lasting hard labour and harassment-sometimes having, sometimes wanting is the consequence. At his outset in life, the writer of this had not five shillings in the world, and had not a single friend to help him -he was unknown, and steeped in penury. Now, that he is surrounded with comforts, nothing strikes him as so remarkable, as seeing persons going about who have not advanced one inch during a long interval of years, and who, as he remembers, were exactly on a par with him as to poverty, occupation, and resources. There they are, the same forlorn, poverty-stricken beings; the only difference in the present day being, that they are now much older and less able to undergo exertion than formerly. The only cause which can be assigned for these persons remaining in their original condition is, that they have daily consumed what they have daily earned left nothing over; while he who writes, at first entered upon a regular practice, to which he strictly adhered, of not consuming all that he earned, but on the contrary saving a trifle, and so adding to his stock and his resources. The difference in point of enjoyment in the two lines of conduct is just this-that in the one, all "the good things" are eaten up by the way in youth; while in the other, a certain quantity are reserved to be eaten up in middle and old age. No man can "both eat his loaf and have it."

If those individuals whom I have mentioned as having been so imprudent as to consume the whole of their earnings, had been at any time asked why they did not save a little as they

went on, the answer in all likelihood would have been, "What use is it?-what good can the saving of a penny or two do? If we could lay by a pound now and then, it would be something; but for poor fellows like us to try to save, is all stuff: let us enjoy life while we have it; we may all be dead to-morrow; so let us have another bottle of ale, as long as we can get it." Such is the ridiculous sort of reasoning of thousands of young men who could easily, by a little self-denial, put themselves in the way of enjoying much future comfort, not to speak of respectability of character. It is clear that these reasoners are blind to one of the most important objects of attainment in economising means. He who spends all he wins, has never anything to enable him to embrace any favourable opportunity that may arise of bettering himself. It is true that to save a penny or two is of very little use; but if the habit of saving a penny or two, whether in money or any other kind of property, once becomes fixed, and the thoughts-be turned in the direction of advancement, the accumulation will go on, and be ultimately successful. We shall suppose that an artisan, by saving, one way and another, has ten pounds accumulated and safely lodged in a Savings' Bank. Now, just think for a little on what can be done with ten pounds. A working-man, with ten pounds, and free of debt or incumbrances, is in an enviable state of independence. For this sum he can transport himself to any part of America where the highest wages are given for labour; and this being done judiciously, he will be in the midst of plenty for life-be in a condition to be envied by half the gentry in Britain. For this sum he can perhaps set up in business in a small way at home. Or he can weather out any serious dulness in his trade, till better times arrive. Or he can endure with complacency a temporary illness, which lays him off work. Or he can remove to a distant town where the best kind of employment in his profession is to be had. Or, supposing he be an aspiring young man, he can greatly improve his skill by travelling. We mention these things to show what advantages are frequently lost by working-men having never anything to spare. A few pounds, the result of saving, well laid out in the way just spoken of, will furnish ideas, which are a sort of capital for life. Besides, for the sake of the mere rational gratification of seeing other scenes of industry than those which surround a man's birthplace, it is worth while making a little sacrifice, exercising a little self-denial.

However advantageous the saving of money may be to young unmarried artisans, the practice is essentially requisite by men who have burdened themselves with a wife and children. In their case contingencies are constantly arising in which extra expenditure is required, not to speak of the necessities which ensue and must be provided for when stoppages of employment occur. According to the constitution of trade and manufactures in this country, sudden and embarrassing stoppages may from