proud and resolute, his spirit rose at once into what might be called a fierceness of independence. He resolved within himself to be indebted for support to no hand but his own. His classical education, which, from his feeble vision, had been necessarily imperfect, he now determined to complete, and immediately entered upon the apparently hopeless task, with a view to fit himself as a teacher of youth. He instructed his sisters in the pronunciation of Greek and Latin, and employed one or other constantly in the task of reading aloud to him the classics usually taught in the schools. A naturally faithful memory, spurred on by such strong excitement, performed its oftrepeated miracles; and in a space of time incredibly short, he became master of their contents, even to the minutest points of critical reading. On a certain occasion, a dispute having arisen between Mr. Nelson and the classical professor of the college, as to the construction of a passage in Virgil, from which his students were reading, the professor appealed to the circumstance of a comma in the sentence, as conclusive of the question. "True," said Mr. Nelson, colouring with strong emotion, "but permit me to observe," added he, turning his sightless eyeballs towards the book which he held in his hand, "that in my Heyne edition it is a colon, and not a comma." He soon established a school for classical education. The boldness and novelty of the attempt attracted general attention; the lofty confidence he displayed in himself excited respect; and soon his untiring assiduity, his real knowledge, and a burning zeal, which, knowing no bounds in his devotion to his scholars, awakened somewhat of a corresponding spirit in their minds, completed the conquest. His reputation spread daily, scholars flocked to him in crowds, and in a few years he

found himself in the enjoyment of an income superior to that of any college patronage in the United States. Fernandez Navarete, a distinguished Spanish painter, was seized with an illness, when only two years old, which left him deaf and dumb for life. Yet, in this state, he displayed, from his infancy, the strongest passion for drawing, covering the walls of the apartments with pictures of all sorts of objects, performed with charcoal; and having afterwards studied under Titian, he became eventually one of the greatest artists of his age. He could both read and write, and even possessed considerable learning. Nicholas Saunderson, one of the illustrious men who has filled the chair of Laucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, when only two years old, was deprived by small-pox, not only of his sight but of his eyes themselves, which were destroyed by abscess. He was sent to the school at Penniston, early in life, and soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in Greek and Latin. He acquired so great a familiarity with the Greek language, as to be in the habit of having the works written in it read to him, and following the meaning of the author as if the composition had been in English; while he showed his perfect mastery over the Latin, on many occasions, in the course of his life, both by dictating and speaking it with the utmost fluency and command of expression. In 1728, he was created Doctor of Laws, on a visit of George II. to the university of Cambridge, on which occasion he delivered a Latin oration of distinguished eloquence He published an able and well-known treatise on algebra. a work on fluxions, and a Latin commentary on Sir Isaac Newton's Principia. His senses of hearing and touch were carried to almost incredible perfection. The cele

hrated mathematician, Euler, was struck with blindness in his fifty-ninth year, his sight having fallen a sacrifice to his indefatigable application. He had literally written and calculated himself blind. Yet, after this calamity, he continued to calculate and to dictate books, at least, if not to write them, as actively as ever. His Elements of Algebra, a work which has been translated into every language of Europe, was dictated by him when blind, to an amanuensis. He published twenty-nine volumes quarto, in the Latin language alone. The mere catalogue of his published works extends to fifty printed pages. At his death, he left about a hundred memoirs ready for the press.

Have you wasted the early part of life, and are you now compelled to commence, if at all, a course of selfeducation in the later period of youth, or in middle age? Let not this circumstance, in the least degree, weaken your resolution. Numerous are the instances in which this difficulty has been overcome. Cato, the celebrated Roman censor, showed his force of character very strikingly, by learning the Greek language in his old age. At that time, the study of this tongue was very rare at Rome; and the circumstance renders the determination of Cato, and his success, the more remarkable. It was the first foreign language, also, which he had acquired. Alfred the Great, of England, had reached his twelfth year before he had even learned his alphabet. An interesting anecdote is told of the occasion on which he was first prompted to apply himself to books. His mother, it seems, had shown him and his brothers a small volume, illuminated or adorned in different places with coloured letters, and such other embellishments as was then the fashion. Seeing it excite the admiration of the children,

she promised that she would give it to him who would first learn to read it. Alfred, though the youngest, was the only one who had the spirit to attempt to gain the prize on such conditions, at least it was he who actually won it; for he immediately, as we are told, went and procured a teacher for himself, and in a very short time was able to claim the promised reward. When he came to the throne, notwithstanding all his public duties and cares, and a tormenting disease, which scarcely ever left him a moment of rest, it was his custom, day and night, to employ his whole leisure time, either in reading books himself, or in hearing them read by others. He, however, reached his thirty-ninth year before he began to attempt translating anything from the Latin tongue.

The French dramatist, Molière, could only read and write very indifferently when he was fourteen years of age. Dr. Carter, the father of the celebrated Miss Carter, had been originally intended for a grazier, and did not begin his studies till the age of nineteen or twenty. He eventually, however, became a distinguished scholar; and gave his daughters a learned education. Joannes Pierius Valerianus was fifteen years old before he began to learn to read; his parents, indeed, having been so poor, that he was obliged to commence life as a domestic servant. He became one of the most elegant scholars of his time. Van den Vondel, an honoured name in Dutch poetry, and the author of works which fill nine quarto volumes, did not commence learning Latin till his twenty-sixth year, and Greek not till some years afterwards. Like many others of the literati of Holland, he began life as a commercial man, and originally kept a hosier's shop at Amsterdam; but he gave up the business to his wife, when he commenced his career as an author. He died in ex

treme old age, after having occupied, during a great part of his life, the very highest place in the literature of his country.

John Ogilby, the well known translator of Homer, was originally a dancing-master. He had apprenticed himself to that profession, on finding himself reduced to depend on his own resources, in consequence of the imprisonment of his father for debt. Having been prospered in this pursuit, he was very soon able to release his father, much to his credit, with the first money which he procured. When he had fairly established himself in Dublin, the rebellion of 1641 commenced, and not only swept away all his little property, but repeatedly put even his life in jeopardy. He at last found his way back to London, in a state of complete destitution; notwithstanding he had never received any regular education, he had before this made a few attempts at verse-making, and in his extremity he bethought him of turning his talent in this way to some account. He immediately commenced his studies, which he was enabled to pursue chiefly through the liberal assistance of some members of the University of Cambridge; and although then considerably above forty years of age, he made such progress in Latin, that he was soon considered able to undertake a poetical translation of Virgil. This work made its appearance in the year 1650. A second edition of it was printed a few years afterwards, with great pomp of typography and embellishments. Such was its success, that the industrious translator actually proceeded, although now in his fifty-fourth year, to commence the study of Greek, in order that he might match his version of the Eneid by others of the Iliad and Odyssey. In due time both appeared. In 1666, he was left, by the great fire of