DR. SAMUEL LEE,
Now Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge, being the son of a poor widow, who was left to struggle for the support of two younger children, was apprenticed to a carpenter, at twelve years of age, after receiving a merely elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic in the charity-school of the village of Longmore, in Shropshire. His love of books became fervent, and the Latin quotations he found in such as were within his reach kindled a desire to penetrate the mystery of their meaning. The sounds of the language, too, which he heard in a Catholic chapel, where his master had undertaken some repairs, increased this desire. At seventeen he purchased “Ruddiman’s Latin Rudiments,” and soon committed the whole to memory. With the help of “Corderius’ Colloquies,” “Entick’s Dictionary,” and “Beza’s Testament,” he began to make his way into the vestibule of Roman learning; but of the magnificent inner-glory he had, as yet, scarcely caught a glimpse. The obstacles seemed so great for an unassisted adventurer, that he one day besought a priest of the chapel, where he was still at work, to afford him some help. “Charity begins at home!” was the repelling reply to his application; but, whether meant to indicate the priest’s own need of instruction, or sordid unwillingness to afford his help without pecuniary remuneration, does not appear. Unchilled by this repulse, the young and unfriended disciple of “perseverance” girt up “the loins of his mind” for his solitary but onward travel. Yet how uncheering the landscape around him! Think of it, and blush, young reader, if thou art surrounded with ease and comfort, but hast yielded to indolence; ponder on it, and take courage, if thou art the companion of hardship, but resolvest to be a man, one day, amongst men. Young Lee’s wages were but six shillings weekly at seventeen years old; and from this small sum he had not only to find food, but to pay for his washing and lodging. The next year his weekly income was increased one shilling, and the year following another. Privation, even of the necessaries of life, he had to suffer, not seldom, in order to enable himself to possess what he desired, now more intensely than ever. He successively purchased a Latin Bible, Cæsar, Justin, Sallust, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid; having frequently to sell his volume as soon as he had mastered it in order to buy another. But what of that? The true disciple of perseverance looks onward with hope—hope which is not fantastic, but founded in the firmest reason—to the day when his meritorious and ennobling toil shall have its happy fruition, and he shall know no scarcity of books.
Conquest of one language has inspired him with zeal for further victory; it is the genuine nature of enterprise. Freed from his apprenticeship he purchases a Greek grammar, testament, lexicon, and exercises; and soon, the self-taught carpenter, the scholar of toil and privation, holds converse, in their own superlative tongue, with the simple elegance of Xenophon, the eloquence and wisdom of Plato, and the wit of Lucian; he becomes familiar with the glorious “Iliad,” with the pathos and refinement, the force and splendour, of the “Antigone,” of Sophocles.
“Unaided by any instructor, uncheered by any literary companion,” says one who narrates the circumstances of his early career, “he still persevered.” What wonder, when he had discovered so much to cheer him in the delectable mental realm he was thus subduing for himself! And he was now endued with the full energy of conquest. He purchased “Bythner’s Hebrew Grammar,” and “Lyra Prophetica,” with a Hebrew Psalter, and was soon able to read the Psalms in the original. Buxtorf’s grammar and lexicon with a Hebrew Bible followed; an accident threw in his way the “Targum” of Onkelos, and with the Chaldee grammar in Bythner, and Schindler’s lexicon, he was soon able to read it. Another effort, and he was able to read the Syriac Testament and the Samaritan Pentateuch, thus gaining acquaintance with four branches of the ancient Aramœan or Shemitic family of languages, in addition to his knowledge of the two grand Pelasgic dialects.
He was now five-and-twenty, and had mastered six languages, without the slightest help from any living instructor; some of the last-named books were heavily expensive; yet, true to the nobility of life that had distinguished his early youth, he had not relaxed the reins of economy, but had purchased a chest of tools, which had cost him twenty-five pounds.
Suddenly an event befel him which seemed to wither not only his prospects of further mental advancement, but plunged him into the deepest distress. A fire, which broke out in a house he was repairing, consumed his chest of tools; and, as he had no money to purchase more, and had now to feel solicitude for the welfare of an affectionate wife, as well as for himself, his affliction was heavy. In this distracting difficulty he turned his thoughts towards commencing a village school, but even for this he lacked the means of procuring the necessary, though scanty, furniture. Uprightness and meritorious industry, however, seldom fail to attract benevolent help to a man in need. Archdeacon Corbett, the resident philanthropic clergyman of Longmore, heard of Samuel Lee’s distress, sent for him, and on hearing the relation of his laudable struggles, used his interest to place him in the mastership of Shrewsbury Charity School, giving him what was of still higher value, an introduction to the great oriental scholar, Dr. Jonathan Scott.
New triumphs succeeded his misfortunes, and a cheering and honourable future was preparing. Dr. Scott put into the hands of his new and humble friend elementary books on Arabic, Persian, and Hindostanee; and, in a few months, the disciple of perseverance was not only able to read and translate, but even essayed to compose in his newly-acquired languages. So effectually had he mastered these eastern tongues, that the good doctor used his influence in introducing him as private tutor to sons of gentlemen going out to India; and, after another brief probation, procured him admission into Queen’s College, Cambridge.
Our sketch of this remarkable living scholar may here be cut short. He has made himself master of twenty languages, distinguished himself alike by the virtue of his private life, his practical eloquence in the pulpit and zeal for the church, of which he is an honoured member; and, in addition to the service he has rendered to oriental literature, by his new Hebrew grammar and lexicon, his revision of Sir William Jones’s Persian grammar, and a number of philological tracts, has won respect and gratitude, by diligent and laborious supervision of numerous translations of the Scriptures into eastern tongues, prepared by the direction and at the cost of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
If the young scholar be bent on the acquirement of languages, he will find, in the lives of Alexander, Murray, Leyden, Heyne, Carey, Marshman, Morrison, Magliabechi, and a hundred others, striking proofs of the ease with which the mind overcomes all difficulties when it is armed with determination, and never becomes a recreant from the banner of perseverance.