“I see you haven’t wholly given up the idea of being a merchant, yet,” remarked his uncle.
“O no, sir, I wasn’t thinking of that!” replied Clinton. “But I should like to enjoy some of the opportunities that boys have here,—good schools, and plenty of books, and lectures, and everything else.”
“These privileges or opportunities are very valuable, I know,” added Mr. Davenport; “but, after all, don’t you know that the making of a man is not in opportunities, but in himself? If you determine to be a man, the lack of opportunities will not keep you back. You will work and struggle till you have overcome every obstacle. On the other hand, if you haven’t this strong will within, all the opportunities in the world won’t make a man of you. Indeed, there is such a thing as having too much assistance. If you set out a tree, and keep forever handling it, and scratching about it, and trying to help it grow, it won’t come to much. It needs a little wholesome neglect to teach it to take care of itself. So, if a man wants to produce a strong, rugged character, he mustn’t go into a hothouse to do it. Such a thing won’t grow there. So far as I can judge, Clinton, you are doing very well with your present opportunities. Make the most of them, and I think you will get along as well as most boys in the city, to say the least.”
“But I don’t have much time to study,” added Clinton.
“Many men have stored their minds with valuable information,” continued his uncle, “in odd moments snatched from their labors. Two of the most learned men, in many respects, that I ever met with, did this. One of them is Elihu Burritt, the ‘Learned Blacksmith,’ who acquired more languages at the anvil than I can remember the names of. The other is Charles C. Frost, of Brattleboro’, Vermont, who deserves to be called the ‘Learned Shoemaker.’ I must read you a short account of Mr. Frost, to show you what can be done in one hour a day.”
So saying, Mr. Davenport took down a volume from the bookcase, and read as follows:
“At fourteen years of age, Mr. Frost left school, and commenced learning the trade of a shoemaker. He worked as an apprentice in his father’s shop seven years, when he shortly after became interested in the business of making and vending shoes, in a neat and tasteful shoe store, on his own account. He early evinced a love of mathematical science, and has displayed talents of no ordinary character in its pursuit. He says, in a letter which I have received from him: ‘I early imbibed a love of study. I recollect my first acquisitions were in Arithmetic, and that the results gave me the highest pleasure. When I excelled other boys in the school, my progress was attributed by them to some peculiar mathematical talent. But it was not so. I boast of no genius. I attribute my success uniformly to more study than others gave their lessons or work, and, perhaps, to a greater love of study.’ Mr. Frost has found time, not only to become master of all existing forms of algebraic numbers, but is also familiarly and thoroughly acquainted with Geometry, Trigonometry and Astronomy. He is at home in the Modern Calculus and in the Principia of Newton, where few of our learned professors venture, or feel at ease. Indeed, in mathematical science he has made so great attainments that it is doubtful whether there can be found ten mathematicians in the United States who are capable, in case of his own embarrassment, of lending him any relief. Remember that we are speaking of a self-taught scholar, and he no genius. Let me tell you how it was done. He says: ‘When I went to my trade, at fourteen years of age, I formed a resolution, which I have kept till now,—extraordinary preventives only excepted,—that I would faithfully devote one hour each day to study, in some useful branch of knowledge.’ Here is the secret of his success. He is now forty-five years of age, and is a married man, the father of three children; yet this one-hour rule accompanies him to this day. ‘The first book which fell into my hands,’ he says, ‘was Hutton’s Mathematics, an English work of great celebrity, a complete mathematical course, which I then commenced,—namely, at fourteen. I finished it at nineteen, without an instructor. I then took up those studies to which I could apply my knowledge of Mathematics, as Mechanics and Mathematical Astronomy. I think I can say that I possess, and have successfully studied, all the most approved English and American works on these subjects.’ After this, he commenced Natural Philosophy and Physical Astronomy. Then Chemistry, Geology, and Mineralogy, collecting and arranging a cabinet. ‘Next Natural History,’ he says, ‘engaged my attention, which I followed up with close observations, gleaning my information from a great many sources. The works that treat of them at large are rare and expensive. But I have a considerable knowledge of Geology, Ornithology, Entomology, and Conchology.’ Not only this; he has added to his stores of knowledge the whole science of Botany, one of the most extensive now pursued, and has made himself completely master of it. He has made actual extensive surveys, in his own state, of the trees, shrubs, herbs, ferns, mosses, lichens, and fungi. Mr. Frost thinks that he may possess the third best collection of ferns in the United States. He has also turned his attention to Meteorology, and devotes much of his time, as do also Olmstead, Maury, Redfield, Smith, Loomis, Mitchell, and many others, to acquire a knowledge of the law of storms, and the movements of the erratic and extraordinary bodies in the air and heavens. He has also been driven to the study of Latin, and reads it with great freedom. He has read and owns most of the gifted poets, and is, to a considerable extent, familiar with History; while his miscellaneous reading has been very extensive. He says of his books: ‘I have a library, which I divide into three departments,—scientific, religious, literary,—comprising the standard works published in this country, containing five or six hundred volumes. I have purchased these books, from time to time, with money saved for the purpose by some small self-denials.’
“Here, then, we have an account—I assure you it is wholly reliable—of one, a plain man of forty-five, who has made the compass, so to speak, of the hill of science, studying his HOUR a day, when the day’s labor was done, for more than thirty consecutive years. He began this one-hour system when he was fourteen years old. Behold the result! Here is a man with the cares, business, and responsibilities of life on his hands, yet a devoted, faithful, successful student; a man who is a profound scholar, and yet a plain-spoken, humble, pious, laboring man, residing still in his native village, far inland, supporting himself by his trade and daily labor, while he is worthy of a position as a teacher in one of the best institutions of learning in the land.”[[4]]
[4]. “Dreams and Realities in the Life of a Pastor and Teacher.” 1856.
“There,” resumed Mr. Davenport, closing the book, “you see what a man can do in only one hour a day, diligently improved. Don’t you think you might manage to devote that amount of time to study, Clinton?”