MURRAY'S METHOD. 231 sense. I got another book which, from that time, has influenced and inflamed my imagination. This was " Paradise Lost"-of which I had heard, and which I was eager to see. I cannot describe to you the ardour, or various feelings, with which I read, studied, and admired this firstrate work.' 7. In the summer of 1791, this persevering seeker after knowledge again attended school for about three months, and pursued the same course of indefatigable reading. Having introduced himself to the notice of Mr. Maitland, the clergyman of the parish, by writing letters to him in Latin and Greek, he obtained access to his library, and read, with avidity, Longinus and Homer, the Orations of Cicero, and the Edipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, while, with the aid of Robertson's Hebrew Grammar and a Hebrew dictionary, he made himself thoroughly familiar with the Scriptural tongue. Thus, almost unaided, and in the face of apparently insuperable difficulties, the son of the Kirkcudbright shepherd had acquired a complete knowledge of French, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, and also no slight acquaintance with the best authors in each language. 8. The year 1792 was distinguished by his extending his researches into Anglo-Saxon, Welsh, and even Abyssinian; but as yet this extraordinary man and indefatigable scholar was unknown beyond the narrow limits of Minnigaff and New Galloway, and it seemed probable that he would pass a laborious life in the cold shade of rural obscurity. His introduction to a wider sphere was owing to the kindly zeal of an itinerant tea-merchant, Mr. Hay, who had long admired his learning and capacity, and made known the extent of his acquirements wherever he went. He happened to speak of Murray to Mr. James Kinnear of Edinburgh, then in the King's printing office, who immediately volunteered, if Murray would furnish him with a narrative of his early struggles, to submit it to several literary men of good repute. He kept his word, and the result was, an invitation for the shepherd-linguist to visit Edinburgh, where he was examined by the principal and several professors of the University. The extent and 232 THE WORKMAN NEAR THE END OF HIS WORK. variety of his attainments so won their respect, that they threw open to him the different University classes, and raised a fund for his support while he attended them. In this good and charitable work, the Principal, Dr. Baird, was one of the foremost. 9. But Murray was socn independent of eleemosynary aid. He obtained employment as a teacher and translator, and settled in Edinburgh for the next twelve years, punctually discharging his duties and assiduously prosecuting his studies. He continued to widen his knowledge of the languages of Asia, Europe, and Africa, mastering so completely the various Ethiopic dialects that he was selected in 1802, by the London publishers, to bring out a new edition of Bruce's Travels, which he accomplished in 1805, with so much skill, care, and erudition, as at once to place himself in the foremost rank of the Oriental scholars of the nineteenth century. 10. He was appointed in 1806 to the church of Urr in Dumfriesshire, where he remained for six years, occupying the intervals of his pastoral labours in the composition of his colossal work on the 'History of the Languages of Europe.' In July 1812 he was elected, after a severe contest, to the Professorship of Oriental Languages in the University of Edinburgh; the Senate at the same time conferring upon him the diploma of Doctor of Divinity. He entered on his duties on the 31st of October, and, though evidently failing in health, commenced the delivery of an elaborate course of lectures on the Literature of the East, which attracted and charmed enthusiastic audiences. He took so keen a pleasure in his work that he was insensible to the progress of disease. But Mrs. Murray, who had been left behind at Urr, impelled by a powerful presentiment, hastened to Edinburgh, in the hope of inducing him to relax from his labours and pay some attention to his enfeebled constitution. She arrived in Edinburgh on April 13, 1813, and found her husband, encircled by his books and manuscripts, dictating to an amanuensis. But the lamp was nearly burnt out; the angel of death was already darkening on the threshold. He went to bed that evening, to rise from it never more. In the course of twenty-four hours, this laborious and successful student had ceased to be, terminating his remarkable career in the thirtyeighth year of his age. A more signal instance of what may be effected by patient labour, unremitting industry, and determined purpose, we could scarcely place before our readers. Take the shepherd-boy, on the heathery hill-side, tending his master's herds throughout the weary day, and you would suppose that to none were there opened up fewer chances of obtaining literary distinction, or acquiring a knowledge of the abstruse tongues of the Eastern races. A faint heart, indeed, could never have conquered the obstacles that met the ardent young student at every step. But, like the French soldier who exclaimed, 'I will be a marshal, and a great general,' and died with the marshal's bâton in his grasp, Murray declared to himself, I will be a profound scholar, and a great linguist,' and lived to occupy the professor's chair, and to command the respect and admiration of the learned of every civilised nation. DR. SAMUEL LEE. 1. SAMUEL LEE was born at Lognor, near Shrewsbury, in 1783. He received his education at a charity school, and, like many others who in after life have obtained eminence, was by no means an example of precocious talent. His master, indeed, probably because he had not the discernment to hit upon Lee's peculiar bias, declared him to be one of the obtusest lads he had ever had under his charge. At the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to a carpenter, and he continued to handle the hammer and chisel until he arrived at manhood. But, finding his leisure hours hang heavily on his hands, he took to reading as an agreeable pastime, and, the appetite growing by what it fed on, he was next stimulated to master the meaning of the Latin quotations which occasionally bristled' in the pages he perused. He bought a Latin grammar, and learned Latin. A copy of the Greek Testament excited in him a desire to learn Greek. Selling some of his Latin books, he 234 A BRAVE STUDENT. purchased with the proceeds a Greek grammar and lexicon, and taught himself Greek. In like manner he mastered Hebrew, and even conquered, wholly unassisted, the Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan dialects. 2. Long vigils and incessant labour had impaired _his health and brought on a severe ophthalmic disease. Lee, therefore, was obliged to lay aside his books, and devote himself entirely to his pursuits as a carpenter. Punctual in his engagements, moderate in his charges, and an admirable workman, his business soon increased to such an extent as to enable him to marry; but soon afterwards he lost his chest of tools in a fire, and, being unable to provide himself with another, resolved to open a day-school for young children, as affording the readiest means of support. As a preliminary step, however, he was constrained to teach himself reading and writing. 3. He opened his school, and prospered. The blamelessness of his life, the simplicity of his character, and the extent of his acquirements, raised around him many friends, and Archdeacon Corbett procured him the appointment of master of Bowdler's Foundation School at Shrewsbury. But the arduous duties of a post so responsible did not prevent him from the vigorous prosecution of his studies, and he soon acquired a thorough mastery over the principal languages of the East, as well as French, German, and Italian. In 1815, through the assistance of his generous friends, he was enabled to enter himself at Queen's College, Cambridge, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1817, and distinguished himself by the soundness of his mathematical knowledge. In 1819, he was elected Professor of Arabic to the University, and in 1821, Regius Professor of Hebrew. 4. His later life was devoted to the gratuitous instruction of missionaries designed to labour among the nations of the East, and to the composition of various elaborate works— translations of the Scriptures into several Asiatic dialects, and a 'Hebrew, Chaldaic, and English Lexicon.' His long and laborious career was fitly closed by a tranquil death in 1850. He left behind him the legacy of a bright and THE WILL AND THE WAY. 235 shining example to youth, of the brilliant success which rewards the energy and decision of the intrepid student, animated by a noble yearning to excel EPILOGUE. 1. THE difference between talent and mediocrity is, perhaps, to a great extent, a question of energy. Talent implies activity; mediocrity, inertness. It is not so much the gifts with which Heaven endows us, as the use we make of those gifts, which will determine the issue of our lives. Many illustrious men have been sad dunces in their early years. Who, indeed, in the boy Walter Scott discerned any indications of the future genius of the author of 'Waverley'? Adam Clarke's father pronounced him a stupid dunce; Dean Swift was 'plucked' when he went up for a degree at Dublin University. So, too, the literati and illuminati of Edinburgh said of Dalzell, afterwards highly distinguished as an erudite Greek scholar, that 'dunce he was, and dunce he would remain ;' and Chatterton, that 'boy of marvellous pride,' was stigmatised as a fool, of whom nothing could be made. If, then, your progress should seem slow in youth, and excite the ridicule of the more precocious, bate not one jot of heart or hope. Take courage from these illustrious examples, and work with energy-with purpose-with unconquerable determination. Work and Purpose, in the long run, will outstrip Talent. 2. How much may be done to find a way' when the 'will' exists, is vividly shown in the brief but brilliant career of JOHN LEYDEN. He was born at Denholm, in Roxburghshire, in 1785, the son of a shepherd, like Murray the linguist, and Hogg the poet, and at an early age evinced a passionate desire for knowledge. He was mainly self-taught; the only instruction he received being a few lessons in reading at the village schoolhouse of Kirkton, whither he walked daily across the wind-swept moorlands, some seven or eight miles. Allowing no difficulties to daunt him, he contrived, in 1790, to make his way to the University of Edinburgh, where his resolute |