46

'I HAVE FOUND IT!'

comprehend; his wife upbraided him with bitter reproaches, until Palissy could no longer remain unmoved. One trial more, he said, and, if defeated, he would yield up his hopes for ever. This final experiment he made upon as large a scale as his means would command, and 'God willed,' he says, 'that when I had begun to lose my courage, and was gone for the last time to a glass-furnace, having a man with me carrying more than three hundred pieces, there was one among those pieces which was melted within four hours after it had been placed in the furnace, which trial turned out white and polished, in a way that caused me such joy as made me think I was become a new creature.' He rushed home breathless and excited, crying, like Archimedes when he had tested Hiero's crown, 'I have found it! I have found it!'

5. This bright ray of success encouraged Palissy to persevere in his exertions. He had discovered the composition of the enamel; the next step was to ascertain how it should be applied. But this part of his enterprise must necessarily be undertaken at home, lest the unscrupulous should rob him of the results of his arduous labours. So he built himself a furnace in imitation of the one at the pottery. Next he fashioned vessels of clay from his own designs. Then he ground and otherwise prepared the composition of his enamel-a task which consumed his days and nights for several weeks. Finally, he lit his furnace fire, and placed therein the vessels duly coated.

Fortune is within his reach; the crown of his years of toil is almost in his grasp. Heap on more wood! Let not the furnace fail in heat, now that the end is at hand. Heed not the cost-wood, wood, wood! In fuel for that blazing, roaring, seething furnace lies the magic of success. Palissy watches there with hungry eyes, and piles the logs upon the fire. More wood! But yet the powder will not fuse the enamel will not melt! Hither comes his son with the morning meal, for already one night has vanished into the past. He eats his simple fare with hurried eagerness, for he must tend the ever-craving furnace; and besides, this black bread-this cup of water-what a repast,

A TIME OF AGONY.

47

methinks, for a man who in an hour or two will command 'the potentiality of wealth!' An hour or two?-Lo, the morning passes; the noon wanes into twilight; the dusk deepens into night-darkness; and still the furnace demands more fuel, and still the enamel will not melt !

The third day rises on that seething furnace, and on the pale, worn watcher bending wearily over it. The fourth, the fifth, have come and gone, and a sixth is added to the fruitless labour. 'I was now,' writes Palissy, like a man in desperation, and, although quite stupified with toil, I took thought with myself that haply there might be some error in the mixture. So again I began to grind and pound my materials, all the time letting not my furnace cool. Thus my task was twofold, for I had to pound and grind, and yet to keep up my fire. I was also ccnstrained to go and purchase other vessels, that my new compound might be tested-having lost all the vessels of my own making. And so having covered these pieces with the said enamel, I put them in the furnace, still maintaining the fire at its utmost height.'

6. But now his fuel was exhausted, nor had he money wherewith to purchase more. No fuel, no money, when now the Rainbow of Promise broadened so brightly over him, and the long dream was at last verging upon reality! Away sped the despairing adventurer into his little garden. He rent to pieces the trellis where clambered his vines; he tore up with eager hands the seats, and arbour work, and palings. Once more the furnace blazed right merrily, and once more it waned and flickered. Then he broke up his table, his chairs-pulled down the very door from its hinges-even the flooring of his room fell a sacrifice to that remorseless fire. And yet the enamel would not melt!

'And now,' he writes, "I suffered an anguish that I cannot speak, for I was quite exhausted and dried up by the heat of the furnace. Further to console me, I was the butt of everybody's ridicule. Even those from whom I had a right to expect sympathy, ran through the town exclaiming that I was burning my very house. In this

48

THE KING'S POTTER.

way I lost my credit, and was looked upon by all as a madman.'

The persevering inventor made yet another effort. To secure the services of a skilled potter, he gave him the clothes off his back, and, his resolute ardour attracting the admiration of one of his fellow-townsmen, he was fortunate enough to receive pecuniary aid. The furnace, however, was of imperfect construction, and at the very moment that Palissy had mixed the ingredients aright and made the enamel fusible, it burst with the excessive heat, and its flinty splinters adhered to the vessels. He was nevertheless offered a fair price for even this imperfect ware, but, with the noble pride of a true artist, refused to suffer such unworthy specimens of his skill to go abroad to the world.

7. But he had now discovered the mystery, and success dawned upon his courageous exertions. The Duc de Montmorency patronised him liberally, and introduced him to the king, Charles IX., who had the taste to appreciate his genius and the nobility of his character. He was appointed the King's Potter; commissions flowed in upon him apace. And, reviewing the events of sixteen weary years, he came to this just conclusion:-'I have found nothing better than to observe the counsel of God, His edicts, statutes, and ordinances; and in regard to His will, I have seen that He has commanded His followers to eat bread by the labour of their bodies, and to multiply their talents which He has committed to them.'

8. Soon afterwards Palissy became a Huguenot, embracing with his characteristic ardour the principles of the Reformed faith. He not only became himself a believer, but sought to impress his belief upon others. Every Sabbath he assembled round him the ignorant artisans of Saintes, or the equally ignorant peasants of the neighbouring villages, and preached and expounded to them the Word of God in all its unadorned simplicity. The priests of the Roman Church did not suffer him long to prosecute his Christian labours uninterrupted. It is true that the patronage and countenance of the king, who forgot the heretic in the artist, saved him from the prison and the

A TRUE CHRISTIAN.

49

stake, but the priests secretly exerted against him the prejudices of the mob, and his house was sacked, his atelier devastated, and a large quantity of admirable pottery destroyed. The king now interfered, and summoned him to Paris as a servant of his own; thus preserving at once the life of the artist, and of the art which he had invented. Sheltered by the favour of Charles IX. and Catharine de Medici, he escaped the terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew; but, when the League of the Holy Trinity was formed, became exposed to the fatal imputation of heresy, and even the influence of the monarch proved insufficient to save him from the Bastille (A.D. 1584). He was now an octogenarian; but his spirit was as resolute as in the days of his early manhood. My good friend,' Henry III. said to him, if you do not consent to renounce your Huguenot creed, I shall be compelled to leave you in your enemies' hands.' Sire,' nobly answered Palissy, 'those who compel you, a king, can never compel me, a subject, because I know how to die.'

He remained a Huguenot, and a prisoner, until his death in 1590, when he was about 86 years old.

9. Palissy was something more than an enameller of pottery. Like all men of genius, while devoting himself in the main to one pursuit, he did not forget to embrace other branches of learning. His knowledge of natural history was surprising, and he was both theoretically and practically an admirable chemist. He was the first, it is said, to enunciate the principles on which the operations of a fountain are based. His life was pure and stainless; the life of a true Christian, an honourable man, and a great artist; and France has just reason to be proud of having given birth to a son so noble as BERNARD DE PALISSY.

JOSIAH WEDGWOOD,

THE ENGLISH POTTER.

1. What Palissy achieved for France, Wedgwood achieved for England, and even with greater success the

E

ware of our Staffordshire potteries having a far wider circulation, and creating an infinitely greater demand, than the ceramic manufactures of the French.

Josiah Wedgwood was born at the village of Burslem, near Newcastle-under-Lyne, in 1730. His father was a poor potter, who earned but a barren livelihood at his trade, and eked it out by farming a scanty plot of ground. He died when Josiah was eleven years old, and the lad, thus thrown upon the protection of an elder brother, began to work as a thrower' at his brother's wheel. He was soon afterwards afflicted by an attack of malignant smallpox, from which he with difficulty recovered. The disease, driven from the citadel, retired into the outworks, and settled in the unfortunate artisan's left leg, compelling a resort to amputation. Being thus disabled for the potter's wheel, the young Wedgwood looked around him for work to do. He had already displayed a correct taste in devising patterns for articles manufactured in the coarse earthenware of Staffordshire. We find him, therefore, after awhile, settled at Stoke, in partnership first with a man named Harrison, and afterwards with another named Whieldon, busily designing earthenware knife-handles in imitation of agate and tortoiseshell, jugs, plates, pickle-dishes, and similar articles, and giving to each a superiority of form and workmanship which attracted the attention of the public. But Whieldon having an aversion to the ornamental, from his own inability to plan or design, soon disagreed with Wedgwood; and the latter returned to Burslem, where he prosecuted the new trade he had so fortunately opened up, with invincible ardour. Everything he did, he endeavoured to do well, and bestowed the same amount of care on a common saucer as on a jug of ambitious outline. Soon he became an employer as well as a workman, and his trade increased so largely that he was constrained to engage several assistants. But his whole heart was in his work; he devoted all his thought and energy to its progressive improvement, and suffered no imperfect article to leave his ateliers.

2. Having improved upon the ware previously manufactured in England, as far as 'form' and 'pattern' were