Litchfield enquirer., 1864-06-16
A FEW FACTS ABOUT CELEBRATED MEN Some literary men mako good man of husi-


 some literary men make good men of busi- ness According to Pope. the principal object of Shakespeare in cultivstng literature was to secure an honest independence. He succeeded so well in the accomplishment Of this purpose, that, at comparatively early age, he had req lized sufficient competency to enable him to retire to his native town of Stratford- d-upon- Avon. Chaucer was in early life a soldier, and afterwards commissioner of customs and inspector of woods and crown lands Spenser was Secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and is said to have been shrewd and sagac,ous in the management of affairs. Milton was Secretary to the Council of State during the Commonwealth and gave abundant evidence of his energy and usefulness in that office. Sir Isaac Newton was most efficient Master of tEe Mint. Wordsworth wasf&,distributor of stamps, and Sir Walter Scott clerk to the Court of Sessions-both uniting genious for poetry with punctual and practical habits as men of business. Ricardo was no less distin- guished as sagacious banker than a lucid ex- pcunder of the principles of political economy. Grote, the most profound historian ofGreece, is also London banker. John Stuart Mill, not surpassed by any living thinker in profound ness of speculation, lately retired from the Examiners Department in the East India Company, with the admiration O. his col leagues for the rare ability with which be had conducted the business of the department. Alexander Murray, the distinguished luguist learned to write by scribbling his letters on an old wool card with the end ofa burnt heather stem. Professor Moore, when young man, being too poor to purchase Newton's Princi. pia. borrowed the book and copied tho whole of it with his own hand. William Goblet, made himself master of English grammar when he was private soldier on the pay of sixpence a day. The edge of his berth or that of his guard bed, was his seat to study in; bit of board lylng on his lap was his writing table i; and the evening light of the fire his substitute for candle or oil. Even advanced age; in many interesting cases has no tproved fatal to between fifty and sixty when he began the study of science. Franklin was fifty before he fully engaged in the researches ill natural philosophy which have made his name immortal. Bocea. cio was thirty five when he entered upon his literary career and Alieri was forty-six when he commenced the study of Greek. Dr. Ar mold learned German at forty, for the sake of ready Niebuhr in the original. James Watt, at about the same age, while working at his trade of an instrument-maker in Glasglow, made himself acquainted with French, German and Italian. in order to persuo the valuable works in those languages on mechanical phi Iosophy. Handel was forty eight before he published any of his great works. Nor are the examples of rare occurrence in which apparent- ly natural defects in early life, have been over. come by subsequent devotion 10 knowledge Sir Isaac Newton, when at school, stood at the bottom of the lowermost form but one. Bar row, the great English divine and mathemati- clan, when boy at the Charter-house school, was uotorios for his idIenessand indifference to study. Adam Clark, in his boyhood, was pro- claimed by his father to be g'ievous dunce. Even Dean Swift made a disastrous failure at the university. Sheridan was presented by his mother to tutor as an incorrgible dunce. Walter Scott was dull boy at his lessons, and while student at Edlngburgh University re- ceivsd bis sentence from Professnr Dalzell the celebrated Greek scholar, that 'dunce he was, and dunce he would remain Cbattertou was returned on his mothers hands 'us q fool of whom nothing could be made