Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-10-05
Labor and Learning.

The compatibility of labor with
scholarly pursuits is incidentally dis
cussed in Bayne's Life aTsa Letters Of
Hugh Miller, the celebrated Scotch ge
ologist, who began life as quarry
scanty living at his craft until he was
80 years of age.
Hugh Miller was a striking instance
of what a workin9man in humble cir
cumstances can do, if endowed with an
acute mind and resolute will. He was
not much of a student, in the sense of
close attendance, when a boy. Yet
he was all the while educating himself.
Whenever he met with book of trav-
els, poem or romance, he would Sc
crete himself and study it, and, in this
way, before he was twenty, he had be-
come familiar with an extraordinary
amount of literature of every descrip-
ton, including theology, moral, men
tai and social philosophy, history and
fiction. His memory was very reten-
tive, and, while working in the stone
quarries of his native place, Cromarty,
he would amuse himself with repeating
to himself, or his fellow workmen,
w LldG ut udU Il VI GuGII GuIGEGdlu-
ment he would sometimes improvise
stories and he occasionally composed
short poems, some of which are pub
lished. While diligently prosecuting
his vocation of mason, he persevered
| in his reading, study and crude auth or
ship. His out of-dooI toll irvigorated
his frame, preserved his health, and as
sisted in the formation of a singular
vigorous style of composition, which
was constantly exercised in the CORES
pondence which he carried on with
his literary and other friends. At last
he was appointed accountant in bank
and placed in comparatively easy Cir
cumstances. The effect of this change
upon him was striking. He found him
self unable to make the same use OF
his leisure hours that he had formerly
done Thore- was nUJhtng very intel
lectual in recording the banks daily
transactions, or in summing up col
umns of figures, or in doing business
over the counter; yet the fatigue in
duced was a fatigue, not of sinew and
muscle, but of nerve and brain, which
if it did not disqualify him for his
former intellectual amusements, at the
least, greatly disinclined him towards
them, and rendered him indolent.
The unintellectual toll of the oper
ative has occasionally been represent
ed as less favorable to mental cu!tiva
ton than the semi-intellectual employ
ment of clerks, statesmen or account
ants; but this is not always the case
; and, yet, although q certain conven
tional gentilIty Of manner and appear
ance on the part of the latter ma!
seem to conceal the fact, the real ad
; vantage often lies on the side of thu
laboring man The law clerk or mer
= camille accountant, who has to benz
all day over his engrossing or his &C
, counts, and is unable to proceed steI
! ! in either without devoting all his at
! tention to it, is not more favorably sit
, uated as regards thought or reflection
than the ploughman or the operativ
mechanic. And it will be found tina
: : the latter class is more largely repre-
" sented in science and literature tina
, the other is. Ranged against the poo
= East India House clerk, Charles Lamt
u and the still poorer clerk of Noting
: ham, Henry Kirke White, and the ye
more helpless Edinburgh engrossin
clerk, Robert Ferguson, and fe'
others, may he found a vigorous pha
1t anx of men like Franklin, Burns, Mi
g Ter, Hogg, BaJard Taylor, Tannahil
n Godfrey, Falconer, Bunyan, Ben Jor
1t son, Bloomfield, Ramsay, Fitch, Ale,
o ander Wilson, Allan Cunningham, D
/ Kitto, John Cissin, Ebenezer Elliot
la Elihu Burritt, Richard Golden, FAR
y day, James Ferguson, John and Wi
o liam Hunter, Gerald Massey, jam,
n Watt, George Stephenson, Candle
s. Caxton, and scores of others-the
names cited being illustrations only
Philadelphia Public Ledger.
l. = Out OF total vote OF 14,964 ca
AI,o ~ ofC CO., Ni,o l.,