at parting, had made him a present of Gordon's "Geographical Grammar," which he regarded as a great treasure. From the description it contained, Ferguson completed a globe in three weeks, having turned the ball out of a piece of wood, and covered it with paper, on which he drew a map of the world. The ring and horizon he made of wood, covering them with paper, and graduating them; and he was delighted to find that he was able to solve the problems with his globe, though it was the first he had

ever seen.

But his father's circumstances would not long permit him to occupy his time in this congenial manner, however agreeable it might be to his inclinations. He therefore determined on leaving his parental cottage; and thinking it would be an easy and pleasant business to attend a mill, and that, in such a situation, he should have a great deal of time to study, he engaged himself to a miller in the vicinity. He was somewhat unfortunate in this step. His new master was inclined to be a toper, and spent nearly the whole of his time in the alehouse, leaving Ferguson all the work to do, and frequently nothing to eat. In this man's service he remained for a year, when he returned home in a very weak state of health.

Having regained his strength under careful treat ment, he was hired, somewhat against his will, to a neighboring farmer, who practiced as a physician.

This man promised to initiate him into his profession; but this he never did. On the contrary, Ferguson was kept constantly at hard work; and, far from being taught any thing, was never shown a book. His term of servitude was a year; but he found himself so much disabled at the end of three months, that he was obliged to leave, and once more returned to his father's in a weak state of health. Here, however, he was not idle, but set himself to make a wooden clock, which kept time with considerable regularity; and not long after, when he had recovered his health, he gave another and stronger proof of his ingenuity by constructing a time-piece, which moved by a spring. His attention having thus been turned to the mechanism of time-pieces, he was enabled to do a little business in the neighborhood in cleaning clocks, which brought him some money. After this, having been induced by a lady, to whom he was introduced, to attempt the drawing of patterns for ladies' dresses, he was sent for by others in the country, and speedily found himself growing quite rich by the money earned in this way, which was the more satisfactory that it afforded him the means and pleasure of occasionally supplying the wants of his father. He also began to copy pictures with his pen, and to attempt portrait-painting, in which his success appeared to his country patrons so striking and real that they took him to Edinburgh to be instructed in the art. He followed his new pro

fession for twenty-six years with considerable success, but not with devotion. His astronomical studies had not, in the mean time, been neglected; he had still continued to make observations on the stars, and was most enthusiastic in this pursuit Having discovered the cause of eclipses by himself, he drew up a scheme to show the motions and places of the sun and moon in the ecliptic on each day of the year. This having been engraved, sold well; and its author's mind became every day more absorbed in astronomical studies. At length tired of drawing pictures, for which he had no natural taste, he resolved to go to London, in the hope of finding employment as a teacher of mechanics and astronomy. He was immediately brought into notice by the President of the Royal Society, to whom his paper on the moon's motion had introduced and recommended him. In 1747 he published a disputation on the phenomena of the harvest-moon. In 1748 he began to give public lectures on his favorite subject, and had King George III., then a boy, frequently among his auditors. In 1763 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the usual fees being in his case remitted. He died on the 16th of November, 1776, having won and enjoyed a distinguished reputation both in England and on the Continent.

No life could be more fruitful of pleasing and salutary instruction than that of this self-taught man of genius. The eagerness with which he sought, and

the industry he displayed in acquiring knowledge, are worthy of the highest respect and commendation, and will ever furnish a most inciting example to those who would follow in his honorable steps, and gain his well-deserved me.

CHAPTER VIIL

Natural Philosophers.

BOYHOOD OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

THE name of this great English philosopher is one of the most illustrious that history presents. The immortal discoveries his genius effected, the height of fame he reached, and the meekness and humility he exhibited after his most marvelous intellectual triumphs, are in the highest degree calculated to excite wonder, to win admiration, and to command respect.

Newton had never to contend with such circumstances as have perplexed and distracted many of those who have accomplished great things for the human race. His father was a farmer-squire of Lincolnshire, who died before the birth of his famous son, leaving his mother a widow a few months after their marriage; and had their only child been one rejoicing venando aut agrum colendo ætatem agere, he would, in all probability, have passed through life in ease, comfort, and prosperity. Perhaps, in such a