his fellows. He began to study arithmetic, because it seemed likely that he might he employed to collect the taxes of his neighbourhood. His mind was on the stretch to discover the methods of the two first rules of arithmetic, and with difficulty he procured a volume to guide him; but, as soon as he began to learn the powers and properties of figures, the days of his mental idleness were over. He went on from rule to rule; he had then the good fortune to meet with a treatise on geometry, he could not at first comprehend it, but being compelled, one long winter, to stay within doors, unable to dress his vines, or to labour in his fields, he had recourse to his geometry again. He also found an old pair of compasses, and so, in the drawing of diagrams, and in the solving of problems, with new and unbounded joy he passed through what would have been a very long and most tedious winter. Money was very scarce with him, and the increase of knowledge only increased the desire for more; he was able to save a little, and, going to a neighbouring fair, he bought three volumes upon trigonometry; still he was desirous to understand something of astronomy, and his next purchase, therefore, was devoted to that science. In the course of his reading he had been struck with the word philosophy; he could form no very clear idea of it yet; at last, a work, called an "Introduction to the Knowledge of Man and the Universe," fell in his way, and here were opened up to him new scenes and worlds of science, of which, before, he had no comprehension. During all this time, during all his studies, he had no guide; he questioned among the booksellers, when he visited Dresden, for the names of the most eminent works, and of their authors, and thus he heard of Wolfius' "Logic"; to this he gave a full year's undivided attention then he went on to the Abridgment of his Mathematical Principles; he could not afford the complete work as yet, but next year he purchased a copy, secondhand, of a bookseller who dealt in old books: twelve months were given, again, to this work, and thence to Karel's "Law of Nature and of Nations," and he studied the book profoundly. Thus he had passed through a series of investigations seldom prosecuted to the same extent, even by the educated and most polished scholar; he continued to work in the fields, to live in a poor, rude, crazy hovel, the inside of which was blackened with smoke, but whose walls were covered with propositions and diagrams in chalk. In one corner of the room was a bed, and under a little window on one side, three pieces of board, laid side by side over two trestles, made a writing-table for the philosopher, upon which were scattered some pieces of writing-paper, containing extracts of books, various calculations, and geometrical figures. His books were placed on a shelf with his compasses and ruler, which, with a wooden square, and a pair of six-inch globes, constituted the library and museum of the truly celebrated John Ludwig. In this hovel he lived till the year 1754; and while he was pursuing the study of philosophy in his leisure hours, he was indefatigable in his day-labour as a poor peasant; sometimes carrying a basket at his back, sometimes driving a wheel-barrow, and crying such garden-stuff as he had to sell, about the village. In this state he was subject to frequent insults, such as "patient merit of the unworthy takes," and he bore them without reply, or any other mark either of resentment or contempt, when those who could not agree with him about the price of his commodities used to turn from him with an air of superiority, and call him, in derision, a silly clown, a stupid dog. Before Ludwig went home there happened to be an eclipse of the sun; and Mr. Hoffman proposed to his guest that he should observe this phenomenon as an astronomer; and for that purpose he furnished him with proper instruments. The impatience of Ludwig till the time of the eclipse is not to be expressed. He had hitherto been acquainted with the planetary world only by books, and a view of the heavens with the naked eye: he had never yet looked through a telescope, and the anticipation of the pleasure which the new observation would yield him scarcely suffered him either to eat or sleep. But it unfortunately happened that just before the eclipse came on the sky became cloudy, and continued so during the whole time of its continuance. This misfortune was more than the philosophy even of Ludwig could bear: as the cloud came on he looked up at it in the agony of a man that expected the dissolution of nature to follow. When it came over the sun he stood fixed in a consternation not to be described; and when he knew the eclipse was passed his disappointment and grief were little short of distraction. Mr. Hoffman, when he dismissed him, presented him with one hundred crowns, which fulfilled all his wishes, and made him a happy man. With this sum he built himself a more commodious habitation in the middle of his vineyard, and furnished it with many movables and utensils, of which he was in great want; but, above all, he procured a very considerable addition to his library, an article so essential to his happiness that, he declared to Mr. Hoffman, he would not accept the whole province in which he lived upon condition that he should renounce his studies; and that he had rather live on bread and water than withhold from his mind that food which his intellectual hunger required, CHAPTER XXI. THE HOME OF TASTE. N the elevation of the Taste is the foundation of all progress and hope for the labouring classes. What hope can there be for the emancipation of man until he has truly learned to prize the form of beauty-until he has subdued the force of those attractions which at present enchant and enchain him? Elliott himself well says By men like him are states betrayed, And tyrants often want a mob. Thus our poet truly sets the bane and antidote before us; elevation of sentiment, the immortalizing of the tastes and sensibilities, the making mental joys and pleasures to supersede those conferred only by the senses; these are the thoughts of our man of iron in his more tender hours. Let the reader look at this idea for a moment; it is now some time since we too put our thoughts upon a Home of Taste into something like a tangible shape. The nobles of England long since carried Taste of some sorts into their gardens and their halls; their alcoves and groves were relieved by many a nymph and satyr, wrought from the marble or the stone; and their long galleries have long since been decorated with the most precious gems of the pencil and the chisel. Every nobleman's residence has THE HOME OF TASTE. 469 for years possessed its library, and also a room called by courtesy a study! The wealth of the noble owner could instantly command whatever the heart had coveted of beautiful, or graceful, or glorious; while the very opulence of the mansion not unfrequently prevented its artistic features from conveying any impression to the senses, or instruction to the intellect. But can we not make the home of the labourer, of the poor counting-house clerk, of the humble tradesman-a Home of Taste also? May not such a place be "a mansion for all lovely forms"? May not the consecrating elegances of gentleness, the thrilling charms and powers of heroism and of beauty, in all their robing of instruction, be brought to the children of humble life? What deceiving spirit told the wealthy and the noble that the power of admiration was alone conferred on them; that the enchantments and the raptures of Nature were reserved for them alone? I do not believe it. I believe that the truest enjoyments which a cultivated taste can bestow may frequently be spread in ample profusion for the more lowly children of our race. I believe that a true and sympathetic taste depends greatly on the state of the moral feelings. The intellect is refined and intensified by its moral associations; and it is matter of little doubt to my own mind, that the lower fields of life contain the noblest illustration and exhibitions of moral loveliness. Vulgarity is surely not confined to the workshop. Wherever bad manners colour the life, it is impossible there can be a Home of Taste; the materials of taste may be there, but the soul that frequents it is lost to the sense of enjoyment. To the man who whirls through midnight orgies, for whom the jockey and the gambler are companions, who lives almost solely for the purpose of flattering and adorning his body with. the empty vanities of perishable fashions, who has only known man as a comrade in villany or depravity, and woman as a victim or a courtezan: for such a man, though his halls and palaces reek with the incense of art, though his galleries are temples to the idolatry of genius, whatever |