Section Ii.--Love of Learning Encouraged.

There are many young persons, who have an ardent thirst for knowledge, and a strong desire to obtain an education; but their circumstances in life seem to forbid the attempt. There are many examples, which afford them encouragement to make the attempt. A large proportion of the men who have risen to the highest distinction, have struggled against the same difficulties which they have to encounter; and, when they see what has been done by others, they will perceive that it can be done by themselves.

Sir Isaac Newton.

When Sir Isaac Newton was a boy he was employed in servile labor. Sometimes he was sent to open the gates for the men that were driving the cattle to market. At other times, he carried corn to market, or attended the sheep. One day his uncle found him in a hay-loft, working out a mathematical problem, and he was sent to school. There he discovered his great and various talents. At the age of eighteen he was sent to the University at Cambridge, England, where he soon distinguished himself.

Benjamin West.

West, the celebrated painter, early manifested a genius for this art. His first attempt was made with pens, and red and black ink, upon a portrait of his sister's child, lying in the cradle. For a long time he had no pencil. Having been told that they were made of camel's hair, he pulled hairs out of the tail of a cat, of which he made his first brush.

Other eminent Persons.

Dr. Franklin was the son of a tallow-chandler, and served an apprenticeship to a printer; Rev. Dr. Scott, author of the Commentary, was employed in the most laborious work on a farm; William Gifford, one of the most celebrated literary men of his age, was an apprentice to a shoemaker, and wrought out his problems in algebra on a piece of sole-leather, with the point of an awl.