The story of Weed and of Greeley is not an uncommon one in America.  Some of the most eminent men on the globe have struggled with poverty in early life and triumphed over it.

The astronomer Kepler, whose name can never die, was kept in constant anxieties; and he told fortunes by astrology for a livelihood, saying that astrology, as the daughter of astronomy, ought to keep her mother.  All sorts of service he had to accept; he made almanacs and worked for any one who would pay him.

Linnaeus was so poor when getting his education that he had to mend his shoes with folded paper, and often had to beg his meals of his friends.

During the ten years in which he made his greatest discoveries, Isaac Newton could hardly pay two shillings a week to the Royal Society of which he was a member.  Some of his friends wanted to get him excused from this payment, but he would not allow them to act.

Humphry Davy had but a slender chance to acquire great scientific knowledge, yet he had true mettle in him, and he made even old pans, kettles, and bottles contribute to his success, as he experimented and studied in the attic of the apothecary store where he worked.

George Stephenson was one of eight children whose parents were so poor that all lived in a single room.  George had to watch cows for a neighbor, but he managed to get time to make engines of clay, with hemlock sticks for pipes.  At seventeen he had charge of an engine, with his father for fireman.  He could neither read nor write, but the engine was his teacher, and he a faithful student.  While the other hands were playing games or loafing in liquor shops during the holidays, George was taking his machine to pieces, cleaning it, studying it, and making experiments in engines.  When he had become famous as a great inventor of improvements in engines, those who had loafed and played called him lucky.

It was by steadfastly keeping at it, by indomitable will power, that these men won their positions in life.

     “We rise by the things that are under our feet;
     By what we have mastered of good or gain.”

TALENT IN TATTERS.

Among the companions of Sir Joshua Reynolds, while he was studying his art at Rome, was a fellow-pupil of the name of Astley.  They made an excursion, with some others, on a sultry day, and all except Astley took off their coats.  After several taunts he was persuaded to do the same, and displayed on the back of his waistcoat a foaming waterfall.  Distress had compelled him to patch his clothes with one of his own landscapes.