“The Danish astronomer, LONGOMONTANUS, was the son of a labourer, and, while attending the academical lectures at Wyburg through the day, was obliged to work for his support during a part of the night.

“The elder DAVID PAREUS, the eminent German Protestant divine, who was afterwards Professor of Theology at Heidelberg, was placed in his youth as an apprentice, first with an apothecary, and then with a shoemaker.

“HANS SACHS, one of the most famous of the early German poets, and a scholar of considerable learning, was the son of a tailor, and served an apprenticeship himself, first to a shoemaker, and afterwards to a weaver, at which last trade, indeed, he continued to work during the rest of his life.

“JOHN FOLCZ, another old German poet, was a barber.

“LUCAS CORNELISZ, a Dutch painter of the sixteenth century, who visited England during the reign of Henry VIII., and was patronized by that monarch, was obliged, while in his own country, in order to support his large family, to betake himself to the profession of a cook.

“Dr. ISAAC MADDOX, who, in the reign of George II., became bishop, first of St. Asaph, and then of Worcester, and who is well known by his work in defence of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, lost both his parents, who belonged to a very humble rank of life, at an early age, and was, in the first instance, placed by his friends with a pastrycook.

“The late Dr. ISAAC MILNER, Dean of Carlisle, and Lucasian Professor of the Mathematics at Cambridge, who had the reputation of one of the first mathematicians of that University, and who published some ingenious papers on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ was originally a weaver—­as was also his brother JOSEPH, the well known, author of a ‘History of the Church.’  Of the same profession was also, in his younger days, the late Dr. JOSEPH WHITE, Professor of Arabic at Oxford.

“CASSERIO, a well known Italian anatomist, was initiated in the elements of Medical Science by a surgeon of Padua, with whom he had lived originally as a domestic servant.

“JOHN CHRISTIAN THEDEN, who rose to be chief surgeon to the Prussian army under Frederick II. had in his youth been apprenticed to a tailor.”

Influence of Accident in directing Pursuits.

“The celebrated Bernard Palissy, to whom France was indebted, in the sixteenth century, for the introduction of the manufacture of enamelled pottery, had his attention first attracted to the art, his improvements in which, form to this time the glory of his name among his countrymen, by having one day seen by chance a beautiful enamelled cup, which had been brought from Italy.  He was then struggling to support his family by his attempts in the art of painting, in which he was self-taught; and it immediately occurred to him that, if he could discover the secret of making these cups, his toils