Self Help; with Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance Flashcards
Samuel Smiles · Public domain edition · 197 cards · 53 chapters
Samuel Smiles argues that individual conduct and perseverance, not institutions or inherited rank, drive achievement, and that government reflects the character of the people. The deck covers his examples of men rising from humble origins and his claims about self-education, wealth, and idleness.
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Chapter 2 · Question
What does the chapter say government is a reflex of?
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Chapter 2 · Answer
The chapter opens by arguing that government is a page reflex of the individualism of a nation, and that institutions and men reflect the spirit of self-help. The author argues that national character, not merely laws or rulers, shapes what a country becomes, and he treats self-help as a feature of the English character.
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CHAPTER I.4 cards
What does the chapter say government is a reflex of?
The chapter opens by arguing that government is a page reflex of the individualism of a nation, and that institutions and men reflect the spirit of self-help. The author argues that national character, not merely laws or rulers, shapes what a country becomes, and he treats self-help as a feature of the English character.
Chapter 2
What does the chapter claim about the class origins of great men?
The author argues that great men belong to no exclusive class or rank, and that illustrious men have sprung from the ranks. He cites Shakespeare and various humble origins of eminent men, including distinguished astronomers, sons of clergymen, and attorneys, as well as illustrious foreigners of humble origin such as Vauquelin the chemist.
Chapter 2
What does the chapter say about promotions from the ranks in the French army?
The chapter lists promotions from the ranks in the French army among its instances of persevering application and energy, alongside figures such as Joseph Brotherton, W. J. Fox, W. S. Lindsay, William Jackson, and Richard Cobden. The author uses these cases to show that diligence is indispensable to usefulness and distinction.
Chapter 2
What does the chapter say about the wealthier ranks and idleness?
The author argues that the wealthier ranks are not all idlers, offering examples from military men, philosophers, men of science, politicians, and literary men, including Sir Robert Peel, Lord Brougham, Lytton, and Disraeli. He also cites Wordsworth on self-reliance and De Tocqueville's industry and recognition of the help of others, concluding that men are their own best helpers.
Chapter 2
CHAPTER I. (part 1)3 cards
What does Smiles say determines the character of a nation's government?
The author argues government is the reflex of the individuals composing it: a government ahead of the people is dragged down to their level, and one behind them is eventually dragged up. Collective national character finds its fitting results in law and government as water finds its own level. The noble are nobly ruled, the ignorant and corrupt ignobly; the worth of a State depends far less on institutions than on the character of its men.
Chapter 3
Which figures does Smiles cite as rising from humble or manual origins?
Smiles lists Jeremy Taylor, Sir Richard Arkwright, Lord Tenterden, and Turner as coming from the barber's shop; Brindley, Cook, and Burns from day labourers; and Ben Jonson, Edwards, Telford, Hugh Miller, and Allan Cunningham from masons and bricklayers. Shakespeare sprang from a humble rank, his father a butcher and grazier. Smiles suggests such difficulties acted as helpers by evoking powers of labour and endurance.
Chapter 3
What distinction does Smiles draw between life-education and schooling?
The author argues energetic individualism produces the most powerful effects on others and constitutes the best practical education. Schools, academies, and colleges give but the merest beginnings of culture compared with the life-education daily given in homes, streets, workshops, and counting-houses — Schiller's "education of the human race," consisting in action, conduct, self-culture, and self-control. He cites Bacon: studies teach not their own use.
Chapter 3
CHAPTER I. (part 2)4 cards
How did Adrian VI study as a boy, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that Adrian VI, son of a poor bargeman, could not pay for a light to study by, so he prepared his lessons using the street lamps and the light of church porches. Smiles presents this patience and industry as the certain forerunners of his future distinction.
Chapter 4
How did Vauquelin rise from peasant origins to professor and deputy?
Vauquelin, son of a peasant of Saint-André-d'Herbetot, left an apothecary who barred him from studying and walked to Paris. After illness and hardship he found work with an apothecary, was noticed by the chemist Fourcroy, became his private secretary, and later succeeded Fourcroy as Professor of Chemistry. In 1829 Calvados elected him to the Chamber of Deputies.
Chapter 4
What does the chapter say about promotion from the ranks in the French army?
Smiles claims England has no parallel to France's promotions from the ranks to high military office, which he says have been common since the Revolution. He lists Hoche, Kleber, Lefèvre, Suchet, Victor, Lannes, Soult, Massena, Murat, Augereau, Bessières and Ney as rising from the ranks, noting Massena served fourteen years before becoming sergeant.
Chapter 4
What does the chapter argue about wealth, ease, and self-culture?
The author argues that strenuous individual application is the price of distinction and that excellence is beyond the reach of indolence. He contends an inheritance of acres may be bequeathed but not knowledge or wisdom, and that no one can have his thinking done for him or purchase self-culture. Riches and ease, he says, are not necessary for the highest culture.
Chapter 4
CHAPTER I. (part 3)3 cards
What two literary failures preceded Bulwer Lytton's success with Pelham?
Bulwer's first effort was a volume of poetry, 'Weeds and Wild Flowers', which failed. His second was a novel, 'Falkland', which also failed. Rather than abandoning authorship, he worked on with perseverance, reading extensively, and 'Pelham' followed 'Falkland' within a year, beginning a thirty-year succession of triumphs.
Chapter 5
Why did Tocqueville resign his appointment as Judge Auditor at Versailles?
Though appointed at twenty-one through powerful family influence, Tocqueville felt he had not fairly earned the position by merit. He determined to owe his future advancement to himself alone, resigned, and traveled through the United States, producing 'Democracy in America.' The author calls this a brave resolution, though some would call it foolish.
Chapter 5
What does the author conclude about individual effort versus help from others?
The author argues that while industry and energy accomplish much, help from others is of great importance; he cites Wordsworth on manly dependence and independence going together. Yet he concludes that however much the wise and good owe to others, men must be the active agents of their own well-being and their own best helpers.
Chapter 5
I.4 cards
Why were Stourbridge nailers losing trade to Swedish nails?
The chapter states the Stourbridge nailers were being undersold because the Swedes used splitting mills and machinery, which replaced the laborious English process of preparing iron rods for nail-making. Richard Foley learned of this and resolved to master the new Swedish process himself.
Chapter 6
How did Richard Foley first learn the Swedish iron-splitting process?
Foley disappeared from Stourbridge without telling even his family, worked his passage to Sweden, and begged and fiddled his way to the Dannemora mines using his fiddle. Welcomed by the iron-workers as a musician, he gained access to every part of the works and stored up observations of the machinery.
Chapter 6
Why did Foley's first splitting machinery fail in England?
After returning, Foley got funds from Mr. Knight and another Stourbridge backer to build machinery for splitting iron. When set to work, the machinery would not act and would not split the iron bars, to everyone's vexation. Foley then disappeared again, having determined to master the secret.
Chapter 6
How did Phipps locate the long-sunken Spanish treasure ship?
Phipps had only traditionary rumours of a wreck over fifty years old, with a wide coast and open ocean to search. After weeks of dragging up sea-weed and shingle, an Indian diver sent down for a sea-plant reported ships' guns nearby; a diver then brought up a solid bar of silver.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER II.3 cards
How did James Watt and Matthew Boulton contribute to the steam-engine?
The chapter treats Watt as an inventor marked by industry and a habit of attention, and Matthew Boulton as his partner in bringing the steam-engine forward. Smiles links their work to the wider applications of the steam-engine, presenting the pair as leaders of industry whose perseverance turned invention into practical use.
Chapter 7
What happened to John Heathcoat's bobbin-net machines?
John Heathcoat, inventor of the bobbin-net machine, is described as showing ingenuity and plodding perseverance in early life. The chapter notes that his machines were destroyed by the Luddites, and recounts an anecdote of Lord Lyndhurst alongside the progress of the lace trade. Smiles also comments on Heathcoat's character.
Chapter 7
What did Joshua Heilmann invent and how does Smiles rate it?
The chapter presents Joshua Heilmann as inventor of the combing-machine, tracing the history of the invention and asserting its value. Smiles places him among leaders of industry alongside Jacquard and Vaucanson, whose mechanical genius improved silk manufacture and whose machine Jacquard later improved and saw adopted.
Chapter 7
CHAPTER II. (part 1)4 cards
According to Smiles, who was chiefly responsible for England's great inventions?
The author argues that for the greater part of the great contrivances and inventions conferring power and wealth on the nation, England was indebted to men of the humblest rank. He claims that if you deduct what such men accomplished, very little remains for others to have done, and that inventors set in motion some of the world's greatest industries.
Chapter 8
What did James Watt do when given Newcomen's model engine to repair?
Watt set himself to learn all that was then known about heat, evaporation, and condensation, while also working at mechanics and the science of construction. These studies he eventually embodied in his condensing steam-engine. Smiles notes Watt spent ten years contriving and inventing with little hope and few encouragers, supporting his family meanwhile by making quadrants, mending instruments, surveying, and similar work.
Chapter 8
How does Smiles describe Arkwright's relation to the spinning-machine?
Smiles says Arkwright gathered the scattered threads of existing ingenuity and wove them, after his own design, into a new and original fabric. Earlier attempts by Lewis Paul and Thomas Highs proved imperfect or unsuccessful. Smiles compares Arkwright's role to Watt's with the steam-engine and Stephenson's with the locomotive, and notes his originality as an inventor has been called in question.
Chapter 8
What happened to Arkwright's models, and why?
Arkwright pursued his spinning experiments so assiduously that he neglected his business, lost his savings, and was reduced to poverty. His wife, impatient at what she saw as wanton waste of time and money, seized and destroyed his models in a moment of wrath, hoping to remove the cause of the family's privations. Smiles calls Arkwright stubborn and enthusiastic, provoked beyond measure.
Chapter 8
CHAPTER II. (part 2)4 cards
How did Robert Peel first discover calico printing by plate impression?
According to the chapter, Peel sketched a pattern on a pewter dinner plate, rubbed colour into the figured part, placed calico over it, and ran it through a calendering machine in a neighbour's cottage. The impression was satisfactory. This is said to be the origin of roller printing on calico. His first pattern was a parsley leaf, earning him the nickname "Parsley Peel" near Blackburn.
Chapter 9
What capital and early arrangements did young Robert Peel's cotton-printing firm have?
At about twenty, Robert Peel started cotton-printing with his uncle James Haworth and William Yates of Blackburn. Their total capital was only about 500l., mostly supplied by Yates. They bought a ruined corn-mill with adjoining fields near Bury, ran up wooden sheds, and began in 1770, adding cotton-spinning a few years later. Peel supplied the practical knowledge of the trade.
Chapter 9
What does the chapter say about Robert Peel's marriage to Ellen Yates?
Peel lodged with his partner William Yates at 8s. a week, later raised by sixpence after a dispute. He would take Yates's daughter Ellen on his knee and promise to wed her, and he waited about ten years while business prospered. He married her when she was seventeen. She became Lady Peel and mother of the future Prime Minister, and acted as his amanuensis.
Chapter 9
What is the traditional story of why William Lee invented the stocking frame?
The chapter says the accounts are confused and contradictory, but the traditional version is that Lee, curate of Calverton, fell in love with a village woman who paid more attention to knitting stockings than to him. This slight allegedly made him determined to invent a machine to supersede hand-knitting. The chapter notes the story is traditional and not certain, though Lee's mechanical genius is not doubted.
Chapter 9
CHAPTER II. (part 3)4 cards
How did Heathcoat's bobbin-net machine conduct threads through the warp?
He provided thin metallic discs used as bobbins to carry threads backwards and forwards through the warp. These discs were arranged in carrier-frames on each side of the warp and moved by suitable machinery to conduct the threads from side to side in forming the lace. At age twenty-four he secured his invention by a patent.
Chapter 10
How were Heathcoat's patent rights eventually established?
His rights as patentee were disputed and lace-makers adopted the machine, defying him. Only when later patentees fell out and sued each other did his rights become established: in Boville v. Moore the jury and judge concurred that both machines infringed Heathcoat's patent. Sir John Copley, for the defence, learned to work the machine himself before trial.
Chapter 10
Who were the Luddites and what did they do?
Machine-breakers near Nottingham organized in regular bodies under a leader named Ned Ludd, or General Ludd, hence 'Luddites.' They held nocturnal meetings, broke stocking and lace-frames, and later administered oaths binding members to obedience. Their reign of terror spread across Yorkshire and Lancashire, with mills attacked, wrecked or burnt, and some masters murdered, until the law was vigorously enforced.
Chapter 10
What happened to Heathcoat's Loughborough factory in 1816?
In summer 1816 a body of rioters entered his factory at Loughborough with torches and set fire to it, destroying thirty-seven lace-machines and over 10,000 pounds worth of property. Ten men were apprehended and eight executed. Heathcoat claimed county compensation; the Court of Queen's Bench ruled in his favour, and he then moved his manufacture to Tiverton.
Chapter 10
CHAPTER II. (part 4)4 cards
What did Jacquard add to Vaucanson's pierced cylinder to improve the loom?
Jacquard added an endless piece of pasteboard pierced with holes, through which the warp threads were presented to the weaver, plus another mechanism indicating to the workman the colour of shuttle to throw. This superseded both the drawboy and the reader of designs. He found Vaucanson's machine preserved in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers and completed his own loom within a month.
Chapter 11
How did the Lyons workmen react to Jacquard's new loom?
They saw the loom as fatal to their trade and feared it would take bread from their mouths. A tumultuous meeting on the Place des Terreaux resolved to destroy the machines, prevented by the military. Jacquard was denounced and hanged in effigy, and a mob dragged him along the quay intending to drown him before he was rescued. The prud'hommes had one loom publicly broken.
Chapter 11
What did the outcome show about the workpeople's fears regarding the Jacquard loom?
Their fears proved entirely unfounded. Instead of diminishing employment, the Jacquard loom increased it at least tenfold. M. Leon Faucher stated that 60,000 persons were occupied in the manufacture of figured goods in Lyons in 1833, and that number had since considerably increased. The workpeople who had dragged Jacquard to drown him later sought to bear him in triumph on his birthday.
Chapter 11
What everyday sight inspired Heilmann's combing machine?
While meditating by his hearth, Heilmann watched his daughters combing their long hair and drawing it out between their fingers. He realized that imitating the machine process of combing out the longest hair and forcing back the short by reversing the comb's action might solve his difficulty. The machine combs cotton at both ends, parallels the fibres, and separates long from short.
Chapter 11
CHAPTER III.4 cards
What drove Bernard Pallissy to seek the secret of the enamel?
The chapter states that Pallissy was inflamed by the sight of an Italian cup, which inspired his search for the secret of the enamel. He then pursued experiments through years of unproductive toil, enduring personal and family privations, until his indomitable perseverance—including burning his furniture to heat the furnace—finally brought success.
Chapter 12
How did Böttgher come to discover red and white porcelain?
Böttgher, the Berlin 'gold cook,' practiced alchemy and after his trick brought troubles he fled into Saxony, where he was detained at Dresden. While held there he discovered how to make red and white porcelain. The Saxon Government then took up the manufacture, and Böttgher was treated as a prisoner and a slave, meeting an unhappy end.
Chapter 12
What does the chapter say about Josiah Wedgwood's contribution?
The chapter presents Wedgwood as the English potter whose indefatigable industry, skill, and perseverance led to success, against the early state of English earthenware manufacture. It mentions the Barberini vase and calls Wedgwood a national benefactor, grouping him among the industrial heroes alongside Pallissy and Böttgher.
Chapter 12
What common theme does the chapter draw from the three great potters?
The chapter groups Pallissy, Böttgher, and Wedgwood as three great potters and industrial heroes, emphasizing perseverance through hardship. Pallissy's experiments and privations, Böttgher's detention and unhappy end, and Wedgwood's industry and skill all illustrate conduct and perseverance, which the book presents as the source of their achievements.
Chapter 12
CHAPTER III. (part 1)4 cards
What earlier enamelled ware did Luca della Robbia revive in Italy?
The chapter says enamelled earthenware was practised by the ancient Etruscans but became a lost art. The Moors preserved knowledge of it, practising it in Majorca when the Pisans took the island in 1115. About two centuries later Italians began imitating the Moorish ware, naming it Majolica after the place of manufacture. Luca della Robbia, a Florentine sculptor, is described as the reviver or re-discoverer of the art of enamelling in Italy.
Chapter 13
How did Luca della Robbia come to work in clay rather than marble?
Vasari describes Luca as a man of indefatigable perseverance, working with his chisel by day and drawing much of the night. Yet despite his industry he could not earn enough by sculpture to live by the art. He therefore began making his models in clay, a cheaper and more workable material, and experimented until he found a coating that became an almost imperishable enamel when fired, later adding colour to it.
Chapter 13
What first inspired Palissy to pursue enamelled earthenware?
Palissy, born about 1510 near Agen, was trained in glass-painting and had no schooling beyond, as he said, heaven and earth. Settled at Saintes with a wife and children, he saw an elegant cup of Italian manufacture, probably one of Luca della Robbia's. The sight inflamed him with the desire to imitate it, and discovering the enamel became a passion. He was wholly ignorant of the art, having never seen earth baked before he began.
Chapter 13
How did Palissy's early enamel experiments fail and what kept him going?
Palissy guessed at the enamel's ingredients, pounded likely substances, spread them on broken pots, and fired them in a furnace he built, producing only broken shards and wasted fuel, drugs, time, and labour. His wife could not sympathise with buying pots only to break them. He tried a tile-work furnace, then a glass-furnace, and after two more years of failure one of three hundred pieces came out white and polished, which lured him into further experiments.
Chapter 13
CHAPTER III. (part 2)4 cards
How did Palissy's imprisonment at Bordeaux end without him being executed?
Palissy was condemned to be burnt as a heretic, but the Constable de Montmorency intervened—not out of regard for Palissy or his religion, but because no other artist could execute the enamelled pavement for his château at Ecouen. An edict appointed Palissy Inventor of Rustic Figulines to the King and Constable, removing him from the Bordeaux jurisdiction, and he was liberated.
Chapter 14
What did Palissy reply when Henry III urged him to abjure his faith?
Told he would be burnt the next day unless converted, Palissy answered that he was ready to give his life for God's glory. He turned the king's words back on him: the king had said he was constrained, and Palissy replied that this was not spoken like a king, and that neither the Guises nor the people could constrain him, "for I know how to die." He died in the Bastille, not at the stake.
Chapter 14
How did Böttgher first discover red porcelain?
While experimenting, some red clay brought to him for making crucibles set him on the right track. He found that when submitted to a high temperature it became vitrified and retained its shape, with a texture resembling porcelain except in colour and opacity. He had accidentally discovered red porcelain, and proceeded to manufacture and sell it as porcelain.
Chapter 14
How did Böttgher discover kaolin, the key to white porcelain?
In 1707 Böttgher noticed his perruque felt unusually heavy and asked his valet why. The valet said it was the powder used to dress the wig, a kind of earth. Böttgher seized on the idea and found on experiment that the powder's principal ingredient was kaolin, whose absence had long blocked his inquiries. He presented his first porcelain to the Elector in October 1707.
Chapter 14
CHAPTER III. (part 3)4 cards
How did Gladstone interpret Wedgwood's childhood illness in his Burslem éloge?
Gladstone suggested the disease was possibly the occasion of Wedgwood's later excellence. It kept him from becoming an active, vigorous workman with full use of his limbs, so he turned his mind inward and meditated on the laws and secrets of his art. Gladstone argues he thus grasped them in a way an Athenian potter might have envied.
Chapter 15
What observation and discovery led Wedgwood to develop English earthenware?
Being a close observer, Wedgwood noticed that an earth containing silica was black before calcination but white after furnace heat. Pondering this, he mixed silica with the red powder of the potteries and found the mixture turned white when calcined. Covering it with a vitrification of transparent glaze produced English earthenware, which became commercially valuable and widely useful.
Chapter 15
How did Wedgwood respond to repeated failures in making porcelain and improving his furnaces?
His first attempts at table porcelain were a succession of disastrous failures, with months of labour often destroyed in a day. He lost time, money, and labour before finding the proper glaze. Troubled by his furnaces, he overcame difficulties like Palissy—through repeated experiments and unfaltering perseverance—and would not be denied, conquering success through patience.
Chapter 15
What public works and wider effects does the chapter credit to Wedgwood?
The chapter credits Wedgwood with helping to construct the Trent and Mersey Canal, allied to Brindley's engineering, and with planning and executing a ten-mile turnpike road through the Potteries. His works attracted European visitors. Pottery, found in the lowest condition, became a staple of England, and by 1785 about 20,000 persons derived their bread directly from earthenware manufacture.
Chapter 15
CHAPTER IV. (part 1)3 cards
According to Smiles, what did Newton say was the means of his discoveries?
Newton modestly answered that he worked out his discoveries "By always thinking unto them," and described keeping the subject continually before him until it opened slowly into full light. He told Dr. Bentley that any public service was due to "nothing but industry and patient thought." The author cites this to argue that even the highest genius depends on diligent application and perseverance rather than innate gift alone.
Chapter 16
How did Sir Robert Peel's father train his memory and speaking?
As a boy at Drayton Manor, Peel was set up at table by his father to practise speaking extempore, and was early accustomed to repeat as much of the Sunday sermon as he could remember. Little progress came at first, but steady perseverance made attention powerful, and he eventually repeated the sermon almost verbatim—a discipline Smiles links to Peel's later accuracy in replying to parliamentary opponents.
Chapter 16
What happened to Audubon's drawings, and what does Smiles use it to show?
Audubon left nearly a thousand drawings in a wooden box with a relative while away in Philadelphia for months. On return, he found a pair of Norway rats had nested in the box and reared a family among the gnawed paper. Smiles uses the anecdote to illustrate how enthusiasm—Audubon's word for his perseverance—can surmount the most disheartening difficulties.
Chapter 16
CHAPTER IV. (part 2)3 cards
How did Buffon overcome his habit of lying in bed in the mornings?
Buffon struggled to rise at his fixed hour and enlisted his servant Joseph, promising him a crown each time he got him up before six. Joseph eventually resorted to dashing ice-cold water under the bed-clothes. Through such persistent means Buffon conquered the habit, and he said he owed Joseph three or four volumes of his Natural History.
Chapter 17
How did Sir Walter Scott view the relationship between business and literary work?
Scott attributed his steady, sober diligence to his years of drudgery in a lawyer's office. He held that there was no necessary connection between genius and contempt for common duties, and thought spending part of each day in matter-of-fact occupation benefited the higher faculties. He resolved that literature should be his staff, not his crutch.
Chapter 17
What hardships did John Britton endure before becoming an author?
Britton was born in a miserable cot; his father was ruined in trade and became insane. He bottled and binned wine for an uncle over five years, was turned adrift with two guineas, and endured seven years of hardship. He studied in lodgings at eighteenpence a week, reading in bed in winter because he could not afford a fire, and later worked as a cellarman and attorney's clerk.
Chapter 17
CHAPTER IV. (part 3)4 cards
How did the Wesleyan editor first approach literature as a profession?
He initially refused to treat literature as a livelihood, first securing an honest living through business and putting only the surplus of his time into what he called the "lottery of literary success." Later he devoted himself wholly to literature, editing a Wesleyan magazine, superintending denominational works, writing for the 'Eclectic Review,' and publishing a history of Cornwall.
Chapter 18
What roles did Joseph Hume hold in India beyond ship's surgeon?
After voyages as a ship's surgeon and a cadetship, Hume became interpreter when the previous interpreter died during the Mahratta war, having mastered native languages. He was made chief of the medical staff, then also took on paymaster and post-master offices, and contracted to supply the commissariat, profiting himself while benefiting the army.
Chapter 18
What was Joseph Hume's parliamentary record and working routine?
Hume entered Parliament in 1812 and served, with a short interruption, about thirty-four years. He promoted public education, criminal reform, savings-banks, free trade, economy and retrenchment, and extended representation. He rose at six, wrote letters, received up to twenty business callers a morning, and rarely missed a division even when debates ran to two or three o'clock.
Chapter 18
How does the chapter characterize Hume's influence despite frequent defeats?
The author argues Hume was often outvoted and much laughed at, yet his influence was felt and many financial improvements were effected even with votes directly against him. He was not a good speaker, but his words were believed to come from an honest, single-minded, accurate man. The chapter calls his perseverance one of biography's most remarkable illustrations.
Chapter 18
CHAPTER V. (part 1)4 cards
According to Smiles, what is the relationship between accident and great discoveries?
Smiles argues that accident does very little toward producing great results; the common highway of steady industry is the safe road. So-called accidents are mostly opportunities carefully improved by genius. Newton's falling apple only mattered because his mind had already spent years investigating gravitation, and the soap-bubbles suggested Dr. Young's theory of interferences.
Chapter 19
How did Galileo turn ordinary observations into important discoveries?
Galileo, as a youth of eighteen at Pisa, noticed a swinging lamp and conceived applying it to measuring time, though fifty years of study passed before he completed the pendulum. Hearing of Lippershey's instrument, he addressed the cause of the phenomenon, leading to the telescope. Smiles uses this to show that the mind sees as well as the eye.
Chapter 19
What examples does Smiles give of inventors copying nature?
Smiles cites several: Sir Samuel Brown saw a spider's web across his path and conceived the suspension bridge; James Watt, from a lobster shell, invented an iron tube for carrying water under the Clyde; and Sir Isambert Brunel studied the shipworm perforating wood to model his Thames Tunnel shield. The intelligent eye of the careful observer gives these trivial phenomena their value.
Chapter 19
What does Smiles say about tools and the school of difficulty?
Smiles argues that it is not tools that make the workman but trained skill and perseverance. Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention, and the school of difficulty is the most prolific. He notes Ferguson made a wooden clock with a common penknife, and Wollaston's whole laboratory was a tea-tray with watch-glasses, test papers, a balance, and a blowpipe.
Chapter 19
CHAPTER V. (part 2)4 cards
How did Cuvier begin his study of molluscs, and what resources did he have?
At eighteen, Cuvier was a tutor near Fécamp in Normandy, living by the sea. Strolling the sands, he found a stranded cuttlefish, took it home to dissect, and thus began studying the molluscae. He had no books to consult except the open book of Nature, and spent three years comparing living marine species with local fossil remains and dissecting specimens.
Chapter 20
What examples does the chapter give of men using odd moments of time?
The author cites Dr. Mason Good translating Lucretius while riding through London to patients; Dr. Darwin composing works while driving in his sulky, jotting thoughts on scraps of paper; Hale writing 'Contemplations' on circuit; Dr. Burney learning French and Italian on horseback; Kirke White learning Greek walking to a lawyer's office; and Elihu Burritt, a blacksmith, mastering many languages in odd moments.
Chapter 20
What rule did John Hunter say he owed all his success to?
Hunter said his rule was to deliberately consider, before starting, whether a thing was practicable. If not practicable, he did not attempt it; if practicable, he could accomplish it with sufficient pains, and having begun, he never stopped until it was done. He attributed all his success to this rule, and allowed himself only four hours of sleep at night plus an hour after dinner.
Chapter 20
What did Paré's early life and training look like before he became a surgeon?
Paré was born in 1509 at Laval, son of a barber. Too poor for school, he was placed as foot-boy with the village curé, who kept him grooming the mule and doing menial tasks, leaving no time to learn. After witnessing the lithotomist Cotot operate, he apprenticed to a barber-surgeon named Vialot, learning bloodletting, tooth-drawing and minor operations, then went to Paris to study while working as a barber.
Chapter 20
CHAPTER V. (part 3)4 cards
How long did Jenner pursue experiments before publishing his vaccination treatise, and when?
Jenner worked out his ideas from 1775, when they began to assume definite form, and continued observations and experiments for about twenty years. His treatise was published in 1798, a quarto of roughly seventy pages detailing twenty-three successful vaccination cases. His faith was so implicit that he vaccinated his own son on three separate occasions.
Chapter 21
How was Jenner's vaccination discovery first received by the medical profession and public?
First with indifference, then active hostility. In London not one medical man would try vaccination, and he returned home after nearly three months. He was caricatured for trying to 'bestialize' the species; vaccination was denounced from the pulpit as 'diabolical,' with claims of ox-faced children and sprouting horns. Two titled ladies, Lady Ducie and the Countess of Berkeley, vaccinated their children and broke the prejudice.
Chapter 21
What did Sir Charles Bell discover about the spinal nerves, and how long did the work occupy him?
Bell discovered that the spinal nerves are double in function and arise by double roots from the spinal marrow: volition is conveyed by the part springing from one root, and sensation by the other. He took an entirely original view based on long, careful, repeated experiments, tracing the nervous system from the lowest animals up to man. The subject occupied him for forty years, his last paper going to the Royal Society in 1840.
Chapter 21
How did Herschel come to build his own telescopes, and what did he achieve?
A poor German musician's son, Herschel played oboe and violin, then settled at Bath as organist and Pump-room performer. Fascinated by astronomy but alarmed at a London optician's price, he determined to make a telescope himself. After long painful labour he completed a five-foot reflector, then seven, ten, and twenty-foot instruments, finishing two hundred specula before one seven-foot mirror would bear any power applied. He discovered the Georgium Sidus and became Astronomer Royal.
Chapter 21
CHAPTER V. (part 4)4 cards
What did the Geological Society award William Smith in 1831, and for what reason?
In 1831 the Geological Society of London awarded William Smith the Wollaston medal, citing him as a great original discoverer in English geology and especially for being the first in this country to discover and teach the identification of strata and to determine their succession by means of their imbedded fossils.
Chapter 22
How did Hugh Miller describe the merit he claimed for his geological work?
Miller modestly claimed only the merit of patient research, a merit in which whoever wills may rival or surpass him. He added that this humble faculty of patience, when rightly developed, may lead to more extraordinary developments of idea than even genius itself.
Chapter 22
What did Robert Dick, the Thurso baker, demonstrate to Sir Roderick Murchison?
At his bakehouse, Robert Dick used flour on the board to delineate the geographical features and geological phenomena of his native county, pointing out imperfections in existing maps that he had found by travelling the country in his leisure hours. Murchison also found him a first-rate botanist who knew far more botanical science than himself.
Chapter 22
How does the chapter describe Sir Roderick Murchison's path to scientific reputation?
Citing the Quarterly Review, the chapter describes Murchison as a man who spent his early life as a soldier without scientific training, yet by native vigour, sagacity, untiring industry and zeal made a wide and lasting scientific reputation. He first examined an unexplored home district, classed its rock-formations and fossils, and deciphered two great chapters of geological history.
Chapter 22
CHAPTER VI.3 cards
What does Sir Joshua Reynolds say about industry in art?
The chapter opens by citing Sir Joshua Reynolds on the power of industry in art, framing the whole survey of painters, sculptors, and musicians. The author uses this to argue that eminence in art, as in other fields, comes chiefly through patient labor rather than native genius alone. The examples that follow are meant to illustrate this principle.
Chapter 23
How did early success affect Benjamin West, according to the chapter?
The chapter describes West's early success as a disadvantage, suggesting that precocious triumph can hinder rather than help an artist's development. This contrasts with the patient, laborious careers the author praises elsewhere in the chapter, such as those of Michael Angelo, Titian, and Poussin. The point supports the author's broader argument that sustained industry matters more than early promise.
Chapter 23
What ambition drove Benvenuto Cellini, and what labor does the chapter highlight?
The chapter presents Cellini as a goldsmith and musician whose ambition was to excel, and it highlights his labor in casting the statue of Perseus. This example serves the author's theme that perseverance and the drive to excel, rather than ease, produce great work. Cellini joins the chapter's wider gallery of artists noted for patient, strenuous effort.
Chapter 23
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What did Sir Joshua Reynolds believe about acquiring artistic excellence?
Reynolds held that artistic excellence, however expressed by genius, taste, or the gift of heaven, may be acquired. He told Barry that whoever resolves to excel in painting must bring all his mind to bear on that one object from rising till bed, and that those resolved to excel must work morning, noon, and night, finding it no play but very hard labour.
Chapter 24
How does the chapter describe the origins of many great artists?
The chapter lists artists who forced their way upward despite poverty and obstruction: Claude Lorraine the pastrycook, Tintoretto the dyer, the Caravaggios (a colour-grinder and a mortar-carrier), Giotto the peasant boy, Canova the stone-cutter. English painters were likewise humble-born: Barry an Irish sailor boy, Opie and Romney carpenters, West a Quaker farmer's son, Turner a barber's son.
Chapter 24
What did Michael Angelo say about a painter eager to exhibit for profit?
Asked his opinion of a work a painter had taken great pains to exhibit for profit, Michael Angelo said he thought the man would be a poor fellow so long as he showed such extreme eagerness to become rich. The chapter notes that the pleasure of the pursuit has always been art's best reward, and wealth followed but as an accident.
Chapter 24
What anecdote illustrates the patient labour behind apparently easy artistic works?
A Venetian nobleman charged a sculptor fifty sequins for a bust that cost only ten days' labour. The artist replied that he had been thirty years learning to make that bust in ten days. Similarly Domenichino, blamed for slowness, said he was continually painting the picture within himself, and Callcott made forty sketches for his 'Rochester.'
Chapter 24
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Why did Cellini's father want him to become a flute player?
Giovanni Cellini, having lost his appointment, had to send his son to learn a trade and apprenticed him to a goldsmith. Yet the father still insisted Benvenuto become a flute-player, and the boy kept practising the instrument although he detested it. His chief pleasure remained art, which he pursued with enthusiasm, studying designs by Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo.
Chapter 25
How did Cellini respond when the Grand Duke doubted the Perseus could be cast?
The Grand Duke said the wax model could not possibly be cast in bronze. Cellini was stimulated by the predicted impossibility not only to attempt it but to do it. He made and baked a clay model, covered it with wax, then an outer earth layer; the wax melted out, leaving space for metal. When the metal failed to flow, he threw in kitchen copper and pewter, and the statue was cast.
Chapter 25
What did Poussin say when overwhelmed with commissions in Paris?
Poussin told M. de Chanteloup it was impossible to work at once on frontispieces for books, a Virgin, a picture for the Congregation of St. Louis, designs for the gallery, and designs for the royal tapestry. He said he had only one pair of hands and a feeble head, and could neither be helped nor have his labours lightened by another.
Chapter 25
How did Poussin's early attempts to reach Rome go?
At eighteen Poussin set out for Paris, painting signboards on the way for a living. He then resolved to visit Rome but only got as far as Florence before returning to Paris. A second attempt was even less successful, reaching only Lyons. Twelve years of obscurity and toil passed before he finally reached Rome, where he studied the old masters and ancient statues.
Chapter 25
CHAPTER VI. (part 3)4 cards
How did Flaxman's early work for Wedgwood benefit the public, according to the chapter?
The author argues that designing common teapots and jugs was not a humble waste of genius: articles in daily use could be vehicles of education and minister to the highest culture. Flaxman improved china designs using Etruscan vases and Stuart's 'Athens' as models, and was proud in later life that his early labours diffused a taste for art among the people while also replenishing his purse.
Chapter 26
What did Sir Joshua Reynolds tell Flaxman about marriage, and how did the couple respond?
Reynolds told Flaxman he was 'ruined for an artist' by marrying, holding that greatness required total devotion to art and study at Rome. Flaxman repeated this to his wife Ann, who vowed he would still be a great artist and visit Rome; they resolved to go when means allowed, saving for five years in Wardour Street without seeking Academy aid.
Chapter 26
How did Chantrey begin his career, and what early jobs did he take?
Born a poor man's child at Norton near Sheffield, Chantrey drove an ass with milk-cans into Sheffield for his mother. Disliking the grocery trade, he was bound apprentice for seven years to a carver and gilder, then paid 50l. to cancel his indentures at twenty-one. He went to London as an assistant carver, and later advertised in Sheffield as a portrait painter in crayons, miniatures, and oil.
Chapter 26
What was Chantrey's first original work exhibited in London, and how did he make it?
His first original work for exhibition was a gigantic head of Satan, modelled in a room over a stable. He later recalled working on it in a garret with a paper cap on his head, sticking his single candle in the cap so it moved with him and gave light whichever way he turned. Flaxman saw and admired it at the Academy Exhibition.
Chapter 26
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What did Pugin do to gain practical architectural training beyond his father's office?
Pugin hired himself out as a common carpenter at Covent Garden Theatre, working under the stage, behind the flys, and on the stage itself. When the theatre closed, he worked on a sailing-ship between London and French ports, landing to draw old and ecclesiastical buildings. The chapter argues this labour and self-education, not formal academic training, made him an artist.
Chapter 27
How did George Kemp prepare himself to design the Scott Monument?
Kemp, a shepherd's son apprenticed to a village carpenter, worked his way across northern England and Scotland, sketching Gothic buildings. He walked fifty miles to York to study the Minster, spent four years in Glasgow studying its cathedral, and travelled Europe supporting himself by his trade. His design won the Scott Monument prize unanimously, though he died before it was built.
Chapter 27
How did James Sharples, a blacksmith's boy, educate himself in drawing?
Sharples heated and carried rivets for boiler-makers, learned letters partly from his father after long hours, and practised chalk boiler designs at home. At sixteen he attended a drawing class taught by a barber for one quarter, then left to learn reading and writing so he could study Burnet's 'Practical Treatise on Painting,' rising at four to read and copy it.
Chapter 27
CHAPTER VI. (part 5)4 cards
How did Sharples finally clean the oil from his engraved plate?
After oil on the plate hardened into a dark sticky substance, Sharples despaired of picking it out with a needle. He hit on boiling the plate in water containing soda, then rubbing the engraved parts with a tooth-brush, and found the plan succeeded perfectly. He completed the plate, 'The Forge,' in leisure evening hours over five years, without advice or assistance.
Chapter 28
What did Beethoven write beneath Moscheles's 'Finis, with God's help'?
When Moscheles submitted his piano score of 'Fidelio,' Beethoven found 'Finis, with God's help' written at the bottom of the last page. Beethoven immediately wrote underneath, 'O man! help thyself!' The chapter presents this as the motto of Beethoven's artistic life, alongside his maxim that no barriers are erected against aspiring talents and industry.
Chapter 28
How did young William Jackson come to build his first barrel-organ?
A parish clerk bought a disabled barrel-organ cheaply and failed to revive it, so he brought it by donkey cart to Jackson, who had improved the church hand-organ. Jackson repaired it, then became convinced he could make one himself. He and his father, though without carpentering practice, built an organ that played ten tunes decently after hard labour and many failures.
Chapter 28
How did Meyerbeer's career illustrate perseverance, according to the chapter?
Bayle wrote from Milan in 1820 that Meyerbeer had 'some talent, but no genius,' living solitary and working fifteen hours a day at music. Years later, the chapter states, his hard work fully brought out his genius in 'Roberto,' 'Huguenots,' 'Prophète,' and other works, confessed among the greatest modern operas. The author uses this to show industry developing rather than merely revealing talent.
Chapter 28
CHAPTER VII.4 cards
According to the chapter, why has the English peerage held its own so well?
The author argues it has been fed over time by the best industrial blood of the country, unlike peerages of other countries. Like the fabled Antæus, it is invigorated by touching its mother earth and mingling with the most ancient order of nobility—the working order.
Chapter 29
What does Burke's 'Vicissitudes of Families' show about the fall of noble families?
Burke shows the misfortunes overtaking the rich and noble are greater in proportion than those overwhelming the poor. Of the twenty-five barons chosen to enforce Magna Charta, no male descendant remains in the House of Peers. Descendants of Bohuns, Mortimers, and Plantagenets are hidden among common men, some found as a butcher, toll-gatherer, or cobbler.
Chapter 29
Which peerages does the chapter say were founded by merchants and tradesmen?
Cornwallis by Thomas Cornwallis, a Cheapside merchant; Essex by William Capel, a draper; Craven by William Craven, a merchant tailor. Warwick descends from William Greville, a woolstapler, and Northumberland from Hugh Smithson, an apothecary. Dartmouth, Radnor, Ducie, and Pomfret founders were a skinner, silk manufacturer, merchant tailor, and Calais merchant.
Chapter 29
How did Edward Osborne, founder of the Dukedom of Leeds, rise?
Osborne was apprentice to William Hewet, a rich clothworker on London Bridge. He courageously rescued Hewet's only daughter from drowning by leaping into the Thames after her, and eventually married her. The chapter lists this as an example of a peerage founded by trade.
Chapter 29
CHAPTER VIII. (part 1)4 cards
According to the chapter, what does energy of will mean for a man's character?
The author argues energy of will is the central power of character—in a word, the man himself. It gives impulse to every action and soul to every effort, enabling a man to force his way through drudgery and rise in every station of life. The author claims it accomplishes more than genius, with less disappointment and peril.
Chapter 30
What does the chapter say about the relationship between will and right direction?
The author argues will, considered without regard to direction, is simply constancy, firmness, and perseverance, so everything depends on right direction and motives. Directed toward sensual enjoyment, a strong will may be a demon with intellect as its slave; directed toward good, the strong will is a king and intellect serves man's highest well-being.
Chapter 30
How does the chapter contrast Napoleon and Wellington?
The author argues Wellington was the far greater man: not less resolute, firm, and persistent, but more self-denying, conscientious, and truly patriotic. Napoleon's aim was glory, while Wellington's watchword, like Nelson's, was duty. The author says Napoleon's intense selfishness ruined him and France, teaching that power without beneficence is fatal to possessor and subjects.
Chapter 30
What does the chapter say about the freedom of the will?
The author argues each individual practically feels free to choose between good and evil, not like a straw on water but like a strong swimmer directing his own course. He claims conscience proclaims the will is free in every moment, that it is the only thing wholly ours, and that habits and temptations are not our masters but we of them.
Chapter 30
CHAPTER VIII. (part 2)4 cards
What did the Indian juggler say when Napier offered his right hand for the sword feat?
The juggler refused the right hand, explaining it was hollow in the centre with a risk of cutting off the thumb, while the left was high and less dangerous. Napier was startled, saw it was genuine delicate swordsmanship, and admitted he would have retired from the encounter had he not already challenged the man before his staff.
Chapter 31
According to the chapter, what did the native prince Holkar's astrologer predict about the British during the mutiny?
Consulted while the mutiny's outcome was still uncertain, the astrologer replied that if all the Europeans save one were slain, that one would remain to fight and reconquer. The chapter uses this to illustrate that even in their darkest moments the British held no thought of surrender and kept faith in eventual triumph.
Chapter 31
What does Montalembert say explains the heroism of ordinary Englishmen during the Indian struggle?
Montalembert says not one shrank or trembled, and that this shines out the immense value of public education, which invites the Englishman from youth to use his strength and liberty, to associate, resist, fear nothing, be astonished at nothing, and save himself by his own exertions from every sore strait in life.
Chapter 31
How does the chapter describe the siege of Delhi and the odds the British faced there?
The British were really the besieged though ostensibly besiegers: no more than 3,700 bayonets, European and native, assailed by a rebel army numbering at one time 75,000, trained to European discipline and well supplied. Thirty times attacked, thirty times they drove the enemy back, holding on until the city was won and the flag unfurled.
Chapter 31
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Why did Livingstone go to Africa instead of China, and what did he dislike about it?
Livingstone had intended to reach China by his own efforts, but war with China prevented this, so he offered his services to the London Missionary Society, which sent him to Africa, arriving in 1840. He said his only pang was that it was "not quite agreeable to one accustomed to work his own way to become, in a manner, dependent upon others."
Chapter 32
How did Livingstone respond to the Bechuanas' doubts about his strength?
On first starting a long journey on foot with a party of Bechuanas, Livingstone overheard them say he was not strong, was quite slim, and only looked stout because of his trousers, and would soon knock up. His Highland blood rose, and he kept them all at top speed for days until he heard them express proper opinions of his pedestrian powers.
Chapter 32
What was Jonas Hanway's motto, and what event inspired it?
While on a trading venture to Persia, Hanway landed his bales at Astrabad when an insurrection broke out; his goods were seized and a plot formed to seize him and his party. He escaped by sea and reached Ghilan in safety. This escape gave him the first idea of the words he adopted as his life's motto: "Never Despair."
Chapter 32
What did Hanway achieve for parish infants, and what was the Act called?
After nearly ten years' labour and personal inquiry into workhouses, Hanway obtained an Act at his sole expense (7 Geo. III. c. 39) directing that parish infants within the bills of mortality not be nursed in workhouses but sent to nurse out of town until age six, under triennially elected guardians. The poor called it "the Act for keeping children alive," and registers showed thousands of lives preserved.
Chapter 32
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What did Granville Sharp conclude after studying English law on personal liberty?
After two years of studying the laws of England affecting personal liberty, with no instructor, assistant, or adviser, Sharp concluded that nothing in English law or statute—at least that he could find—could justify the enslaving of others. He set out his findings in a tract titled 'On the Injustice of Tolerating Slavery in England,' which he copied himself and circulated among eminent lawyers.
Chapter 33
How did Granville Sharp rescue the African named Lewis?
Lewis was seized at night by two watermen, gagged, bound, and put on a ship bound for Jamaica to be sold. Neighbours alerted Sharp, who got a warrant and pursued the ship to Gravesend and the Downs. A writ of Habeas Corpus was served at Spithead before the ship left English shores; Lewis was found chained to the mainmast and liberated.
Chapter 33
What was the outcome of the Somerset case and its significance?
In the Somerset case, tried before Lord Mansfield with three justices, Mansfield declared that the claim of slavery never can be supported and that the power claimed was never in use in England nor acknowledged by law, so James Somerset was discharged. The chapter says this judgment effectively abolished the slave trade then carried on openly and established that a slave becomes free on setting foot on English ground.
Chapter 33
What does the chapter say about Clarkson's search for a witness against slave-traders?
Slave-traders claimed only negroes captured in battle were sold as slaves. Clarkson had no witness to the slave-hunts until a chance acquaintance described a young sailor who had taken part in one, without knowing his name or port. Clarkson visited every seaport with ships in ordinary, boarding and examining each ship, and found the man in the last ship at the last port.
Chapter 33
CHAPTER IX. (part 1)4 cards
What does Hazlitt claim is the great requisite for prosperous ordinary business?
Hazlitt argues the great requisite for prosperous management of ordinary business is the want of imagination, or of any ideas but those of custom and interest on the narrowest scale. The author rejects this as one-sided and in effect untrue, noting that while narrow-minded business men exist, so do business men of large and comprehensive minds capable of action on the largest scale.
Chapter 34
Which traders and thinkers does the chapter cite as combining business with intellectual pursuits?
The chapter cites Thales, Solon, and Hyperates as traders; Plato sold oil to fund travel in Egypt; Spinoza polished glasses; Linnæus made shoes; Shakespeare managed a theatre; Chaucer was a Commissioner of Customs; Milton was Secretary to the Council of State; Newton was Master of the Mint; Ricardo was a stock-jobber; Grote a banker; and Mill served the East India Company.
Chapter 34
What does the chapter say about luck versus self-caused failure?
The chapter quotes Dr. Johnson: all complaints made of the world are unjust, and he never knew a man of merit neglected; failure was generally by his own fault. It cites a Russian proverb that misfortune is next door to stupidity, and Irving's view that talk of neglected modest merit is often cant by which indolent men blame the public.
Chapter 34
What qualities does the chapter list as required for efficient conduct of business?
The chapter lists attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, and despatch as the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of any sort. It admits these appear small matters at first sight, yet insists they are of essential importance to human happiness, well-being, and usefulness, since human life is made up of comparative trifles.
Chapter 34
CHAPTER IX. (part 2)4 cards
According to the chapter, what does an old captain order when there is nothing else to do?
The chapter reports that at sea men grumble and mutiny most when least employed, so an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor!" The author uses this to illustrate that steady occupation keeps one out of mischief, since an idle brain is the devil's workshop and a lazy man the devil's bolster.
Chapter 35
What did Nelson say he owed all his success in life to?
Nelson said, "I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before my time." The author cites this while arguing that a proper consideration of the value of time inspires habits of punctuality, which he calls the politeness of kings, the duty of gentlemen, and the necessity of men of business.
Chapter 35
How does the chapter describe punctuality in relation to appointments and character?
The author argues punctuality is conscientiousness in a measure, since an appointment is a contract, express or implied; he who does not keep it breaks faith, dishonestly uses other people's time, and inevitably loses character. He adds that people conclude the person careless about time will be careless about business and unfit to be trusted with important matters.
Chapter 35
What business qualities does the chapter say Napoleon and Wellington shared?
The author argues both Napoleon and Wellington were first-rate men of business. Napoleon combined love of detail with vivid imagination, knowledge of character, and readiness to handle matters personally; Wellington's business faculty, close attention to detail, and administrative skill in India are presented as central to his never losing a battle.
Chapter 35
CHAPTER IX. (part 3)4 cards
What advice does Hugh Miller's uncle give about dealings with a neighbour?
He advises giving your neighbour the cast of the bank—"good measure, heaped up, and running over"—and says you will not lose by it in the end. The chapter uses this to illustrate that uprightness and integrity are as successful in business as in everything else.
Chapter 36
How does the chapter describe the mason Hugh Miller apprenticed under?
Hugh Miller describes the mason as one who "put his conscience into every stone that he laid." The chapter uses him to show that in the humblest calling there is scope for uprightness of character, and that the true mechanic prides himself on the thoroughness and solidity of his work.
Chapter 36
What does Baron Dupin say is the principal cause of English commercial success?
Dupin holds the general probity of Englishmen to be a principal cause of their success. He argues that fraud, surprise, and violence may succeed for a time, but permanent success comes only from the opposite qualities. He says it is far more their wisdom, economy, and above all their probity that maintain the character of their productions and country.
Chapter 36
What did David Barclay do when he inherited a Jamaica estate with slaves?
Though it cost him some 10,000l., Barclay gave liberty to the whole of the slaves on the estate. He sent an agent who hired a ship and had the community transported to a free American state, where they settled and prospered. He acted to disprove the assertion that the negroes were too ignorant and barbarous for freedom.
Chapter 36
CHAPTER X. (part 1)4 cards
According to Smiles, what does a man's use of money test?
Smiles argues that how a man makes, saves, and spends money is perhaps one of the best tests of practical wisdom. He insists money is not a chief end of life but also not a trifling matter, since it represents physical comfort and social well-being. The right use of money, he says, relates to generosity, honesty, justice, and self-sacrifice, as well as economy and providence.
Chapter 37
What did Cobden tell the working men of Huddersfield about savers and spenders?
Cobden said the world has always been divided into two classes: those who have saved and those who have spent, the thrifty and the extravagant. He argued that all houses, mills, bridges, ships, and other great works were built by the savers, while those who wasted their resources were always their slaves. He called this the law of nature and Providence.
Chapter 37
What three temporal contingencies does Smiles say a man must provide for?
Smiles states the three chief temporal contingencies are want of employment, sickness, and death. The first two a man may escape, but death is inevitable. He argues the prudent man should so live and arrange matters that suffering is mitigated as much as possible, both for himself and for those dependent on him for comfort and subsistence.
Chapter 37
How does Smiles distinguish economy from penuriousness?
Smiles argues economy is the spirit of order applied to domestic affairs: management, regularity, prudence, and avoidance of waste. It means resisting present gratification for a future good, the ascendancy of reason over animal instincts. It differs from penuriousness because economy can always best afford to be generous; it does not make money an idol but treats it as a useful agent.
Chapter 37
CHAPTER X. (part 2)4 cards
What did Sir Charles Napier's General Order say about honesty and gentlemen?
In his final General Order to Indian army officers, Sir Charles Napier protested against the 'fast' life that led young officers into debt. He urged that honesty is inseparable from the character of a thorough-bred gentleman, and that drinking unpaid-for champagne and beer and riding unpaid-for horses makes a man a cheat, not a gentleman. He wanted officers 'without fear' and 'without reproach.'
Chapter 38
How did Hugh Miller describe his youthful decision about drinking?
Working as a mason, Hugh Miller drank two glasses of whisky with his fellow workmen. At home he found the letters of Bacon's Essays dancing before his eyes and could no longer grasp the sense. Feeling degraded to a lower level of intelligence, he determined never again to sacrifice his capacity for intellectual enjoyment to a drinking usage, and with God's help held to it.
Chapter 38
What does the chapter say about proverbs and making money?
The author argues there is no secret to making money, as proverbs of every nation testify: 'Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves,' 'Diligence is the mother of good luck,' and 'Better go to bed supperless than rise in debt.' He says such proverbs embody hoarded experience, predate books, and have stood the test of time.
Chapter 38
How did Thomas Wright of Manchester reform criminals while working for wages?
Thomas Wright worked in a foundry from six in the morning till six at night for under 100 pounds a year, using spare minutes and Sundays to help liberated convicts. Over ten years he rescued not fewer than three hundred felons, becoming the 'moral physician' of the Manchester Old Bailey. He funded this from small wages while supporting his family and saving for old age.
Chapter 38
CHAPTER X. (part 3)4 cards
What does Smiles claim about the effect of riches on action and character?
The author argues riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action, and often as much a misfortune as a blessing. The youth who inherits wealth has life made too easy, grows sated because nothing is left to desire, and remains morally and spiritually asleep. Yet he adds that a rich man inspired by a right spirit will spurn idleness and feel a higher call to work than men of humbler lot.
Chapter 39
What moral does Smiles draw from the monkey's-paw story?
The monkey inserts his paw into a narrow opening, grasps the booty, and cannot withdraw because he will not unclench his fist, so he is caught by morning. Smiles applies this as a lesson that the power of money is on the whole over-estimated: the greatest things done for the world were not accomplished by rich men or subscription lists, but by men of small pecuniary means.
Chapter 39
Which examples does Smiles give of great achievements by men of modest means?
Smiles states that Christianity was propagated over half the world by men of the poorest class, and that the greatest thinkers, discoverers, inventors, and artists have been men of moderate wealth, many little raised above manual labourers in worldly circumstances. He asserts it will always be so, using these as evidence that riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action.
Chapter 39
How does Smiles define true success and respectability, citing Joseph Brotherton?
Smiles says the highest object of life is to form a manly character and develop body and spirit—mind, conscience, heart, and soul—with all else as means. The most successful life is not the one with most money, power, or fame, but the one with most manhood and useful work. Brotherton's motto was that his richness lay in the smallness of his wants, not the greatness of his possessions.
Chapter 39
CHAPTER XI.4 cards
What does the chapter say about the value of books versus applied knowledge?
The chapter argues that books may impart learning, but only well-applied knowledge and experience exhibit wisdom. It warns against the mischievous effects of "cramming" and labour-saving processes and multifarious reading, insisting that the right use of knowledge matters more than mere accumulation. The author points to men like Brindley, Stephenson, and Hunter, who were not book-learned yet achieved greatness.
Chapter 40
Which qualities does the chapter stress for well-directed labour?
The chapter emphasizes thoroughness, accuracy, decision, and promptitude, along with the virtue of patient labour. It cites opinions from Sir Joshua Reynolds, Fowell Buxton, Dr. Ross, F. Horner, Loyola, and Lord St. Leonards on well-directed labour. The recurring theme is that labour conquers all things when it is patient and properly directed rather than scattered.
Chapter 40
What does the chapter say about failure, difficulty, and adversity?
The chapter discusses the wisdom and strength acquired through failure, and the uses of difficulty and adversity. It cites Hunter, Rossini, Davy, and Mendelssohn, and invokes Lyndhurst, D'Alembert, Carissimi, Reynolds, and Henry Clay on persistency. The author argues that struggles with difficulties, illustrated by figures like Alexander Murray, William Chambers, and Cobbett, build character and capability rather than merely obstructing success.
Chapter 40
What examples of late learners and "illustrious dunces" does the chapter give?
For late learners the chapter names Spelman, Franklin, Dryden, Scott, Boccaccio, and Arnold, among others. For "illustrious dunces" it lists Generals Grant and Stonewall Jackson, John Howard, and Davy, among others, and includes a story of a dunce. The chapter concludes that success depends on perseverance rather than early brilliance.
Chapter 40
CHAPTER XI. (part 1)4 cards
According to Gibbon and Scott, what are the two educations a person receives?
The chapter quotes Gibbon: every person has two educations, one received from others and one, more important, which he gives to himself. Sir Walter Scott similarly said the best part of every man's education is that which he gives to himself. School or college is only a beginning, valuable mainly for training the mind and habituating it to continuous application.
Chapter 41
How did Dr. Arnold view teaching and self-reliance in pupils?
The author presents Dr. Arnold as striving to teach pupils to rely on themselves and develop their powers by their own active efforts, with the teacher merely guiding, directing, stimulating, and encouraging. Arnold said he would rather send a boy to Van Diemen's Land to work for his bread than to Oxford to live in luxury without desire to use his advantages.
Chapter 41
What remedy does the chapter give for youthful discontent and 'green-sickness'?
The chapter says students show frequent tendencies toward discontent, unhappiness, inaction, and reverie—called Byronism in England and Wertherism in Germany—which the author attributes perhaps to neglect of physical exercise. Dr. Channing noted young men growing up 'in a school of despair.' The stated remedy is physical exercise: action, work, and bodily occupation.
Chapter 41
What examples show early manual work aided later intellectual achievement?
The chapter cites Sir Isaac Newton, a comparatively dull scholar who was assiduous with saw, hammer, and hatchet, making models of windmills and machines. Smeaton, Watt, and Stephenson were equally handy with tools as boys. Elihu Burritt found hard labour necessary to study effectively, returning to his blacksmith's forge for health of body and mind.
Chapter 41
CHAPTER XI. (part 2)4 cards
According to Smiles, what is the difference between learning from books and wisdom from life?
The author argues that experience gathered from books is of the nature of learning, while experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom. He cites Lord Bolingbroke that a small store of wisdom is worth vastly more than any stock of learning, and that study not making us better men is merely a creditable kind of ignorance.
Chapter 42
What did Smiles claim about the mere possession of libraries and educational facilities?
The author argues that possessing many libraries, institutes, and museums does not itself constitute progress. Such facilities may as often be a hindrance as a help to self-culture of the highest kind. He compares possessing a library to possessing wealth: neither constitutes learning nor generosity. Wisdom still requires observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.
Chapter 42
How does Smiles describe the effect of learning knowledge through amusement rather than study?
The author argues that acquiring knowledge without study and labour is not education: it occupies but does not enrich the mind, producing only passing impressions and a sort of intellectual keenness. Young people accustomed to amusement will reject study, and the habit of intellectual dissipation weakens both mind and character. He quotes Robertson that multifarious reading weakens the mind like smoking.
Chapter 42
What does Smiles say is the chief object of culture, and what role does self-respect play?
The author argues the chief object of culture is not to fill the mind with other men's thoughts but to enlarge individual intelligence and make us more useful workers. Self-discipline and self-control begin practical wisdom, rooted in self-respect, which he calls the noblest garment a man may clothe himself in, at the root of all virtues.
Chapter 42
CHAPTER XI. (part 3)4 cards
According to the chapter, what is the worst aspect of youthful indiscretions?
The chapter states the worst of youthful indiscretions is not that they destroy health, but that they sully manhood. The dissipated youth becomes a tainted man and often cannot be pure even if he would. The suggested cure is inoculating the mind with a fervent spirit of duty and energetic application to useful work.
Chapter 43
How does Augustin Thierry's career contrast with Benjamin Constant's?
Thierry is presented as an admirable contrast to Constant, exemplifying perseverance, diligence, and devotion to knowledge. Despite losing his eyesight and health, he continued his literary career, declaring there is something better than sensual enjoyments, fortune, or health itself: devotion to knowledge. Constant, though brilliantly gifted, accomplished nothing because he lacked strength of purpose and moral consistency.
Chapter 43
What does the chapter say about learning from failure?
The chapter argues we learn wisdom from failure more than success, and that he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. It cites examples: the failed sucking-pump leading to study of atmospheric pressure, John Hunter urging surgeons to publish failures, Watt wanting 'a book of blots,' and Davy crediting failures for his discoveries.
Chapter 43
What does the chapter say about adversity versus prosperity?
The chapter argues adversity reveals our powers and calls forth energies, and that it often takes a stronger character to bear good fortune than adverse. Quoting Burke, it says difficulty is a severe instructor, and our antagonist is thus our helper. It notes some natures are hardened by wealth, while adversity ripens resolution into fortitude.
Chapter 43
CHAPTER XI. (part 4)4 cards
How did Curran work to improve his eloquence after discovering his gift?
Curran corrected his enunciation by reading aloud emphatically and distinctly from the best passages in literature for several hours daily, studied his features before a mirror, adopted gesticulation suited to his awkward figure, and argued proposed cases to himself with as much care as if addressing a jury. The accidental discovery of his gift encouraged him to pursue his studies with renewed energy.
Chapter 44
How did Curran answer Judge Robinson's taunt about his small library?
Curran replied that poverty had curtailed his library, but his books were select and perused with proper dispositions. He said he prepared for the profession by studying a few good works rather than composing many bad ones, was not ashamed of poverty but would be ashamed of wealth gained by servility and corruption, and noted that ill-gained elevation would only make him more contemptible.
Chapter 44
What obstacles did William Cobbett overcome while learning English grammar?
Cobbett learned grammar as a private soldier on sixpence a day, studying on the edge of his berth or guard-bed, using his knapsack as a bookcase and a board on his lap as a writing-table. He had no money for candle or oil, often only firelight and only his turn of it, and had to forgo food to buy pen or paper, reading amid the noise of about ten thoughtless men.
Chapter 44
What does the French stonemason's story illustrate about late self-education?
A French exile stonemason, out of work and in poverty, was advised to become a professor of French despite speaking only a patois and protesting he was too old and too little a scholar. After failing to find work in the provinces, he returned, took instruction, mastered grammar, composition, and classical pronunciation, and obtained a teaching post, proving an efficient teacher whose pupils were publicly complimented.
Chapter 44
CHAPTER XI. (part 5)4 cards
What examples does the chapter give of illustrious dunces who later became eminent?
The chapter lists many: painter Pietro di Cortona, nicknamed "Ass's Head"; Tomaso Guidi, "Heavy Tom"; Newton, who stood near the bottom of his form; Isaac Barrow, noted for idleness; Adam Clarke, called "a grievous dunce"; Dean Swift, plucked at Dublin; Sheridan, Scott, Chatterton, Burns, Goldsmith, Clive, Napoleon, Wellington, Grant, Jackson, Howard, Davy, and Watt.
Chapter 45
How did Stonewall Jackson's application at West Point change his class standing?
Jackson entered far behind his classmates in knowledge, yet was remarkable for indefatigable application: he never left a task until mastered and never feigned knowledge he lacked. He would say he had not yet looked at the day's recitation because he was mastering earlier ones. He graduated seventeenth in a class of seventy, outstripping fifty-three who began ahead of him.
Chapter 45
What does the author argue explains why school positions are often reversed in real life?
The author argues the difference between people consists not so much in talent as in energy, and that perseverance and energy become habitual. Provided a dunce has persistency and application, he will head the cleverer fellow lacking those qualities. Quickness of parts may even be a defect, since the ready learner forgets readily and never cultivates application.
Chapter 45
What advice does the author give parents about children's talents and self-culture?
The author advises parents not to hasten to force children's talents into bloom, but to watch and wait patiently, letting good example and quiet training work and leaving the rest to Providence. They should ensure physical health through free exercise, set the child on the road of self-culture, and carefully train habits of application and perseverance.
Chapter 45
CHAPTER XII. (part 1)4 cards
According to Smiles, why is example a more potent instructor than precept?
The author argues that example teaches without a tongue and works by action, which is always more forcible than words. Precept may point the way, but silent continuous example conveyed by habits carries us along. Good advice without a good example has comparatively small influence, and people learn more through the eye than the ear, especially in early youth.
Chapter 46
What role does Smiles assign to the home in forming character and national life?
The author argues the home is the crystal of society and the nucleus of national character; from it issue the habits, principles and maxims governing public and private life. Children unconsciously imitate what they see, as insects take the colour of leaves they feed on. Schools matter, but home example has vastly greater influence, and the nation comes from the nursery.
Chapter 46
Which examples does Smiles give of early influences shaping later lives?
West said a kiss from his mother made him a painter. Fowell Buxton credited principles implanted by his mother, and also his illiterate gamekeeper instructor Abraham Plastow, whose integrity he called his best instructor. Lord Langdale said if the whole world were in one scale and his mother in the other, the world would kick the beam.
Chapter 46
What does Smiles claim about the consequences of every act and word?
The author argues no act or word lacks a train of consequences whose end we may never trace; each gives colour to our life and influences others. Good and bad deeds alike live and fructify, and no person is so insignificant that his example cannot do good or evil. He quotes Babbage on the air as a vast library recording all that man has said.
Chapter 46
CHAPTER XII. (part 2)4 cards
According to the chapter, what is the chief use of biography?
The author argues that biography's chief use is providing noble models of character for readers to study, admire, and imitate. Great forefathers still live through records of their lives, serving as models for others to form themselves by, breathing fresh life into men and helping them reproduce that life anew. A book containing the life of a true man is full of precious seed and a still living voice.
Chapter 47
Which books or lives inspired specific figures mentioned in the chapter?
Alfieri was drawn to literature by Plutarch's Lives; Loyola, wounded at Pampeluna, was inflamed by the Lives of the Saints; Luther by the Life and Writings of John Huss; Dr. Wolff by the Life of Francis Xavier; and Carey by Captain Cook's Voyages. Romilly credited Thomas's Eloge of Daguesseau, and Franklin credited Cotton Mather's Essays to do Good.
Chapter 47
What does the chapter say about cheerfulness in work?
The author argues cheerful working is among the most valuable and infectious examples set before the young. Cheerfulness gives elasticity to the spirit, so difficulties cause no despair and are met with hope. The most effective work is usually full-hearted work. Hume said he would rather have a cheerful disposition than a gloomy mind with an estate of ten thousand a year.
Chapter 47
How did Sir John Sinclair improve Caithness, and what obstacles did he face?
Sinclair, called 'the most indefatigable man in Europe' by Abbé Gregoire, began at eighteen improving Caithness: fields were unenclosed, lands undrained, roads and bridges absent, and drovers swam rivers with their cattle. Despite derision from proprietors, he assembled about twelve hundred workmen one morning and built a new road over Ben Cheilt, making a dangerous six-mile sheep track passable for wheel-carriages before night.
Chapter 47
CHAPTER XII. (part 3)2 cards
What did Sir John do after Parliament voted five million in Exchequer notes for merchants?
Anticipating official delays, Sir John borrowed 70,000 pounds from city bankers on his own personal security the next morning and sent it that same evening to the merchants in most urgent need. When Pitt said the money could not be raised for some days, Sir John replied that it was already gone, having left London by the night's mail.
Chapter 48
What effect did Sir John's generosity have on his private fortune?
The chapter states that his generosity seriously impaired his private fortune. Yet it says that in laboriously seeking others' good he found his own reward — not wealth, but happiness, self-satisfaction, and the peace that passes knowledge. He worked usefully and cheerfully to the last, setting an example for his family and country.
Chapter 48
CHAPTER XIII.3 cards
According to Smiles, what does character amount to and how is it formed?
The author argues character is a man's best possession and that habits constitute character, growing especially in youth. He presents character as power, ranking the higher qualities of character above mere rank or class, and stresses a high standard of life, truthfulness, and integrity and honesty of action as its foundations.
Chapter 49
How does the chapter describe the true gentleman's relation to rank and wealth?
The author argues great-hearted men belong to no exclusive rank or class, citing the Grant brothers as the 'Brothers Cheeryble' and a noble peasant rich in spirit though poor in purse. The true gentleman is marked by honour, probity, and rectitude, and will not be bribed. Manners and morals are linked through civility and kindness.
Chapter 49
What examples of courage and use of power does the chapter give as tests of the gentleman?
The chapter cites the wreck of the Birkenhead, the private soldiers at Agra, Outram and Henry Lawrence in India, and Lord Clyde. It names Sir Ralph Abercrombie and Fuller's character of Sir Francis Drake. The author argues the use of power is the test of the gentleman, pairing courage with gentleness.
Chapter 49
CHAPTER XIII. (part 1)3 cards
According to the chapter, what did Franklin attribute his public success to?
Franklin attributed his success as a public man not to his talents or speaking powers, which he called moderate, but to his known integrity of character. He described himself as a bad speaker, never eloquent, hesitant in choosing words, and hardly correct in language, yet he generally carried his point because of the weight his integrity gave him with fellow citizens.
Chapter 50
What maxim did Granville Sharp ask be taught to the boy named after him?
Sharp asked that the boy be taught the family maxim: 'Always endeavour to be really what you would wish to appear.' He said his father carefully and humbly practised it, and that his grandfather's sincerity as a plain honest man thereby became the principal feature of his character in both public and private life.
Chapter 50
How does the chapter describe the relationship between character and good habits?
The chapter says character may be strengthened by cultivating good habits, calling man a bundle of habits and habit second nature. It cites Metastasio saying all is habit, even virtue itself, and Butler arguing that habits of mind are produced by carrying inward purposes into act, so virtue may become habitual and easier than giving way to sin.
Chapter 50
CHAPTER XIII. (part 2)4 cards
According to the chapter, what does Lady Montague say civility does?
Lady Montague is quoted as saying that "Civility costs nothing and buys everything." The chapter uses this to illustrate that kindness is the cheapest of all things, requiring the least trouble and self-sacrifice, and that small courtesies gain importance through repetition and accumulation, like spare minutes or a groat a day.
Chapter 51
How did Abernethy respond to the grocer's condescending manner?
When Abernethy canvassed a rich grocer for a vote to become surgeon at St. Bartholomew Hospital, the grocer assumed a grand air toward the supposed suppliant. Abernethy, hating humbugs, replied that he did not want the vote but "a pennyworth of figs," telling him to hurry and wrap them up.
Chapter 51
What rule did Mr. Grant cite when signing the libeller's certificate?
When the man who had ridiculed William Grant as "Billy Button" became bankrupt and needed the firm's signature, Grant signed it, saying, "We make it a rule never to refuse signing the certificate of an honest tradesman, and we have never heard that you were anything else." He also gave the man ten pounds for his family.
Chapter 51
How does the chapter define the True Gentleman's qualities?
The author argues the True Gentleman's qualities depend not on fashion, manners, or possessions but on moral worth and personal qualities. He is distinguished by self-respect and respect for others, a keen sense of honour, and high probity—honest, upright, straightforward, refusing bribes, and daring to say no when fitting.
Chapter 51
CHAPTER XIII. (part 3)4 cards
What does the Duke of Wellington say about an English officer's word?
Writing to Kellerman about prisoners on parole, Wellington says an English officer's truthfulness is his proudest quality after courage. He assures Kellerman that officers who gave their parole not to escape will not break it, and that an English officer's word is a surer guarantee than the vigilance of sentinels.
Chapter 52
How did Ney respond to the capture of Charles Napier at Corunna?
Napier was taken prisoner, desperately wounded, and his family did not know if he lived. When a frigate arrived to learn his fate, Ney first let the prisoner see his friends, then, hearing Napier had a blind widowed mother, released him to tell her himself—risking the Emperor's displeasure, though Napoleon approved the generous act.
Chapter 52
What happened to the men on the Birkenhead when it struck a rock in 1852?
The Birkenhead struck a hidden rock off Africa with 472 men and 166 women and children aboard. Soldiers mustered as if on parade and handed the women and children into the boats. When told swimmers could jump overboard, Captain Wright refused, saying the boats would be swamped; the men stood motionless and went down with the ship, firing a feu de joie.
Chapter 52
What single test does the chapter say never fails to identify a gentleman?
The chapter says the never-failing test is how a man exercises power over those subordinate or weaker: the officer toward his men, the employer toward servants, the master toward pupils. Discretion, forbearance, and kindliness in using power are the crucial test of gentlemanly character; bullying those who cannot resist marks a snob, not a gentleman.
Chapter 52
CHAPTER XIII. (part 4)4 cards
What was Collingwood's favourite amusement, and what anecdote illustrates it?
Collingwood's favourite amusement was gardening. Shortly after the battle of Trafalgar, a brother admiral called upon him and, after searching the garden, found him with old Scott at the bottom of a deep trench they were busily digging.
Chapter 53
What does the Edinburgh Review writer say about the Duke's early talents?
A writer in the Edinburgh Review (July 1859) observes that the Duke's talents never developed until an active, practical field was placed before him. His Spartan mother, thinking him a dunce, called him only 'food for powder,' and he gained no distinction at Eton or the French Military College of Angers.
Chapter 53
What does the chapter's note say might have excluded the Duke from the army?
The chapter notes it is not improbable that a competitive examination, at this day, might have excluded the Duke from the army, given that he gained no distinction at Eton or the French Military College of Angers.
Chapter 53
Which address does the chapter acknowledge obligations to, and how is it described?
The chapter acknowledges obligations to 'Self-Development: an Address to Students' by George Ross, M.D., reprinted from the Medical Circular. It is described as containing many admirable thoughts on self-culture, thoroughly healthy in tone, and well deserving republication in an enlarged form.
Chapter 53
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #935 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-29. Cards reviewed 2026-10-29.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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