as those of Athens, were under his direction: he was equally
beloved, equally powerful, in both places; and, as Theopompus shows, it
was no more than his merit claimed. But the superior power of fortune,
which seems to have been working at revolution, and drawing the
liberties of Greece to a period at that time, opposed and baffled all
the measures that could be taken. The deity discovered many tokens of
the approaching event.

ELIHU BURRITT

(1810-1879)

"THE LEARNED BLACKSMITH"

This man's career is the star example of the pursuit of knowledge under
difficulties. For years, while earning his living at the forge, he
denied himself all natural pleasures that he might devote every possible
minute to cramming his head with seemingly useless scraps of knowledge.

The acquisition of knowledge merely for its own sake is of course
foolishness, but it is a very rare kind of foolishness. Nearly always
the learned man pays his debt to society in full measure, if we but give
him time enough. So it was with "The Learned Blacksmith." From his deep
learning, Elihu Burritt at last drew the inspiration which made him a
powerful advocate in the cause of the world's peace.

From "Captains of Industry," by James Parton. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,
1884.

Elihu Burritt, with whom we have all been familiar for many years as the
Learned Blacksmith, was born in 1810 at the beautiful town of New
Britain, in Connecticut, about ten miles from Hartford. He was the
youngest son in an old-fashioned family of ten children. His father
owned and cultivated a small farm, but spent the winters at the
shoemaker's bench, according to the rational custom of Connecticut in
that day. When Elihu was sixteen years of age his father died, and the
lad soon after apprenticed himself to a blacksmith in his native village.

He was an ardent reader of books from childhood up, and he was enabled to
gratify this taste by means of a very small village library, which
contained several books of history, of which he was naturally fond. This
boy, however, was a shy, devoted student, brave to maintain what he
thought right, but so bashful that he was known to hide in the cellar
when his parents were going to have company.

As his father's long sickness had kept him out of school for some time,
he was the more earnest to learn during his apprenticeship--particularly
mathematics, since he desired to become, among other things, a good
surveyor. He