poor working man, and in those
days the doors of the higher schools were closed to such as he; but the
great Quaker heart of this resolute youth was touched with pity for the
millions of England's and Ireland's poor, starving under the Corn-Laws.
During the frightful famine, which cut off two millions of Ireland's
population in a year, John Bright was more powerful than all the
nobility of England. The whole aristocracy trembled before his
invincible logic, his mighty eloquence, and his commanding character.
Except possibly Cobden, no other man did so much to give the laborer a
shorter day, a cheaper loaf, an added shilling.

Over a stable in London lived a poor boy named Michael Faraday, who
carried newspapers about the streets to loan to customers for a penny
apiece. He was apprenticed for seven years to a bookbinder and
bookseller. When binding the Encyclopaedia Britannica, his eyes caught
the article on electricity, and he could not rest until he had read it.
He procured a glass vial, an old pan, and a few simple articles, and
began to experiment. A customer became interested in the boy, and took
him to hear Sir Humphry Davy lecture on chemistry. He summoned courage
to write the great scientist and sent the notes he had taken of his
lecture. One night, not long after, just as Michael was about to
retire, Sir Humphry Davy's carriage stopped at his humble lodging, and
a servant handed him a written invitation to call upon the great
lecturer the next morning. Michael could scarcely trust his eyes as he
read the note. In the morning he called as requested, and was engaged
to clean instruments and take them to and from the lecture-room. He
watched eagerly every movement of Davy, as with a glass mask over his
face, he developed his safety-lamp and experimented with dangerous
explosives. Michael studied and experimented, too, and it was not long
before this poor boy with no chance was invited to lecture before the
great philosophical society.

He was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Woolwich, and became
the wonder of the age in science. Tyndall said of him, "He is the
greatest experimental philosopher the world has ever seen." When Sir
Humphry Davy was asked what was his greatest discovery, he replied
"Michael Faraday."

"What has been done can be done again," said the boy with no chance,
Disraeli, who become Lord Beaconsfield, England's great Prime Minister.
"I am not a slave, I am not a captive