s wages even than he once used to do. He had
brought up a large family honestly and respectably; he had paid his way
without running into debt; his children were all growing up; and he had
acquired a wide reputation among naturalists as a thoroughly
trustworthy observer and an original worker in many different fields of
botany and zoology. But his wages were now only eight shillings a
week, and his science had brought him, as many people would say, only
the barren honour of being an associate of the Linnean Society, or the
respected friend of many among the noblest and greatest men of his
country. He began life as a shoemaker, and he remained a shoemaker to
the end. "Had I pursued money," he said, "with half the ardour and
perseverance that I have pursued nature, I have no hesitation in saying
that by this time I should have been a rich man."

In 1876, Dr. Smiles, the historian of so many truly great working men,
attracted by Edward's remarkable and self-sacrificing life, determined
to write the good shoemaker's biography while he was still alive.
Edward himself gave Dr. Smiles full particulars as to his early days
and his later struggles; and that information the genial biographer
wove into a delightful book, from which all the facts here related have
been borrowed. The "Life of a Scotch Naturalist" attracted an immense
deal of attention when it was first published, and led many people,
scientific or otherwise, to feel a deep interest in the man who had
thus made himself poor for the love of nature. The result was such a
spontaneous expression of generous feeling towards Edward that he was
enabled to pass the evening of his days not only in honour, but also in
substantial ease and comfort.

And shall we call such a life as this a failure? Shall we speak of it
carelessly as unsuccessful? Surely not. Edward had lived his life
happily, usefully, and nobly; he had attained the end he set before
himself; he had conquered all his difficulties by his indomitable
resolution; and he lived to see his just reward in the respect and
admiration of all those whose good opinion was worth the having. If he
had toiled and moiled all the best days of his life, at some work,
perhaps, which did not even benefit in any way his fellow-men; if he
had given up all his time to enriching himself anyhow, by fair means or
foul; if he had gathered up a great business by crushing out
competition and absorbing to himself the honest livelih