of thousands, "ay, by millions;" and he would accomplish this
by the new methods of multiplication--by machine printing and by steam
power. Mr. Constable accordingly issued a library of excellent books;
and, although he was ruined--not by this enterprise, but the other
speculations into which he entered--he set the example which other
enterprising minds were ready to follow. Amongst these was Charles
Knight, who set the steam presses of William Clowes to work, for the
purposes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

William Clowes was the founder of the vast printing establishment from
which these sheets are issued; and his career furnishes another
striking illustration of the force of industry and character. He was
born on the 1st of January, 1779. His father was educated at Oxford,
and kept a large school at Chichester; but dying when William was but
an infant, he left his widow, with straitened means, to bring up her
family. At a proper age William was bound apprentice to a printer at
Chichester; and, after serving him for seven years, he came up to
London, at the beginning of 1802, to seek employment as a journeyman.
He succeeded in finding work at a small office on Tower Hill, at a
small wage. The first lodgings he took cost him 5s. a week; but
finding this beyond his means he hired a room in a garret at 2s. 6d.,
which was as much as he could afford out of his scanty earnings.

The first job he was put to, was the setting-up of a large
poster-bill--a kind of work which he had been accustomed to execute in
the country; and he knocked it together so expertly that his master,
Mr. Teape, on seeing what he could do, said to him, "Ah! I find you are
just the fellow for me." The young man, however, felt so strange in
London, where he was without a friend or acquaintance, that at the end
of the first month he thought of leaving it; and yearned to go back to
his native city. But he had not funds enough to enable him to follow
his inclinations, and he accordingly remained in the great City, to
work, to persevere, and finally to prosper. He continued at Teape's
for about two years, living frugally, and even contriving to save a
little money.

He then thought of beginning business on his own account. The small
scale on which printing was carried on in those days enabled him to
make a start with comparatively little capital. By means of his own
savings and the help of his friends, he was enabled to t