cause they were great. Accumulations of
wealth are the result of exceptional industry, organization, and thrift,
rather than of exceptional gain. Adam Smith has said: "It seldom happens
that great fortunes are made by any one regularly-established and
well-known branch of business, but in consequence of a long life of
industry, frugality, and attention."

But it is not always so. For instance, Mr. Lister, of Bradford, after
inventing the combing machine,--or at least combining the inventions of
others into a complete combing machine of his own,--proceeded to invent
a machine for using up silk waste (then cast away as useless), spinning
it into silk of the finest kind, and by means of the power-loom to weave
it into velvet of the best quality. The attempt had never before been
made by any inventor; and it seemed to be of insuperable difficulty. Mr.
Lister had already made a fortune by the success of his combing machine,
such as to enable him to retire from business, and live in comfort for
the rest of his life. But, urged by the irrepressible spirit of the
inventor, he went onward with his silk machine. As he himself said, at a
recent meeting at Bradford,[1]--"They might judge how hard he had worked
to conquer the difficulties which beset him, when he told them that for
twenty years he had never been in bed at half-past five in the morning;
in fact, he did not think there was a man in England who had worked
harder than he had." The most remarkable thing was, that he threw away
an immense fortune before there was any probability of his succeeding.
"He had almost brought himself to ruin, for he was L360,000 out of
pocket before he even made a shilling by his machine; indeed, he wrote
off a quarter of a million as entirely lost, before he began to make up
his books again. Since then, his patent for the manufacture of silk had
turned out one of the most successful of the day."

[Footnote 1: The meeting was held to receive the transfer of Mr.
Lister's fine Park at Manningham, which he had presented to the
Corporation of Bradford, "to be a People's Park for ever."]

In the Park presented by Mr. Lister to the people of Bradford, a statue
was recently erected by public subscription. It was unveiled by the
Right Hon. W.E. Forster, who, in closing his speech, observed: "I doubt,
after all, whether we are come here to do honour to Mr. Lister, so much
as to do honour to ourselves. We wish to do honour to those working
faculties wh