greatest works was the
book "An Enquiry after Happiness." He knew how to be happy, in spite of
his affliction, so he could teach others to follow him.

A little earlier there lived on the farm of a poor Irishman the boy
Thomas Carolan. When he was five years old, he had smallpox, a disease
that was much more virulent in those days than it is to-day because the
treatment required was not understood. As a result the boy lost his
sight. Soon he showed a taste for music, and he was able to take a few
lessons, in spite of the poverty at home. As a young man he composed
hundreds of pieces of music, and it has been said of him that he
contributed much towards correcting and enriching the style of national
Irish music.

Another youthful victim of smallpox was Thomas Blacklock, the son of a
bricklayer in Scotland. "He can't be an artisan now," his friends said.
But it did not occur to them that he could be a professional man. His
father read him poetry and essays. When he was only twelve the boy began
to write poetry in imitation of those whose verses he had heard. After
his father's death, when the blind boy was but nineteen, he was more
than ever dependent on himself. By the help of a friend he was enabled
to go to school for a time. Then he became an author, and, later, a
famous preacher. Often, as he walked about, a favorite dog preceded him.
On one occasion he heard the hollow sound of the dog's tread on the
board covering a deep well, and just in time to avoid stepping on the
board himself. The covering was so rotten that he would surely have
fallen into the water.

As a boy Francis Huber, of Geneva, Switzerland, was a great student. He
insisted on reading by the feeble light of a lamp, or by the light of
the moon, even when he was urged not to do so, and the result was
blindness. A few years later he married one who rejoiced to be "his
companion, his secretary and his observer." He became the greatest
authority of his day on bees, although he knew nothing of the subject
until after his misfortune. The strange thing is that all his
conclusions were based on observation. Among other things he studied the
function of the wax, the construction of their combs, the bees' senses
and their ability to ventilate the hive by means of their wings. In
recognition of his work he was given membership in a number of learned
societies. His name must always be connected with the history of early
bee investigation.

Not long after the