Listen to his own words in describing the long hours spent in the
cotton-mill. Here he kept up his studies by placing his book on the top
of the machine, so that he could catch sentence after sentence as he
passed his work, learning how completely to abstract his mind from the
noises about him. "Looking back now on that life of toil, I cannot but
feel thankful that it formed such a material part of my early education,
and were it possible, I would like to begin life over again in the same
lowly style, and to pass through the same hardy training."

I wonder how many of the modern men, whose privations in early life in
no wise approached those of our hero look back with gratitude upon their
early days? Are we not prone to excuse and condone our shortcomings,
either of character or of achievement, by murmuring at the hard fate
which deprived us of those advantages which more fortunate brothers and
sisters enjoyed in infancy and youth? Do we not to-day swing too far in
the direction of sickly sentimentality and incline to wrap ourselves,
and those about us, in the deadening cotton-wool of too much care? Were
it not better if a bit more of the leaven of sturdy struggle were
introduced into the life of the present-day youth? Strength of character
and strength of soul will rise to their own, no matter what the
struggles be to force them upward.

In keeping with this studious concentration which is shown in his work
in the cotton-mill, was Livingstone's ideal of thorough preparation for
his work. On his first missionary journey, before penetrating into the
interior, he stopped at a little station, Lepelole, and there for six
months cut himself off from all European society in order to gain an
insight into the habits, ways of thinking, laws, and language of the
natives. To this he ascribed most of his success as a missionary and
explorer, for Livingstone's way was ever the gentle method of those who
comprehend--not the harsh cruelty of those who feel superior to the ones
among whom they work. In a day whose superficiality is only equalled by
the ease with which we gloze over the faults of the unprepared, this bit
of information of Livingstone's preparation comes like a refreshing
reminder that true worth is always worth while.

When Livingstone gave up his purely missionary labors and turned his
life channel into the stream of scientific investigation, the same
thoroughness of preparation is shown. He did not work for immediate