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neighbouring woodyard, and from these, with a saw, hammer, and nails, I soon structed all the shop furniture which I required; the most essential articles being a pair of stout trestles, on which was laid a board, whereupon to exhibit my wares to the public.'

Next he tried bookbinding, and himself covered the books which he sold; then he started printing, with an old press which had cost him but three pounds, and succeeded in printing an edition of the songs of Burns: the number printed was 750, for which he had to pull the press 25,000 times. A fortnightly journal, called the Kaleidoscope, was next tried; but as it only paid its expenses without yielding any profit, it was discontinued.

of his specimens, for I thought I could sell them to advantage. "Well," he replied, "I like that frankness; you seem an honest lad, and have been useful to me, so do not let the want of money trouble you: select, if you please, ten pounds' worth of my samples, and I will let you have the usual credit.” That was a turning-point in my life. In a strange and unforeseen manner I was to be put in possession of a small collection of saleable books, sufficient to establish me in business. Gladly embracing the offer, I selected a parcel of books, great and small, to the value of ten pounds, which I proceeded to pack into an empty tea-chest, and carried off without incurring the aid and expense of a porter. Borrowing the hotel truck, I wheeled the chest to my shop in Leith Walk, elated, it may be supposed, in no ordinary degree at this fortunate interest, and not the least afraid of turning the penny long before the day of payment came round. There is an old saying, that "we should not leave till to-morrow what can be done to-day." On this maxim I made the improve-quaintance with Charles Kirkment of "not leaving till the next five minutes what can be done in the present," and so hastened to get to work with as little delay as the circumstances permitted. With the five shillings which I had received as my last week's wages, I purchased a few deals at a

When Robert Chambers in 1822 had issued his Illustra tions of the Author of Waverley, he had fairly begun an industrious literary career. This work was well received, and was followed in 1824 by Traditions of Edinburgh, a book which, from his previous training, he was well qualified to write. This led to an ac

patrick Sharpe, and a friendship with Sir Walter Scott. The author of Waverley forwarded a budget of reminiscences to the young author.

In 1832 the country seemed ripe for a higher class of cheap literature, and this is how William Chambers took advan

cessful.

In the production of the Book of Days, Robert Chambers had overtaxed his strength, and he died on 17th March 1871, in his sixty-ninth year.

What they have justly described proved both useful and sucas their crowning effort in cheap and instructive literature,' was the commencement in 1859, under the editorship of Dr. Andrew Findlater, of the Encyclopædia: a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. This work was completed in ten volumes in 1868, and has since been revised by competent hands, and other wise kept up to date. This work, perhaps the most useful of all their publications, has had a large circulation, and has become a standard work of reference wherever the English language is spoken.

Amongst the more public and patriotic movements with which Dr. William Chambers has been identified, were the gift of a large library and suite of buildings to his native town of Peebles; the securing, while Lord Provost of Edinburgh, an Act of Parliament for the renovation of the overcrowded portions of Old Edinburgh; and the restoration of the old cathedral church of St. Giles.

Of independent works, William Chambers found time ELIHU BURRITT, the learned to write and publish a great blacksmith, was born in New deal. Robert Chambers was Britain, Connecticut, 8th Deno less actively industrious, cember 1810. His father, who confining himself more exclu- was a shoemaker, died when he sively to the literary side of was sixteen, and he was apprenpublishing. Amongst other ticed to a blacksmith. During schemes, he projected a Cyclo- his apprenticeship he gained a pædia of English Literature, knowledge of English literature, that should form a history, and began the study of mathecritical and biographical, of matics in his twenty-first year. British authors, from the ear- In spring and summer he worked liest to the present time, at his trade, and devoted the accompanied with a system- greater portion of the winter to atized series of extracts a his studies. He gained in this concentration of the best pro-way a knowledge of Latin, ductions of English intellect, French, Spanish, Greek, and set in a biographical and critical Hebrew. He afterwards studied history of the literature itself. Italian, German, Portuguese, In this work he was assisted by | Dr. Robert Carruthers of Inverness. This work, the first of its kind in the country, and in some respects still the best, was finished in 1844, and has

Flemish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Welsh, Gaelic, and Russian. He became, too, a successful temperance orator. In 1844 he acted as editor of a newspaper, and in 1846 he

of his single bakery. I also found that Robert Dick was a profound botanist. I found, to my humiliation, that this baker knew infinitely more of botanical science-ay, ten times more -than I did; and that there were only some twenty or thirty plants that he had not collected, the whole of his specimens being arranged in most beautiful order.'

moved to Glasgow, and then to Greenock. It was at his father's suggestion that he removed to Thurso, in the county of Caithness, in 1830, for he thought that there would be an opening for a baker there. This was a mistake, as he afterwards discovered when too late. But the small baker's shop was opened, and he was at first assisted by his sister Jane, and then by a Highland woman named Annie, who remained faithful to his interests for the period of three-and-thirty years.

This accomplished geologist and botanist and remarkable man was the son of a decent officer of excise, and was born in 1811, in the village of Tulli-She it was who looked after the body, at the foot of the Ochil business when her master was Hills, Clackmannanshire. He off on his botanical and geologireceived a plain but good edu- cal excursions. Partly from the cation, with a little Latin. The bad treatment of earlier years, death of his mother was an un- and perhaps also from natural fortunate thing for him; he was temperament, Dick made no taken from school, and his step- companions, but stuck to his mother treated him and his business and scientific rambles. brother and sister badly. When His ordinary habit was to rise thirteen years of age he was at three o'clock in the morning, bound apprentice to a baker, and, after his batch was out of and his life of hard work com- the oven, start on his rambles menced. The oven required on the moor or by the seato be lighted at three o'clock in shore. He was careless about the morning, and very frequently his personal appearance; for he was not done with work many years he dressed in an until seven or eight, or some-old-fashioned swallow-tailed blue times nine at night. When old enough to deliver bread in the neighbourhood, he thoroughly enjoyed his country excursions: he had quite a talent for observing nature, and gained some knowledge of practical botany. When his apprenticeship ended, he was seventeen years of age, and he started as a journeyman baker in Leith. Next, he re

coat with metal buttons, and an old battered hat. When bent on a long journey, he would dip his feet, stockings and all, in a basin of water, tie on his shoes, and be off. He seemed to walk best when his feet were damp.

Like Hugh Miller when he began geologizing, and like all enthusiasts, he was misunder