p. ixINTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION

The origin of this book may be
briefly told.

Some fifteen years since, the author was requested to deliver
an address before the members of some evening classes, which had
been formed in a northern town for mutual improvement, under the
following circumstances:—

Two or three young men of the humblest rank resolved to meet
in the winter evenings, for the purpose of improving themselves
by exchanging knowledge with each other. Their first
meetings were held in the room of a cottage in which one of the
members lived; and, as others shortly joined them, the place soon
became inconveniently filled. When summer set in, they
adjourned to the cottage garden outside; and the classes were
then held in the open air, round a little boarded hut used as a
garden-house, in which those who officiated as teachers set the
sums, and gave forth the lessons of the evening. When the
weather was fine, the youths might be seen, until a late hour,
hanging round the door of the hut like a cluster of bees; but
sometimes a sudden shower of rain would dash the sums from their
slates, and disperse them for the evening unsatisfied.

Winter, with its cold nights, was drawing near, and what were
they to do for shelter? Their numbers had by p. xthis time so
increased, that no room of an ordinary cottage could accommodate
them. Though they were for the most part young men earning
comparatively small weekly wages, they resolved to incur the risk
of hiring a room; and, on making inquiry, they found a large
dingy apartment to let, which had been used as a temporary
Cholera Hospital. No tenant could be found for the place,
which was avoided as if the plague still clung to it. But
the mutual improvement youths, nothing daunted, hired the cholera
room at so much a week, lit it up, placed a few benches and a
deal table in it, and began their winter classes. The place
soon presented a busy and cheerful appearance in the
evenings. The teaching may have been, as no doubt it was,
of a very rude and imperfect sort; but it was done with a
will. Those who knew a little taught those who knew
less—improving themselves while they improved the others;
and, at all events, setting before them a good working
example. Thus these youths—and there were also grown
men amongst them—proceeded to teach themselves and each
other, reading and writing, arithmetic and geography; and even
mathematics, chemistry, and some of the modern languages.

About a hundred young men had thus come together, when,
growing ambitious, they desired to have lectures delivered to
them; and then it was that the author became acquainted with
their proceedings. A party of them waited on him, for the
purpose of inviting him to deliver an introductory address, or,
as they expressed it, “to talk to them a bit;”
prefacing the request by a modest statement of what they had done
and what they were doing. He could not fail to be touched
by the admirable self-helping spirit p. xiwhich they had displayed; and, though
entertaining but slight faith in popular lecturing, he felt that
a few words of encouragement, honestly and sincerely uttered,
might not be without some good effect. And in this spirit
he addressed them on more than one occasion, citing examples of
what other men had done, as illustrations of what each might, in
a greater or less degree, do for himself; and pointing out that
their happiness and well-being as individuals in after life, must
necessarily depend mainly upon themselves—upon their own
diligent self-culture, self-discipline, and
self-control—and, above all, on that honest and upright
performance of individual duty, which is the glory of manly
character.

There was nothing in the slightest degree new or original in
this counsel, which was as old as the Proverbs of Solomon, and
possibly quite as familiar. But old-fashioned though the
advice may have been, it was welcomed. The youths went
forward in their course; worked on with energy and resolution;
and, reaching manhood, they went forth in various directions into
the world, where many of them now occupy positions of trust and
usefulness. Several years after the incidents referred to,
the subject was unexpectedly recalled to the author’s
recollection by an evening visit from a young
man—apparently fresh from the work of a foundry—who
explained that he was now an employer of labour and a thriving
man; and he was pleased to remember with gratitude the words
spoken in all honesty to him and to his fellow-pupils years
before, and even to attribute some measure of his success in life
to the endeavours which he had made to work up to their
spirit.

p. xiiThe
author’s personal interest having in this way been
attracted to the subject of Self-Help, he was accustomed to add
to the memoranda from which he had addressed these young men; and
to note down occasionally in his leisure evening moments, after
the hours of business, the results of such reading, observation,
and experience of life, as he conceived to bear upon it.
One of the most prominent illustrations cited in his earlier
addresses, was that of George Stephenson, the engineer; and the
original interest of the subject, as well as the special
facilities and opportunities which the author possessed for
illustrating Mr. Stephenson’s life and career, induced him
to prosecute it at his leisure, and eventually to publish his
biography. The present volume is written in a similar
spirit, as it has been similar in its origin. The
illustrative sketches of character introduced, are, however,
necessarily less elaborately treated—being busts rather
than full-length portraits, and, in many of the cases, only some
striking feature has been noted; the lives of individuals, as
indeed of nations, often concentrating their lustre and interest
in a few passages. Such as the book is, the author now
leaves it in the hands of the reader; in the hope that the
lessons of industry, perseverance, and self-culture, which it
contains, will be found useful and instructive, as well as
generally interesting.

London, September, 1859.