limbs, and this trunk, are a cumbrous and unfortunate load for the power
of thinking to drag along with it; but why should not the power of
thinking be able to lighten the load, till it shall be no longer
felt?--These early modes of reflection were by no means indifferent to
my present enquiries.

Our next-door neighbour at my father's house had been a carpenter. Fresh
from the sort of reading I have mentioned, I was eager to examine his
tools, their powers and their uses. This carpenter was a man of strong
and vigorous mind; and, his faculties having been chiefly confined to
the range of his profession, he was fertile in experiments, and
ingenious in reasoning upon these particular topics. I therefore
obtained from him considerable satisfaction; and, my mind being set in
action, I sometimes even improved upon the hints he furnished. His
conversation was particularly agreeable to me; I at first worked with
him sometimes for my amusement, and afterwards occasionally for a short
time as his journeyman. I was constitutionally vigorous; and, by the
experience thus attained, I added to the abstract possession of power,
the skill of applying it, when I pleased, in such a manner as that no
part should be inefficient.

It is a strange, but no uncommon feature in the human mind, that the
very resource of which we stand in greatest need in a critical
situation, though already accumulated, it may be, by preceding industry,
fails to present itself at the time when it should be called into
action. Thus my mind had passed through two very different stages since
my imprisonment, before this means of liberation suggested itself. My
faculties were overwhelmed in the first instance, and raised to a pitch
of enthusiasm in the second; while in both I took it for granted in a
manner, that I must passively submit to the good pleasure of my