the principles of spherical astronomy, and invented a planetary system
akin to the Tychonic; of a country Shoemaker, who became distinguished
as one of the ablest metaphysical writers in Britain, and who, at more
than fifty years of age, was removed by the influence of his talents and
their worth, from his native country to London, where he was employed to
edit some useful publications devoted to the diffusion of knowledge and
the best interests of mankind.

Students of Art have had to practise self-denial in many ways. Quentin
Matsys, having fallen in love with a painter's daughter, and determined
to win her. Though but a blacksmith and a farrier, he studied art so
diligently, and acquired so much distinction, that his mistress
afterwards accepted the painter whom she had before rejected as the
blacksmith. Flaxman, however, married his wife before he had acquired
any distinction whatever as an artist. He was merely a skilful and
promising pupil. When Sir Joshua Reynolds heard of his marriage, he
exclaimed, "Flaxman is ruined for an artist!" But it was not so. When
Flaxman's wife heard of the remark, she said, "Let us work and
economize; I will never have it said that Ann Denbam ruined John Flaxman
as an artist." They economized accordingly. To earn money, Flaxman
undertook to collect the local rates; and what with art and industry,
the patient, hard-working, thrifty couple, after five years of careful
saving, set out for Rome together. There Flaxman studied and worked;
there he improved his knowledge of art; and there he acquired the
reputation of being the first of English sculptors.

The greater number of artists have sprung from humble life. If they had
been born rich, they would probably never have been artists. They have
had to work their way from one position to another; and to strengthen
their nature by conquering difficulty. Hogarth began his career by