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Page 81
* * * * *
"I love to hear about mechanical contrivances--such as the water-clock
and the little windmill," remarked George. "I suppose if Sir Isaac
Newton had only thought of it, he might have found out the steam-engine,
and railroads, and all the other famous inventions that have come into
use since his day."
"Very possibly he might," replied Mr. Temple; "and, no doubt, a great
many people would think it more useful to manufacture steam-engines,
than to search out the system of the universe. Other great astronomers,
besides Newton, have been endowed with mechanical genius. There was
David Rittenhouse, an American,--he made a perfect little water-mill,
when he was only seven or eight years old. But this sort of ingenuity is
but a mere trifle in comparison with the other talents of such men."
"It must have been beautiful," said Edward, "to spend whole nights in a
high tower, as Newton did, gazing at the stars, and the comets, and the
meteors. But what would Newton have done, had he been blind? or if his
eyes had been no better than mine?"
"Why, even then, my dear child," observed Mrs. Temple, "he would have
found out some way of enlightening his mind, and of elevating his soul.
But, come! little Emily is waiting to bid you good night. You must go to
sleep, and dream of seeing all our faces."
"But how sad it will be, when I awake!" murmured Edward.
CHAPTER IV.
In the course of the next day, the harmony of our little family was
disturbed by something like a quarrel between George and Edward.
The former, though he loved his brother dearly, had found it quite too
great a sacrifice of his own enjoyments, to spend all his playtime in a
darkened chamber. Edward, on the other hand, was inclined to be
despotic. He felt as if his bandaged eyes entitled him to demand that
everybody, who enjoyed the blessing of sight, should contribute to his
comfort and amusement. He therefore insisted that George, instead of
going out to play at foot-ball, should join with himself and Emily in a
game of questions and answers.
George resolutely refused, and ran out of the house. He did not revisit
Edward's chamber till the evening, when he stole in, looking confused,
yet somewhat sullen, and sat down beside his father's chair. It was
evident, by a motion of Edward's head and a slight trembling of his
lips, that he was aware of George's entrance, though his footsteps had
been almost inaudible. Emily, with her serious and earnest little face,
looked from one to the other, as if she longed to be a messenger of
peace between them.
Mr. Temple, without seeming to notice any of these circumstances, began
a story.
SAMUEL JOHNSON.
BORN 1709. DIED 1784.
"Sam," said Mr. Michael Johnson of Lichfield, one morning, "I am very
feeble and ailing to-day. You must go to Uttoxeter in my stead, and tend
the bookstall in the market-place there."
This was spoken, above a hundred years ago, by an elderly man, who had
once been a thriving bookseller at Lichfield, in England. Being now in
reduced circumstances, he was forced to go, every market-day, and sell
books at a stall, in the neighboring village of Uttoxeter.
His son, to whom Mr. Johnson spoke, was a great boy of very singular
aspect. He had an intelligent face; but it was seamed and distorted by a
scrofulous humor, which affected his eyes so badly, that sometimes he
was almost blind. Owing to the same cause, his head would often shake
with a tremulous motion, as if he were afflicted with the palsy. When
Sam was an infant, the famous Queen Anne had tried to cure him of this
disease, by laying her royal hands upon his head. But though the touch
of a king or Queen was supposed to be a certain remedy for scrofula, it
produced no good effect upon Sam Johnson.
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