Chapter III

THREE GREAT POTTERS—PALLISSY, BÖTTGHER, WEDGWOOD. Ancient pottery—Etruscan ware—Luca della Robbia, the 67–93 Florentine sculptor: re-discovers the art of enamelling—Bernard Pallissy: sketch of his life and labours—Inflamed by the sight of an Italian cup—His search after the secret of the enamel—His experiments during years of unproductive toil—His personal and family privations—Indomitable perseverance, burns his furniture to heat the furnace, and success at last—Reduced to destitution—Condemned to death, and release—His writings—Dies in the Bastille—John Frederick Böttgher, the Berlin ‘gold cook’—His trick in alchemy and consequent troubles—Flight into Saxony—His detention at Dresden—Discovers how to make red and white porcelain—The manufacture taken up by the Saxon Government—Böttgher treated as a prisoner and a slave—His unhappy end—The Sèvres porcelain manufactory—Josiah Wedgwood, the English potter—Early state of English earthenware manufacture—Wedgwood’s indefatigable industry, skill, and perseverance—His success—The Barberini vase—Wedgwood a national benefactor—Industrial heroes CHAPTER IV.

APPLICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. Great results attained by simple means—Fortune favours 94–117 the industrious—“Genius is patience”—Newton and Kepler—Industry of eminent men—Power acquired by repeated effort—Anecdote of Sir Robert Peel’s cultivation of memory—Facility comes by practice—Importance of patience—Cheerfulness—Sydney Smith—Dr. Hook—Hope an important element in character—Carey the missionary—Anecdote of Dr. Young—Anecdote of Audubon the ornithologist—Anecdote of Mr. Carlyle and his MS. of the ‘French Revolution’—Perseverance of Watt and Stephenson—Perseverance displayed in the discovery of the Nineveh marbles by Rawlinson and Layard—Comte de Buffon as student—His continuous and unremitting labours—Sir Walter Scott’s perseverance—John Britton—Loudon—Samuel Drew—Joseph Hume