BE. LIVINGSTONE. 327 



DE. LIVINGSTONE. 



By L. J. PEOCTER. 



DAVID LIVINGSTONE was born at Glasgow early in the present 

 century. His grandfather was originally the occupier of a small 

 farm in Ulva, one of the Hebrides, but, owing to the requirements of a 

 large family, found himself obliged to quit his island home to seek 

 employment at the Blantyre cotton works on the Clyde, above Glas- 

 gow. Livingstone's father and uncles having been fairly educated, 

 easily obtained situations as clerks at the factory, though the former 

 appears to have relinquished his employment with the pen, and to have 

 occupied himself during the later years of his life in keeping a shop as 

 a tea dealer in Glasgow. He died a member of the Independents in 

 1856, but brought up his children in connection with the old Kirk of 

 Scotland. 



At ten years of age, David Livingstone was put to work as a 

 " piecer" at the Blantyre factory. Even at this early date his charac- 

 ter was remarkable for a gravity, and steady, plodding earnestness. 

 Reading took the place of ordinary amusements ; and, after a hard 

 day's work, the boy would often sit at his studies so far into the night 

 as to call for his mother's peremptory interference. To economize 

 time, he accustomed himself while at work to place an open book on a 

 portion of the spinning jenny, and catch sentence after sentence as he 

 passed backward and forward in front of it, quite undisturbed by the 

 noise of the machinery. An evening-school was made to help in his 

 education, and it may well be supposed no leisure time was wasted. 

 "While still a youth, the truths of religion took a deep hold of his 

 mind ; and under the feeling thus produced, " in the glow of love," as 

 he says, " which Christianity inspires, I soon resolved to devote myself 

 to the alleviation of human misery." " Turning this idea over in my 

 mind," he adds, " I felt that to be the pioneer of Christianity in China 

 might lead to the material benefit of some portions of that immense 

 empire; and therefore set myself to obtain a medical education, in order 

 to be qualified for that enterprise." Being promoted at nineteen to 

 higher work in the factory, the increased wages he received enabled 

 him, by working during the greater part of the year, to support him- 

 self at Glasgow while attending the medical, Greek, and divinity 

 classes, which were held in the winter. By the advice of friends, he 

 was induced, though reluctantly, to offer himself for the service of the 

 London Missionary Society, and was accepted. His admission as a 

 "Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons" completed his 

 preparatory labors. Just at the time, however, the opium war broke 

 out in China, and this presented an obstacle so great as to render it 



