HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 9 



for although his parents had got over one of their early diffi- 

 culties, that of "keeping him out of the dubs," they had not 

 yet taught him to speak other than his native dialect, which 

 he not unfrequently used also in later life, thereby giving 

 pith or humour to his conversation. We scarcely know if 

 the mention of " dubs" means that he was fonder than other 

 children of such things, or whether his love of nature first 

 took its rise in this common although unpromising amuse- 

 ment. 



This acquaintance with Mr. Robinson began when Dalton 

 was about ten years old, about the age when he solved a 

 problem, discussed on a hay field among the farm people, 

 whether sixty yards square or sixty square yards are the 

 same. He at first considered them the same, but reflection 

 shewed him the difference. Dalton seldom failed for want 

 of perseverance ; he cheered his weary companion who was 

 soon outstripped, and who lived to look on the youth to 

 whom he supplied candles, with the reverence of those who 

 deeply conscious of ignorance imagine in knowledge the most 

 extravagant powers. 



Dalton insisted on the importance of diligence, without 

 however considering that the work on which his fame was 

 founded was done comparatively in early life, and that his sub- 

 sequent unwearied application in no ways tended to elevate 

 his position in science. There is seldom much fame for the 

 idler, but we err greatly when we say a word to dishonour 

 the greatest of all gifts, which cannot be called by a less 

 name than Divine, the eye of genius. 



On leaving the boyhood of Dalton we are not called to 

 look on it with surprise, we see in it indications of force, but 

 an equal display is sometimes apparent in less gifted men. 

 We can scarcely look with wonder at the elevation we have 

 seen him attain above his humble fellow-students and pupils. 

 Self-cultivation, too, is a problem now happily so often 

 solved by those who have nothing of true genius, that we 



