DALTON. 41 



seventy-three, of no particular complaint, but by the gradual decay 

 of nature. His body was placed in a grave near the centre of the 

 parish churchyard, underneath a flagstone with the following in- 

 scription : " Beneath this stone are interred the mortal remains of 

 Samuel Crompton, of Bolton, late of Hall-i'-th'-Wood, in the town- 

 ship of Tonge, inventor of the spinning machine called the Mule] 

 who departed this life the 26th day of June, 1827, aged seventy-two 

 years."* The Life and Times of Samuel Crompton, &c., by Gilbert 

 J. French, F.S.A., &c. Manchester and London, 1860. 



JOHN DALTON, D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S., L. and E. 



MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. 



Born September 5, 1766. Died July 27, 1844. 



John Dalton was born at Eaglesfield, a small village in Cumber- 

 land, near Cockermouth. His father, Joseph Dalton, was a woollen- 

 weaver, and at the birth of his second son, John, gained but a 

 scanty subsistence by weaving common country goods. At the 

 death of his elder brother, however, he inherited a small estate of 

 sixty acres, which enabled him to give up weaving. John Dalton 

 had consequently few opportunities of obtaining a good education ; 

 he was emphatically self-taught, and from his very childhood began 

 to acquire those habits of stern self-reliance and indomitable per- 

 severance which in after life, rather than any direct inspirations of 

 genius (as Dalton himself used to affirm), enabled him to work out 

 his grand discovery of the ' Atomic Theory.' 



Dalton attended the schools in the neighbourhood of Eaglesfield 

 until eleven years old, by which time he had gone through a course 

 of mensuration, surveying, and navigation. At the age of twelve 

 he began to teach in the village school, and for the next two or 

 three years continued to be partially occupied in teaching and in 

 working on his father's farm. When fifteen years old he removed 

 to Kendal, to become an assistant in a boarding school established 

 there; and, after remaining in this capacity for four years, he deter- 

 mined to undertake, with the assistance of his elder brother, the 

 management of the same school. Dalton continued to be connected 

 with this school for the next eight years, during which time he 

 occupied his leisure in studying Greek, Latin, French, and Natural 

 Philosophy, and was also a frequent contributor to the ' Gentleman's 



* There is an unaccountable mistake of one year in Mr. Crompton's age as 

 engraved on his tombstone. 



