58 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



Palissy the 

 Potter a 

 Protestant 



Born 1510 



this French Eoman Catholic turned away in horror from 

 the inhumanity of that earlier day, which he would have 

 the world forget if he could. 



IX 



One of the greatest craftsmen France ever produced wHvS 

 Bernard Palissy the potter. It was his, too, to suffer for 

 his Protestant faith and at last to give his life for it. He 

 was as noble in character as he was skilled in his art. 

 There was much of pathos and disappointment in his life, 

 yet he lived it grandly, and sets an inspiring example of 

 persistence and piety. Think of pursuing an ideal of 

 beauty for a quarter of a century — working under every 

 conceivable hardship and difficulty, yet never losing faith 

 in ultimate success. That was the man who discovered a 

 secret of enamelling that is the admiration of the world. 

 Born in 1510, in the south of France, where the reforma- 

 tion most developed, he was brought up to his father's 

 trade — a worker in glass. His parents were too poor to 

 give him any schooling. "I had no other books," said 

 he in after years, "than heaven and earth, which are 

 open to all." He learned glass-painting, drawing, and 

 to read and write, by his own exertions. He was over 

 thirty, married and with a family to support, when the 

 Self-educated sight of au clcgaut cup, of Italian manufacture, first set 

 him to thinking about the new art of enamelling. The 

 sight of a cup changed his whole existence. He 

 resolved to discover the enamel of which it was glazed, 

 and persisted for months and years, spoiling furnaces and 

 pots and drugs and his wife's temper, as she could not be 

 expected to sympathize with his enthusiasm and extrava- 

 gance when the children had to go hungry. On he 

 worked, often in direst poverty, only to meet disappoint- 

 ment. Once, in a critical experiment, he burned up all 

 the furniture to feed his furnace— and still failed. His 

 wife and neighbours said he was mad, but he kept on. 

 ''Hope continued to inspire me," he says, "and I held 



Persistence in 

 face of 

 Obstacles 



