He could not find a
berth. He turned back, and walked as far as Worcester, where he found
work, and found something else which he liked better. There is an
antiquarian society at Worcester, with a large and peculiar library,
containing a great number of books in languages not usually studied, such
as the Icelandic, the Russian, the Celtic dialects, and others. The
directors of the society placed all their treasures at his command, and
he now divided his time between hard study of languages and hard labor at
the forge. To show how he passed his days, I will copy an entry or two
from his private diary he then kept:
"Monday, June 18. Headache; 40 pages Cuvier's Theory of the Earth; 64
pages French; 11 hours forging.
"Tuesday, June 19. 60 lines Hebrew; 30 pages French; 10 pages Cuvier; 8
lines Syriac; 10 lines Danish; 10 lines Bohemian; 9 lines Polish; 15
names of stars; 10 hours forging.
"Wednesday, June 20. 25 lines Hebrew; 8 lines Syriac; 11 hours forging."
He spent five years at Worcester in such labors as these. When work at
his trade became slack, or when he had earned a little more money than
usual, he would spend more time in the library; but, on the other hand,
when work in the shop was pressing, he could give less time to study.
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