SELF HELP
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF
CONDUCT AND PERSEVERANCE.
BySAMUEL SMILES, LL.D.,
AUTHOR OF “LIVES OF THEENGINEERS,” ETC.
“This above all,—To thine own self betrue;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Then canst not then be false to any man.”Shakespeare.
“Might I give counsel to any young man, I would say tohim, try
to frequent the company of your betters. In books and inlife,
that is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly;the
great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admired;
they admired great things; narrow spirits admire basely and
worship meanly.”—W. M. Thackeray.
POPULAR EDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1897.
p.vPREFACE.
This is a revised edition of a bookwhich has already been received with considerable favour at homeand abroad. It has been reprinted in various forms inAmerica; translations have appeared in Dutch and French, andothers are about to appear in German and Danish. The bookhas, doubtless, proved attractive to readers in differentcountries by reason of the variety of anecdotal illustrations oflife and character which it contains, and the interest which allmore or less feel in the labours, the trials, the struggles, andthe achievements of others. No one can be better aware thanthe author, of its fragmentary character, arising from the mannerin which it was for the most part originallycomposed,—having been put together principally fromjottings made during many years,—intended as readings foryoung men, and without any view to publication. Theappearance of this edition has furnished an opportunity forpruning the volume of some superfluous matter, and introducingvarious new illustrations, which will probably be found ofgeneral interest.
In one respect the title of the book, which it is now too lateto alter, has proved unfortunate, as it has led some, who havejudged it merely by the title, to suppose that it consists of aeulogy of selfishness: the very opposite of what it reallyis,—or at least of what the author intended it to be.Although its chief object unquestionably is to p. vistimulateyouths to apply themselves diligently to rightpursuits,—sparing neither labour, pains, nor self-denial inprosecuting them,—and to rely upon their own efforts inlife, rather than depend upon the help or patronage of others, itwill also be found, from the examples given of literary andscientific men, artists, inventors, educators, philanthropists,missionaries, and martyrs, that the duty of helping one’sself in the highest sense involves the helping of one’sneighbours.
It has also been objected to the book that too much notice istaken in it of men who have succeeded in life by helpingthemselves, and too little of the multitude of men who havefailed. “Why should not Failure,” it has beenasked, “ha