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    ing's , could not afford to hire a cart for their delivery upon his premises ; he was compe lled to journey to the brick-field , and to bring them home on his own back . He could pay no man for the building of the furnace ; he collected the materials for his mortar , drawing for himself the water at the well ; he was bricklayer ' s boy and mason to himself ; and so with incessant toil he built his furnace , having reason to be familiar with all its bricks . The furnace having been at length constructed , the cups that were to he enamelled were immediately ready . Between the discovery of the white enamel , and the commencement of the furnace there had elapsed a period of seven or eight months , which he had occupied in experiments upon clay , and in t he elaborate shaping of clay vessels that were to bo in due time baked and e namelled , and thereafter , on the surface of the enamel , elegantly painted . " The preliminary baking of these vessels in the furnace was quite prosperous .

    " Then the successful mixture for the white enamel had to be tried on a large gcale— Such a mixture as that which Luca della Robbia had found ' after experiments innumerable / Its proportions we do not know ; but the materials used include , Palissy tells us , preparations of tin , lead , iron , antimony , mauganese , and copper , each of which must exist in a fixed proportion . The materials for his ename Palissy had now to grind , and this work occupied him longer than a month without remission , beginning the days very early , ending them very late . Poverty pressed him to be quick : intellectual anxiety to witness a result was ' not less

    instant in compelling him to labour . The labour of the grinding did not consist only in the reduction of each ingredient to the finest powder . When ground , they were to be weighed and put together in the just proportions , and then , by a fresh series of poundings and grinding . ? , they were to be very accurately mixed . The mixture was made , the vessels were coated with it . To heat the furnace was the next task ; it had to be far hotter than it was when it had baked his clays—as hot , if possible , as the never-extinguished fires used by the glass-workers . But Bernard ' s fire had been extinct during the days of grinding : poverty could not spare a month ' s apparent waste of fuel .

    " Bernard lighted then his furnace-fire , by two mouths , as he had seen to be the custom at the glass-houses . He put his vessels in , that the enamel might melt over them . He did not spare his wood . If his composition really did melt—if it did run over his vessels in a coat of that same white and singularly beautiful enamel which he had brought home in triumph from the glass-house—then there would be no more disappointments , no more hungry looks to fear ; the prize would then be won . Palissy did not spare his wood ; he diligently fed his fire all day , he diligently fed his fire all night . The enamel did not melt . The sun broke in upon

    his labour , his children brought him portions of the scanty household meals , the scantiness impelled him to heap on more wood , the sun set , and through the dark night , by the blaze and crackle of the furnace , Palissy worked on . The enamel did not melt . Another day broke over him : pale , haggard , half stripped , bathed in perspiration , he still fed the furnace-fire , but the enamel had not melted . Tor the third night his wife went to bed alone , with terrible misgivings . A fourth day and a fourth night , and a fifth and sixth—six days and nights were spent about the glowing furnace , each day more desperately indefatigable in its labour than the last ; but the enamel had not melted .

    " It had not melted ; that did not imply that it was not the white enamel . A little more of the flux Tised to aid the melting of a metal , might have made the difference , thought Palissy . ' Although , ' he says , ' quite stupefied with labour , I counselled to myself that in my enamel there mig ht be too little of the substance which should make the others melt , and seeing this ' What then ? not , ' I regretted greatly the omission ; ' but , ' I began , once more , to pound and grind the before-named materials , all the time without letting my furnace cool ; in this way I had double labour , to pound , grind , and maintain the fire . ' He could hire no man to feed the fire while he was sleeping , and so , after six days and nights of unremitting toil , which had succeeded to a month of severe labour , for two or three weeks more Palissy still devoted himself to the all-important tusk . The labour of years

    mi ght be now crowned with success , if he could persevere . Stupefied , therefore , with a labour under which many a weaker body would have yielded , though the spirit had maintained its unconquerable temper , Palissy did not hesitate , without an hour ' s delay , to begin his entire work afresh . Sleeping by minutes at a time , that he might not allow the supply to fail of fresh wood heaped into the furnace , Palissy ground ami pounded , and corrected what he thought was his mistake in the proportions of tho ( lux . There was great hope in the- next trial ; for the furnace , having l ) oen so loii £ alight , would be much hotter than it was before , whilo at the name time the enamel would be in itself more prompt to melt . All his own vessels having been spoiled—the result of seven months' labour in the moulding , — Palissy went out . into the town , when his fresh enamel was made ready , and purchased p ots

    <> n which to make proof of the corrected compound . " I 1 or more thiin Unee weeks Palissy had been imprisoned in the outhouse with his furnace , haggard , weary , unsuccessful , but not conquered yet , bis position really . j ustif ying hope . JJut the " vessels which bis wife had seen him spend seven months ' » inciting , lay befbro her spoilt- ; the enmnel bad not melted ; appearances were wholl y against ; hope to her as an observer from without . Bernard hud borrowed money for l , i , i , lHt , experiments : they were worse than moneyless , they were in ( lt'bl .. The wood was ge > ing , the hope of food was almost gone . Mernard was workuijr n ( , fjuj furnace , desperately pouring in fresh wood ; his wife sat in the house , overwhelmed with despair . Could it lessen her despair that there was no insult when all the stock of wood was gone , and , wanting money to buy more , she vainl y strove , to hinder Pulissy from tearing up the palings of their garden , that '" ' mi ; Hit , j ^ o () U wit h a , work which hud already ruined fhe ; ni .

    " Bernard knew well how much depended on his perseverance then . There was UNtiiief , suid fair hope ( hat , the melting of his present , mixture would produce ( l "iiinelled vessels . It it should do ( . his , he was safe . Though in themselves , since } ' <• now had inere > jui >\ s and pipkins to enamel , they might not repay his labour , yet , ' •¦ miHioed that they would prove his case—justify all his zeal before the world , and | u ; tke if , , ,.. „ . | () ., | i num ulll ( | , im , i u „ ,.,.,- „( , which would earn for him an ample llv < l'hoo ( l . Upon ( lie credit of his grout discovery from Mint day forward lie could < "'sily siv ( - ain his family , until lie should have time to produce its next results . The U ' nace , at a large expense of fuel , was then fully healed ; his new vessels had been 1 () II K Kiibjeeted t > , \\ , H |•„ . „ in Leu minutes twenty minutes the enamel might , > ll ( '" - If it required a loii' -or time , still it- was certain tlml , u billet in that hour A of more value than a Mack of wood could bo after the furnace had grown cold " ^ itin .

    "So Bernard felt , ; hut any words of his , to his wife ' ear , would only sound like 10 "Id phrases of fruitless hope . The labour and the money perilled for the last ' " no montha , were ioi > reaoutud by tho fsm > iled veswAiu tho outhouse ; they wore

    utterly lost . The palings were burnt in vain ; the enamel had not melted . There was a crashing in the house ; the children were in dismay , the wife , assisted doubtless by such female friends as had dropped in to comfort her , now became loud in her reproach . Bernard was breaking up the tables , and carrying them or £ legs and bodies , to the all-consuming five . Still the enamel did not melt . There was more crashing and hammering in the house ; Palissy was tearing up the floors , to use the planks as firewood . Frantic with despair , the wife rushed out into the town ; and the household of Palissy traversed the town of Saintes , making loud publication of the scandal .

    " Very touclungly does Palissy himself relate the position to which he had now been brought . ' Having / he says , ' covered the new pieces with the said enamel , I put them into the furnace , keeping the fire still at its height ; but thereupon occurred to me a new misfortune , which caused great mortification , namely , that the wood having failed me , I was forced to burn the palings which maintained the boundaries of my garden ; which being burnt also , I was forced to burn the tables and the flooring of my house , to cause the melting of the second composition . I suffered an anguish that I cannot speak , for I was quite exhausted and dried up by the heat of the furnace ; it was more tlmn a month since my shirt had been dry upon me . Further to console me , I was the object of mockery ; and even those from whom solace was clue ran crying through the town that I was burning my floors ! And in this way my credit was taken from me , and I was regarded as a madman .

    " ' Others said that I was labouring to make false money , which was a scandal under which I pined away , and . slipped with bowed head through the streets , like a man put to sliame . I was in debt in several places , and had two children at nurse , unable to pay the nurses ; no one gave me consolation , but , on the contrary , men jested at me , saying , * It was right for him to die of hunger , seeing that he had left off following his trade . ' All these things assailed my ears when I passed through the street ; hut for all that there still remained some hope which encouraged and sustained me , inasmuch as the last trials had turned out tolerably well ; and thereafter I thought that I knew enough to get my own living , although I was far enough from that ( as you shall hear afterwards ) .

    " ' When I had dwelt with my regrets a little , because there was no one who had pity upon me , I said to my soul , ' Wherefore art thou saddened , since thou hast found the object of thy search ? Labour now , and the defnmers will live to be ashamed . ' But my spirit sai d again , ' You have no means wherewith to continue this affair ; how wiil you feed your family , and buy whatever things are requisite to pass over the four or five months which must elapse before you can enjoy the produce of your labour ? ' " What a picture , terrible yet heroic , is that of the poor man of genius tearing up the very floor of his house for fuel , amidst the indignant cries and contemptuous pity of friends ! Is ic not the very type and symbol of genius—that utter devotion to an idea ? He failed , but he tried again , and again failed , but never despaired , for he had The equal temper of heroic hearts

    Made weak by time and fate , but strong in will To strive , to seek , to find , and not to yield . He was " possessed "— -fanaticus . A great Idea rose like a luminary in , his soul , and by that light his soul alone could work in peace . "What to him was failure when he knew success must come ? " What to him were poverty and cold , warmed as he was by the lire of gi'eat convictions ? So again he built up his furnaces , again he engaged all Jiis money and all his credit in another venture—and it failed . " Palissy had referred nil things to this day , which was to have extricated him from his embarrassment and misery . The poor are always promise-breakers . The rich man , if one expectation fails , is able to fall back on his reserves . The poor man , when he is in debt , compelled to pay his expectations out as promises , has fifty broken promises charged at his door for every unforeseen mischance that baulks his

    foresight . Palissy could not have foreseen the misadventure which made the longanticipated day of his deliverance ; , the day of his descent into new depths of sorrow . He had expected three or four hundred livres . ' 1 received , ' he says , ' nothing but shame and confusion ; for my pieces were all bestrewn with little morsels of Hint , that wore attached so ( irmly to each vessel , and so combined with the enamel , that when one passed the band over it , the said flints cut like razors . And although the work was in this way lost , ( here were still some who would buy it at a mean price ; but , because ; that would have been a decrying and abasing of my honour , I broke in pieces the entire butch from the said furnace , and lay down in melancholy—not without cause ; , for I had no leniger any nii'iin . s to fcxn \ my ftiinily . 1 had nothing but reproaches in the ; hemso ; in place of eonsolation , t , he ; y gavu me maledictions . My neighbours , who hud heard of this affair , saiel that , I was lml . hiiig but n fool , and that I might have ; hiul metre than eig ht , fraiws for the things that 1 had hroke'n ; an el all this talk was brought to mingle ; with my grief . '

    " ' Anel all this talk was breiught , to mingle ; with my grief ! ' If one ; cotilel sketch a scene ; likei this with the ; prne'il of a masfe-r , it would make ; a ge «) elly pie-lure ; . The ; dilapidates ! outhouse , it . s breaches ruelely tillcel up with green houghs : l'ulissy granel in his own ^ rief , i . ul . tcreel in dress , with a litter of beautiful vases , cups , urns , unel medallions , the ) proelucts of his rich ( aste ; anel fnncv , broken at . liis / ret ; the ; angry civditors ; fhe village ; gossips pouring the'ir nuicli talk e > ve > r his be > we'el spirit . ; his thin , pule ; children eToiu-hing , wondering aliout ; his lean wife ( Je ) el forgave ; he-r on ( he ; instant pouring on him nialeelie-l ions , ignorant e > r cureless how his heart would e > pe'ii in that hour e > f anguish to rce-cive ; erne syllable ; of woman ' s rons'olnf ion .

    " Palissy ret . ire ; d into his chamber , anel lay elewn upon his ln-d . He- bald detne we ' ll to bre-ak bis vessels . His skill as an artist , and his really disoetvored secret , e > l ( lie ; while ; enume * l , plneed befotv . him a wide- lie'ld for ambition . He" nie-ant ( - <> produce ce > stly nrtieilos of luxury , anel he ; e'oulel not , nflord , lxruuse the ( lints hud spccklt ; d l . hem , to hurt , his future ; le'pufidion by Heneliiig bis rich ovations into the ; world at the ; priee ; «> f well-sides pifeliers . Princes were ; to be ) his paymasters . Hut be ; hud lie ) longer any means to feed his family . His wife ceiuld not forget , that ; anel h <> might Iiuvo had more ; than eight , fVaiie-. s for the ) things that lie ; had broken . "If the ; wife could have ; seen and unelersloeid the ; spirit of her husband , she we > ulel have ; fhllowcel his nicluiie-lmly step whe'ii he withelrew te ) the ; re'evsscs e > f Ilia chanibe'r . "' ConfiiNion , hIiuiiu ; , nuilancholy , grief , Palissy eonne'e'ts with this event ; hut , ho lnw never juuiikiU the word dosp « iii \ IIo « utiml from tho dincu . syiona of hifl ncigU «

    Untitled Article

    October 16 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 997

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1852, page 997, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1956/page/17/