Think of Michael Angelo working for six florins a month, and eighteen years on St.Peter's for nothing! Dr.Johnson was so afflicted with king's-evil that he lost the use of one eye.

The youth could not even engage in the pastimes of his mates, as he could not see the gutter without bending his head down near the street.

He read and studied terribly.

Finally a friend offered to send him to Oxford, but he failed to keep his promise, and the boy had to leave.

He returned home, and soon afterward his father died insolvent.
He conquered adverse fortune and bodily infirmities with the fortitude of a true hero.
Ichabod Washburn, a poor boy born near Plymouth Rock, was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Worcester, Mass., and was so bashful that he scarcely dared to eat in the presence of others; but he determined that he would make the best wire in the world, and would contrive ways and means to manufacture it in enormous quantities.