From the Introduction: The origin of this book may be briefly told. Some fifteen years since, the author was requested to deliver an address before the members of some evening classes, which had been formed in a northern town for mutual improvement, under the following circumstances: Two or three young men of the humblest rank resolved to meet in the winter evenings, for the purpose of improving themselves by exchanging knowledge with each other...Contents: Self-Help- National and Individual; Leaders of Industry-Inventors and Producers; Three Great Potters-Palissy, Bottgher, Wedgwood; Application and Perseverance; Helps and Opportunities-Scientific Pursuits; Workers in Art; Industry and the Peerage; Energy and Courage; Men of Business; Money-Its Use and Abuse; Self-Culture-Facilities and Difficulties; Example-Models; and Character-The True Gentleman. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.