塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯/Samuel Smiles
Bernard Palissy is supposed to have been born in the south of France, in the diocese of Agen, about the year 1510. His father was probably a worker in glass, to which trade Bernard was brought up. His parents were poor people—too poor to give him the benefit of any school education. "I had no other books," said he afterwards, "than heaven and earth, which are open to all." He learnt, however, the art of glass-painting, to which he added that of drawing, and afterwards reading and writing.
When about eighteen years old, the glass trade becoming decayed, Palissy left his father's house, and went out into the world to search whether there was any place in it for him. He first traveled towards Gascony, and then he traveled northwards, sojourning for various periods at different places in France.
Thus Palissy occupied about ten more years of his life, after which he married, and ceased from his wanderings. There children were born to him; and not only his responsibilities but his expenses increased, while, do what he could, his earnings remained too small for his needs. He was induced to turn his attention to the kindred art of painting and enameling earthenware. Yet on this subject he was wholly ignorant; for he had never seen earth baked before he began his operations. He had therefore everything to learn by himself, without any helper. But he was full of hope, eager to learn, of unbounded perseverance and inexhaustible patience.
It was the sight of an elegant cup of Italian manufacture—which first set Palissy thinking about the new art. The sight of this cup disturbed his whole existence; and the determination to discover the enamel with which it was glazed thenceforward possessed him like a passion. Had he been a single man he might have traveled into Italy in search of the secret; but he was bound to his wife and his children, and could not leave them; so he remained by their side groping in the dark in the hope of finding out the process of making and enameling earthenware.