And so Thomas A. Edison, without a dollar or a friend, set himself to
work to master the telegraph and to explore the mysteries behind it.
Result: the duplex telegraph and the developments from that; the
phonograph, the incandescent electric light, and those numerous
inventions which, one after another, have confounded the bigotry and
ignorance of the world.
Edison and Bell, Bell and Edison, one a college man and the other a
laborer without the gates, unlike in preparation but similar in
character, devotion, and ability, and equal winners of honor and
reward at the hands of a just if doubting world.
Of course I might go on all day with illustrations like this. History
is brilliant with the names of those who have wrought gloriously
without a college training. These men, too, have succeeded in every
possible line of work. They are among the living, too, as well as
among those whose earthly careers have ended.
The men who never went to college have not only built great railroads,
but also have written immortal words; not only have they been great
editors, but also they have created vast industries, and piled
mountain high their golden fortunes; not only have they made
epoch-making discoveries in science, but they have set down in words
of music a poetry whose truth and sweetness makes nobler human
character and finer the life's work of all who read those sentences of
light.
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