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Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer who campaigned on a Chartist platform. But he concluded that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His masterpiece, ''Self-Help'' (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism",〔M. J. Cohen and John Major (eds.), ''History in Quotations'' (London: Cassell, 2004), p. 611.〕 and it raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight. ==Biography== Born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, Smiles was the son of Janet Wilson of Dalkeith and Samuel Smiles of Haddington. He was one of eleven surviving children. While his family members were strict Cameronians, he did not practice. He studied at a local school, leaving at the age of 14. He apprenticed to be a doctor under Dr. Robert Lewins.〔http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRsmiles.htm〕 This arrangement enabled Smiles to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1829. There he furthered his interest in politics, and became a strong supporter of Joseph Hume. During this time, Samuel junior contracted a lung disease, and his father was advised to send him on a long sea voyage. His father died in the cholera epidemic of 1832, but Smiles was enabled to continue with his studies because he was supported by his mother. She ran the small family general store firm in the belief that the "Lord will provide." Her example of working ceaselessly to support herself and his nine younger siblings strongly influenced Smiles's future life; although, he developed a more benign and tolerant outlook, which sometimes was at odds with his Cameronian forebearers. In 1837, he wrote articles for the ''Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle'' and the ''Leeds Times'', campaigning for parliamentary reform.〔 In November 1838, Smiles was invited to become the editor of the ''Leeds Times'', a position he accepted and filled until 1842. In May 1840, Smiles became secretary to the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association, an organisation that held to the six objectives of Chartism: universal suffrage for all men over the age of 21; equal-sized electoral districts; voting by secret ballot; an end to the need of MPs to qualify for Parliament, other than by winning an election; pay for MPs; and annual Parliaments. As editor of the ''Leeds Times'', he advocated radical causes ranging from women's suffrage to free trade and parliamentary reform. By the late 1840s, however, Smiles became concerned about the advocation of physical force by Chartists Feargus O'Connor and George Julian Harney, although he seems to have agreed with them that the movement's current tactics were not effective, saying that "mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society." On 7 December 1843, Samuel married Sarah Ann Holmes Dixon in Leeds. They had three daughters and two sons. In 1845, he left the ''Leeds Times'' and became a secretary for the newly formed Leeds & Thirsk Railway. After nine years, he worked for the South Eastern Railway. In the 1850s, Smiles abandoned his interest in parliament and decided that self-help was the most important place of reform. In 1859, he published his book ''Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct''. Smiles wrote articles for the ''Quarterly''. In an article on railways, he argued that the railways should be nationalised and that third-class passengers should be encouraged.〔Smiles, p. 99.〕 In 1861 Smiles published an article from the ''Quarterly'', renamed ''Workers Earnings, Savings, and Strikes''. He claimed poverty in many instances was caused by habitual improvidence: In 1866, Smiles became president of the National Provident Institution, but left in 1871, after suffering a debilitating stroke. He recovered from the stroke, eventually learning to read and write again. In 1875, his book ''Thrift'' was published. In it, he said that "riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches".〔Samuel Smiles, ''Thrift'' (London: John Murray, 1885), p. 294.〕 He claimed that the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was "one of the most valuable that has been placed on the statute-book in modern times".〔Smiles, ''Thrift'', p. 330.〕 He also criticised ''laissez-faire'': In 1877, the letters young Smiles wrote home during his teenage sea voyage and the log he kept of his journey to Australia and America between February 1869 and March 1871 were published in London in book form, under the title ''A Boy's Voyage Round the World''. In 1881 he claimed that, When in 1892 Gladstone returned to power and introduced his Second Irish Home Rule Bill, Smiles wrote to his son in Ulster: "Don't you rebel. Keep quiet, though I see your name among the agitators ... Your letter is frightfully alarming ... Gladstone has come into power and we are threatened with Civil War. This cannot be the result of good statesmanship. Yet there are Liberal members to cheer on the maniac. Alas, alas for Liberalism! ... Must I give you six months notice to withdraw my loans to the B.R. Co., for I want to keep the little money I have for wife and bairns, not for arming the Ulstermen".〔Smiles, pp. 184–185.〕 Smiles wrote to Lucy Smiles in 1893, "This Home Rule Bill is horrid ... I am quite appalled at that wretched hound, miscalled statesman, throwing the country into a state of turmoil. I cannot understand how so many persons in this part of Britain follow that maniac, just like a flock of sheep. He is simply bursting with self-conceit. Alas! Alas for Liberalism!"〔Smiles, p. 185.〕 On 16 April 1904, Samuel Smiles died in Kensington, London and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. Smile's grandchildren include Sir Walter Smiles, an Ulster Unionist Party MP. Through this branch of the family, Smiles is also the great-great-grandfather of Bear Grylls, a well-known adventurer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Samuel Smiles」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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