Arrival in London
mined to release as many others as he might. To this end he slaved untiringly at "self-education." Somehow—by what actual means there is no knowing—he acquired a wide, discursive knowledge, a liberal if chaotic education. Probably he used the mechanics' institutes, by that time set up in most industrial centres largely by force of the compassionate enthusiasm of Brougham, who later on was to become a powerful influence in Cassell's life. Hardly anywhere else could he have made his acquaintance with French and obtained those peeps into science whose fascinations in after years prompted some of the features of his famous "Popular Educator."
From 1835 to the autumn of 1836 he was hot-gospelling for teetotalism in the Manchester district. Then a restless desire for larger experiences set in, and he fared forth on foot to London. He made his great walk a missionary temperance tour, lasting about sixteen days. He spoke to any audience he could get in any town or village, and eked out his little store of money by doing odd jobs of carpentering. When he reached London his wealth totalled threepence. On the evening of his arrival he went to the New Jerusalem schoolroom, near the Westminster Road, where a meeting was being held.
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