The Story of the House of Cassell
rose to eminence as national leaders and political and social reformers. Add to his personal qualities such fruitful services to the community as these, services multiplied in the generations which still profit by his enduring enterprise, and we have a record which surely ought not to drop into the waters of forgetfulness.
Surrounded by influential admirers, the friend of statesmen, his name known over a great part of the world in the most honourable connexions, this simple-minded man was never ashamed of his humble origin. Born of the people, his greatest ambition was to elevate them, not merely by improving their material environment and increasing their wages, but by the wider diffusion of moral and intellectual light. In his own person, too, he showed what self-culture could accomplish. Practically without any schooling, with little or no help from tutors in later years, he mastered the various literary and business knowledge required by a publisher. He conceived and carried through large schemes involving the expenditure of tens of thousands of pounds, and was able to direct the multi-farious details of the editing, production, and distribution of illustrated magazines and serial publications, and of books. His greatest business gift was an instinctive knowledge of what the common people wanted to read, although, as we have seen, his judgment, especially at the beginning of his publishing adventures, was by no means infallible. To this flair he added a shrewd insight into capacity and character, and he could so rule over men as to win their goodwill and turn their talents to the best account. He worked long hours himself, with close concentration and an undaunted determination to succeed, but he was considerate to those in his service, none of whom remembered an instance of harsh treatment or of more than passing irritation.
Self-culture had given him self-control and a sane and tranquil spirit. It saved him alike from the foolish pride that sometimes accompanies success, and from the arbitrariness that is often mistaken for strength.
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