Thomas Alva Edison

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is said that there was a very special love between Mrs Edison and her son Thomas. She loved his very presence, and partly for that reason, and partly because of the poverty which came upon them before long, she kept the boy at home, and, except for two months' school ing, taught him entirely herself. With her he learned not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also the great object of learning. For she implanted in his mind a love of learning, a hunger for knowledge, which is the end of all true education. To her young Edison owed the early teaching and training which gave his mind its strong bent towards invention and enterprise. His father, too, was so interested in the boy's education, that, by way of encouraging him to read, whilst reading was for Tom a toilsome and difficult matter, he paid him for every book he perused. Happy boy, to have such parents! Their intelligent sympathy, and the tuition of the mother, caused him to become a great reader, and then practically he took his education into his own hands, and read every thing he came across.