green lanes, the shrill voices of the chanters followed them—" Blessed are the dead. Blessed are the dead." JULIANA HORATIA EWING. THE THREE BELLS BENEATH the low-hung night cloud The good ship settled slowly, The cruel leak gained fast. Over the awful ocean Her signal guns pealed out. Dear God! was that Thy answer From the horror round about? A voice came down the wild wind, Hour after hour crept slowly, Tossed up and down the ship lights, And ship to ship made signals, Man answered back to man, While oft, to cheer and hearten, The Three Bells nearer ran; And the captain from her taffrail Sent down his hopeful cry: "Take heart! Hold on!" he shouted. “The Three Bells shall lay by!" All night across the waters The tossing lights shone clear; All night from reeling taffrail The Three Bells sent her cheer. And when the dreary watches Of storm and darkness passed, Just as the wreck lurched under, All souls were saved at last. Sail on, Three Bells, forever, Type of the Love eternal, Repeat the Master's cry, JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. ROBERT FULTON AT seventeen, his father having died, this precocious youth established himself in Philadelphia as a miniature painter. He returned on his twenty-first birthday to his early home, with the means in his pocket of rendering his mother independent for life. That pious deed performed, he sailed for England, to seek instruction in his art at the hands of his father's friend, Benjamin West. When he left America, poor John Fitch had not yet completed his first steamboat; but his plans had been published, his company formed, and the boat begun. We may be absolutely certain that a young man like Fulton, with one of the best mechanical heads in the world, full of curiosity with regard to the mechanic arts from his childhood, must have well known what John Fitch was doing. The great painter received the son of his father's friend with open arms, accepted him as a pupil, and lodged him at his house in London for several years. Fulton, however, never became a great artist. He was an excellent draughtsman, a good colorist, and a diligent workman; but he had not the artist's imagination or temperament. His mind was mechanical; he loved to contrive, to invent, to construct; and we find him, accordingly, withdrawing from art, and busying himself, more and more, with mechanics; until, at length, he adopted the profession of civil engineer. His last effort as an artist was the painting of a panorama, exhibited at Paris in 1797, which he afterward sold in order to raise money to pursue his experiments with steam. Robert Fulton could never claim to be the inventor of the steamboat. It is, nevertheless, to his knowledge of mechanics, and to his resolution and perseverance, that the world is indebted for the final triumph of that invention. Recent investigations enable us to show the chain of events which led him to embark in this enterprise. His attention was first called to the subject in Philadelphia, by the operations of John Fitch, in 1785 and 1786. Next, fifteen years after, Fulton visited a steamboat in Scotland, which, though unsuccessful, was really. propelled by the power of steam for short distances, at the rate of six miles an hour. To please the stranger, who showed an extreme curiosity to witness its operation, this boat was set in motion, and Fulton made drawings of the machinery. A year or two after, he was in France again, where he made the acquaintance of the gentleman who had in his possession the papers left in France by John Fitch, which contained full details of his plans for applying steam to the propulsion of vessels. We have the testimony of this gentleman that the papers and drawings of John Fitch remained in the possession of Robert Fulton for "several months." Aided thus by the knowledge and experience of previous inventors, enjoying the immense advantage of the improved steam engine of James Watt, being himself an excellent mechanic and a very superior draughtsman, |