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should choose to become a light-keeper, at scarce ten shillings a week, when, as I am told, you can earn half-a-crown and three shillings a day in making leather hose?” 'Why," answered the craftsman, "I go to be a light-keeper, because I don't like confinement!" This answer producing a little merriment, he explained himself that he did not like to be confined to work.

Smeaton's wonderful success in this undertaking established his reputation, and his after labors are connected with almost every great work of his time. It would be in vain, however, to enumer.

ate all the projects in which he was consulted, or the schemes which he executed.

The variety and extent of his employments may be best estimated from his Reports, which fill three quarto volumes, and constitute a most interesting and valuable series of treatises on every branch of engineering: as draining, bridge-building, making and improving canals and navigable rivers, planning docks and harbors, the improvement of mill-work, and the application of mechanical improvements to different manufactures. They contain descriptions of his inventions, together with a treatise on mill-work, and some papers which show that he was fond of astronomy and practically skilled in it.

His health began to decline about 1785, and he endeavored to withdraw from business, and devote his attention to publishing an account of his inventions and works; for, as he often said, "he thought he could not render so much service to his country as by doing that." He succeeded in bringing out his elaborate account of the Eddystone lighthouse, published in 1791. But he found it impossible to withdraw entirely from business; and it appears that overexertion and anxiety did actually bring on an attack of paralysis to which his family was constitutionally liable. He was taken ill at his residence at Austhorpe, in September, 1792, and died October 28th, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He had long looked to this disease as the probable termination of his life, and felt some anxiety concerning the likelihood of outliving his faculties, and in his own words of "lingering over the dregs after the spirit had evaporated." This calamity was spared him: in the interval between his first attack and death his mind was unclouded, and he continued to take his usual interest in the occupations of the domestic circle. Sometimes only, he would complain with a smile of his slowness of apprehension, and say, "It cannot be otherwise : the shadow must lengthen as the sun goes down."

His character was marked by undeviating uprightness, industry, and moderation in the pursuit of riches. His gains might have been far larger, but he relinquished more than one appointment

which brought in a considerable income, to devote his attention to other objects which he had more at heart; and he declined mag. nificent offers from Catherine II. of Russia, who would have bought his services at any price. His industry was unwearied, and the distribution of his hours and employments strictly laid down by rule. In his family and by his friends he was singularly beloved, though his demeanor sometimes appeared harsh to strangers. A brief, but very interesting and affectionate account of him, written by his daughter, is prefixed to his Reports, from which many of the anecdotes here related have been derived.

The rule of his practice, and one which he adhered to with the most undeviating firmness, was never to trust to deductions drawn from a theory in cases where he could have any opportunity of a trial. As he got older, he used to say, "Care not about any the. ory at all. A man of experience does not require it. In my intercourse with mankind, I have always found those who would thrust theory into practical matters, at bottom to be men of no judg. ment and pure quacks. In my own practice, almost every succes. sive case would have required an independent theory of its own; theory and quackery go hand in hand.*

appearance

of

Smeaton appeared to Playfair as a man of excellent understand. ing, improved more by very extensive experience and observation, than by learning or education. He had much the an honest and worthy man; his manners not much polished; his conversation most instructive in any thing relating to mechanics, or the business of an engineer; but in conversation the embar rassment of his language was very great.

EDWARD SOMERSET,

MARQUIS OF WORCESTER,

INVENTOR OF THE STEAM ENGINE.

EDWARD SOMERSET, Marquis of Worcester, was born at Ragland Castle, near Monmouth, about the year 1597. Very little is preserved respecting the history of this ingenious nobleman, and our notice must be therefore necessarily brief. During the civil war between Charles the First and the parliament, Worcester, being then a young man, espoused the cause of his king, and after the

surprise and capture of Monmouth by the parliamentary army, at the head of a small party of volunteers, he scaled a redoubt, passed the ditch, put the guard to death, dashed sword in hand into the place, retook it, and made the garrison prisoners. This brave and daring achievement established his reputation for courage and enterprise.

A short time after he was sent into Ireland, to negotiate for bringing over a large body of Irish to the royal cause, but not succeeding, his conduct was artfully misrepresented by those envious of his fame. Popular feeling thus setting against him, Worcester considered it prudent to seek safety from its virulence by coming over to France. To fill up the cup of his misfortunes, Ragland Castle, the home of his childhood, was besieged; and after being defended by his father with the courage of an old Roman, it surrendered at last upon honorable conditions; these however were perfidiously broken, and the venerable old man survived the catastrophe but a few months. The ruin of the family now seemed complete, the seat of its splendor was destroyed, its majestic woods were consigned to the axe, its domain alienated, and its chief an exile.

During the ascendancy of parliament Worcester resided abroad. When again in an unfortunate hour accepting a commission from the heir to the throne, (afterwards Charles II.,) he proceeded to London for the purpose of procuring private intelligence and supplies of money, of which his master stood in the greatest need. He was, however, speedily discovered and committed a close prisoner to the Tower, where he remained in captivity several years. While in confinement, his time was beguiled by those mechanical amusements which ever formed his greatest source of happiness. Here, according to tradition, his attention was first drawn to the amazing force of steam, by observing the rising of the lid of a vessel employed in cooking in his chamber, and from this circumstance he projected that wonderful machine which has thrown around his name so bright a radiance.

The return of the king from France, and his ascendancy to the throne; gave Worcester once more a home, but now in his old age he was doomed to feel all the miseries of hope deferred. The ear of the king was closed by the intrigues of enemies, or by ingratitude; and the man who had spent the fortune of a prince in the cause, was left, in its final triumph, nearly in a state of poverty, oppressed with debt and without resources. On his enlargement from prison, neither the ruin of his own fortune nor the increasing infirmities of age had any effect in damping the ardor of his enthusiasm,-when other minds would have sunk under the neglect