1853] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 317 



he would have been anticipated in the result of his enter- 

 prise by the fortunate experiment of the elder Stevens. In 

 making this statement I would not wish to detract from the 

 real merit of individuals; they have sufficient claims for re- 

 muneration and reputation in being among the first to appre- 

 ciate properly the value of the improvement, and to avail 

 themselves at the earliest point of time of the necessary 

 means of accomplishing it. I may remark in passing that 

 from the foregoing views and statements it is plain that the 

 steamboat is emphatically an American invention. It was 

 in this country that premiums were first offered for its pro- 

 duction, and on the Hudson, in 1807, it was first reduced to 

 practice. It was not adopted in England until 1812, and not 

 until 1816 in France. 



From a want of a knowledge of the state of science, and 

 a due consideration of the proper time and place, many in- 

 genious minds have wasted their energies in fruitless labor, 

 waged with fortune an unequal war, and sunk into the grave 

 the victims of disappointed hopes. Such men are frequently 

 said to " live before their time; " but it remains to be proved 

 whether in the aggregate of cases they have done more good 

 or evil, and whether they most deserve our admiration or our 

 pity. A premature, and consequently an unsuccessful, at- 

 tempt often so prejudices the public mind against an inven- 

 tion that when the proper time actually arrives for its intro- 

 duction public sentiment is found arrayed against it, and 

 difficulties have to be overcome which would not have existed 

 had the first essay never been made. 



The man of true genius never lives before his time; he 

 never undertakes impossibilities, and always embarks in his 

 enterprise at the suitable place and period. Though he may 

 catch a glimpse of the coming light as it gilds the mountain 

 top, long before it has reached the eyes of his contemporaries, 

 and though he may hazard a prediction as to the future, he 

 acts with the present. 



There are some partial exceptions to this rule, and among 

 them I would mention with high respect that of Oliver 

 Evans, than whom no man in this country has ever done 



