JOHN SMEATON. 83 
human being could exist after receiving melted lead into the 
stomach, much less that he should afterwards be able to bear the 
hardships and inconvenience from the length of time he was 
in getting on shore before any remedies could be applied. On 
the twelfth day, however, the man died, and having been opened 
a solid piece of lead, which weighed above seven ounces, was 
found in his stomach.* 
Another interesting anecdote is attached to the history of 
Rudyerd’s lighthouse. Louis XIV. being at war with England 
while it was being built, a French privateer took the men at 
work upon it and carried them to France, expecting, no doubt, a 
good reward for the achievement. His hopes, however, were 
doomed to a grievous disappointment, for while the captives 
lay in prison, the transaction reached the ears of the monarch, 
who immediately ordered them to be released and the captors 
to be put in their place; declaring that though he was at war 
with England, he was not at war with mankind. He therefore 
directed the men to be sent back to their work with presents; 
observing that the Eddystone lighthouse was so situated as to 
be of equal service to all nations navigating the Channel. It 
is gratifying to meet with this trait of natural generosity in 
a mind long since obscured by the bigotry which prompted 
the revocation of the Edit de Nantes. 
After these repeated disasters, the rebuilding of Eddystone 
lighthouse, in a more substantial manner than had hitherto been 
effected, was now no longer confided to amateur ingenuity, but 
to John Smeaton, an eminent civil engineer, one of those men 
who by originality of genius and strength of character are so well 
entitled to rank among the worthies of England. From his 
early infancy Smeaton (born May 28, 1724) gave tokens of the 
extraordinary abilities which were one day to render his name 
illustrious. Before he attained his sixth year his playthings 
were not the playthings of children but the tools which men em- 
ploy: before be was fifteen he made for himself an engine for 
turning, forged his iron and steel, and had self-made tools of 
every sort for working in wood, ivory, and metals. At eighteen 
he by the strength of his genius acquired the art of working 
in most of the mechanical trades, and such was his untiring zeal 
* A full account of this extraordinary circumstance was sent to the Royal 
Society, and printed in vol. xlix. of their Transactions, p. 477. 
