18 



of Lis labors for more tlian half a centiTry, and otlier valuable contributions to 

 engineering literature. He taught himself Latin, French, Italian, and German, 

 He was the first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to whom he 

 bequeathed his scientific books, prints, drawings, &c., and $10,000 to provide 

 annual premiums to be given by the council." 



The elder Steph(>nson, the inventor of the locouiotive and the founder of the 

 railway, was deficientin early education ; but, says Mr. Timbs, feeling deeply his 

 own want of education, and iu order that his son might not suffer from the same 

 cause, he sent him to the best seminaries in the district, making him the instru- 

 ment of his own better education. This he did by requiring his son to read for 

 him at the library at Newcastle, and bring home his v.^eckly acquirements, as 

 well as frequently a scientific book, which father and son studied together. But 

 so much did he appreciate the value of an education that, at his own charge, he 

 erected a mechanics' institute, and by his own education he raised himself to 

 the presidency of the Institute of Civil Engineers. 



The elder Brunei received a collegiate education, and gave especial attention 

 to the exact sciences, mathematics, mechanics, and navigation. His son was 

 still more carefully educated, and was a member by fellowship of the leading 

 scientific institutions of Great Britain. 



Looking, then, to the vast material wealth these and like minds have created, 

 who dares contend that the mission of the industrial classes does not demand the 

 most thorough instruction ? Compare the laws of man — the common law and 

 equity, the municipal, the commercial, the international — all together — Viith the 

 laws of nature ; how insignificant arc they ! If the education of the lawyer 

 should be such as fits him for an understanding of the one, that of the industrial 

 classes should qualify them for an understanding of the other. 



Let no one mistake great inventions or discoveries as the unpremeditated 

 suggestions of as great genius. The electric telegraph commenced with Franklin : 

 Morse but completed it. So the daguerreotype. The incrustation of surfaces 

 steeped in an acid solution of silver and chlorine was first known in 1777, and in 

 ISOl a solution of nitrate of silver. In 1802 images on such surfaces were 

 obtained by the camera obscura ; but those images faded away rapidly when 

 exposed to light. Then Nicpce, an amateur French chemist, after ten years' ex- 

 periments, from 1814 to 1824, succeeded in taking permanent images, but he was 

 tenhours iugettingthcm, and then without certainty. Daguerre experimented till 

 poverty alarmed his wife, whilst Arago believed that science was not yet sufiiciently 

 advanced for success. In lSo9 that success finally crowned this labor of sixty- 

 two years, in which most conspicuously are the names of Scheele, Ritter, Wol- 

 laston, Sir Humphrey Davy, Wedgewood, Kiepce, and Daguerre. Continents 

 can be explored only after a Columbus has discovered them. 



But inventions and discoveries have no limit. The application of natural laws 

 to the purposes of life is bounded only by the infinitude of those laws. And 

 therefore wisely does Governor Andrew thus address the farmers of New 

 En":land : 



