

Lord Armstrong. 227 



genius who contributed to the material progress of the nineteenth 

 century. There have been many thinkers more strictly scientific, for 

 he was not deeply versed in any special branch of learning. His 

 strength lay rather in the unrivalled activity of his intellect, the 

 quickness of his perception, and the penetrating skill with which he 

 reduced theory to practice. His discoveries and inventions proceeded 

 upon invariable lines : close observation, ingenious deduction, followed 

 by assiduous experiment. His industry in research upon any subject 

 which interested him amounted to a complete absorption for the time 

 being. During his early studies in artillery he would be 'up day after 

 day at sunrise to fire his gun on the moors or on the seashore. He 

 thought of nothing else, but concentrated the whole force of his mind 

 upon his investigations, to the exclusion of everything else. His 

 talents were rigidly limited to practical issues. It would be an over- 

 statement to describe him as lacking in imagination, but he had no 

 taste whatever for transcendental or speculative enquiries. And, solid 

 as were his theories, his work, whether he was building an engine or 

 a house, was more thorough still. It wanted no detail which industry 

 or perseverance could give it. 



In private life Lord Armstrong was the most charming of com- 

 panions. In the prime of life he was an excellent walker, and was fond 

 of fishing and shooting. He was an excellent host, and in congenial 

 society a striking conversationalist. No man could have lived a 

 simpler life, or borne his honours with less ostentation. Strangers 

 sometimes found his manners rather cold and reserved, and he had 

 a somewhat keen eye for the pretentious, together with a distaste for 

 it which he did not always take the trouble to conceal. Yet nobody 

 had a more generous appreciation of real ability and worth. 



In addition to being a Companion of the Bath, Lord Armstrong held 

 the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus of Italy, of the Dannebrog of 

 Denmark, of Jesus Christ of Portugal, of Francis Joseph of Austria, of 

 Charles the Third of Spain, of the Rose of Brazil, of the Dragon of 

 China, and of the Sacred Treasure of Japan. He received the honorary 

 degrees of D.C.L. from Oxford and Durham and of LL.D. from Cam- 

 bridge. 



A. N. 



