86 



SMEATON'S PRIVATE LIFE- 



PART VI. 



he eventually succeeded, and he did all that he afterwards 

 could to soothe the remorse of the wretched youth who 

 had betrayed him. 1 



Of Mr. Smeaton's intellectual powers it would be 

 difficult to speak too highly. James Watt always men- 

 tioned him in terms of sincere admiration, speaking 

 of him as " father Smeaton." Writing to Sir Joseph 

 Banks, he said : " In justice to him we should observe 

 that he lived before Rennie, and before there were one- 

 tenth of the artists there are now. Suum cuique; his 

 example and precepts have made us all engineers." Even 

 after the great works of the railway era, and the variety 

 of practical ability which they called forth and fostered, 

 Robert Stephenson pronounced Smeaton to be the en- 

 gineer of the highest intellectual eminence that had yet 

 appeared in England. Speaking of him to the author 

 in 1858, he observed, "Smeaton is the greatest philo- 

 sopher in our profession this country has yet produced. 

 He was indeed a great man, possessing a truly Baconian 

 mind, for he was an incessant experimenter. 2 The prin- 

 ciples of mechanics were never so clearly exhibited as in 

 his writings, more especially with respect to resistance, 

 gravity, the power of water and wind to turn mills, and 

 so on. His mind was as clear as crystal, and his demon- 

 strations will be found mathematically conclusive. To 



1 The engineer's daughter, who has 

 related these beautiful features in his 

 character, became the wife of Jere- 

 miah Dixon, Esq., at one time mayor 

 of Leeds, afterwards of Fell Foot, 

 Windermere, and an active county 

 magistrate. She possessed much of 

 the force of character and benevolence 

 of disposition which distinguished her 

 father ; and was regarded as a woman 

 of great practical ability. She sur- 

 vived her husband many years, and 

 during her lifetime built and endowed 

 a free-school for girls at Staveley, 

 about a mile from her residence, which 

 is now, and has been ever since its 

 establishment, of very great benefit 

 to the population of the neighbour- 



hood. Mrs. Dixon was also an artist 

 of some merit, and painted in oils ; 

 the altar-piece and decorated Ten 

 Commandments now in Staveley 

 church being of her execution. 



2 One of Smeaton's rules was, never 

 to trust to deductions drawn from 

 theory in any case where one could 

 have an opportunity for actual experi- 

 ment. "In my own practice," he 

 said, "almost every successive case 

 would have required an independent 

 theory of its own. In my intercourse 

 with mankind I have always found 

 those who would thrust theory into 

 practical matters to be, at bottom, men 

 of no judgment, and pure quacks." 



