CHAP. VI. DEATH AND CHARACTER. 87 



this day there are no writings so valuable as his in the 

 highest walks of scientific engineering ; and when young 

 men ask me, as they frequently do, what they should 

 read, I invariably say, Go to Smeaton's philosophical 

 papers ; read them, master them thoroughly, and nothing 

 will be of greater service to you. Smeaton was indeed 

 a very great man." 



From what we have said, it will be obvious that 

 Smeaton was, throughout his whole career, a most in- 

 dustrious man, indeed, industry was the necessity and 

 habit of his life. His daughter describes him as having 

 been incessantly occupied from six years old to sixty. 

 He was a great economist of time, and laid it out in 

 such a way as to obtain from its use the greatest amount 

 of valuable result. When at home, his forenoons were 

 devoted to writing reports, and the various business 

 arising out of his professional engagements ; and his 

 afternoons were occupied by the pursuits in which he 

 took most pleasure, working at his forge or in his 

 workshop, making mechanical experiments, or pre- 

 paring his papers on scientific subjects for the Eoyal 

 Society. Though naturally possessed of an excellent 

 constitution, and capable of enduring much fatigue, it is 

 to be feared that he taxed his brain too much, and " o'er 

 informed his tenement of clay," by continuous and 

 intense application to study during his long periods 

 of seclusion at Austhorpe. His robust frame became 

 fragile, and his strength was further impaired by the 

 abstinence which he was subsequently compelled to adopt. 

 Moreover, it appears that brain disease was hereditary 

 in his family, and he long apprehended the stroke which 

 eventually terminated his life. This only made him the 

 more eager to employ to the greatest advantage the time 

 which it might yet be permitted him to live : and he 

 dreaded above all things the blight of his mental powers 

 to use his own words, " lingering over the dregs after 

 the spirit had evaporated " chiefly as depriving him of 



