CHAP. V. JOHN WIGHAM. 57 



with the object of embodying his ideas in a practical 

 working shape. He afterwards used to lament the 

 time he had lost in these futile efforts, and said that if 

 he had enjoyed the opportunity which most young men 

 now have, of learning from books what previous expe- 

 rimenters had accomplished, he would have been spared 

 much labour and mortification. Not being acquainted 

 with what other mechanics had done, he groped his way 

 in pursuit of some idea originated by his own inde- 

 pendent thinking and observation ; and, when he had 

 brought it into some definite form, lo ! he found that his 

 supposed invention had long been known and recorded 

 in scientific books. Often he thought he had hit upon 

 discoveries, which he subsequently found were but old 

 and exploded fallacies. Yet his very struggle to over- 

 come the difficulties which lay in his way, was of itself 

 an education of the best sort. By wrestling with them, 

 he strengthened his judgment and sharpened his skill, 

 stimulating and cultivating his inventiveness and me- 

 chanical ingenuity. Being very much in earnest, he 

 was compelled to consider the subject of his special 

 inquiry in all its relations ; and the necessity for tho- 

 roughness would not suffer him to be superficial. Thus 

 he gradually acquired practical ability even through his 

 very efforts after the impracticable. 



Many of his evenings were .spent in the society of 

 John Wigham, whose father occupied the Glebe farm at 

 Benton, close at hand. John was a fair penman and 

 a sound arithmetician, and Stephen son frequented his 

 society chiefly for the purpose of improving himself in 

 writing and " figures." Under Andrew Eobertson, he 

 had never quite mastered the Rule of Three, and it was 

 only when Wigham took him in hand that he made 

 much progress in the higher branches of arithmetic. 

 He generally took his slate with him to the Wighams' 

 cottage, when he had his sums set, that he might work 

 them out while tending the engine on the following 



