CHAP. XX. INTERVIEW WITH EMERSON. 455 



forerunner of all that had been done to extend the 

 locomotive system throughout England and throughout 

 the world. 



In the spring of 1848 Mr. Stephenson was invited to 

 Whittington House, near Chesterfield, the residence of 

 his friend and former pupil, Mr. Swanwick, to meet the 

 distinguished American, Emerson. It was interesting 

 to see those two remarkable men, so different in most 

 respects, and whose lines of thought and action lay in 

 such widely different directions, yet so quick to recognise 

 each other's merits. Mr. Stephenson was not, as yet, 

 acquainted with Mr. Emerson as an author; and the 

 contemplative American might not be supposed to be 

 particularly interested beforehand in the English engi- 

 neer, whom he knew by reputation only as a giant in 

 the material world. But there was in both an equal 

 aspiration after excellence, each in his own sphere, the 

 aesthetic and abstract tendencies of the one complement- 

 ing the keen and accurate perceptions of the material 

 of the other. Upon being introduced, they did not 

 immediately engage in conversation ; but presently 

 Stephenson jumped up, took Emerson by the collar, 

 and, giving him one of his friendly shakes, asked how it 

 was that in England we could always tell an American ? 

 This led to an interesting conversation, in the course of 

 which Emerson said how much he had everywhere been 

 struck by the haleness and comeliness of the English 

 men and women ; and then they diverged into a further 

 discussion of the influences which air, climate, moisture, 

 soil, and other conditions exercised upon the physical 

 and moral development of a people. The conversa- 

 tion was next directed to the subject of electricity, 

 upon \vhich Stephenson launched out enthusiastically, 

 explaining his views by several simple and striking 

 illustrations. From thence it gradually turned to the 

 events of his own life, which he related in so graphic a 

 manner as completely to rivet the attention of the 



