466 LABORIOUSNESS AND THOROUGHNESS. CHAP. XXI. 



was early left to shift for himself, and compelled to be 

 self-reliant. Having the will to learn, he soon found a 

 way for himself. No beginning could have been more 

 humble than his ; but he persevered : he had determined 

 to learn, and he did learn. To such a resolution as his, 

 nothing really beneficial in life is denied. He might 

 have said, like Sebastian Bach, " I was industrious ; and 

 whoever is equally sedulous will be equally successful." 



The whole secret of Mr. Stephenson's success in life 

 was his careful improvement of time, which is the rock 

 out of which fortunes are carved and great characters 

 formed. He believed in genius to the extent that Buifon 

 did when he said that " patience is genius ;" or as some 

 other thinker put it, when he defined genius to be the 

 power of making efforts. But he never would have it 

 that he was a genius, or that he had done anything 

 which other men, equally laborious and persevering as 

 himself, could not have accomplished. He repeatedly 

 said to the young men about him : " Do as I have done 

 persevere ! " 



Every step of advance which he made was conquered 

 by patient labour. When an engineman, he systemati- 

 cally took his engine to pieces on Saturday afternoons 

 while the works were at a stand, for the purpose of 

 cleaning it thoroughly, and " gaining insight." He 

 thus gradually mastered the mechanism of the steam- 

 engine, so that, when opportunity offered, he was enabled 

 to improve it, and to make it work even when its own 

 maker was baffled. He practically studied hydraulics 

 in the same plodding way, when acting as plugman ; 

 and when all the local pump-doctors at Killingworth 

 were in despair, he stepped in, and successfully applied 

 the knowledge which he had so laboriously gained. 

 A man of such a temper and purpose could not but 

 succeed in life. 



Whether working as a brakesman or an engineer, his 

 mind was always full of the work in hand. He gave 



