HISTORY OF THE COTTON GIX. 299 



strange and unknown thing. Before he was aware of what ho 

 had done, he had taken it in pieces. But true to his genius, 

 he attempted at once to put it together, and succeeded so per- 

 fectly, and so soon, that his father never suspected what he 

 had done. At thirteen, he made a handsome table-knife, to 

 supply the place of one of a well-finished set which had been 

 broken, and succeeded so completely, that excepting the stamp 

 upon the blade, for which he had not the necessary tools, it 

 matched perfectly with the others. At the age of fifteen or 

 sixteen, he proposed to his father, with characteristic enter- 

 prise, to commence the manufacture of nails, which were then 

 made entirely by hand. It was in the midst of the war of the 

 Revolution, and nails were scarce and dear. This enterprise 

 was profitable, so profitable that after two years he determined 

 to enlarge the business, and set off on a secret journey to find 

 a suitable fellow-workman. After travelling forty miles he 

 found his man, and returned having called at every shop by 

 the wayside, to gather from each all the information which he 

 could in respect to the mechanic arts. 



Such was Whitney in his boyhood ; distinguished not only 

 for his mechanical skill, joined with bold and self-relying en- 

 terprise, but also for a decided interest in the mathematics. 

 His feelings were ardent, yet completely tempered and con- 

 trolled by prudence.* 



* When Mr. Whitney was eighteen years of age, he became distinctly 

 conscious that he had not the control of his own mind that his imagination 

 was so fruitful and roving, and his temperament so excitable, that he could 

 not command his attention. He at once set himself, by a deliberate effort, 

 to gain the mastery of himself, and actually to hold his mind to a given point. 

 The effort was trying it cost him a whole night of struggle ; but the victory 

 was complete, and he felt ever after that his self-command was sufficient. 

 He showed to his friends, all his life after, the results of this effort in the 

 control of his attention, by which he could pass from one subject to another, 

 be, as it were, entirely absorbed in it, and then take up the one which he 

 bad left, and find ife just as he had left it. 



