JOHN SMEATOX. 83 



human being could exist after receiving melted lead into the 

 stomach, much less that he should afterwards be able to bear the 

 hardships and inconvenience from the length of time he was 

 in getting on shore before any remedies could be applied. On 

 the twelfth day, however, the man died, and having been opened 

 a solid piece of lead, which weighed above seven ounces, was 

 found in his stomach.* 



Another interesting anecdote is attached to the history of 

 Eudyerd's lighthouse. Louis XIV. being at war with England 

 while it was being built, a French privateer took the men at 

 work upon it and carried them to France, expecting, no doubt, a 

 good reward for the achievement. His hopes, however, -were 

 doomed to a grievous disappointment, for while the captives 

 lay in prison, the transaction reached the ears of the monarch, 

 who immediately ordered them to be released and the captors 

 to be put in their place ; declaring that though he was at war 

 with England, he was not at war with mankind. He therefore 

 directed the men to be sent back to their work with presents ; 

 observing that the Eddystone lighthouse was so situated as to 

 be of equal service to all nations navigating the Channel. It 

 is gratifying to meet with this trait of natural generosity in 

 a mind long since obscured by the bigotry which prompted 

 the revocation of the Edit de Nantes. 



After these repeated disasters, the rebuilding of Eddystone 

 lighthouse, in a more substantial manner than had hitherto been 

 effected, was now no longer confided to amateur ingenuity, but 

 to John Smeaton, an eminent civil engineer, one of those men 

 who by originality of genius and strength of character are so well 

 entitled to rank among the worthies of England. From his 

 early infancy Smeaton (born May 28, 1724) gave tokens of the 

 extraordinary abilities which were one day to render his name 

 illustrious. Before he attained his sixth year his playthings 

 were not the playthings of children but the tools which men em- 

 ploy : before he was fifteen he made for himself an engine for 

 turning, forged his iron and steel, and had self-made tools of 

 every sort for working in wood, ivory, and metals. At eighteen 

 he by the strength of his genius acquired the art of working 

 in most of the mechanical trades, and such was his untiring zeal 



* A full account of this extraordinary circumstance -was sent to the Royal 

 Society, and printed in vol. xlix. of their Transactions, p. 4"7. 



