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NATURE S TEACHINGS. 



away three years later, together with the architect himself, 

 and some workmen who were engaged in repairs. So terrific 

 is the force of the elements on this spot, that the lighthouse 

 was entirely destroyed, and the only vestiges of it that were 

 ever discovered were some iron bars and a piece of chain. 



Another lighthouse was built a few years afterwards, but 

 was burned down, it being of wood instead of stone. At last 

 the work was put into the hands of Smeaton, who saw that he 

 must build on a totally new plan. He took for his model the 



TREE-TRUNK. 



EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. 



trunk of a tree, and determined to build his lighthouse of the 

 same form as the tree-trunk, and to fasten it into the rock just 

 as a tree is fastened by its roots. Accordingly, he struck out 

 a new principle in the construction of such edifices, and his 

 model has been followed ever since. The reader will see, by a 

 glance at the illustration, how close is the resemblance in 

 external form. I may mention that the tree in question was 

 sketched from one in a paddock opposite my house. 



Having settled the form of the lighthouse, and made it like 

 a tree-trunk, the next business was to fix it firmly in the rock, 

 and, in fact, to give it roots of stone. For this purpose, he 

 made the base of the edifice as wide as the rock would allow, so 

 as to correspond with the wide base of a tree-trunk, and traced 



