92 GOODYEAR ON GUM-ELASTIC. 



within his reach. Having this presentiment, of which he could 

 not divest himself, under the most trying adversity, he was 

 stimulated with the hope of ultimately attaining this object. 



Beyond this, he would refer the whole to the Great Creator, 

 who directs the operations of mind to the development of the 

 properties of matter, in his own way, at the time when they are 

 specially needed, influencing some mind for every work or call- 

 ing. The creature may imagine he is only executing some plan 

 of his own, while he is the instrument in the hands of his 

 Maker, contributing to execute his purposes, which, though we 

 cannot fathom, we may believe involve, with the highest elevation 

 of mind and morals, the highest improvement of things material. 



However foreign to the subject this expression of the writer's 

 sentiments may appear to some, he knows there are those who 

 will respond to them as not unsuitable to the occasion, or a 

 digression foreign to the work. Were he to refrain from 

 expressing his views thus briefly, he would ever feel that he had 

 done violence to his sentiments. 



Some particulars of the personal history of the inventor are 

 necessarily connected with the following account of his experi- 

 ments, the publication of which is deemed important to the ob- 

 jects of this work ; and the incidents related as connected with 

 them, may not be uninteresting. 



Early training and subsequent experience, had probably much 

 to do in fitting the writer for an enterprise which he has 

 since so ardently pursued. In his business intercourse, previous 

 to the undertaking, he had been brous-ht in contact with those 

 engaged in most of the different pursuits of life. Thus he 

 early acquired habits of observation and attention to their 

 wants ; by which he was afterwards guided in his pursuit of im- 

 provements, whether of farming implements and small hard- 

 ware, or the various appliances of gum-elastic. 



He does not claim to have a mechanical talent, but, on the 

 contrary, has an aversion to bestowing thought upon machinery 

 when there is any thing complicated about it. 



The machinery which he has been compelled to invent, for 



