The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP, xm.] EXHOETATIONS TO PEKSEVEEE. I43
Institutes, which he took pleasure in attending during the later
years of his life.
But these very efforts, fruitless though they were, and lead-
ing to no apparent beneficial results,—as in the case of his long-
continued labours in attempting to invent perpetual motion,
yet having originated in his ardent thirst for practical knowledge,
really proved of the greatest advantage to him. The very grap-
pling with difficulty was an education of itself, and tended to
develop his independent powers of thinking and action, w^hich is
indeed the highest object of intellectual discipline. Had he been
early provided with those appliances which are considered re-
quisite for the successful prosecution of mechanical and scientific
study, it is possible that he might not have acquired that readi-
ness in suggesting expedients, and contriving apparatus for the
mastery of difficulties, which so strikingly distinguished him
throughout his career. Indeed, in his case, as in that of so
many other self-taught men, the old proverb proved true, that
Necessity is the mother of Invention.
Over-much dependence upon others' teaching is somewhat to
be guarded against ; and it is well, even under the most thorough
culture, that there should be occasional gaps left for the mind's
independent operation. Stephenson's mind was indeed too full
of gaps at starting ; and all the knowledge with which he filled
them up was of his own acquiring. Thrown from the first upon
his own resources, he early acquired that habit of self-reliance
which formed the backbone of his character. His strength of
purpose, energetic will, untiring industry, and vigorous common
sense did the rest. He may be said to have learnt his practical,
science first, and acquired his education afterwards ; and although
he was a late learner, he nevertheless lived long enough to carve
his name deep on the world's records, and to leave works in
which future ages will trace the hand of a giant.
Whatever Stephenson learnt, having been acquired by his
own laborious efforts, was regarded by him in the light of an
actual property. There were many highly educated engineers
living in his day, who knew vastly more than he did—trained as
they had been in all the science and learningof the schools ;
there were none so apt in applying what they knew to practical
—
but