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

446 LIl'E OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. [chap, xxxvi.
Mr. Stephenson, though a thrifty and frugal man, was essen-
tially unsordid. His rugged path in early life made him careful
of his resources. He never saved to hoard, but saved for a
purpo.se, such as the maintenance of his parents or the education
of his son. In later years, he became a prosperous and even a
wealthy man ; but riches never closed his heart, nor stole away
the elasticity of his soul. He enjoyed life cheerfully, because
hopefully. When he entered upon a commercial enterprise,
whether for others or for himself, he looked carefully at the ways
and means. Unless they would " pay," he held back. " He
would have nothing to do," he declared, " with stock-jobbing
speculations." His refusal to sell his name to the schemes of
the railway mania,—his sur.vey of the Spanish lines without
remuneration,—his offer to postpone his claim for payment from
a poor company until their affairs became more prosperous,
are instances of the unsordid spirit in which he acted. " No
mere pecuniary interest," it has been well said, " could have led
George Stephenson to persevere in his onward course from boy-
hood, when he toiled as a slave to the great steam-engine of the
mine, up to the period when he had forced his way through all
the difficulties, natural and artificial, of the Manchester and
Liverpool way. No mere calculation of percentages and divi-
dends wrought this work. It was the high heroic soul, the strong
English spirit, the magnificent will, the indomitable energy, that
accomplished this world-enduring labour." *
Another marked feature in Mr. Stephenson's character was
his patience. Notwithstanding the strength of his convictions
as to the great uses to which the locomotive might be applied,
he waited long and patiently for the opportunity of bringing it
into notice ; and for years after he had completed an efficient
engine he went on quietly devoting himself to the ordinary ^
work of the colliery. He made no noise nor stir about his loco-
motive, but allowed another to take credit for the experiments
on velocity and friction made with it by himself upon the
Killingworth i-ailroad.
By patient industry and laborious contrivance, he was enabled
to do for the locomotive what James Watt had done for the con-
* Westminster Review, Sept., 1844.
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