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THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1839.

No. CXLI.

ART. 1.--Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer, written by himself; containing a Descriptive Narrative of his Professional Labours: with a Folio Atlas of Copperplates. Edited by JOHN RICKMAN, Esq., one of his Executors. With a Preface, Supplement, Annotations, and Index. 8vo. London: 1838.

A

MONG Our various mental exercises, there is none more interesting in its nature, or more salutary in its effects, than that of tracing the intellectual progress of a strong mind struggling with the adverse currents of birth and fortune, and, by the force of talent and character alone, attaining an elevated place in society. Nor is this study less instructive when those powers whose developement we trace have found their highest application, either in objects of European importance, or in those of a more domestic character and limited influence, which add to the wealth, or the security, or the honour of our native land.

Contributing as they do to our most immediate and pressing wants-appealing to the eye by their magnitude, and often by their grandeur, and associated, in many cases, with the warmer impulses of humanity and personal safety-the labours of the mechanist and the engineer acquire a contemporary celebrity which is not vouchsafed to the results of scientific research, or to the productions of literature aud the fine arts. The gigantic steam-vessel, which expedites and facilitates the intercourse of

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nations--the canal, which unites two distant seas-the bridge and the aqueduct, which span an impassable valley-the harbour and the breakwater, which shelter our vessels of peace and of war— the railway, which hurries us along on the wings of mechanism— and the light beacon, which throws its directing beams over the deep-address themselves to the secular interests of every individual; and obtain for the engineer who invented, or who planned them, a high and a well-merited popular reputation.

In studying these great efforts of genius, we cannot fail to be struck with the wide range of scientific knowledge which they embrace, as well as with the extraordinary sagacity and practical skill which they display. But our surprise is greatly increased when we learn that the inventors and engineers who executed them, were neither mathematicians nor natural philosophers, but, generally speaking, individuals of humble station, who, by habits of observation almost innate, by powers of discrimination almost intuitive, and by practical knowledge gathered in the workshop or acquired in manual labour, gradually rose to professional celebrity, and secured to themselves the confidence of the public. That this has been pre-eminently the case in England, requires no other proof than to mention the names of Watt, Arkwright, Smeaton, Brindley, Rennie, and Telford, men to whom their country owes the deepest obligations; though, with one exception, it has left these obligations to be testified by the honours which private admiration confers, and by monuments which individual enthusiasm has reared.

It would be a curious enquiry, which, did our limits permit us, we should willingly pursue, to ascertain that specific bent of mind, and that peculiar faculty of combining the data of traditionary and acquired knowledge, which, in these eminent men, supplied the place of direct instruction in the principles of mathematics, mechanics, and general physics. In a letter addressed to the writer of this article, Mr Watt distinctly stated that he never attended Dr Black's chemical lectures, as had been alleged, and was unfortunately prevented by the necessary 'avocations of his business from attending any other lectures at 'college;' and, if we mistake not, he has either stated to ourselves, or in some of his writings, that he had a natural inaptitude for mathematical enquiries: yet there was no individual among the chemical or mechanical philosophers of the day, whose knowledge of these subjects was so varied and correct, and who had treasured up with equal care those irrefragable results which could safely be applied in the construction of great works. Mr Telford, also, had a singular distaste for mathematical studies, and never even made himself acquainted with the elements of

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