He stimulated the intellect by wit; he united the heart and mind by humor; he melted the heart by un-mixed pathos. He was characterized by the strange power of creating an expectation with every sentence he uttered, and though he might on some occasions, when not at his best, close without meeting the expectations aroused, no dissatisfaction was expressed or apparently felt by his hearers. In personal appearance he was remarkable, chiefly for the great transformation of his countenance under the play of emotion.
On the platform of Plymouth Church he was as a king upon his throne, or the commander of a war-ship in victorious action. His manners in private life were most ingratiating. His writings can impart to coming generations no adequate conception of his power as an orator. His career in England during those five great speeches were worth 50,000 soldiers to the National government, and probably had much to do with the prevention of the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by European nations. It was a triumph of oratory; he literally compelled a vast multitude, who were thoroughly in opposition to him, to take a new view of the subject.
A Metropolitan in the pulpit, a magician on the platform, a center of life and good cheer in the home, a prince in society possessed of exhaustive vitality, warmth and energy, he suggested to any one who gazed upon him the apostrophe of Hamlet to the ideal man: "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!" Such a piece of work was Henry Ward Beecher. He had no predecessor, and can have no successor till a similar ancestry and life; the one coeval with birth, and the other running parallel with the lusty youth of such a nation, and a similar life and death struggle, both in a conflict of moral principles fought out under a Democratic form of Government, shall combine to evolve a similar career. The course of human history does not furnish a probability of another coincidence of elements so extraordinary.
In this advanced age we know the power of steam, and what a great factor it is as a help in carrying on the daily work of life. Yet, it is only during the last century that men have discovered to how many purposes it can be applied.
James Watt, the great utilizer of steam, was born in Greenock, Scotland, January 19th, 1736. His father was a carpenter and general merchant in Greenock, and seems to have been highly respected, for he was long a member of the council, and for a time, magistrate. James was a sickly child, unable to attend school with regularity, hence was left to follow his own inclinations; becoming his own instructor, to a great extent. The boy was early furnished with tools by his father, and with them found amusement and instruction. He early manifested a taste for mathematics and mechanics, studied botany, chemistry, mineralogy, natural philosophy, and at fourteen constructed an electrical machine.