"'If you drive a pile,' said he, 'it goes where you drive it, and nowhere else; but a cobblestone will seek the softest place and go where it is most needed. It therefore has discretion, and better answers the purpose.'
"I went away musing that the wooden 'piles' and the 'cobblestones' represent two classes of boys. 'The piles,' said Mr. Corliss, 'have no discretion, and go only where they are driven.' I think I have seen boys who represented this quality. 'But the cobblestones go where they are the most needed.' When boys fit themselves to go where they are the most needed, they will be pretty likely to meet with tolerably good success in life."
The great service Mr. Corliss has rendered to the world through his inventions is shown by the awards made to him from the highest scientific authorities. At the Paris Exposition (1867) he received the highest competitive prize in competition with more than a hundred engines. A great English engineer, one of the British commissioners at the Exposition, said: "The American engine of Mr. Corliss everywhere tells of wise forethought, judicious proportion, sound execution, and exquisite contrivance."
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870 awarded to Mr. Corliss the Rumford Medal. This medal was presented by Dr. Asa Gray, who said: "No invention since Watt's time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam engine as this."
At the Vienna Exhibition in 1873 Mr. Corliss sent neither engine nor machinery, nor had he any one there to represent him; but the grand diploma of honor was awarded to him. This was done because foreign builders had sent their engines, which they themselves claimed were built on his system, and they had placed his name on their productions.
The steam engine to-day is of vastly greater importance than it has ever been before, especially in its use for furnishing the motive power for cotton and woolen factories, and for all kinds of manufacturing establishments. What should we do to-day without the steam engine? Long before the beginning of this century Erasmus Darwin sang as follows:
"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car."
All this has long been fulfilled. How long will it be before his next two lines will also prove a reality?
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear