India-rubber combined with sulphur, which he held in his hand as the text of all his discourses, was by a violent gesture thrown into a burning stove near which he was standing. When taken out, after having been subjected to a high degree of heat, he saw, what it may be safely affirmed would have escaped the notice of all others—that a complete transformation had taken place, and that an entirely new product—since so felicitously termed “elastic metal”—was the consequence. When subjected to further tests, the thrilling conviction burst upon him that success had at length crowned his efforts, and that the mystery he had so long wooed, now stood unveiled before him. His history in this respect is altogether parallel with that of the greatest inventors and discoverers who have preceded him. The lamp had swung for centuries in the Cathedral of Pisa, but of the thronging multitudes who worshipped there, none had heeded the lessons which it taught. It was reserved for the profound and observant intellect of young Galileo to extract from its oscillations the true laws of the pendulum, which led to the creation of an infallible measure of time. The theory of universal gravitation loses nothing of its grandeur or value because suggested by the falling of an apple from the tree. In all lands, by teeming millions, this phenomenon had been observed, but to none had it imparted instruction—to none had it spoken of that wonderful secret which lurked beneath its simple features. At length its “still small voice” fell upon the delicate and appreciative ear of one whom it startled into inquiry. The light thus afforded, to which all had been blind, was indeed dim and twinkling; but, following its guidance, as one who traces back the dawn, the great Newton soon plunged into the full-orbed splendors of a discovery confessedly the most brilliant which has gilded and ennobled the annals of science. On all the hearthstones of the civilized world, for thousands of years the kettle had boiled and lifted its lid by the expansive power of its steam; yet for none had this seemingly trite and ever-recurrent incident been significant—to none had it announced that measureless power of which it was the humble but distinct exponent. At length the movement caught the eye of a lonely student of nature, then a prisoner in the Tower of London, and in the soil of his prolific mind it proved the rapidly expanding germ of that steam-engine whose triumphs have changed the social, political, and commercial aspects of the globe. So India-rubber in combination with sulphur may by accident have been exposed to a high degree of heat often before without attracting the attention of any; and it is safe to allege that it might have been thus exposed a thousand times afterwards, without the world’s having been wiser or wealthier for it. The thorough self-culture and training of the applicant and his unwearied researches prepared him at once to seize