And it should be added, for the benefit of the young reader, that he was never in a hurry to give his opinion; and that he never gave it until he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the subject on which it was sought. He was above all petty artifices, and never laid claim to the possession of universal knowledge. He did not pretend to be able to decide off-hand on a question he had not considered, but studied it thoroughly and patiently before he ventured on offering an opinion. Hence it was always received with the utmost deference, and the most implicit confidence was placed in his proved integrity. [Sidenote: Always "thorough."] Smeaton possessed the gift of fluent and clear description. He could make difficult points of engineering science intelligible even to non-professional readers or hearers; and in the courts of law he was frequently complimented by Lord Mansfield and the other judges for the light he so ingeniously threw upon abstruse and very difficult subjects. His secret was, his thorough knowledge of what he wrote or spoke about. He was always _thorough_, and hence he always spoke with the decision and confidence of a master. It is only imperfect knowledge which ever blunders into obscurity. CHAPTER IV. SMEATON IN PRIVATE LIFE--HIS LAST YEARS AND CHARACTER. While Smeaton was thus reaping the reward of his diligent life and conscientious industry, he continued to make his home and resting-place at Austhorpe, near Leeds, where he had been born. There he carried on the mechanical experiments in which he had ever felt so intense a delight. His father had allowed him the privilege of a workshop in an outhouse, and he occupied it for many years; afterwards, when the house had become his settled residence, he erected an atelier, a study, and an observatory, all in one, for his own use. This building assumed the form of a square tower, four stories high. It stood apart from the house, on the opposite side of the court or green, and on the bank of a pleasant pool. Shrouded in ivy, and embowered among trees, it now forms a picturesque feature in the landscape. The ground-floor was devoted to his forge; the first floor contained his lathe; the second, his models; the third, his study; while the fourth was a sort of lumber-room and attic. From the little turreted staircase on the top a door opened upon the leads. A vane was fixed on the summit, and so arranged that it set in motion the hands of a dial on the ceiling of his drawing-room, and showed at any moment the precise direction in which the wind blew. [Sidenote: Smeaton in his study.]