THEIR TWO SURVIVING DAUGHTERS, Duly impressed with sentiments of Love and Respect for the kindest and tenderest of Parents, Pay this Tribute to their Memory. Genius, or originality, is, for the most part, says Hazlitt, some strong quality in the mind, answering to and bringing out some new and striking quality in nature. According to this definition, Smeaton must be considered a man of genius. But Hazlitt goes on to say that capacity is not the same thing as genius. And he describes capacity as relating to the _quantity_ of knowledge, however acquired; while genius relates to its _quality_, and the mode of acquiring it. Capacity is the power over given ideas or combinations of ideas; genius is the power over those which are not given, and for which no obvious or precise rule can be laid down. [Sidenote: A man of capacity.] Smeaton, then, we should prefer to call a man of _capacity_; a man with a great power over given ideas or combinations of ideas. And along with this capacity he possessed a remarkable steadfastness of purpose, a determined will, an unconquerable perseverance. Without these adjuncts, indeed, capacity will avail but little. The only motto which it can take up and act upon is that expressed so pithily by the old poet:-- "See first that the design is wise and just; That ascertained, pursue it resolutely. Do not for one repulse forego the purpose That you resolved to effect." Smeaton, in his childhood, making turning-lathes and designing pumps; Ferguson, the boy-astronomer, learning the positions of the stars with the help of a string of beads; Murray, afterwards the eminent Orientalist, teaching himself to write with a blackened brand on the whitewashed wall,--these are examples the youthful student should ever set before him. They are examples of what can be done by capacity, directing and controlling diligence, and zeal, and application. [Sidenote: What diligence can do.]