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a few of these were his zealous advocates-and others, though they were afraid to admit that he had made a discovery which violated what were believed to be the established laws of nature, appeared also afraid to deny what the incessant motion of his wheels and weights

seemed to prove. These contrived ingenious theories,

which were hardly less wonderful than the perpetual motion itself. They proposed that Redheffer had discovered a means of developing gradually some hidden power, which, though it could not give motion to his machine for ever, would keep it going for some time, which they could not pretend to determine.

"One of these perpetual motions commenced its career in New York city, in 1813. Mr. Fulton was a perfect unbeliever in Redheffer's discovery; and although hundreds were daily paying their dollar to see the wonder, Mr. Fulton could not be prevailed upon to follow the crowd. After a few days, how er, he was induced by some of his friends to visit the machine. It was in an isolated house in the

suburbs of the city.

"In a very short time after Mr. Fulton had entered the room in which it was exhibited, he exclaimed: "Why, this is a crank motion!' His ear enabled him to distinguish that the machine was moved by a crank, which always gives an unequal power, and therefore an unequal velocity in the course of each revolution; and a nice and practised ear may perceive that the sound is not uniform. If the machine had been kept in motion by what was its ostensible moving power, it must have had an equable rotary motion, and the sound would have been always the same.

"After some little conversation with the showman, Mr. Fulton did not hesitate to declare that the machine was an imposition, and to tell the gentleman that he was an impostor.

"Notwithstanding the bluster and anger which these charges excited, he assured the company that the thing was a cheat, and that, if they would support him in the

attempt, he would detect it, at the risk of paying any penalty if he failed.

"Having obtained the assent of all who were present, he began by knocking away some very thin little pieces of lath, which appeared to be no part of the machinery, but to go from the frame of the machine to the wall of the room, merely to keep the corner-posts of the machine steady.

"It was found that a catgut string was led through one of these laths and the frame of the machine, to the head of the upright-shaft of a principal wheel; that the catgut was conducted through the wall, and along the floors of the second story, to a back cockloft, at the distance of a number of yards from the room which contained the machine, and there was found the moving power. This was a poor old man with an immense beard, and all the appearance of having suffered a long imprisonment; who, when they broke in upon him, was unconscious of what had happened below, and who, while he was Catel on a stool gnawing a crust, was with one hand turning a crank.

"The proprietor of the perpetual motion soon disappeared. The mob demolished his machine, the destruction of which immediately put a stop to that which had been, for so long a time and to so much profit, exhibited in Philadelphia."

CHAPTER IV.

EXTRACTS FROM THE "COLUMBIA D.”

"Fulton with his own soul the canvas warms,
Creates, inspires, impassions human forms."

WE copy the following from the "COLUMBIAD," or "VISION OF COLUMBUS," a poem in quarto form, containing four hundred and fifty pages, written by Joel Barlow, and dedicated to his friend Robert Fulton. The subject of this splendid patriotic poem is altogether national and historical. The elegant plates which adorn that work were designed and published by Mr. Fulton, at an expense of $5,000; and the original paintings form a part of the handsome collection which he left to his family. The work is dedicated in such terms as evince the strong attachment which subsisted between these men of genius.

To Robert Fulton.

"MY DEAR FRIEND:

in

"This poem is your property. I present it to you manuscript, that you may bring it before the public in the

manner you think proper. This letter will explain to them my motives for offering you such a testimony of my attachment-an attachment which certainly comprises all the good affections that the virtues and talents of one man can inspire in the breast of another.

"Our friendship has been uncommonly useful to us both. Yet, in no instance, has that delicious bond of union been more disinterested than between you and me. According to the common course of nature, you have longer to live than I have; and though, as a faithful guardian, you would foster an orphan of mine, yet, as an adoptive father, your power over it would seem to be more complete.

"These are motives of affection and precaution, but I am likewise impelled by a motive of justice. My poem, having grown up under your eye, much benefited by your observations, as well as by those of my excellent wife, is to come forward, I find, ornamented by your taste. You designated the subjects to be painted for engravings; and, unable to convince me that the work could merit such expensive and splendid decorations, yor ordered them to be executed in my absence, and at your own expense; so that the whole work, as committed to the publisher and estimated by its cost, is chiefly yours already; for my proportion has cost me nothing but that leisurely and exhilarating labour in which I always delight.

"Take it then to yourself, and let it live, as long as it is to live, a monument of our friendship: you cannot need it as a monument of your fame. Your inventions and discoveries in the useful arts, the precision and extension of your views in the physical sciences, and in their application to the advancement of society and morals, will render it proper that the lines you have selected and written under my portrait, should be transferred to yours. Posterity will vindicate the right, and fix them in their place.

"Continue to be happy, my Fulton, as your various merit entitles you to be. Continue to enhance that merit by well-directed labours for the good of mankind; and

since this address will not outlast the poem to which it is prefixed, I leave you to take some other method to unite my memory more durably with your own.

"JOEL BARLOW."

Philadelphia, MAY 1, 1807.

HESPER, a brilliant planet, called the evening-star, assumes the figure of a beautiful young man, and appears to COLUMBUS in prison, as his guardian genius.

"Thus mourn'd the hapless man: a thundering sound Roll'd through the shuddering walls, and shook the ground:

O'er all the dungeon, where black arches bend,
The roofs unfold, and streams of light descend:
The growing splendour fills the astonish'd room,
And gales ethereal breathe a glad perfume.
Robed in the radiance moves a form serene,
Of human structure, but of heavenly mien :
Near to the prisoner's couch he takes his stand,
And waves, in sign of peace, his holy hand.
Tall rose his stature, youth's endearing grace
Adorn'd his limbs and brighten'd in his face;
Loose o'er his locks the star of evening hung,
And sounds melodious moved his cheerful tongue.
'Rise, trembling chief! to scenes of rapture rise!
This voice awaits thee from the western skies:
Indulge no longer that desponding strain,
Nor count thy toils, nor deem thy virtues vain.
Thou seest in me the guardian power who keeps
The new-found world that skirts Atlantic deeps.
Hesper my name, my seat the brightest throne
In night's whole heaven, my sire the living sun.

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