"Beside her grave the marble white, Keeps silent guard by day and night; Serene she sleeps, nor hears the tread Of footsteps o'er her lowly bed."

which for simplicity of structure, and velocity in action has not been equalled, and cannot be excelled.

"To our Readers—We now present some proof of the successful operation of our press. The paper which you now hold in your hand, was printed on Wilkinson's Cylindrical Rotary Printing Press—and this impression will best illustrate the nature of the improvement. We shall confine ourself sic to a brief out line of the history of the work.

. . . hearing of David's attempt he advised him to abandon the enterprise as chimerical, for the thing had been tried in England time and again, and had always resulted in failure. David was not to be discouraged; he completed his patterns for the lathe, and was already to start for Foxborough the next morning to secure the castings, when Sylvanus Brown took the liberty to burn them up! Somewhat vexed, but nothing daunted by this unlooked for freak on the part of Mr. Brown, David prepared another set, got them cast, made his lathe—and it worked to a charm. Thus was secured to the world this great invention, which has resulted in enriching multitudes of individuals and the nation, but brought no return to the inventor until Congress voted him $10,000.*

Strang.  "I think more credit bas sic been given to Fulton than is his due; and that Col. John Stevens is more deserving than Fulton."

Wilkinson.  "I never thought Fulton an inventor, but simply a busy collector of other people's inventions."

S.  "Well, I always said so, and he would never have succeeded, if it had not been for Daniel Leach."

W.  "What do you mean by Daniel Leach?"

S.  "Why, a Yankee that Fulton kept locked up for six months making drafts for him."

"We were compelled now to get our living where we could; to go abroad, if we could not get work at home. I went to work on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, N. Y.,—then on the St. Lawrence improvements Canada; then to Ohio on the Sandy and Beaver Canal, then to the new wire bridge on the Ottawa River at Bytown, Canada, and Virginia. Wherever I could find anything to do I went; and it is wonderful how I endured exposure to wet and cold."

"I purpose sic to record a few memories and impressions of David Wilkinson, and in doing so shall use the first person, not for ostentation, but for convenience. I knew him well and long. I have been with him at home and abroad, and in sickness and in health, in prosperity and adversity. His house was my home as often as I choose to make it so, and that was frequent, from the autumn of 1820 up to the time of his departure from Pawtucket to return no more, till he was brought back to be laid in the sepulchral vault.

He was a man. One of Nature's noblemen. He needed not the pomp and circumstance of heraldry to emblazon his name. The simple name without prefix or affix was enough.

"Take him for all and all I shall not look on his like again." "The elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world,—This was a man."

He was physically educated; every muscle was developed, every nerve braced up, and his whole frame energized by manual labor. There has been and probably is now, in some branch of the family, a coin or medal struck in England, on one side of which there is a muscular arm wielding a sledge. A significant symbol. David Wilkinson responded to it. It was necessary that his body be strong and vigorous to sustain the operation of his massive intellect. His corporeal training strongly resembles that of one of Rhode Island's—one of America's—most distinguished sons, Gen. Nathaniel Greene.

His intellectual training, according to the popular notion of education, was very limited. He never enjoyed the privilege of attending a grammar school, or an academy, or a college. He told me that he graduated and took his degree on the dark day; a day memorable in the history of New England. It occurred in the year 1780. He was then attending a female school. The good woman was very much alarmed and dismissed her school. He was then nine years old and went to school no more. Notwithstanding his limited opportunity for receiving the training and discipline of the school-room, he was, nevertheless, a well educated man. His education did not consist in an accumulation of learned rubbish, nor did it make a dazzling show; it was pre-eminently useful and practical. His mind was drawn out, developed and expanded. It took a vast range. I have neither the leisure nor the ability to traverse the length and breadth of his mind, nor to measure its height and its depth. He was prepared to grapple with any subject, no matter how novel. He attained to this high degree of mental power, by thought. He was a patient and profound thinker. His intellectual machinery was always in motion.

Compared with some men he read but few books. He read men. He would not be long in social intercourse with a man, without understanding him. His library was a walking one, and he diligently used it. He was a keen, even severe observer. When he walked the street, or performed a journey, his eyes and ears were always open. If he saw or heard anything worth preserving, he made it his own. He gathered the wheat into the garner, and gave the chaff to the whirlwind. He improved him by conversation with the learned and wise, as opportunity afforded. And for the attainment of information in this way, he was highly privileged; for he enjoyed the society and the esteem of many—just as many—of the first men of the country as knew him; for instance: John Whipple, Nathaniel Searle, Tristam Burgess, Judge Story, the venerable and apostolic Bishop Griswold, Chase, the pioneer Bishop of the West, Henry Clay, and a host of others. I regret very much that these men have passed away, and I cannot communicate with them and obtain their reminiscences of David Wilkinson. Especially do I exceedingly regret that I cannot confer with Bishops Griswold and Chase; they were frequently his guests, and partook of his large and generous hospitality. What I am now attempting to do should have been done twenty years ago. Then many sources of information were open that are now forever closed, and I am now compelled to rely wholly upon my own memories and impressions. In leaving the educational department of his life, I do not hesitate to say, that I have met with men more book-learned than he was; but I have never met with, nor do I ever expect to meet with, a wiser man than David Wilkinson.

That he was a distinguished mechanic, his reminiscences and other documents, unmistakably prove. They must speak for me, I will only add, that in conversing with me, as he sometimes did about improvements and inventions in machines, that he contemplated making, he seemed to have them all in full and successful operation in his own mind.

It is well said by some one that "the reasoning power is the corner stone of the intellectual building, giving grace and strength to the whole structure." He possessed a pre-eminently logical head. From fixed principles, he proceeded step to step, to results. There was not a link in the chain of argument wanting. This faculty essentially aided him in his improvements and discoveries in the various departments of mechanical science. If he sometimes appeared to jump at a conclusion it was only in appearance. He arrived at the conclusion by a mental process clear and severe as a mathematical demonstration. But few were capable of understanding the operations of his mind, and they only were, therefore, competent to judge correctly of them. The masses had not his mechanical intuition and enthusiasm.