g miracle.

"A prompt, decisive man, no breath
Our father wasted: 'Boys, a path!'
Well pleased, (for when did farmer boy
Count such a summons less than joy?)
Our buskins on our feet we drew;
With mittened hands, and caps drawn low,
To guard our necks and ears from snow,
We cut the solid whiteness through.
And, where the drift was deepest, made
A tunnel walled and overlaid
With dazzling crystal: we had read
Of rare Aladdin's wondrous cave,
And to our own his name we gave,
With many a wish the luck were ours
To test his lamp's supernal powers.

"We reached the barn with merry din,
And roused the prisoned brutes within.
The old horse thrust his long head out,
And grave with wonder gazed about;
The cock his lusty greeting said,
And forth his speckled harem led;
The oxen lashed their tails, and hooked,
And mild reproach of hunger looked;
The horned patriarch of the sheep,
Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep,
Shook his sage head with gesture mute,
And emphasized with stamp of foot."

_Lives of Boulton and Watt._ Principally from the original Soho MSS.
Comprising also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the
Steam-Engine. By SAMUEL SMILES. London: John Murray.

The author of this book is an enthusiast in biography. He has given the
best years of his life to the task of recording the struggles and
successes of men who have labored for the good of their kind; and his
own name will always be honorably mentioned in connection with
Stephenson, Watt, Flaxman, and others, of whom he has written so well.
Of all his published books, next to "Self-Help," this volume, lately
issued, is his most interesting one. James Watt, with his nervous
sensibility, his headaches, his pecuniary embarrassments, and his gloomy
temperament, has never till now been revealed precisely as he lived and
struggled. The extensive collection of Soho documents to which Mr.
Smiles had access has enabled him to add so much that is new and
valuable to the story of his hero's career, that hereafter this
biography must take the first place as a record of the great inventor.

As a tribute to Boulton, so many years the friend, partner, and consoler
of Watt, the book is deeply interesting. Fighting many a hard battle for
his timid, shrinking associate, Boulton stands forth a noble
representative of strength, courage, and perseverance.