dentary in the world; and how much we had gained, and how much we had
lost, to attain to that composure; and which had been upon the whole our
best estate: when we sat there prating sensibly like men of some
experience, or when we shared our timorous and hopeful counsels in a
western islet.

IX

THOMAS STEVENSON

CIVIL ENGINEER

The death of Thomas Stevenson will mean not very much to the general
reader. His service to mankind took on forms of which the public knows
little and understands less. He came seldom to London, and then only as
a task, remaining always a stranger and a convinced provincial; putting
up for years at the same hotel where his father had gone before him;
faithful for long to the same restaurant, the same church, and the same
theatre, chosen simply for propinquity; steadfastly refusing to dine
out. He had a circle of his own, indeed, at home; few men were more
beloved in Edinburgh, where he breathed an air that pleased him; and
wherever he went, in railway carriages or hotel smoking-rooms, his
strange, humorous vein of talk, and his transparent honesty, raised him
up friends and admirers. But to the general public and the world of
London, except about the parliamentary committee-rooms, he remained
unknown. All the time, his lights were in every part of the world,
guiding the mariner; his firm were consulting engineers to the Indian,
the New Zealand, and the Japanese Lighthouse Boards, so that Edinburgh
was a world-centre for that branch of applied science; in Germany, he
had been called "the Nestor of lighthouse illumination"; even in France,
where his claims were long denied, he was at last, on the occasion of
the late Exposition, recognised and medalled. And to show by one
instance the inverted nature of his reputation, comparatively small at
home, yet filling the world, a friend of mine was this winter on a
visit to the Spanish main, and was asked by a Peruvian if he "knew Mr.
Stevenson the author, because his works were much esteemed in Peru." My
friend supposed the reference was to the writer of tales; but the
Peruvian had never heard of "Dr. Jekyll"; what he had in his eye, what
was esteemed in Peru, were the volumes of the engineer.

Thomas Stevenson was born at Edinburgh in the year 1818; the grandson of
Thomas Smith, first engineer to the Board of Northern Lights, son of
Robert Stevenson, brother of Alan and David; so that his nephew, David
Alan Stevenson, joined with him