life is adequately filled, its conditions realized, and its fame achieved.

Such was the case with Theodore Körner. The vivacity of his mind first exhibited itself in comic pieces, that amused the gay Viennese, and wafted the young author prosperously along the flattering tide of metropolitan success; his critics, however, attached to them little intrinsic value; but some of the minor poems scattered through the four volumes, published by his father after his death most of them written before the age of twentytwo are permanently enshrined in the literature of his country; they prove the sincerity of his after course; in them are manifest the fiery assailant and the poetical lover; while the more elaborate dramas of "Rosamund" and "Zriny" unfold at length the same innate vigor of the will and the affections - the one inducing fortitude, and the other tenderness. The spirit of chivalry and pathos, thus emanating from the poet, were actualized by the soldier; and this is Körner's beautiful distinction. His "Sword Song" became the Marseilles Hymn of Germany; and he bravely fought the battle of truth and liberty with the lyre and the sword thenceforth and forever blended with his name.

THE MECHANICIAN.

ROBERT FULTON.

A CELEBRATED geographer speaks of the State of New York as an epitome or type of the whole country-representing the grand scale of its waters, the productiveness of its soil, and the picturesque beauty of its scenery. An analogous character may be recognized in the intellectual history of the state. Without the universal mental culture and the special literary development of New England, New York has given birth to men remarkable for comprehensive minds and social efficiency, such as Hamilton, Livingston, Jay, Morris, and Clinton; with whom originated liberal schemes of polity, and a great system of internal improvements. They proved wise and eloquent advocates of our national welfare; and justice refers us continually to their important services as the basis of much of our existent prosperity, freedom, and advancement. There was a scope, hospitality, and selfrespect in their character, which betokened a noble race; and their names ever awaken sentiments of patriotic elation. It seems not less appropriate that a region of inland seas, with an ocean on one side and a vast extent of country on the other,— the state that links the eastern and western portions of the confederacy, and whose metropolis is the commercial port of the nation,should have been the scene of triumph to the mechanician who first successfully applied steam to navigation, and thus supplied the grand desideratum to our physical resources and social unity. The interests of agriculture, commerce, and education, were inti

mately dependent on the experiment. Facility of intercourse between the island of Manhattan and the banks of her two rivers instantly enlarged her local power, while we are only now beginning to realize the political influence and new avenues of wealth incident to the same rapid and frequent communication with Europe and the Pacific. Both the results and the origin of Fulton's inventive energy are, therefore, naturally associated with New York; and the corporation of the city did but respond to a universal public sentiment when they gave his name to the thoroughfare extending through three sections of as many cities brought together by steam ferriage. The first steamboat voyage through Long Island Sound and up the Hudson, as well as the launch of the first steam-frigate, are among the memorable reminiscences upon which our elder citizens yet expatiate with enthusiasm, while the waters around now literally swarm with the improved and restless progeny of those comparatively recent achievements:

"See how yon flaming herald treads
The ridged and rolling waves,

As, clambering o'er their crested heads,
She bows her surly slaves!

With foam before, and fire behind,

She rends the clinging sea,

That flies before the roaring wind,

Beneath her hissing lee.

With dashing wheel and lifting keel,

And smoking torch on high,

When winds are loud and billows reel,

She thunders foaming by;

When seas are silent and serene,

With even beams she glides,

The sunshine glimmering through the green

That skirts her gleaming sides.”

The Patent Office at Washington affords an extraordinary demonstration of the predominance of mechanical talent in the country; but it is in special and limited machines, in refinements upon old inventions, and in cleverness of detail, that this aptitude is chiefly indicated; there is more evidence of ingenuity thar genius. Yet this characteristic of the American mind, which reached its acme in Franklin, is not without its higher types of development; men who unite to a taste for mechanics a compre

hensive view of their utility and possible results; who have combined with a knowledge of material laws a rare sagacity in their application; and possessed both the faculty to invent and the enthusiasm and strength of moral purpose to advocate inventions of a kind essentially adapted to modify society, and advance the condition of the whole world. Such mechanicians are philosophers as well as artisans, and work in the spirit of a broad and philanthropic intelligence. They illustrate most effectively the true dignity of labor, by relieving humanity of its greatest burdens, and enlisting brain as well as muscle, and nature's mysterious agency not less than man's intelligence and hardihood.

Such a character was Robert Fulton, manifesting, through life, the ardor and pertinacity of a comprehensive enthusiast, united with the patient assiduity of a practical mechanic. Born in a secluded township in the interior of Pennsylvania, and indebted for his early instruction exclusively to a common school, it is natural that his sagacious and active mind should have embraced the sources of culture afforded by observation and thought with singular avidity. He studied in the woods, by the road-side, and in solitude, feeding his imagination by communion with nature, and his intellect with such waifs of knowledge as came in his way, and readily assimilated with his tastes; for, like all men of decided traits, Fulton seems to have been a nonconformist by instinct, and to have delighted in original ideas and individual opinion. The only means his isolated boyhood yielded for gratifying the artistic tendency of his mind was painting, into which he was initiated by a school-fellow, in a very crude and ineffective way, but sufficiently to give scope and incitement to his talent. With the facility thus acquired he removed, while a youth, to Philadelphia, and, in the course of four years, earned a sum adequate to the purchase of a farm in the interior of the state, upon which he established his widowed mother. On his return to the city, he visited some celebrated springs for his health, which had become seriously impaired by labor and exposure; and there met several intelligent gentlemen, who became so much interested in the promise and agreeable manners of the young artist, that they counselled him to hasten to London, and place himself under the teaching of his then renowned and prosperous countryman —

West. This advice he followed without delay, met with a cordial reception from the benign painter, and passed some years in his family. From London he went to Devonshire, and practised his art for a considerable period; but while there "a change came o'er the spirit of his dream." Never having greatly excelled in painting, and having a natural love of enterprise, his late social advantages had enlarged his views, and excited a deep and intelligent interest in plans of broad, practical utility. Before leaving home he had enjoyed the friendship of Franklin, who, indeed, first introduced him to West. With his mind thus quickened by the companionship of men of superior gifts and extensive ideas, while passing through the manufacturing towns of England he heard of the success of Arkwright's invention. His practical and at the same time imaginative mind took in, at a glance, the possible influence of manufactures upon human welfare, the new avenues to wealth incident to mechanical skill, and the extraordinary natural advantages of his own country as the arena of great improvements in political as well as social economy. An acquaintance formed at this period with the Earl of Stanhope and the Duke of Bridgewater-names honorably identified with recent improvements in inland navigation -tended still more to confirm Fulton's resolution to devote his energies to mechanical science. Accordingly, he began by experiments with the inclined plane as a means of canal transportation, invented a machine for sawing marble, one for spinning flax, one for making rope, another for scooping earth, and published a treatise, in 1796, on Canal Navigation. These, and other of Fulton's early labors in the new field he had chosen, were more or less recognized and honored. He obtained patents and medals, and, what was of equal importance to his future success, the confidence and sympathy of many persons of influence. It is to be regretted that the written memorials of this part of his life, when he was engaged in the study and observation upon which his subsequent career was based, were lost by shipwreck on their way to this country. In pursuance of the course he had now earnestly adopted, Fulton repaired to Paris, and there formed a life-long friendship with Joel Barlow, then our minister at the court of France, with whom he long resided. Here he was soon absorbed in experiments to perfect a