e characteristic style of the master-mind is as clear
to the experienced eye in the case of the finished machine as the
touches of the artist's pencil are in the case of the finished picture.
Every mechanical contrivance that became the subject of his study came
forth from his hand and mind rearranged, simplified, and made new, with
the impress of his individuality stamped upon it. He at once stripped
the subject of all unnecessary complications; for he possessed a
wonderful faculty of KNOWING WHAT TO DO WITHOUT--the result of his
clearness of insight into mechanical adaptations, and the accurate and
well-defined notions he had formed of the precise object to be
accomplished. "Every member or separate machine in the system of
block-machinery," says Mr. Nasmyth, "is full of Maudslay's presence;
and in that machinery, as constructed by him, is to be found the parent
of every engineering tool by the aid of which we are now achieving such
great things in mechanical construction. To the tools of which
Maudslay furnished the prototypes are we mainly indebted for the
perfection of our textile machinery, our locomotives, our marine
engines, and the various implements of art, of agriculture, and of war.
If any one who can enter into the details of this subject will be at
the pains to analyse, if I may so term it, the machinery of our modern
engineering workshops, he will find in all of them the strongly-marked
features of Maudslay's parent machine, the slide rest and slide
system--whether it be a planing machine, a slotting machine, a
slide-lathe, or any other of the wonderful tools which are now enabling
us to accomplish so much in mechanism."

One of the things in which Mr. Maudslay took just pride was in the
excellence of his work. In designing and executing it, his main object
was to do it in the best possible style and finish, altogether
irrespective of the probable pecuniary results. This he regarded in
the light of a duty he could not and would not evade, independent of
its being a good investment for securing a future reputation; and the
character which he thus obtained, although at times purchased at great
cost, eventually justified the soundness of his views. As the eminent
Mr. Penn, the head of the great engineering firm, is accustomed to say,
"I cannot afford to turn out second-rate work," so Mr. Maudslay found
both character and profit in striving after the highest excellence in
his productions. He was partic