workman,
he had carefully preserved his sense of self-respect. His companions
looked up to him, and his example was worth even more to many of them
than books or schools. His devoted love of knowledge made his poverty
respectable, and adorned his humble calling. When he rose to a more
elevated station, and associated with men of the highest position and
influence in Britain, he took his place amongst them with perfect
self-possession. They wondered at the quiet ease and simple dignity of
his deportment; and men in the best ranks of life have said of him that
"He was one of Nature's gentlemen."

Probably no military chiefs were ever more beloved by their soldiers than
were both father and son by the army of men who, under their guidance,
worked at labours of profit, made labours of love by their earnest will
and purpose. True leaders of men and lords of industry, they were always
ready to recognise and encourage talent in those who worked for and with
them. Thus it was pleasant, at the openings of the Stephenson lines, to
hear the chief engineers attributing the successful completion of the
works to their able assistants; whilst the assistants, on the other hand,
ascribed the glory to their chiefs.

Mr. Stephenson, though a thrifty and frugal man, was essentially
unsordid. His rugged path in early life made him careful of his
resources. He never saved to hoard, but saved for a purpose, such as the
maintenance of his parents or the education of his son. In later years
he became a prosperous and even a wealthy man; but riches never closed
his heart, nor stole away the elasticity of his soul. He enjoyed life
cheerfully, because hopefully. When he entered upon a commercial
enterprise, whether for others or for himself, he looked carefully at the
ways and means. Unless they would "pay," he held back. "He would have
nothing to do," he declared, "with stock-jobbing speculations." His
refusal to sell his name to the schemes of the railway mania--his survey
of the Spanish lines without remuneration--his offer to postpone his
claim for payment from a poor company until their affairs became more
prosperous--are instances of the unsordid spirit in which he acted.

Another marked feature in Mr. Stephenson's character was his patience.
Notwithstanding the strength of his convictions as to the great uses to
which the locomotive might be applied, he waited long and patiently for
the opportunity of bringing it into notic