os. He was characterized by
the strange power of creating an expectation with every sentence he
uttered, and though he might on some occasions, when not at his best,
close without meeting the expectations aroused, no dissatisfaction was
expressed or apparently felt by his hearers. In personal appearance he
was remarkable, chiefly for the great transformation of his countenance
under the play of emotion.

On the platform of Plymouth Church he was as a king upon his throne, or
the commander of a war-ship in victorious action. His manners in private
life were most ingratiating. His writings can impart to coming
generations no adequate conception of his power as an orator. His career
in England during those five great speeches were worth 50,000 soldiers
to the National government, and probably had much to do with the
prevention of the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by European
nations. It was a triumph of oratory; he literally compelled a vast
multitude, who were thoroughly in opposition to him, to take a new view
of the subject.

A Metropolitan in the pulpit, a magician on the platform, a center of
life and good cheer in the home, a prince in society possessed of
exhaustive vitality, warmth and energy, he suggested to any one who
gazed upon him the apostrophe of _Hamlet_ to the ideal man: "What a
piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In
form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of
animals!" Such a piece of work was Henry Ward Beecher. He had no
predecessor, and can have no successor till a similar ancestry and life;
the one coeval with birth, and the other running parallel with the lusty
youth of such a nation, and a similar life and death struggle, both in a
conflict of moral principles fought out under a Democratic form of
Government, shall combine to evolve a similar career. The course of
human history does not furnish a probability of another coincidence of
elements so extraordinary.

[Illustration: PERCEPTION. Engraved Expressly for "Hidden Treasures."]

[Illustration: GREAT INVENTORS AND THEIR INVENTIONS.]

GREAT INVENTORS AND THEIR INVENTIONS.

JAMES WATT.

In this advanced age we know the power of steam, and what a great factor
it is as a help in carrying on the daily work of life. Yet, it is only
during the last century that men have discovered to how man