tion of some other substances, become a new material, with all its former difficulties removed-retaining the qualities of elasticity, pliability, and imperviousness to water; and acquiring the long sought quality of insensibility to cold, and to heat except in very high degrees. This, when at length demonstrated, was the subject of patent, and established his reputation and success.

But during the year before he made this discovery, and indeed the year after he made it, and was well satisfied of its value, Mr. Goodyear was in his greatest distress; and at times it seemed as though he would perish from poverty, anxiety and hardship, and his discovery would perish with him!

A few incidents from his own narrative will convey some idea of what he and his suffered at this period:

During the winter of 1839-'40, a year after he was fully satisfied of the value of his discovery," in one of those long and severe snow storms which in New England sometimes occur, when even those who are blessed with health are confined within doors, he found that his family were without food or fuel. His feelings were that the face of nature was a fit emblem of his condition-cold and cheerless. But the recollection of a kind greeting received some time previous from an individual who resided some miles distant, and nearly a stranger, (this was in Woburn, Mass.,) induced him, enfeebled by illness, to attempt to reach his house through the storm. After being by turns exhausted by walking through the driving snow and rested upon its drifts, he reached the dwelling of this individual,* and stated to him briefly his condition, and the hopes he entertained of success from his discovery, if he should ever be able to convince others of the facts relating to it. He was cordially received, and not only supplied with a sum adequate to his immediate wants, but also furnished with facilities for continuing his experiments on a small scale.”

Again, speaking of the very unfavorable state of things at this period for the promulgation of his discovery, he says:

"O. B. Coolidge, Esq., of Woburn, Mass., to whom a tribute of gratitude is due."

* *

*

"He felt, however, in duty bound to beg in earnest, if need be, sooner than that the discovery should be lost to the world and to himself. In the event of the writer's death it could hardly be expected that his theory, which he afterwards found it so difficult to establish, could survive him. The invention was fully appreciated by him at that time, and was considered as valuable as it now proves to be. Want of sympa thy, want of means to go forward with experiments, or even to provide sustenance from day to day for those dependent on him, only increased the solicitude consequent on the state of suspense as to the result of those efforts. How he subsisted at this period, charity alone can tell; for it is as well to call things by their right names, and it is little else than charity when the lender looks upon what he parts with as a gift. The pawning or selling some relic of better days, or some article of necessity, was a frequent expedient. His library had long since disappeared; but shortly after the discovery of this process (his great invention) he collected and sold at auction the school-books of his children, which brought the trifling sum of five dollars. Small as the amount was, it enabled him to proceed. At this step he did not hesitate. The occasion and the certainty of success warranted the measure, which, in other circumstances, would be sacrilege."

Wishing at one time to take some specimens to New York, where he hoped for a more favorable reception, "he received assurance from an individual in Boston, once employed by him, that on coming to Boston he would lend him fifty dollars, whereby his family could be maintained during his absence, and his expenses paid to New York. Arriving at Boston, he was disappointed in this. He remained at the hotel from Monday until Saturday, hoping to obtain from some source the sum required. He at last applied, where he had reason to expect it, for the sum of five dollars, with which he might return to his family. This was refused. At night, his bill at the hotel was presented. Mortified and chagrined, he walked, meditating on his condition, till late at night. He strayed into East Cambridge and stopped at the house of a friend, who received him kindly and made him confortable for the

night. Early next morning he walked ten miles to his home, and was met at the door by one of the family, saying that his youngest boy, two years of age, who was in perfect health when he left home, was dying. He thanked God for being turned back to the rescue of his family; for they had already been denied the subsistence promised by a dealer when he left."

The United States Commissioner speaks of the evidence before him that Mr. Goodyear's family, at this time, had to endure privations almost surpassing belief, "being frequently without food in their house, or fuel in the coldest weather;" "represented as gathering sticks in the woods and on the edges of the highways, with which to cook their meals, and (in summer) digging the potatoes of their little garden before they were half grown, while one of his hungry children, in a spirit worthy of his father, is heard expressing his thanks that this much had been spared to them."

Indeed, the full account of the hardships endured by himself and family during that year, when he had actually attained the knowledge of this great secret of nature for the world's welfare, would be as painfully interesting as the harrowing recitals of a tragic romance. Truly with him it was darkest just before day-in one sense, even after dawn!

I ought here to turn aside to say that, during all these struggles and trials, Mr. Goodyear had what can be well described only by the Scriptural word "helpmeet," in the wife of his youth, Clarissa Beecher. He could confide in her discretion as well as her affection. To her intelligence and wisdom, and her eminent faith and piety, he could entirely entrust, amid his absorbing occupation and frequent absence from home, the care and culture of his children. And in all the alternations of his fortune, and especially in its deepest depressions, he experienced in her the gentleness, the patience, the equanimity, of an angel, and more than the sympathy of an angel, even the sympathy of a true Christian woman and wife. She lived to share the joy of his complete success. And going with him to Europe, to partake with him in new trials and new triumphs, the result of her long labors and sac

rifices culminated there in her death. Her body, with that sweet, serene, upborne expression of face, which now beams in our memory, was buried in a foreign land. But one of the directions of her husband's last days was that it should be removed, to sleep, till the morning of the resurrection, beside his own.

I ought not to be prevented by his presence from also saying that Mr. Goodyear always found scientific counsel and hopeful encouragement from an eminent professor of science in Yale College, whose learning and labor have ever been at the disposal of his generosity. And he always gratefully appre

ciated it.

But valuable for his support as were these aids, and those of many other friends, some of them in New Haven, who cannot here be mentioned, Mr. Goodyear's chief support through those years of toil, privation, suffering and sorrow, was his faith in God, and his loyalty to the divine call which he heard to this peculiar work. He saw in this immense and nearly worthless product of nature, boundless capability for the welfare of man, and for that progress in God's material kingdom which, under his providence, moves in even step with the progress of his spiritual kingdom. By the ear of reason and faith he heard God's voice, calling him to be "the interpreter and minister" of it for human use. And that voice he desired and determined to obey, counting no sacrifice or suffering dear in the sacred service. His inventive work was his religion, and was pervaded and animated by religious faith and devotion. He felt like an apostle commissioned for that work; and he said to his niece and her husband, who went, with his approbation and sympathy, as missionaries of the gospel to Asia, that he was God's missionary as truly as they were.

By the aid and kindness of a brother-in-law, now residing in this city, who for a time furnished the means to conduct the manufacture, Mr. Goodyear, in the autumn of 1841, was enabled to proceed with his improvements, and was just about to demonstrate practically the value of his invention, at Spring

Benjamin Silliman, Sen

William DeForest, Esq.

field, when he was thrown into prison for debt, and interrupted in his work just as that work was blooming into its consummate flower. This induced him to obtain a release by the bankrupt law. This law, he says, was "odious " to him. "He had always opposed it, and firmly resolved not to accept of any advantages it offered." But he now saw the necessity of it in order that he might be free to employ his powers for human welfare, and for the benefit of his creditors. And as soon as he was enabled by pecuniary success, considering himself dis charged by that law from no moral obligation, he began to look up and pay his debts, which he did, in the course of a few years, to the amount of thirty-five thousand dollars.

This first part of the subject, the illustration of Mr. Goodyear's ruling religious spirit, found in his early life and in his struggles and privations till his first full success, has so grown on my hands, that the remaining parts of the subject must be given in outline, rather than with the fullness which I desire and had purposed.

II. I proceed, then, to observe, secondly, that this ruling benevolent and religious spirit of Mr. Goodyear is illustrated by his continued and life-long devotion to the improvement of his chief inventions, and to their application in a great variety of modes, to human welfare.

When he received his patent, he might, without any more effort, have discharged all indebtedness, and accumulated large wealth, by his receipts from licenses under that patent. And many, not to say most men, would have yielded to that temptation. But he saw that his invention was capable of being applied for human benefit in a multitude of forms, each of which forms needed inventive genius for its construction. And he heard the same voice of philanthropy and piety calling him to the applications of the invention, which had called him to the invention itself. And so, for the last sixteen years, really without any rest, he has been employed in inventing new articles for human use, out of his invented material. And this he has done, not for money, for all the money almost he could get he has devoted to the same beneficent purpose, keeping himself poor, notwithstanding his very large receipts. His be