The perilous experiment of bringing together two families for once
succeeded. Mr. Smith's two eldest daughters, Jean and Janet,
fervent in piety, unwearied in kind deeds, were well qualified both
to appreciate and to attract the stepmother; and her son, on the
other hand, seems to have found immediate favour in the eyes of Mr.
Smith. It is, perhaps, easy to exaggerate the ready-made
resemblances; the tired woman must have done much to fashion girls
who were under ten; the man, lusty and opinionated, must have
stamped a strong impression on the boy of fifteen. But the
cleavage of the family was too marked, the identity of character
and interest produced between the two men on the one hand, and the
three women on the other, was too complete to have been the result
of influence alone. Particular bonds of union must have pre-
existed on each side. And there is no doubt that the man and the
boy met with common ambitions, and a common bent, to the practice
of that which had not so long before acquired the name of civil
engineering.

For the profession which is now so thronged, famous, and
influential, was then a thing of yesterday. My grandfather had an
anecdote of Smeaton, probably learned from John Clerk of Eldin,
their common friend. Smeaton was asked by the Duke of Argyll to
visit the West Highland coast for a professional purpose. He
refused, appalled, it seems, by the rough travelling. 'You can
recommend some other fit person?' asked the Duke. 'No,' said
Smeaton, 'I'm sorry I can't.' 'What!' cried the Duke, 'a
profession with only one man in it! Pray, who taught you?' 'Why,'
said Smeaton, 'I believe I may say I was self-taught, an't please
your grace.' Smeaton, at the date of Thomas Smith's third
marriage, was yet living; and as the one had grown to the new