Reminiscences of an Old English Civil Engineer, 1858-1908 #267676

This book of personal reminiscences, observations and experiences of an English civil engineer may, I trust, serve to interest some of my old and young friends and acquaintances in the progress that has been made in the material betterment of human life since the commencement of the Railway Age in the first half of the last century. It may also, I hope, serve to encourage the rising generation of the profession, in every branch of their calling, to persevere in the pursuit of useful knowledge from the fount of nature and to see that their foundations of knowledge are of the best and most reliable materials. The present age is one of the fast moving and electric-motor predisposition, in which safe and wholesome foundations are apt to be too much "scamped." In North America, more especially, I have found "fakement" of every kind and false pretensions in every professional calling more or less prevalent and injurious to the public weal. The too ardent desire to "get-rich-quick," regardless of conscience, has a lowering tendency on the physical, moral and spiritual tone of man. The period on which I entered into professional life would naturally appear a very slow one to this twentieth century mind; but it was a safe, sound, honest and thoroughly reliable one. The profession of the civil engineer, at all times and in all generations possesses the highest ideal of any other in relation to the material progress and well-being of human life on earth. The more that the civil engineer studies nature's laws, actions and reactions, visible and occult, the more useful member of the social and industrial life of the community he becomes. I believe fully in both the beneficent and the malevolent effects of environment on the young mind. The careful study of environment is too much neglected by parents, educators and employers. I believe thoroughly in wholesome recreations for mind and body in old and young. I have always been a lover of cricket, tennis, fishing, shooting, hunting and boating. I have played my part in all parts of the cricket-field of life, and what scores I have made have been won off my own bat. I have experienced in full measure the "ups and downs" and the "downs and ups" again during the past forty years; I remain still game, active, cheery and hopeful of the future.