of water which daily inundated them, and extracting from a virgin soil, the inexhaustible mineral treasures which nature has there deposited.

Combining delicacy with power, Watt will twist, with equal success, the huge ropes of the gigantic cable, by which the man-of-war rides at anchor in the midst of the raging ocean, and the microscopic filaments of the aerial gauze and lace, of which fashionable dresses are so principally formed.

A few strokes of the same engine will bring vast swamps into cultivation; and fertile countries will also thus be spared the periodical return of deadly pestilential fevers, caused in those places by the burning heat of the summer sun.

The great mechanical powers which had formerly to be sought for in mountainous districts, at the foot of rapid cascades, will, thanks to Watt's invention, readily and easily arise, in the midst of towns, on any story of a house.

The extent of these powers will vary at the will of the mechanician; it will no longer depend, as heretofore, on the most inconstant of natural causes, -on atmospheric influences.

The different branches of each manufacture may be carried on in one common space, under the same roof; and their products, as they are perfectioned, will diminish in price.

The population, well supplied with food, with clothing, and with fuel, will rapidly increase; it will, by degrees, cover with elegant mansions, every part of the earth; even those which might

justly have been termed the Steppes of Europe, and which the barrenness of ages seemed to condemn to be, for ever, the exclusive domain of wild beasts.

In a few years, hamlets will become great towns; in a few years, boroughs, such as Birmingham, where there could hardly be counted thirty streets, will take their place among the largest, the handsomest, and the richest cities of a mighty kingdom.

Installed in ships, the steam-engine will exercise a power a hundred-fold greater than the triple and quadruple ranks of rowers, of whom our forefathers were wont to exact a labour which is deemed a punishment for the most atrocious criminals.

By the help of a few bushels of coal, man will vanquish the elements; he will play with calms, and contrary winds, and storms.

The passage from one place to another will be much more speedily accomplished; the moment of arrival of the packets may be known beforehand, like that of the public coaches; no one will any longer wander on the shore for whole weeks and months, with a heart tortured with anguish, watching with restless eye the horizon, for the dim outline of the vessel which is to restore a father, a mother, a brother, or a friend.

Lastly, the steam-engine, drawing in its train thousands of travellers, will run on rail-roads with far greater speed than the swiftest race-horse, carrying only his light jockey.

Such is a very brief sketch of the benefits which have been bequeathed to the world by that machine,

of which Papin had, in his works, deposited the germ, and which, after so many ingenious efforts, Watt has brought to an admirable perfection. Those benefits, posterity will never compare with works which have been far too much vaunted, and the real influence of which, at the bar of reason, must remain, for ever, confined to a limited circle of individuals, and a small number of years.

Men formerly spoke of the Augustan Age, and the Age of Louis XIV. Some great men have, ere now, maintained that it would be right to say the Age of Voltaire, of Rousseau, of Montesquieu. For my own part, I have no hesitation in predicting, that, when to the immense services already rendered by the steam-engine, shall be added all the wonders which it yet holds out in prospect, grateful nations will also speak of the Ages of Papin and of WATT.

A biography of Watt which is destined to form a part of our collection of Memoirs, would certainly be incomplete if it did not include a list of the Academic titles which belonged to the illustrious engineer. Besides, this list will occupy but a few lines.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1784; of the Royal Society of London in 1785; a Member of the Batavian Society

in 1787; and a Correspondent of the Institute in 1808. By a spontaneous and unanimous vote, the Senate of the University of Glasgow conferred on him, in 1806, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1814, the Academy of Sciences of the Institute paid him the highest honour which it could bestow; it nominated him one of its Eight Foreign Associates.

END

OF THE HISTORICAL ELOGE.