46 "straws, and tear up trees by the roots. Mr. Watt, in some sort, resembled the greatest and most celebrated of his own inventions, of which we are at a loss whether most to wonder at the power of grappling with the mightiest objects, or of handling the most minute; so that, while nothing seems too large for its grasp, nothing seems too small for the delicacy of "its touch, which can cleave rocks, and pour forth rivers from the bowels "of the earth, and, with perfect exactness, though not with greater ease, "fashion the head of a pin, or strike the impress of some curious die. "Now, those who knew Mr. Watt, had to contemplate a man whose genius "could create such an engine, and indulge in the most abstruse specula"tions of philosophy, and could at once pass from the most sublime re"searches of geology and physical astronomy, the formation of our globe, "and the structure of the universe, to the manufacture of a needle or a nail; "who could discuss, in the same conversation, and with equal accuracy, if "not with the same consummate skill, the most forbidding details of art "and the elegances of classical literature, the most abstruse branches of "science and the niceties of verbal criticism. 46 46 "There was one quality in Mr.Watt which most honourably distinguished "him from too many inventors, and was worthy of all imitation- he was "not only entirely free from jealousy, but he exercised a careful and scrupulous self-denial, and was anxious not to appear, even by accident, as appropriating to himself that which he thought belonged to others. I "have heard him refuse the honour universally ascribed to him, of being "the inventor of the steam engine, and call himself simply its improver; though, in my mind, to doubt his right to that honour, would be as inaccurate as to question Sir Isaac Newton's claim to his greatest discoveries, "because Descartes in mathematics, and Galileo in astronomy and me"chanics, had preceded him; or to deny the merits of his illustrious successor, because galvanism was not his discovery, though, before his time, "it had remained as useless to science as the instrument called a steam engine was to the arts before Mr. Watt. The only jealousy I have known "him to betray, was with respect to others, in the nice adjustment he was "fond of giving to the claims of inventors. Justly prizing scientific discovery above all other possessions, he deemed the title to it so sacred, "that you might hear him arguing by the hour to settle disputed rights; "and if you ever perceived his temper ruffled, it was when one man's "invention was claimed by, or given to another; or when a clumsy adula"tion pressed upon himself that which he knew to be not his own." 46 In the preface to the Monastery Sir Walter Scott speaks of Watt in the following terms: "There were assembled about half a score of our northern lights. "Amidst this company stood Mr. Watt, the man whose genius discovered "the means of multiplying our national resources to a degree, perhaps, even beyond his own stupendous powers of calculation and combination; 'bringing the treasures of the abyss to the summit of the earth — giving "the feeble arm of man the momentum of an Afrite commanding manu"factures to arise as the rod of the prophet produced water in the “desert — affording the means of dispensing with that time and tide which "wait for no man- and of sailing without that wind which defied the "command and threats of Xerxes himself. This potent commander of the " elements this abridger of time and space-this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a change on the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are, perhaps, only now beginning to be feltwas not only the most profound man of science- the most successful " combiner of powers, and calculator of numbers, as adapted to practical purposes-was not only one of the most generally well informed, but one "of the best and kindest of human beings. "There he stood, surrounded by the little band I have mentioned of "northern literati, men not less tenacious, generally speaking, of their own "fame and their own opinions, than the national regiments are supposed "to be jealous of the high character which they have won upon service. "Methinks I yet see and hear what I shall never see or hear again. In "his eighty-second year, the alert, kind, benevolent old man, had his "attention alive to every one's question, his information at every one's "command. 46 66 66 "His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One gentleman was a deep philologist - he talked with him on the origin of the alphabet, " as if he had been coeval with Cadmus ; another a celebrated critic - you "would have said the old man had studied political economy and belles lettres all his life. Of science it is unnecessary to speak-it was his own distinguished walk. And yet, Captain Clutterbuck, when he spoke with your countryman, Jedediah Cleishbotham, you would have sworn he had been coeval with Claverse and Burley, with the persecutors and persecuted, and could number every shot the dragoons had fired at the fugitive Covenanters. In fact, we discovered that no novel of the least celebrity escaped his perusal, and that the gifted man of science was as "much addicted to the productions of your native country, in other words, "as shameless and obstinate a peruser of novels, as if he had been a very "milliner's apprentice of eighteen." In the Edinburgh newspaper, called the Scotsman, of the 4th September, 1819, immediately after the decease of Watt, the following sketch was published from the pen of Lord Jeffrey : "This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he "that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and unenvied honours; and many generations will probably pass away before it shall "have gathered all its fame.' We have said that Mr. Watt was the great improver of the steam engine; but, in truth, as to all that is admirable "in its structure, or vast in its utility, he should rather be described as its "inventor. It was by his inventions, that its action was so regulated as to "make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manu"factures, and its power so increased, as to set weight and solidity at de"fiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has become a thing stupendous "alike for its force and its flexibility. for the prodigious power which it "can exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility with which it can be “varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that can "pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, " and crush masses of obdurate metal before it — draw out, without break“ing, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in "the air. It can embroider muslin, and forge anchors-cut steel into “ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves. 66 66 "It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which these "inventions have conferred upon this country. There is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most magnificently the field of its "exertions, but multiplied a thousand fold the amount of its productions. "It is our improved steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe, "and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the "political greatness of our land. It is the same great power which now "enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged (1819), with the skill and capital of "countries less oppressed with taxation. But these are poor and narrow "views of its importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human "comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible all over the "world the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the feeble "hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of "matter; and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of me"chanic power which are to aid and reward the labours of after genera"tions. It is to the genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing; "and certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The bless"ing is not only universal, but unbounded; and the fabled inventors of "the plough and the loom, who were deified by the erring gratitude of their "rude contemporaries, conferred less important benefits on mankind than "the inventor of our present steam engine. 66 66 "This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it is "sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he more "immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed his con"versation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he will be most frequently recalled - —most deeply lamented—or even most highly ad"mired. Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderful man. Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such varied and "exact information - had read so much, or remembered what he had "read so accurately and well. He had infinite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which extracted something precious out of all "that was presented to it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were "immense; and yet less astonishing than the command he had at all times "over them. It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in "conversation with him, had been that which he had been last occupied in studying and exhausting; such was the copiousness, the precision, and "the admirable clearness of the information which he poured out upon it "without effort or hesitation. Nor was this promptitude and compass "of knowledge confined in any degree to the studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That he should have been minutely and extensively "skilled in chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of phy"sical science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not "have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology; and perfectly at home "in all the details of architecture, music, and law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern languages, and familiar with their "most recent literature. Nor was it at all extraordinary to hear the great "mechanician and engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, 66 66 "the metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising the measures or the matter of the German poetry. a "His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure, by still higher and rarer faculty—by his power of digesting, and ar"ranging in its proper place, all the information he received; and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were instinctively, whatever was worth"less or immaterial. Every conception that was suggested to his mind "seemed instantly to take its place among its other rich furniture, and 66 to be condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never appeared, therefore, to be at all incumbered or perplexed with "the verbiage of the dull books he perused, or to the idle talk to which "he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to have reduced it, for "his own use, to its true value and to its simplest form. And thus it " often happened, that a great deal more was learned from his brief and "vigorous account of the theories and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could ever have derived from the most painful study " of the originals; and that errors and absurdities became manifest from "the mere clearness and plainness of his statement of them, which might "have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers without that invaluable "assistance. 66 "It is needless to say that, with those vast resources, his conversation "was at all times rich and instructive in no ordinary degree: but it was, "if possible, still more pleasing than wise; and had all the charms of familiarity with all the substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could "be more social in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, "or more kind and indulgent toward all who approached him. He rather "liked to talk,—at least in his latter years; but though he took a con"siderable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested the topics on "which it was to turn, but readily and quietly took up whatever was "presented by those around him, and astonished the idle and barren "propounders of an ordinary theme by the treasures which he drew from "the mine they had unconsciously opened. He generally seemed, indeed, "to have no choice or predilection for one subject of discourse rather "than another; but allowed his mind, like a great cyclopædia, to be opened at any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and only en"deavoured to select from his inexhaustible stores, what might be best "adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their capacity he gave himself no trouble; and indeed such was his singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and intelligible, that scarcely any one "could be aware of such a deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, "though overflowing with information, had no resemblance to lecturing or "solemn discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit and "pleasantry. He had a certain quiet and grave humour which ran through "most of his conversation; and a vein of temperate jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed and inexhaustible inform"ation which formed its main staple and characteristic. There was a "little air of affected testiness, and a tone of pretended rebuke and con"tradiction, with which he used to address his younger friends, that was "always felt by them as an endearing mark of his kindness and fa"miliarity; and prized, accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments "that ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep and "powerful, though he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat mono"tonous tone, which harmonised admirably with the weight and brevity of "his observations, and set off to the greatest advantage the pleasant "anecdotes, which he delivered with the same grave brow, and the same "calm smile playing soberly on his lips. There was nothing of effort, "indeed, or impatience, any more than of pride or levity, in his demeanour; "and there was a finer expression of reposing strength, and mild selfpossession in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in 66 any other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for "all sorts of forwardness, parade, and pretensions; and, indeed, never "failed to put all such impostures out of countenance, by the manly "plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and deportment. "In his temper and dispositions, he was not only kind and affectionate, "but generous, and considerate of the feelings of all around him; and gave the most liberal assistance and encouragement to all young persons "who showed any indications of talent, or applied to him for patronage or advice. His health, which was delicate from his youth upwards, "seemed to become firmer as he advanced in years; and he preserved, up almost to the last moment of his existence, not only the full com "mand of his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit and the "social gaiety which had illumined his happiest days. His friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of intellectual vigour and colloquial animation never more delightful or more instructive than "in his last visit to Scotland in autumn 1817. Indeed, it was after that "time that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to the in"vention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of sculpture "and statuary; and distributed among his friends some of its earliest "performances, as the productions of a young artist just entering on his eighty-third year. "This happy and useful life came, at last, to a gentle close. He had "suffered some inconvenience through the summer; but was not seriously indisposed till within a few weeks of his death. He then became perfectly aware of the event which was approaching; and with his usual tranquillity and benevolence of nature, seemed only anxious to point out "to the friends around him, the many sources of consolation which were "afforded by the circumstances under which it was about to take place. "He expressed his sincere gratitude to Providence for the length of days "with which he had been blessed, and his exemption from most of the "infirmities of age; as well as for the calm and cheerful evening of life "that he had been permitted to enjoy, after the honourable labours of the day had been concluded. And thus, full of years and honours, in all "calmness and tranquillity, he yielded up his soul without pang or struggle; and passed from the bosom of his family to that of his God." 66 The English nation has ever shown itself insensible to the claims of genius and high intellectual endowments, except where the results have been brought directly to bear in statesmanship or war. Of this inability to appreciate the highest order of intellectual excellence Watt affords a striking example. When it was suggested to the British government by those better capable than that government was of appreciating the genius of this great man, that the nation would do itself honour by erecting a splendid monument at his own |