Memorials of the lineage, early life, education and development of the genius of James Watt

JAMES WATT. 27
tion to this house, in which he continued to live, to purchase another
in the town of Greenock. This acquisition of property by him indi-
cates sufficiently that his circumstances were easy, and his position
comfortable. Nor is this, perhaps, surprising. For besides that native
genius which he possessed, and which was calculated to advance him
in any position of life, he would seem to have been without any com-
petitor, either in Crawfordsdyke or in Greenock ; and Greenock being
at that time even, one of the most important sea-port towns in Scot-
land, and rapidly extending its foreign trade, Thomas Watt's scientific
knowledge must have been in considerable request, and his instruc-
tions valuable to those who desired to qualify themselves for the
command of ships necessary for prosecuting the " trade beyond
seas."
From all that can be gathered of " the Mathematician's" scientific
attainments, these would appear to have been of a respectable order.
His habits of thought, his general views and aims in life, may be
similarly characterized, giving him, as they did, a recognised supe-
riority among the men of his time. His disposition was meditative,
perhaps reserved. He had brought with him sentiments enlarged and
liberal ; and, without obtruding them, did not disguise them as the
principles according to which all his conduct was regulated. There
was nothing, it would seem, of the pedagogue about Thomas Watt,
nothing indeed which indicated more than a quiet and thoughtful
man of books, or a converse with those studies which ordinarily form
an intelligent and well-furnished mind. " There is many a life," says
Jean Paul, " that is as pleasant to write as to lead ;' n and from the
occasional glimpses which the few and scattered remains of this good
man's figure and influence, in the simple sphere which he graced so
well, afford us, we can easily believe that a fuller supply of materials
would have enabled us to present a jncture of domestic and social
1 Eicliter, — " Bhtmen, Fruclii and Doru-Stucken."