James Watt (1736-1819)

      EULOGIUM OF JAMES WATT.

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mechanic power which are to aid and reward the la-
bours of after generations. It is to the genius of one
man, too, that all this is mainly owing; and certainly
no man ever before bestowed such a gift on his kind.
The blessing 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 con-
temporaries, conferred less important benefits on man-
kind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.

This will be the fame of Watt with future genera-
tions; 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 conversation,
it is not perhaps the character in whieh he will be most
frequently recalled—most deeply lamented—or even
most highly admired. Independently of his great attain-
ments in mechanics, Mr Watt was an extraordinary, and
in many respects a wonderful man. Perhaps no indivi-
dual 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 in-
finite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory,
and a certain rectifying and methodising power of un-
derstanding, 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 clear-
ness of the information which he poured out upon it
without effort or hesitation. Nor was this promptitude

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