with which he mastered it, shewed him how little ground there was for his apprehension. Watt devoted the last days of his life to the construction of a machine intended to copy with despatch, and mathematical exactness, pieces of statuary and sculpture of all dimensions. When he made presents of his performances, he used gaily to remark, "They were the first attempts of a young artist entering on his eighty-third year." Of his eighty-third year, however, he was not permitted to see the close. In the early part of the summer of 1819 alarming symptoms appeared, and defied the efforts of his medical attendants. Watt was aware of his situ ation: "I am sensible (he said to his friends) of the attachment which you show me, and I hasten to thank you first, as I have now come to my last illness !' His son appeared to him not sufficiently resigned, and every day the good and considerate old man sought some pretext for calling his attention with affectionate tenderness to all those topics of consolation which he ought to recognise in the circumstances under which an inevitable event was about to take place." This event did take place on the 25th Aug. 1819. He was buried in the church of Heathfield, near Birmingham; and in an adjoining chapel, which his son built, is placed that striking and admirable statue by Chantrey, with which all lovers of art and science must be well acquainted. We can well recollect, when it was exhibited in London, the effect produced by so faithful a representation of the aged form, the thoughtful countenance, and the intellectual eye. "I never look at Mr. Watt's countenance," said Mr. R. Sharpe, "without fancying I behold the personification of abstract thought." The colossal statue by the same sculptor in Westminster Abbey, bears an inscription by Lord Brougham.* On the one at Greenock, the composition of Lord Jeffrey is placed. The very accomplished philosopher and man of science who has composed the present memoir, so honourable to himself, and to the memory of the departed, adds, that when reflecting on the greatness of the subject, while travelling in England, he proposed this question, "What is your opinion of the influ ence which Watt has exercised on the wealth, the power, and the prosperity of England?" "I do not exaggerate (he adds) when I say that I have put this question to more than an hundred persons of all ranks in society, of many shades of political opinion, from the merest Radicals to the most uncompromising Conservatives, the answer has been uniformly the same; by all, the services of our fellow member were placed above all comparison; all, moreover, called my attention to the speeches + delivered at the meeting at which the Westminster statue was voted, as expressing with fidelity the sentiments of the whole English nation." The inscription is as follows: "Not to perpetuate a name which must endure while the peaceful arts flourish, but to shew that mankind have learnt to honour those who best deserve their gratitude, the King, his Ministers, and many of the Nobles and Commoners of the Realm raised this monument to James Watt, who directing the force of an original genius, early exercised in philosophical research, to the improvement of the Steam Engine, enlarged the resources of his country, increased the power of man, and rose to an eminent place among the most illustrious followers of science, and the real benefactors of the world. Born at Greenock 1736; died at Heathfield in Staffordshire, 1819." No less than five large statues have been erected to Watt's memory. + At this meeting there were speeches by Lord Liverpool, Lord Brougham, Sir R. Peel, Mr. Wedgwood, Mr. Huskisson, besides many others. Sir H. Davy moved as a resolution, "That the late James Watt, by the profound science and original genius displayed in his admirable inventions, has more than any other man of his age exemplified the practical utility of knowledge, enlarged the power of man over the external world, We cannot make a more becoming termination to our brief sketch than by extracting a few passages relating to Mr. Watt's scientific inventions from one who was well able to judge of their merits and their success-we mean the late President of the Royal Society; and to add to it that general view of Mr. Watt's attainments and intellectual character which Lord Jeffrey, his friend and compatriot, has with great eloquence and animation described; thus observing him, not as we look at a picture, only in one aspect and from one spot, but rather as we contemplate the figures from the sculptor's hand, from different points of view, and compare the relative proportions of the parts, till we have obtained a full measurement and observation of the whole. "Those (says Sir H. Davy) who consider James Watt only as a great practical mechanic, form a very erroneous idea of his character. He was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and a chemist, and his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge of these sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius, the union of them for practical application. The steam-engine before his time was a rude machine, the result of simple experiments on the compression of the atmosphere and the condensation of steam. Mr. Watt's improvements were not produced by accidental circumstances, or by a single ingenious thought; they were founded on delicate and refined experiments, connected with the discoveries of Dr. Black. He had to investigate the cause of the cold produced by the evaporation of the heat occasioned by the condensation of the steam; to determine the source of the air appearing when water was acted upon by an exhausting power; the ratio of the volume of steam to its generating water; and the law by which the elasticity of steam increased with the temperature: -labour, time, numerous and difficult experiments, were required for the ultimate result; and when his principle was obtained, the application of it to produce the movement of machinery demanded a new species of intellectual and experimental labour. He engaged in it with all the ardour which success inspires, and was obliged to bring all the mechanical powers into play, and all the resources of his own fertile mind into exertion; he had to convert rectilinear into rotatory motion, and to invent parallel motion. After years of intense labour, he obtained what he sought for; and at last, by the regulating centrifugal force of the governor, placed the machine entirely under the power of the mechanic, and gave perfection to a series of combinations unrivalled for the genius and ingenuity displayed in their invention, and for the new power they have given to civilized man," &c. The observations of Lord Jeffrey, from which we are able only to make a short extract, fill up all that was left unfinished in the previous portrait, and complete the entire resemblance. "Independently (he says) of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt was an extraordinary and in many respects a wonderful man. Perhaps no individual of his age possessed so much and such varied and exact information; had read so much, or remembered what he had read so accurately and so well. He had infinite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain methodising and rectifying 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 or 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 and both multiplied and diffused the conveniences and enjoyments of human life." Mr. Huskisson said, "that the resources of the country might have failed us during the late war, before it was brought to a glorious conclusion, but for the creations of Mr. Watt." Sir J. Mackintosh said, "that no man ever had a more evident claim to be honoured by his country, and revered by all generations," &c. GENT. MAG. VOL. XVI. 30 chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical science, might perhaps have been conjectured, but it would 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 mechanic and engineer detailing and expounding for hours together the metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising the measures or the matter of the German poetry. His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure, by a still higher and rare faculty-by his power of digesting and arranging in its proper place all the information he had received, and of casting aside and rejecting as it were instinctively whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never appeared, therefore, to be at all encumbered or perplexed with the verbiage of the dull books he perused, or 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 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. With these 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 towards all who approached him. He rather liked to talk, at least in his latter years; and though he took a considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested the topics on which it was to turn, but readily and quickly took up whatever was presented by those about 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 always allowed his mind, like a great cyclopædia, to be opened at any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and only endeavoured 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 information which formed its main staple and characteristic. There was a little air of affected testiness, and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction with which he used to address his younger friends, that was always felt by them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity, and prized accordingly far above 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 monotonous tone, which harmonized 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 effect, indeed, or impatience, any more than of pride or levity in his demeanour; and there was a finer expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for all sorts of forwardness, parade and pretension, and, indeed, never failed to put all such impertinence out of countenance by the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and deportment. His health, which had been delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become. firmer as he advanced in years, and he preserved, up almost to the last moments of his existence, not only the full command of his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit and the social gaiety which had illumined his happiest days," &c. A character, drawn with such force and precision as the one above, and in which the great master-lines are so correctly observed and pointed out, impresses us with a conviction of the fidelity of the sketch; and if we are willing to allow something to the generous partiality of friendship, and something to the enthusiasm of a mind kindling under the impressions it is describing,* till its colours assume a richer and warmer hue; yet still we must confess that we have before us the picture of an intellect of the highest order, a mind of the finest and most perfect regulation. Assuredly, in the fertile provinces of varied science, others may have equalled Mr. Watt in the depth of their resources, some may have even surpassed him in the rapid brilliancy of their inventive faculties; while others, born in happier hours, and the children of an indulgent fortune, may have met, as it were at the first stroke, with that rich vein of hidden truths, that is generally but the tardy reward of patient and laborious research; but the combination of such great original powers, strengthened and perfected by skilful and vigorous discipline, and successfully applied to the achievement of the most important discoveries and operations, is not often to be found in the annals of philosophy. Few things are more characteristic of a truly great mind than the calmness with which it meets unexpected difficulties, and the enduring patience and resolution with which it works out its destined task. The inventions of Mr. Watt were the fruit of time and meditation, the continued thought of a life. How different from those who, abandoning themselves to the fascinations of a novel and ingenious theory, shrink from the toil of watching its progressive strength, guarding it from surrounding error, and assisting it in its advance to perfection. The philosopher of Greenock seemed always to foresee in the rudiments of his early ideas the maturity of his finished invention: † not like those whose discoveries may be called the children of their fond and early thoughts, which they brought forth with rapture, but which grew up amid paternal doubts and increasing anxieties; sometimes neglected by caprice, and sometimes deserted in despair, and which arrive, if at all, only after long delays and difficulty, at the desired success. DIARY OF A LOVER OF LITERATURE. By THOMAS GREEN, Esq. of Ipswich. 1820.-April 6. Mr. Selwyn mentioned that Foote having received much attention from the Eton boys, in showing him about the college, collected them round him in the quadrangle, and said, "Now, young gentlemen, what "Tell us, can I do for you to show you how much I am obliged to you?" Mr. Foote," said the leader," the best thing you ever said." "Why," says Foote, "I once saw a little blackguard imp of a chimney sweeper mounted on a noble steed, prancing and curveting in all the pride and magnificence of nature, there, said I, goes Warburton on Shakspeare." Mr. L * "Vit-on jamais la Satire, la Critique même, se renfermer dans de justes bornes? de quel droit condamneroit-on la louange seule à n'en point sortir? See Eloges Hist. Scheele,' par Vicq-D'Azyr, Tom. ii. p. 47. In considering the strength and enduring vigour of Watt's mind, one is reminded of the expressive language of Montaigne: "La plupart des savans, n'ont pas les reins assez fermes pour marcher front à front avec cet homme-là; ils ne vont que de loing après.” mentioned in private chat, that Alex. Baring, who was probably the richest man in Europe, spent no more than 12,0007. per annum. May 13. Looked into Gil Blas. With all its air of nature, the story, on many occasions, involves most revolting improbabilities. Finished the life of Lord Wm. Russell by Lord John, written in a very excellent spirit, but with a want of vigour and animation to excite high interest. Some of the expositions, however, as of the state of affairs with Charles I. are admirably clear, just and comprehensive of Lord Halifax, he happily observes, "that the colouring of his mind was better than the drawing. He makes the distinction of whigs and tories to have first arisen in 1679. Finished Gil Blas. Le Sage's invention betrays symptoms of exhaustion and flagging towards the close. The liveliness of thought and happy succinctness of expression, are admirable to the last. Sept. 22. Mr. Smart called to view my Claude; said that Sir J. Reynolds in summer generally commenced work at six, resumed it after breakfast till dinner, and would often, throwing himself on a sofa till tea, resume work again in the evening, and persist as long as the twilight would allow. Oct. 3. I am not up, I am afraid, to what Mathews (see his Diary of an Invalid) says on the poetry of painting. The first and last excellence of painting, I am disposed to think, is in the style,-the representation, more than the thing represented—which only comes in as an accessary. Felibien, I remember, at last almost confesses this to be his opinion. Called at Birkfield lodge in my morning walk. Much chat with the Count (Linsingen) about the Queen, mentioned the confidential communications made to him by the Duke of Cumberland. The Count had been pressed by the Duke of York to take on him the office afterwards accepted by Ompteda,-a lucky escape. The Baron unquestionably poisoned. The King apparently perfectly composed on the subject. Had a discussion with S. at the coffee room respecting the Queen: the impressions I had received from the Count were very bad, but were most materially shaken. Oct. 8. In pursuing Mathews' Diary, I must say that I have rarely met with such a combination of original genius, taste and humour. His anecdote of Wilson, after gazing in speechless astonishment for a minute on the Cataract of Terni,-" Well done, water, by G-!" is excellent.— Of Claude's landscapes he observes, that they are poetic nature. Nature abstracted from all local defects,-all her separate features truer, but compounded as they will never be found to exist together in real landscape. He doubts, and I doubt too, whether we do not lose more pleasure by refinement of taste, and its consequent fastidiousness: yet who would relapse Descriptions, Mathews remarks, never present a precise picture to the mind, but merely feed the imagination through associations. He Should we not approach to a more probable solution of this question, by changing the terms, and using "correctness" for "refinement." The more correct our taste, the nearer we are approaching to acknowledge the invariable principles of art, and the power of fixing a standard, to which we can confidently refer. A refined taste in art, will consist in a more clear and intimate knowledge of the intention of the artist, accompanied with a power of discovering the means by which he wrought it out. This increased activity, which refinement of taste gives to the mind, is of itself a source of pleasurable emotion: the lower and more uneducated the taste, the more liable to alter; what pleases to-day, may be rejected to-morrow; its scale of comparison is always unsteady, and this unsteadiness alone is a loss of pleasure. A refined taste, however, sometimes becomes a partial and contracted taste, and then undoubtedly its circle of enjoyment is weakened and broken.-Edit. |