136 Character and Merits o/'Professor Playfair. 



the chair now to be filled is a chair of science, and ought not to 

 be made the reward of any other than scientific eminence. 



Art. XII. Biographical Memoir of the late 

 Mr. James Watt. 



Death is still busy in our high places ; and it is with great 

 pain that we find ourselves called upon, so soon after the loss of 

 Mr. Playfair, to record the decease of another of our illustrious 

 countrymen, and one to whom mankind has been still more largely 

 indebted. Mr. James Watt, the great improver of the steam- 

 engine, died on the 25th of August, at his seat of Heathfield, 

 near Birmingham, in the 84th year of his age. 



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 defiance. By his admirable contrivances, 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 they can be varied, distributed, and 

 applied. The trunk of an elephant that can pick up a pin or 

 rend an oak is nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush 

 masses of obdurate metal like wax before it ; draw out, without 

 breaking, a thread as fine as a gossamer, and lift a ship of war 

 like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge an- 

 chors, cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against 

 the fury of the winds and waves. 



It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which 

 Aese inventions have conferred upon the country. There is no 



