222 M, Arago's Biographical Memoir of James Watt. 



and the friends of the illustrious mechanist. That life, de- 

 voted to labour, to study, and to meditation, furnishes none of 

 those striking events whose recital, thrown with a little ad- 

 dress among the details of science, tempers their dulness. 

 I shall, however, relate it, were it for no other reason than 

 to shew in how humble a sphere were elaborated those mighty 

 projects which were destined to elevate the British nation to an 

 unheard of height of power ; and I shall endeavour more par- 

 ticularly to characterize with minute accuracy those splendid 

 inventions which will for ever associate the name of Watt 

 with the steam-engine. I am well aware of the disadvantages 

 which attend this plan, and am prepared for the criticism : 

 " We expected an historical eloge, and have heard only a dry 

 and barren lecture." If my discourse, however, be compre- 

 hended, I shall willingly submit to the reproach. I shall 

 do my best not to fatigue your attention, remembering that 

 clearness constitutes politeness in a pubhc speaker. 



Childhood and youth of JjMES Watt; his appointment as Instru 

 ment-maher to the University of Glasgow. 



James Watt, one of the eight Foreign Associates of the 

 Academy of Sciences, was born at Greenock in Scotland on 

 the 19th day of January in the year 1736. Our neighbom-s 

 on the other side of the Channel have the good taste to think 

 that the genealogy of a respectable and industrious family is 

 as worthy of preservation as the musty parchments of some 

 titled houses which have become celebrated only by the enor- 

 mity of their vices or their crimes. Hence it is that I can 

 state with certainty that the great-grandfather of James 

 • Watt was a farmer settled in the county of Aberdeen ; that 

 he fell in one of Montrose's battles ; that the conquering party, 

 as was then the custom (and I was going to add as is still 

 the practice in civil broils), did not consider death as suffi- 

 cient expiation for those opinions on account of which the 

 poor farmer had bled ; that they, moreover, punished him in the 

 person of his son, by confiscating his small property ; that this 

 unfortunate child, whose name was Thomas Watt, was taken 

 care of by some distant relations ; that, in the very isolated 

 situation to which he was thus reduced, he devoted himself to 



