224 M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of James JVatt. 



minutely accurate, however, I ought to add, that habitual in- 

 disposition interfered with young Watt's regular attendance 

 at the public school of Greenock ; and that, for a great part of 

 the year, he was confined to his chamber, where he devoted 

 himself to study, without any extrinsic aid. As often hap- 

 pens, his superior intellectual faculties, destined to produce 

 such valuable results, began to develope themselves in retire- 

 ment and meditation. 



Watt was so delicate that his parents did not venture to im- 

 pose any thing in the shape of severe tasks upon him ; they 

 left him very much at liberty in the choice of his occupations, 

 and it will be seen he did not abuse the indulgence. A gentle- 

 man one day calling upon Mr Watt, observed the child bending 

 over a marble heai-th, with a piece of coloured chalk in his 

 hand ; " Mr Watt," said he, " you ought to send that boy to 

 a public school, and not allow him to trifle away his time at 

 home." " Look how my child is employed, before you con- 

 demn him," replied the father. The gentleman then obser- 

 ved that the child had drawn mathematical lines and circles 

 on the hearth. He put various questions to the boy, and 

 was astonished and gratified with the mixture of intelligence, 

 quickness, and simplicity displayed in his answers : He was 

 then trying to solve a problem of geometry. Influenced by 

 his parental solicitude, Mr James Watt very early put a num- 

 ber of tools at the disposal of the young scholar, who very 

 soon used them with the greatest possible address. He would 

 take to pieces and again put together the various toys that came 

 within his reach, and he was very active in making ncAv ones. 

 Somewhat later he undertook the construction of a small elec- 

 trical machine, whose brilliant sparks became a lively som'ce 

 of amusement and surprise to his young companions. 



Watt, with an excellent memory, might, nevertheless, not 

 have peculiarly distinguished himself among the youthful pro- 

 digies of ordinary schools. He never could have learned his les- 

 sons like a parrot, for he experienced a necessity of carefully 

 elaborating the intellectual elements presented to his atten- 

 tion, and nature had peculiarly endowed him with the faculty 

 of meditation. Upon the whole, Mr James Watt augured most 

 favourably of the nascent powers of his child. Some other of 



