226 M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of James Watt. 



was not foTirteen, when his mother brought him to Glasgow 

 to visit a friend of hers ; his brother John accompanied him. 

 On Mrs Watt's retm'n to Glasgow some weeks after, her friend 

 said, " You must take your son James home ; I cannot stand 

 the degree of excitement he keeps me in, I am worn out for 

 want of sleep. Every evening before ten o'clock, our usual 

 hour of retiring to rest, he contrives to engage me in conver- 

 sation, then begins some striking tale, and, whether humorous 

 or pathetic, the interest is so overpowering, that the family 

 all listen to him with breathless attention, and hour after hour 

 strikes unheeded." 



James Watt had a younger brother, John,* who, having 

 determined to follow the career of his father, left the other, 

 according to the Scottish custom, at liberty to indulge his 

 own taste in selecting his profession. In the present case, 

 however, this was imusually difficult, for the yoimg student 

 prosecuted almost every branch of science with equal success. 

 The banks of Loch Lomond, already so celebrated by the 

 recollections of the historian Buchanan, and by those of the 

 illustrious inventor of Logarithms, developed his taste for the 

 beauties of natm-e and for botany. His rambles among the 

 mountain-scenery of Scotland made him perceive that the 

 inert crust of the globe was not less worthy of attention, and 

 he became a geologist. James also took advantage of his 

 frequent intercourse with the humbler classes in those en- 

 chanting regions, for the purpose of decj^phering their local 

 traditions, their popular ballads, and their wild prejudices. 

 \^'hen his state of health confined him to his father's dweUing, 

 it was chiefly chemistry which formed the subject of his inves- 

 tigations. s'Gravesande's Elements of Natural Philosophy ini- 

 tiated him also into the thousand marvels of general phy- 

 sics ; and finally, like all valetudinarians, he devoured such 



mory of his illustrious father, and still more to the exhaustless kindness 

 with which he has answered all my inquiries, I have through his means 

 been able to avoid various inaccuracies which have found their way into the 

 most esteemed biographies, and which I myself, from partial information, 

 had not been able at first to avoid. 



• He perished in one of hia father's vessels when sailing from Greenock 

 to America, in 1762, aged 33. 



