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



thinking of that would-be general in Louis XIV.'s time, who 

 always carried his right shoulder high, because Prince Eugene 

 had this deformity, and imagined that imitating him in this 

 point, it was unnecessary to carry the resemblance any farther. 

 Watt had scarcely attained his twenty-first year when he 

 was thus connected with the University of Glasgow. His 

 principal fit'iends on the occasion were Adam Smith, the au- 

 thor of The Wealth of Nations ; Dr Black, whose discoveries 

 respecting latent heat and the carbonate of hme have placed 

 him among the fii'st chemists of the eighteenth century ; and 

 Robert Simson, the celebrated restorer of the most important 

 works of the ancient geometricians.* These eminent men at 

 first only considered that they had relieved from the vexatious 

 annoyances of the corporations, an expert, zealous, and agree- 

 able workman ; but they soon discovered that he vfas, more- 

 over, a remarkable man, and expressed towards hhn the warm- 

 est friendship. The youth attending the University also con- 

 sidered it an honour to be admitted to his intimacy ; so that his 

 shop — I repeat, his shop became a kind of academy whither 

 the most eminent persons in Glasgow resorted, to talk over the 

 most difiicult questions of art, science, and literature. Nor, 

 in truth, should I venture to describe to you the part that the 

 young workman of twenty-one took in these disciissions, if I 

 could not do so in the unpublished words of one of the most 

 illustrious contributors to the Encyclopsedia Britannica. " I 

 had always, from my earliest youth," writes the lale Professor 

 Robison, "a great relish for the natural sciences, and particu- 

 larly for mathematical and mechanical philosopay, when I 

 was introduced by Drs Simson, Dick, and Moor, gentlemen 

 eminent for then- mathematical abilities, to Mr Watt. I saw 

 a workman, and expected no more ; but was surprised to find 

 a philosopher, as young as myself, and always ready to in- 

 struct me. I had the vanity to think myself a pretty good 

 proficient in m-y favourite study, and was rather nortified at 

 finding Mr Watt so much my superior. .... Wlenever any 

 puzzle came in the way of any of the young students, we went 

 to Mr Watt. He needed only to be prompted; for every 



* To these it is only an act of justice to add Dr Dick Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy, of whose merits Professor Robison and Watt always 

 •poke in terms of eulogy,— Editok. 



