M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of James Watt. 279 



the younger Mr Boulton, and the young Messrs Watt, the 

 estabHshment at Soho continued to prosper, and became 

 more extended than ever. Even to the present day, it occu- 

 pies the first rank among the English manufactories of great 

 and powerful machines. Mr Watt's second son, Gregory 

 Watt, had distinguished himself at an early period of his short 

 career, both by his literary labours, and by some geological 

 investigations ; but he was cut off, by a disease of the chest, 

 in the year 1804, at the age of twenty-seven. This afflic- 

 tive event overwhelmed the illustrious engineer, and it re- 

 quired the most anxious attentions of his family and friends 

 to supply some balm to a heart that was well nigh broken. 

 This deep grief has been assigned as the reason of the almost 

 total silence which Mr Watt maintained during the latter 

 years of his life ; and I am far from denying it had its share 

 in the result. There is not, however, any occasion for re- 

 sorting to extraordinary causes, when we reflect upon what 

 were the inherent inclinations of his mind. So far back as 

 the year 1783, we find him stating in a letter to his friend Dr 

 Black, " I wish you to be quite aware that I have no desire 

 to occupy the public with the experiments I have made ;"" and 

 elsewhere we find these somewhat extraordinary words in the 

 mouth of a man who has filled the world with his renown, " I 

 know but two pleasures — idleness and sleep." That sleep, 

 however, was light ; and the slightest excitement roused him 

 from his favourite indolence. Every object presented to his 

 notice, gradually received, in the machinery of his mind, changes 

 of fonn, of construction, and of nature, which rendered them 

 susceptible of important applications ; and when no occasion 

 offered of realising these conceptions, they were lost to the 

 world. An anecdote will explain my meaning. 



A water-company in Glasgow had established, on the right 

 bank of the river Clyde, great buildings, apd powerful ma^ 

 chines, for the purpose of conveying water into every house 

 in the town. When the works were completed, it was dis- 

 covered that on the other side of the river there was a spring 

 or rather a kind of natural filter, which abundantly supplied 

 water of a very superior quality. To remove the works was 

 now out of the question ; but a question arose as to the prac- 



