M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of James TTatt. 297 



genious exertions, Watt carried to such admirable perfection. 

 Posterity will assuredly not degrade them to the level of other 

 labours which have been too much commended, and whose real 

 influence, weighed by the tribunal of reason, will for ever re- 

 main circimiscribed within the confined circle of a few indi- 

 viduals and a limited space of time. 



We have long been in the habit of talking of the age of 

 Augustus, and of the age of Loms XIV. Eminent individuals 

 amongst us have likewise held that we might with propriety 

 speak of the age of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. I 

 do not hesitate to declare my conviction, that, when the im- 

 mense services already rendered by the steam-engine shall be 

 added to all the marvels it holds out to promise, a grateful 

 population will then familiarly talk of the ages of Papin and 

 of Watt ! 



A biography of Watt, intended to form a part of our collec- 

 tion of memoirs, would certainly be incomplete, did it not 

 contain an enumeration of the academic titles with which the 

 illustrious engineer was invested. The list will, moreover, 

 occupy but a few lines. Watt became a member of the Royal 

 Society of Edinbui-gh in the year 1783 ; of the Royal Society 

 of London in 1785 ; of the Batavian Society in 1787 ; a cor- 

 respondent of the Institute in the year 1808 ; and in 1814, 

 V Academic des Sciences of the Institute, conferred upon Watt 

 the highest honour it can bestow, by naming him one of its 

 eight foreign associates. By a spontaneous and unanimous 

 vote the Senate of the University of Glasgow conferred on 

 Watt, in the year 1806, the honorary degree of LL.D. 



On Machinery considered in Relation to the Prosperity oftlie 

 Working Classes.* By M. Arago. 



Many individuals, without questioning the genius of Watt, 

 regard the improvements on account of which the world is his 



* In writing tlie following chapter, I thought that I might avail my- 

 Bclf without scruple of the numerous docunieuts I have collected, whether 

 in my occasional iutercourau with my illustrious friend Lord Brougltaiu, or 



