PREFACE. xi 



our object, and nothing could be a greater folly than to 

 attempt it on such ground ; we give them in evidence, to 

 prove how little really is known, even in well-informed 

 circles, respecting this extraordinary inventor, when so 

 brilliant a writer as Macaulay could be at fault, from 

 no other cause than defective information. Speaking 

 of Charles the Second s reign, he says : &quot; The Marquess 

 of Worcester had recently [?] observed the expansive 

 power of moisture rarified by heat. After many experi 

 ments he had succeeded in constructing a rude steam 

 engine, [?] which he called a fire water-work, and which 

 he pronounced to be an admirable and most forcible 

 instrument of propulsion. [?] But the Marquess was 

 suspected to be a madman [?] and known to be a Papist. 

 His inventions, therefore, found no favourable recep 

 tion. [?] His fire water-work might, perhaps, furnish 

 matter for conversation at a meeting of the Eoyal 

 Society, [?] but was not applied to any practical pur 

 pose. [?]&quot; These few lines suggest seven inquiries, but 

 we are satisfied Macaulay could never have written thus 

 upon the life of any great man of that period, much less 

 on this illustrious inventor, had the proper materials been 

 at command. This example is valuable, in as much as 

 it is well known that Lord Macaulay was master of 

 much curious reading, particularly of the class refer 

 ring to that interesting period of our country s history, 

 and also that he possessed a remarkably retentive me 

 mory. But he was here dealing with a shattered monu 

 ment ; its goodly form wholly gone, and its fragments 

 scattered in every direction ; here ground to dust, there 

 altogether buried, and so disfigured and dishonoured that 

 he made the most he could of the faint traces within his 

 immediate reach, and unquestionably felt satisfied that, 

 considering the limit of these few lines, he had boldly, 

 graphically, and truthfully pourtrayed the character 



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