PREFACE. 



THAT a Memoir of the Inventor of the Steam Engine, 

 should appear for the first time two hundred years after 

 his decease, is an occurrence in our literature, which, 

 of itself, might almost be considered sufficient to arouse 

 public inquiry in respect to such a production. But far 

 more solid ground exists for believing that the great 

 country which gave birth to the Inventor, and his 

 Invention of one of man s noblest productions in art, will 

 peruse it with true national pride, when assured of the 

 amount and strength of the evidence now first adduced 

 to establish those claims which, although never entirely 

 doubted, yet have hitherto borne too misty and mythi 

 cal a character to satisfy common comprehension. The 

 labour encountered in carrying out the required design 

 may be appreciated from the fact, that the present 

 work has been to a great extent the study of thirty 

 years, although literally completed within only the 

 last few years. This field of inquiry has been, con 

 sequently, long open to more ambitious pens, and 

 sooner or later would, no doubt, have received, as it 

 demands the attention of men of letters and of science. 



Probably no other country furnishes so singular a fact, 

 as that of being for two centuries without information 

 much better than tradition, and accumulated diversities 

 of opinions freely indulged in, respecting the political 

 and private character, and inventive talent of one of 

 its most remarkable, interesting, and glorious bene 

 factors. And, during so long a period, in consequence 



