370 INTRODUCTION 



ference to producing his own clear, simple description ; 

 then, assuredly, in common fairness Mr. Muirhead 

 should have felt bound to a somewhat similar advocacy 

 of the Marquis of Worcester s invention. If M. Arago s 

 example is to be quoted, showing how much could be 

 advanced in favour of De Caus s little metal sphere, 

 then surely Mr. Muirhead should have exerted himself 

 to represent and distinguish the superior properties of 

 the Marquis s Water-commanding Engine, raising four 

 vessels of water, forty feet high, through a tube a span 

 wide.* 



But Mr. Muirhead hazards no opinion decidedly 

 favourable to either the Marquis or his inventions ; while, 

 on the contrary, his observations suggest unfounded diffi 

 culties, and raise unnecessary doubts, contributing to 

 increase the existing confusion found in our current lite 

 rature, in relation to the great inventor and his projects ; 

 an instance is even adduced of the pseudonymous 

 writer, Eobert Stuart, who, in his &quot; Anecdotes,&quot; and his 

 &quot; History,&quot; flatly contradicts himself; and frequently 

 what one compiler only conjectures, another takes up 

 as a fact. But this vicious system of writing is not to be 

 corrected by following in the same track and proposing 

 new speculative views, offered too in a strain seriously 

 derogating from the Marquis s character for honour, 

 integrity, consistency, and consummate ingenuity. 



In quoting the &quot; Century&quot; Mr. Muirhead notices that 

 it concludes with the promise of a more finished work, 

 which only elicits the sinister remark : &quot; that he either 

 was unable, or never seriously intended to make such a 

 further publication.&quot; This is indeed unjust, and severe 

 enough. And what he quotes from the &quot; Century&quot; 

 about the Engine, is only to tell what &quot;posterity 



* Sec page 302. 



