WITH NOTES. 531 



pass, to the admiration of even the greatest mathema 

 ticians. 



&quot; The knowledge of these things rendering all things 

 as feasible to him that is master of this art, as it is to 

 make a circle with a pair of compasses, or a straight 

 line with a square or ruler ; they being a direct abstract 

 of arithmetic contrived by me.&quot; 



No. 98 may be read as a second notice of his steam 

 engine ; No. 68, developing the broad principle of its 

 source of action, while the above indicates the working 

 parts. He may allude to the facility of communicating 

 motion to levers, forces, pistons, or plungers, in any 

 direction, by turning on steam to variously arranged 

 pipes, so that to his mind it appeared as though it were 

 something of super-human origin. While the beauty, 

 novelty, and success of his new design overawed his own 

 mind, it was a matter of infinite surprise to him that he 

 could not immediately impress others with a sense of 

 the immense value and unbounded importance of an 

 invention which superseded animal power: placing 

 at man s disposal a greater and more controllable 

 mechanical agent than even the elements of nature, 

 under the most favourable circumstances, had ever 

 supplied. 



He expressed his own solemn impression, on seeing 

 the successful issue of this great work, when he said 

 &quot; T call this a semi-omnipotent engine, and do intend 

 that a model thereof be buried with me.&quot; 



99 . 



How to make one pound weight 

 to raife an hundred as high as one 

 pound falleth, and yet the hundred 



2 M 2 



