32 WATT. 



had learnt the business of a mathematical instrument 

 maker. He had been prevented by delicate health 

 from benefiting much by school instruction ; but he had 

 by himself studied both geometry and mechanics, having 

 from his childhood showed a marked taste for those 

 pursuits, in which his grandfather and uncle, teachers 

 of the mathematics, had been engaged. It is related 

 of him that a friend of his father's one day found the 

 child stretched on the floor drawing with chalk nume- 

 rous lines that intersected each other. He advised the 

 sending the young idler, as he supposed him, to school, 

 but the father said, " Perhaps you are mistaken ; exa- 

 mine first what he is about." They found he was try- 

 ing, at six years old, to solve a problem in geometry. 

 So his natural turn for mechanics was not long in 

 showing itself; and his father indulging it by putting 

 tools in his hands, he soon constructed a small elec- 

 trical machine, beside making many childish toys. 



He occasionally visited his mother's relations at 

 Glasgow, but never attended any lectures there, or 

 elsewhere. The ardour of his active mind was su- 

 perior to all the restraints which the weakness of his 

 bodily frame could impose. He devoured every kind 

 of learning. Not content with chemistry and natural 

 philosophy, he studied anatomy, and was one day found 

 carrying home for dissection the head of a child that 

 had died of some hidden disorder. His conversation, 

 too, was so rich, so animated, that we find, from the 

 relation of Mrs. Campbell, a female cousin of his, the 

 complaints made by a lady with whom he resided. 

 She spoke of the sleepless nights which he made her 

 pass by engaging her in some discussion, or some detail 

 of facts, or some description of phenomena, till the 

 night was far advanced towards morning, and she found 

 it impossible to tear herself away from his talk, or to 

 sleep after he had thus excited her, 



In 1755 he placed himself with Mr. Morgan, mathe- 

 matical and nautical instrument maker, of Cornhill, and 



