WATT. 33 



resided with him somewhat less than a year, during 

 which he was chiefly employed in the preparation and 

 adjustment of sextants, compasses, and other nautical 

 instruments. But the same feeble health which had 

 interrupted his studies at Glasgow again oppressed 

 him ; he was obliged to leave London, and return to 

 Glasgow. On his arrival there he had the intention 

 of setting up as an instrument maker, but the Glasgow 

 Body of Arts and Trades, one of the sub-corporations 

 in the municipal corporation of that city, opposed him 

 as not free of their craft or guild, and therefore not 

 entitled to exercise his calling within the limits of the 

 charter. Attempts were made to obtain their leave 

 for a very small workshop, on the humblest scale, but 

 this was peremptorily refused. The University there- 

 fore came to his assistance, granted him a room in their 

 own building, and gave him the appointment of their 

 mathematical instrument maker. There remain small 

 instruments then made by him in this workshop, and 

 executed entirely with his own hands ; they are of ex- 

 quisite workmanship. The earliest of his steam-engine 

 drawings are likewise preserved, and those competent 

 judges who have examined them, particularly M. Arago, 

 describe them as " truly remarkable for the neatness, 

 the strength, and the accuracy of their outline." His 

 manual dexterity and skill, therefore, is clear, and he 

 had good cause to plume himself as he always did upon 

 it, estimating the same quality in others at its just value. 

 In the course of a very few years, beside renewing 

 his intimacy with Mr. Eobison, afterwards Professor 

 there and at Edinburgh, he became intimately ac- 

 quainted with the most eminent of the Glasgow Pro- 

 fessors, Adam Smith, Robert Simson, Robert Dick, and 

 above all, Dr. Black. Of these all but Mr. Dick have 

 left the deep impress of their great names upon the 

 scientific history of their age ; and he was always de- 

 scribed by both Mr. Watt and Professor Robison as a 

 person of most admirable capacity and great attain- 



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