WATT. 51 



misinformation, when he represents Mr. Watt's spirit 

 as so entirely broken by the misfortune that he " pre- 

 served an almost total silence during the latter years of 

 his life." The fact is, that he survived his son's death 

 nearly fifteen years, and never was more cheerful or 

 enjoyed the pleasures of society more heartily than 

 during this period. I can speak on the point with ab- 

 solute certainty, for my own acquaintance with him 

 commenced after my friend Gregory's decease. A few 

 months after that event, he calmly and with his wonted 

 acuteness discussed with me the composition of an 

 epitaph to be inscribed on his son's tomb. The autumn 

 and winter of 1805 he was a constant attendant at our 

 Friday club, and in all our private circles, and was the 

 life of them all. He has, moreover, left under his 

 hand an account of the effect which the recent loss had 

 produced upon his spirits, and a flat contradiction to 

 the notion that it had depressed them. " I perhaps," he 

 observes, " have said too much to you and Mr. Camp- 

 bell on the state of my mind : I therefore think it ne- 

 cessary to say that I am not low-spirited, and were 

 you here you would find me as cheerful in the com- 

 pany of my friends as usual ; my feelings for the loss 

 of poor Gregory are not passion, but a deep regret 

 that such was his and my lot." He then expresses his 

 pious resignation to the will of " the Disposer of 

 events." It is true, he adds, that he had lost one 

 stimulus to exertion, and with it his relish for his usual 

 avocations, but he looks to time for a remedy, and adds, 

 "meanwhile, I do not neglect the means of amuse- 

 ment which are within my power." This letter was 

 written in January 1805, only a few weeks after the 

 loss of his son. In another letter written in April to 

 the same gentleman, his cousin, Mr. Muirhead, great 

 uncle of the able and learned translator of M. Arago's 

 ' Eloge,' after expressing his confident hopes that Gre- 

 gory had changed this mortal state for a far happier 

 existence, he says, as if anxious to avoid all suspicion 



