52 WATT. 



of his giving way to excessive sorrow, " You are not 

 to conceive that we give way to grief: on the contrary, 

 you will find us as cheerful as we ought to be, and as 

 much disposed to enjoy the friends we have left as 

 ever. But we should approach to brutes if we had no 

 regrets." In this letter he quotes the beautiful lines 

 of Catullus, " Nunc it per iter tenebricosum," &c. 



To this evidence at the period of his son's death let 

 me add the testimony of Lord Jeffrey, who knew him 

 well, and who brings down the account to the latest 

 years of his life. " His health, which was delicate 

 from his youth upwards, seemed to become firmer as he 

 advanced in years ; and he possessed, up almost to the 

 last moments of his existence, not only the full com- 

 mand of his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity 

 of spirit and the social gaiety which had illumined his 

 happiest days. His friends in this part of the country 

 (Edinburgh) never saw him more full of intellectual 

 vigour and colloquial animation, never more delightful 

 or more instructive, than in his last visit in autumn 

 1817." It was after this period that he invented the 

 machine for copying sculpture. He distributed among 

 his friends some specimens of its performances, jocu- 

 larly calling them " the productions of a young artist 

 just entering into his eighty-third year." 



In the summer of the following year, 1819, I saw 

 him for the last time, and did not observe any change 

 in his conversation or in his manner; but I understand 

 that he suffered some inconvenience through the 

 summer; though, until a few weeks before his death, 

 he was not seriously indisposed. He soon became 

 aware of the event which was approaching, and he 

 seemed only anxious to impress upon his sorrowing 

 family the circumstances calculated to minister con- 

 solation under the change which must soon take place. 

 He expressed his sincere gratitude to Divine Pro- 

 vidence for the blessings which he had been permitted 

 to enjoy, for his length of days, his exemption from 



