54 WATT. 



office in attempting to pourtray such excellence: how 

 much more inadequately when its lines are traced in 

 most disadvantageous contrast with the signal success 

 of the sculptor! He who has ever made the attempt 

 to write with a chisel in our language, little lapidary 

 as it certainly is, will comprehend the extraordinary 

 difficulties of the task, and will show mercy to the 

 failure : 



NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME 

 WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH 



BUT TO SHEW 



THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNED TO HONOUR THOSE- 

 WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE 



THE KING 



HIS MINISTERS AND MANY OF THE NOBLES 



AND COMMONERS OP THE REALM 



RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO 



JAMES WATT 



WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS 



EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH 



TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF 



THE STEAM ENGINE 



ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY 

 INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN 

 AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE 



AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE 

 AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD 



BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI 

 DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX. 



We have been considering this eminent person as 

 yet only in his public capacity, as a benefactor of 

 mankind by his fertile genius and indomitable perse- 

 verance; and the best portraiture of his intellectual 

 character was to be found in the description of his 

 attainments. It is, however, proper to survey him 

 also in private life. He was unexceptionable in all its 

 relations; and as his activity was unmeasured, and 

 his taste anything rather than fastidious, he both was 

 master of every variety of knowledge, and was tolerant 

 of discussion on subjects of very subordinate import- 

 ance compared with those on which he most excelled. 

 Not only all the sciences from the mathematics and 



