MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 155 



and malice, ever appear your Majesty's passionately devoted, 

 or otherwise disinterested, subject and servant, 



" Worcester." 



In a second dedication to the members of the two Houses 

 of Parliament, he states that he had already spent more than 

 ^10,000 in maturing his discoveries for the public good. He 

 speaks of them with that modest confidence so inseparable from 

 transcendent talents : 



" The ti-easures buried under these heads," he says, " both 

 for war, peace, and pleasure, being inexhaustible, I beseech you 

 pardon me if I say so ; it seems a vanity, but comprehends a 

 truth ; since no good spring but becomes the more plentiful, 

 by how much more it is drawn ; and the spinner to weave his 

 web is never stinted, but enforced. 



" The more, then, that you shall be pleased to make use of 

 my inventions, the more inventive shall you ever find me, one 

 invention begetting still another, I more and more improving 

 my ability to serve my King and you ; and as to my heartiness 

 therein, there needs no addition, nor to my readiness a spur. 

 And therefore, my lords and gentlemen, be pleased to begin, 

 and desist not from commanding me, till I flag in my obedience 

 and endeavours to serve my King and country. 



'For certainly you'll find me breathless first t' expire, 

 Before my hands grow weary, or my legs do tire. ' " 



It may be observed, that however much his work was slighted 

 in his own day, it is pretty clear that the Marquis suggested the 

 first idea of the steam-engine , and that in like manner he 

 evidently hints at the telegraph, the torpedo, and at the vdocipede. 

 And it is not improbable that in his 15th "Scantling," "A boat 

 driving against wind and tide," he had an eye Lo steam navigation. 



