356 JAMES WATT, 



In 1750, each of us in Mrs. Muirhead's position would 

 probably have held the same language ; but the world 

 has advanced, and general knowledge has advanced with 

 it ; also, when I shall have presently explained, that the 

 principal discovery of our associate consisted in a special 

 manner of transforming steam into water, the reproaches 

 of Mrs. Muirhead will appear quite in a different light ; 

 and little James watching the tea-pot, will be the great 

 Engineer anticipating the important discoveries that were 

 to immortalize him ; every one will then perceive how 

 remarkable it was that the words condensation of steam 

 should so naturally have entered into an account of 

 Watt's early childhood. Independently of this, I could 

 not but think, from the singularity of the anecdote, that 

 it deserved to be preserved. "When an opportunity 

 offers, let us prove to young people that Newton was 

 not diffident only on that day when, to satisfy the curi- 

 osity of a high personage who desired to know how 

 attraction had been discovered, he answered, By con- 

 stantly thinking of it ! Let us show to everybody, in 

 the simple words of the immortal author of the Prin- 

 cipia, the real secret of men of genius. 



The love of anecdote that our associate showed so 

 agreeably during upwards of half a century to all those 

 around him, developed itself very early. The proof will 

 be found in some lines that I am about to quote and 

 translate from an unedited note given in 1798, by Mrs. 

 Marion Campbell, a cousin and juvenile companion of 

 the celebrated engineer.* 



* I am indebted for this curious document to my friend Mr. James 

 Watt, of Soho. Thanks to the deep veneration that he feels for the 

 memory of his illustrious father, and thanks to the inexhaustible 

 complaisance with which he listened to all my inquiries, I have been 

 able to avoid several errors that have slipped into the most esteemed 



