442 JAMES WATT. 



him ; unable to reenter those rooms, where he was no 

 longer to find the comfort of his life ! Perhaps so true 

 a picture of deep grief would silence those systematic 

 spirits who without pausing at the thousands of strik- 

 ing contrary instances deny that the qualities of the 

 heart are possessed by any man whose intellect has been 

 nurtured with the fruitful, the sublime, the imperish- 

 able truths of the exact sciences. 



After remaining for some years a widower, Watt had 

 again the happiness to find in Miss Mac Grigor a com- 

 panion worthy of him by the variety of her talents, the 

 soundness of her judgment, and the energy of her char- 

 acter.* 



At the expiration of the patent granted him by Par- 

 liament, Watt, at the beginning of 1800, retired entirely 

 from business. 



His two sons succeeded him. Under the sensible 

 direction of Mr. Boulton junior and the two young 

 Messrs. Watt the manufactory at Soho prospered, and 

 exhibited new and important developments. Even now 

 it occupies the first rank in England among the estab- 

 lishments for constructing large machines. The second 

 of the two sons, Gregory Watt, became known to the 

 world in a brilliant manner, by his literary compositions, 

 and by his geological labours. He died at the age of 

 twenty-seven, in 1804, of a disease of the chest. This 

 sad event overthrew the illustrious engineer. The ten- 

 der attentions of his family and of his friends with diffi- 

 culty succeeded in restoring some degree of calm to his 

 broken heart. This very justifiable grief seems to 



* Mrs. Watt (Mac Grigor) expired 1832, at a very advanced age. 

 She had endured the grief of surviving the two children that resulted 

 from her marriage with Mr. Watt. 



