WATT. 389 



he perceived any thing uncandid or unfair, or, above 

 all, indirect and dishonest. The attempts of one man 

 to appropriate another's inventive merit were the things 

 that most roused his indignation ; for, regarding dis- 

 covery and invention as the most precious of all 

 property, he could not bear the sight of its violation, 

 and would stop minutely and curiously to ascertain the 

 relative shares of different individuals, when any doubt 

 was raised upon the distribution. His conversation 

 was withal spirited and lively it was easy and concise, 

 and without the least of a lecturing formality. His 

 voice was deep and low, and if somewhat monotonous, 

 it yet seemed in harmony with the weight and the 

 beauty of his discourse, through which however there 

 also ran a current of a lighter kind ; for he was mirth- 

 ful, temperately jocular, nor could anything to more 

 advantage set off the living anecdotes of men and 

 things, with which the graver texture of his talk was 

 interwoven, than his sly and quiet humour, both of 

 mind and of look, in recounting them. No one who 

 had the happiness of knowing him, no member, more 

 especially, of the club in Edinburgh which he frequented 

 as often as he visited that capital, can ever forget the 

 zest which his society derived from the mixture of such 

 various matters as those to which I have referred ; and 

 one of its most distinguished founders * has justly 



* Lord Jeffrey. The club was called from the day, Friday, on 

 which it met at supper, after the business of the week was over, and 

 the half-holiday of Saturday only lightly hanging over the heads of 

 the lawyers, who chiefly composed it. Mr. Watt was an honorary 

 member. He had for his colleagues no less distinguished men than 

 Professor Playfair, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Corehouse, Mr. Homer, 

 Mr. Elmsley, Sir W. Drummond, and several who still survive and 

 fill exalted places in the State. 



