302 



HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



the work of this machine were facetiously called, by the illustrious 

 inventor himself, " the first attempts of a young artist entering the 

 eighty-third year of his age." Watt died peacefully at his house at 

 Heathfield near Birmingham on the igth of August, 1819, and was 

 buried in the parish church at Handsworth. In this church the statue 

 represented in Fig. 148 was shortly afterwards erected to his memory, 

 and at other places also statues of the great inventor were erected. A 

 seated portrait of Watt in marble by Chantrey may be seen in West- 

 minster Abbey, supported on a pedestal bearing the foll&wing inscrip- 

 tion : 



FIG. 148. STATUE OF WATT IN HANDSWORTH CHURCH. 



" Not to perpetuate a name which must endure while the peaceful 

 arts flourish, but to show that mankind have learnt to honour those 

 who deserve their gratitude, the king, his ministers, and many of the 

 nobles and commoners of 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, en- 

 larged 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, MDCCCXIX." 



The character of Watt and the powerful influence of his great inven- 

 tion are indicated in the few following sentences, which have the more 

 interest as coming from the pen of a man not less famous in literature 



