WATT. 383 



nership, the concerns of which he extended, and, for 

 the last quarter of a century, almost exclusively 

 conducted. By his second wife, Miss Macgregor, 

 whom he married in 1776, he had one son, Gregory, 

 who unfortunately died in October, 1804, at the age 

 of twenty-seven, after giving an earnest of brilliant ta- 

 lents and accomplishments. This loss was, no doubt, a 

 severe blow to his family, and the father shared fully 

 in their sorrow. But he bore it like a man : and I 

 feel great satisfaction in correcting an error into which 

 my illustrious friend and colleague M. Arago has fallen 

 through misinformation, when he represents Mr. 

 Watt's spirit as so entirely broken by the misfortune 

 that he " preserved an almost total silence during the 

 latter years of his life." The fact is, that he survived 

 his son's death between fourteen and fifteen years, and 

 never was more cheerful or enjoyed the pleasures of 

 society more heartily than during this period. I can 

 speak on the point with absolute certainty, for my own 

 acquaintance with him commenced after my friend 

 Gregory's decease. A few months after that event, 

 he calmly and with his wonted acuteness discussed 

 with me the composition of an epitaph to be inscribed 

 on his son's tomb. That autumn and winter he was a 

 constant attendant at our Friday club, and in all our 

 private circles, and was the life of them all. He has, 

 moreover, left under his hand an account of the effect 

 which the recent loss had produced upon his spirits, 

 and a flat contradiction to the notion that it had de- 

 pressed them. " I perhaps," he observes, "have said too 

 much to you and Mr. Campbell on the state of my 

 mind : I therefore think it necessary to say that I am 



