VARIOUS PURSUITS. 361 



One day, the desired solution seemed to require that 

 Leupold's work on Machines should be read : Watt im- 

 mediately learned German. On another occasion, and 

 for a similar reason, he rendered himself master of the 



Italian language The ingenuous simplicity of the 



young engineer immediately procured for him the good 

 will of all who accosted him. Although I have lived 

 much in the world, I must assert, that it would be impos- 

 sible for me to cite a second example of so sincere and so 

 general an attachment felt for a man of uncontested supe- 

 riority. It is true that this superiority was veiled by the 

 most amiable candour, and allied to a firm resolution to 

 recognize every man's merit liberally. Watt was even 

 inclined to assign things to the inventive spirit of his 

 friends that were often only his own ideas dressed up in 

 another form. I have all the more reason to assert his 

 possessing this rare disposition, because I have myself 

 experienced the effects of it." 



You will have to decide, Gentlemen, whether it was 

 not equally honourable to pronounce these closing words, 

 as to have inspired them. 



The deep and varied studies to which the circum- 

 stances of his singular position gave rise, never inter- 

 fered with the young artist's professional work. He 

 attended to this in the daytime ; and devoted the night 

 to theoretical researches. Relying on the resources of 

 his imagination, Watt seemed to delight in difficult enter- 

 prises, and those to which he seemed least adapted. Will 

 it be believed that he undertook to construct an organ, he 

 who was totally insensible to the charms of music ; he 

 who had never been able even to distinguish one note 

 from another, as g from f? Yet this enterprise was suc- 

 cessfully carried out. We need scarcely add, that the 



SEC. SER. 16 



