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. 



