352 JAMES WATT. 
show in what a humble position those projects were 
perfected, that were destined to raise the British nation 
to an unheard-of degree of power. I will especially en- 
deavour to characterize, with extreme precision, the 
fruitful inventions which will for ever connect the name 
of Watt with the steam-engine. I foresee all the dan- 
gers of this line of conduct; I am aware that it may be 
said on going out of this room: We expected an histor- 
ical eulogy, but we have only received a dry and arid 
lesson. Besides this, the reproach would not have 
weighed on me, if the lesson had been well understood. 
I will, therefore, exert every effort not to tire your 
patience ; I will keep in mind that clearness is politeness 
in public speakers. 
INFANCY AND YOUTH OF JAMES WATT.—HIS AD- 
VANCEMENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF ENGINEER 
TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. 
James Watt, one of the eight Foreign Associates of 
the Academy of Sciences, was born at Greenock, in 
Scotland, the 19th of January, 1736. Our neighbours 
on the other side of the Channel, have the good sense 
to think that the genealogy of a respectable and indus- 
trious family, is quite as worthy of being preserved as 
the parchments of certain titled families that have be- 
come celebrated only by the enormity of their crimes 
and their vices. -Thus I can say with certainty that the 
great grandfather of James Watt was an agriculturist, 
settled in the county of Aberdeen; that he was killed 
in one of Montrose’s battles; that the conquering side, 
as was customary, (I was going to add, as is still custom- 
ary in civil discords,) did not think death itself a suffi- 
cient expiation for the opinions in support of which the 
