856 JAMES WATT. 
In 1750, each of us in Mrs. Muirhead’s position would 
probably have held the same language; but the world 
has advanced, and general knowledge has advanced with 
it; also, when I shall have presently explained, that the 
principal discovery of our associate consisted in a special 
‘manner of transforming steam into water, the reproaches 
of Mrs. Muirhead will appear quite in a different light ; 
and little James watching the tea-pot, will be the great 
Engineer anticipating the important discoveries that were 
to immortalize him; every one will then perceive how 
remarkable it was that the words condensation of steam 
should so naturally have entered into an account of 
Watt’s early childhood. Independently of this, I could 
not but think, from the singularity of the anecdote, that 
it deserved to be preserved. When an opportunity 
offers, let us prove to young people that Newton was 
not diffident only on that day when, to satisfy the curi- 
osity of a high personage who desired to know how 
attraction had been discovered, he answered, Ly con- 
stantly thinking of it! Let us show to everybody, in 
the simple words of the immortal author of the Prin- 
cipia, the real secret of men of genius. 
The love of anecdote that our associate showed so . 
agreeably during upwards of half a century to all those 
around him, developed itself very early. The proof will 
be found in some lines that I am about to quote and 
translate from an unedited note given in 1798, by Mrs. 
Marion Campbell, a cousin and juvenile companion of 
the celebrated engineer.* 
* Tam indebted for this curious document to my friend Mr. James 
Watt, of Soho. Thanks to the deep veneration that he feels for the 
memory of his illustrious father, and thanks to the inexhaustible 
complaisance with which he listened to all my inquiries, I have been 
able to avoid several errois that have slipped into the most esteemed 
