scott's estimation op avatt. 445 



Whole hours of discussion did not seem too much to him, 

 if the object was to do justice to diffident inventors, either 

 robbed hy plagiarists, or only forgotten by an ungrateful 

 public. 



Watt's memory might be cited as prodigious, even 

 by the side of all that is related of this faculty in some 

 highly endowed men. Its extent, however, was its least 

 merit ; it imbibed all that was of any value ; and it en- 

 tirely rejected, almost instinctively, the superfluities that 

 it would have been useless to preserve. 



The variety of knowledge possessed by our academi- 

 cian would be truly incredible, if not attested by many 

 eminent men. Lord Jeffrey, in an eloquent biogi'aphical 

 notice, happily characterized, both the strong and subtle 

 intelligence of his friend, when he compared it to the 

 elephant's trunk, so wonderfully organized, that the 

 animal uses it with equal facility either to " pick up a 

 pin " or " to rend an oak." 



Sir Walter Scott speaks of his countryman in the fol- 

 lowing terms, in the preface to The Monastery : — * 



" It was only once my fortune to meet him, whether in body or in 

 spirit it matters not. There were assembled about half a score of our 



Northern Lights Amidst this company stood Mr. Watt, the 



man whose genius discovered the means of multiplying our national 

 resources to a degree perhaps even beyond his own stupendoxis pow- 

 ers of calculation and combination ; bringing the treasures of the 

 abyss to the summit of the earth; giving the feeble arm of man the 

 momentum of an Afrite ; commanding manufactures to rise, as the 

 rod of the prophet produced water in the desert ; affording the means 

 of dispensing with that time and tide which wait for no man ; and of 

 sailing without that wind which defied the commands and threats of 

 Xerxes himself. This potent commander of the elements, the abridger 



* We have thought it better to give the whole passage from Sir 

 Walter Scott, than to reproduce it from our author's French; nor 

 liave we adopted his omissions. — Translator. 



