22 



'not be forced, like the builders of another temple, to work with arms 

 in their hands — we are bound to wish them God speed : it is our duty, 

 our pride, and pleasure, each in our degree, to aid their efforts, and 

 animate their zeal. Go on, and prosper. Gentlemen, amid the best 

 wishes of the wise and good ; look well on the beauty of the fabric you 

 are adorning, and mark its substantial utility ; see piety kneeling at its 

 altar, and human infirmities crowding to its gate. With such thoughts 

 within, and such sympathies without, strengthen and regale yourselves 

 amidst your toils, and remember that they carry with them a far higher 

 reward than any human sympathy, in the approbation and the blessing 

 of the great Father of Truth. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



I have taken notice in the foregoing address, that the eloge of 

 Watt, delivered to the French Academy by one of its secretaries, and 

 subjoined to the Annuaire for 1839 published under the authority of 

 the Bureau des Longitudes, is blemished by statements which reflect 

 unjustly on the character of one whose memory is cherished among us, 

 as a bright example of the union of modesty with science, of the purest 

 love of truth, with the highest faculties for its discovery, and the most 

 eminent success in its attainment. 



Perceiving these statements to be founded in mistake, I took the 

 earliest opportunity of rectifying them, at the meeting of the British 

 Association which followed within two or three weeks after I became 

 acquainted with them, rejoicing that I had it in my power, from the 

 position in which I had the honour of being placed, to make the cor- 

 rection of the error as formal and public as its promulgation had been ; 

 and persuaded that M. Arago, as soon as he should be fully possessed 

 of the facts, would consider it a duty which he owed both to the Aca- 

 demy and to himself, to retract the suspicions which he had expressed. 



I regret, however, to find that I have not as yet succeeded in stating 

 the case with sufficient clearness to satisfy him, and that he continues 

 to maintain before the Academy* the correctness of his views, corro- 

 borating them at the same time with the additional authority of M. 

 Dumas. M. Arago says, that the account I have given of the disco- 

 very of the composition of water is incomplete (tronque), and I feel it 

 to be due to him to supply what may have been wanting in it, and to 

 furnish him with such evidence as can no longer leave any doubt upon 

 his mind. 



* C'mptrs 7'evchs for January 20, 1840, p. 109, No. 3. 



