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right, growing a few feet apart, about three or four feet high, reptiles take various names, according to some peculiarity in and about two feet in diameter.

Fig. 4. A Quarry in the Isle of Portland.

B

C

D

E

, Fresh-water Limestone; B, Laminated cream-coloured Limestone; c, the Dirt Bed, with fossil trees penetrating the rock B; D, the lowest Fresh-water Beds of the Purbecks; E, the Portland Oolite, on which the whole Wealden series rests.

their structure,-such as the Streptospondylus, from OTPETTOC, streptos, turned or reversed, and orordulog, a vertebra of the back or spine the animal with a reversed spine; Megalosaurus, from peyas, megas, ueyaλn, fem. megalé, fem., and caupos, lizard a great or gigantic lizard; Iguanodon, from Iguana, a reptile in the West Indies, and odoug, odous, a tooth-having teeth like the Iguana; and Hylasaurus, from auog, wood, wold, or weald, and oavpoç, a reptile-a lizard found in the wealds of Kent and Sussex, or, the Wealden lizard. As all these reptiles are, in fact, animals of the epochs of the oolite and the lias, they will be more fully described when we treat of these formations.

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The Wealden of the Tilgate Forest have supplied numerous fragments of fossil bones, which, from their very slender structure, have been supposed to belong to some animal of a, higher order than that of reptiles. They seem to belong to some animal that could fly in the air. It seems, at any rate, to have been an animal that was a link of connection between reptiles and birds, and might be called the Wealden BAT. "It is," says Professor ANSTED, "perhaps the most extraordinary of all the beings, of whose former existence the study of fossils has made us aware, and is that which, if living, would appear most unlike any thing that exists in the known world. It was about the size of a snipe, the mouth was formed something like that of a crocodile, especially the lower jaw, the neck was long and like that of a bird, and the feet were adapted for water to assist the animal to swim. It could You have already seen that the upper series of the Wealden, walk, swim, or fly. Its extremities, or what may be called such as the clays and the grits, are marked for their fossils, hands and feet, have fingers, but the finger that is in the the lamina of the clay being coated with the shells of the place of our little finger has five joints, and each joint very Cypris Faba and the Petworth or Sussex marble, consisting long, till the centre finger is longer than the animal's body and chiefly of the shells of Paludina Vivipara. These beds, neck. To this finger, to the rest of the arm, to the body, and developed about Brook Point in the Isle of Wight, have sup--but still so constructed as to allow the animal the free use to a portion of the hinder leg, a membraneous wing is attached plied a large amount of the bones of enormous reptiles, fresh- of its arms and legs, even when the wings were not in use. On water shells, river mussels, ferns, and plants, but especially fossil trees, which are imbedded in sandstone, and protrude account of of its fingers and wings, the animal is called Pterofrom the water-worn surface of the rocks, as seen at low water. dactyl, from repov, pteron, a wing, and darTulog, daktylos, The trees appear to have been engulphed while in vigorous a finger-a finger-winged, or wing-fingered animal. growth, with their vessels and bark full of sap.

II. THE ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE WEALDEN.

The Purbeck marble is made of small river-snail shells, intermixed with the cases of minute cowries or cyprides. To geologists, however, the dirt bed in the Purbeck series is far more interesting than the marble. The fossil plants found in this bed refer to those now called Cycas and Zamia, plants which betoken a very warm climate. The trees are completely silicified, and seem to be of the species called araucaria or pine.

The layers of the calciferous grit of Tilgate Forest seem to consist of the detritus of plants ground to pieces by being rolled or agitated in water loaded with sand, especially of the remains of two species of ferns called Sphenopteris and Lonchop

teris.

The prevalent shells of the Wealden have already been pointed out in our description of the lithological character of the clays and the marbles, some fresh-water, some brackish, and some marine.

The Wealden fishes are, for the most part, either of the shark family and related genera, or of a species allied to river pikes. Complete skeletons of fishes are very rare, but detached scales, teeth, and bones abound.

What has given the greatest fame to the Wealden is its reptiles. The bones and plates of turtles are very common, both in the grits of the Tilgate Forest, and in the Purbeck limstone-some of these turtles or chelonians being freshwater, and others of a marine tribe.

Some of the reptiles, whose remains have been discovered in quarries about Tilgate and Horsham, are evidenty marine inhabitants of the sea into which the mighty river of the Wealden carried down its sand and mud. Such are the Plesiosaurus and Cetiosaurus, reptiles of the lias and oolite epochs, but whose species lived to visit the estuaries of the Wealden stream.

Others of the Wealden reptiles were allied to the alligator, the crocodile, and the gavial, being the largest of existing quadrupeds that propagate their species by eggs, and hence called oviparous. Still, the fossil forms differed much in tructure from the present race of crocodiles. These fossil

III. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENON INDICATED BY
THE WEALDEN.

There is no process that will so effectually imbue your mind with the principles of geology, as an effort of your own mind to realise the sequence of the mighty changes which have taken place in some of the primeval epochs of the earth's history. The lithological character of rocks, and the organic remains of different beds, can only supply you with facts, it is your own mind that must form the logic of the events. You must, therefore, try this deductive process on the Wealden phenomena which have been related to you.

1. It seems that, at a period thousands of years or myriads of centuries ago, the oolite beds formed the surface of a large district in the northern hemisphere of the globe, having a climate so warm as to nourish coniferous trees and arborescent plants and fern, like those found in the dirt bed of the Purbeck beds. The coast of that district was washed by an ocean inhabited by turtles and marine lizards.

2. In the course of ages, that district began to sink, but so quietly and gradually as to allow the trees to maintain their erect position, and the plants and the vegetable mould to remain.

3. Upon this a mighty river, like the Ganges or the Missis sippi, poured its turbid waters so as to cover the district and its forests. This river deposited, over the soil and around the. trees, a calcareous mud, which gradually became solid limestone. This river formed a delta in what is now called the valley of the Weald in Kent and Sussex, and is lying between the North Downs and the South Downs. The whole of this valley, except where it opens to the sea at Hastings, is a denudation of the chalk which once covered the whole of the Wealden formation.

4. The land continued to sink, and the waters of the mighty river overwhelmed the forest that had been petrified by thermal springs holding flint in solution, and went on heaping upon the surface vast accumulations of detritus brought down from a distant region.

6. The country traversed by this river and its tributaries was of a tropical climate, luxuriating in plants and arborescent ferns, and its waters abounded in turtles, and were frequented by gigantic reptiles. The remains of these plants and animals were brought down by the waters and deposited in the mud of the delta.

6. The next stupendous change was that the entire region, inhabited by these terrible lizards, perhaps a land now under the Atlantic, was itself swept away, and the delta continued to subside to a great depth, till it was covered by a deep sea which deposited all over it the sediments of the chalk formation.

7. In this submerged state it lay for a period incalculably long, till, by volcanic action from below, large areas of the district began to upheave, and continued to rise until the chalk covering became exposed to the action of the waves, so as to thin it. This rendered it more incapable to resist. The subterranean power continued to press upward against the overlying strata until the chalk formation snapped asunder, which made it more easy for the waves to carry on the work of denudation, and expose the underlying Wealdens, some thing as represented in the next diagram.

E

Fig. 5. Elevation of the Wealden.

B C

A D

cularly called upon to unite in erecting a suitable monument to his memory.'

Dr. THOMSON, in seconding the above resolution, said: Every one was aware of the merits of Mr. Watt. He himself had the honour of his acquaintance for twenty-five years. Never before or since that period had he seen or heard of any person that was better acquainted with every topic, and had such a general knowledge and understanding. Many attempts had been made to improve Mr. Watt's engine, but the one made by himself was the best extant. All the new engines that are now erecting in Cornwall are upon his plan. The learned professor concluded by saying, that the steam-engine was not only the greatest but the completest present ever made by science to the arts; and that the inventor had contributed more to the prosperity and aggrandisement of Great Britain than any man that ever existed.

Mr. HOULDSWORTH said: No individual present more appreciated the memory of that illustrious gentleman, Mr. Watt, than he did. Some gentlemen present, who have so great powers of oratory, could speak from morning to night of his merits and his surpassing knowledge, and not exhaust the subject. Upon these grounds he would leave the case in abler hands. He concluded by moving the following resolution, which was seconded by Professor Jardine :

IV. "That the gentlemen which he named be appointed a committee for the purpose of procuring subscriptions, with power to form themselves into sub-committees, and to add to their number when they think proper."

Dr. URE, on being called on by the Lord Provost, spoke as follows:-Every citizen of Glasgow should feel grateful to the gentlemen at whose call this public meeting has been convened. The zeal and intelligence now displayed, will, I have no doubt, remove a cause of reproach from this city. London, Edinburgh, Greenock, besides several other towns of much less note than our own, have already paid their public tribute of admiration to the genius of Watt. But Glasgow alone, the scene of the greatest triumph ever achieved by mind over matter, because it was the place where that philosopher's mind was formed, and his inventive talents developed-Glasgow has remained silent, seeming to verify the wise saying, "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country.' The merits of Mr. Watt have been recently celebrated by

A, the North Downs of Surrey. B, the South Downs of Sussex. o, the anticlinal axis of the Wealden near Balcombe. D, the Tertiaries of London. E, the Tertiaries of Hampshire. 8. The abundance of carbonized plants in the Wealden shales and clays, and the frequent occurrence of lignite, or brown coal, both in masses and in layers, make these beds look in some districts as if they belonged to the coal measures. This has misled some to open mines for coal, but all in vain. Yet, though the Eng.isn Wealdens contain no coal, the Wealdens of Hanover, in Germany, contain a valuable and extensive coal-statesmen, philosophers, and orators, of the first respectability field.

BIOGRAPHY.-No. XIV.

JAMES WATT, INVENTOR OF THE STEAM-ENGINE.

(Continued from page 203.)

in the kingdom; but so transcendent are these merits, that no praise hitherto bestowed can be called panegyric. In him were conjoined qualities deemed hardly compatible, and rarely associated in the same individual. The most lively fancy, which could multiply at will mechanical combinations, or expatiate in the fields of romantic literature, was combined with the severest judgment, and an unwearied assiduity and unity of action in accomplishing his ends. The utmost ardour "It was contemplating such an object-looking to a monument of friendship was blended with dispassionate considerations on for James Watt, not only as a memorial of the past, but an the true interest of his friends. But the main scope of his excitement to the future-not only as an expression of grati- mind, the great business of his life, was the investigation of tude from the present generation, but as a stimulus to genius the laws of nature, with the view of directing her powers to the still unborn-that he anticipated the happiest effects, and that uses of society. And in this respect justice has not been renthe passing spectator, when he cast his eye upon it, would dered to his fame, owing to an early and unintentional mistake exclaim, Glasgow expects every man to do his duty. of his friend, Professor Robison, which remained uncorrected Mr. WILLIAM SMITH then rose, and said he had the honour in public, from the modesty of Mr. Watt. Professor Robison, of submitting a motion to the meeting, which could require no in his writings, represents Mr. Watt as deriving his knowledge argument of his to recommend it to their notice, not only be- of the constitution of steam, and consequently of the first cause it appeared to follow almost as the necessary consequence principles of his steam-engine, from the lessons of Dr. Black, of the resolutions to which they had already agreed; but also whose lectures he is described as attending, at the period of because so much had already been said, and so well said, on making his steam-engine improvements. May I be allowed the subject of the former resolutions, equally applicable to to avail myself of this public opportunity to rectify that misthat he now held in his hand, and in which he most cordially apprehension? In the course of several conversations which concurred. There were undoubtedly classes in the community I had the honour of enjoying with Mr. Watt, on the nature who, from having more directly benefited by the discoveries and force of steam at different temperatures, he informed me, of Mr. Watt, were more particularly called upon this day with his characteristic mildness, that his friend Professor than he was, and he was sure they would come nobly forward; Robison had fallen into a mistake with regard to his being a but surely in such a city as this, much of its prosperity may be ascribed to the discoveries of that illustrious individual, and which has the honour of claiming him as a citizen: it was not too much to expect not only a liberal, but a general support to the measure now about to be adopted. He concluded by moving the following resolution:

III. "That, for the reasons stated in the second resolution, all ranks and classes in this city and neighbourhood are parti.

pupil of Dr. Black at the time of his improving the steam engine; for that he never was a student of that philosopher, "As to the latent heat of steam," said Mr. Watt to me, "it was a piece of knowledge essential to my inquiries, and I worked it out myself in the best way that I could; I used I got approximations sufficient for my purpose at the time apothecaries' phials for my apparatus, and by means of them With them I ascertained the two main facts about steam

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Watt. It might, indeed, have been expected that a grateful| country would have wreathed spontaneous honours round that living head, which had rendered it the most powerful among the nations, which had supplied it with the sinews of war, and had multiplied, in a degree scarcely calculable, the sources of its national wealth:

"But nations, slowly wise and meanly just,

To buried merit raise the tardy buɛt."

"Such was the dawn of that practical philosophy which now in rich effulgence illuminates the arts of Britain.

"What honours and rewards were bestowed on the man who

first shed these rays of awakening light on a world lying in darkness? For demonstrating the true constitution of our solar system-the daily rotation of the earth on its axis, and its annual revolution round the central sun-the rugged mountainous structure of our moon and the satellites of Jupiter, besides many other equally important truths which your time Let us rejoice, however, that this strange neglect of such sur-will not permit me to recount, Galileo was vilified as an impassing excellence and usefulness no longer exists. From his poster and a heretic, hunted from one Italian principality Most Gracious Majesty to the working mechanic, every man to another, finally apprehended as a culprit, compelled to 1s ready to recognise the merits of James Watt, and to contri- kneel before a conclave of ignorant cardinals, and condemned bute in his sphere towards their celebration." to perpetual imprisonment. Such was the fate of the greatest philosopher, the most elegant writer and accomplished gentleman, which his country has produced.

Thanks were then voted to the Lord Provost for his conduct in the chair, and to the gentlemen who signed the requisition for calling this meeting.

In the list of the gentlemen who were appointed as members of the committee on this occasion, viz. 24th Nov., 1824, we find our own name mentioned (a fact which we had entirely forgotten until we wrote this sentence) among the names of the Honourable the Lord Provost of Glasgow, the Provosts of Paisley and Dumbarton, the members of Parliament for these towns and the counties to which they belong, the principal and professors of the University of Glasgow, the chief men of the city of Glasgow, the great cotton and sugar lords of the western metropolis of Scotland, bankers, merchants, and lawyers, men worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, and whose names will long be held in remembrance in that city, which is one of the most intelligent and opulent cities of the British empire, and which is every day rising into greater importance by its wealth, population, and commerce.

In concluding this short memoir of Mr. Watt, we cannot but give an abstract of the eloquent lecture soon afterwards (20th Dec., 1824) delivered by Dr. Ure, the talented professor f chemistry, in the hall of the Andersonian University, in aid of the funds subscribed by the previous meeting, which amounted, at the close, to upwards of £1000. This lecture produced from the mechanics of Glasgow, who assembled in that room, and which held only about five hundred persons, the sum of £54. With these, and other sums afterwards collected, a very handsome bronze statue of James Watt was erected to his memory in Georges-square, Glasgow. The following is the abstract of the Doctor's lecture:

"The intellect of nations as well as of individuals has its periods of exertion and repose, of splendour and obscuration thus the history of literature and of the fine arts is concentrated round two epochs in ancient Greece, one in ancient Rome, and two or at most three in modern Europe.

"The progress of science displays corresponding alternations of activity and quiescence; for illustrations of this truth we need hardly refer to the ancient world. Its poets, orators, historians, and artists, indeed, have created such models as modern genius vainly strives to rival or even to imitate: but its philosophers discover on most occasions so little skill in scientific research-so little tact in interrogating nature, that they can be regarded merely as rude cultivators of that garden of knowledge which was destined in after ages to furnish perennial stores of fruit to delight the senses of man, and invigorate the frame of society.

"Little more than two centuries has elapsed since the human mind began on right principles to examine the system of the universe; to investigate rationally our terraqueous globe; to determine, by well-devised experiments, the mutual actions of etter; and from a comparison of the whole phenomena, to deduce results capable of enlarging the empire of man over nature, and of qualifying him to accomplish the mandate admirable bounties of providence. of his Maker, to subdue the earth, in order to enjoy the

Galileo then appeared the noble Florentine. He constitutes the focus round which the first bright rays of practical science were converged, and from which they became diffused among the nations.

"By investigating the laws of motion, he laid the foundation. of practical mechanics, and applied his valuable deductions to the operation of machines, as well as to the celestial movesure and equilibrium of the atmosphere. Bunts. He also suggested the first ideas concerning the pres

"In 1642, the year in which death relieved Galileo from his priestly persecutors, Providence called another mind into being, which was ordained to confirm beyond dispute, and to extend to universal nature, the primary deductions of the Florentine. This was Isaac Newton; a man, by the consent of all nations, placed at the head of his species-the noblest representative of human reason. In his presence, Satraps and Sultans, Emperors and Autocrats, hide their diminished heads. As Galileo had been the source of emulation among his contemporaries, so Newton became the philosophic sun, round which a hundred scientific satellites in the various kingdoms of Europe revolved, and from which they borrowed their illumination. The conclusion of the seventeenth century constitutes therefore the second splendid era of true science, as its commencement had been the first. But dazzled by the blaze of Newton's discoveries, mankind seemed to lose for a season the faculty of making spontaneous researches into the different regions of nature. Accordingly, a period of quiescence, nearly equal to the former, now intervenes, during which science is seen to repose on her laurels.

"But too mighty and general an impulsion had been given to human reason, for it to subside into apathy and inaction. And soon a third and most magnificent era commenced; for a new world, abounding with productions, powers, and privileges, incalculably extensive and beneficial, began to be explored and conquered by science. This was the invisible and intangible world of elastic fluids; but not on that account either a shadowy or unsubstantial realm. Now the wild spirits of the alchemists were tamed; the incoercible vapours were taught docility and restraint. Here actual scenes burst upon our view, more marvellous than any pictured in the pages of oriental romance. The first Arabian alchemists believed that the elements were under the dominion of intelligent spirits, who might be brought into subjection to human power; and the fantastic tales of fairies and genii, narrated with such a luxuriance of fancy in the Thousand and One Nights, formed the creed of those mystical adepts. But modern science disdains to cherish such chimeras. It perceives, and solemnly acknowledges, one creative and superintending mind, which has formed every part of the material system in truth, harmony, and beneficence; and which has conferred on man the glorious privilege of searching out the principles of elemental change, so as to direct them at his will, and with a surer aim than superstition ever could dare to suppose her supernatural phantoms possessed.

"Aladdin's fabled lamp, which enabled its bearer to explore the hidden treasures of the earth, to wander unhurt amid malignant demons, and to return to the surface laden with spoil, is more than realised by Sir H. Davy's wondrous invention. The winged horse is but a feeble representative of the aerostatic machine, by whose buoyancy man may rise to eleva tions above the eagle's flight; and the enchanted boat, which glided against the current, and the breeze, is far surpassed by with fire, marches over the mountain wave, and bids defiance our actual steam-ship, the modern leviathan, which, instinct

to the storm.

"It is ascertained that the wORK now PERFORMED by the STEAM-ENGINE of WATT in Great Britain, is equivalent to the labour of about HALF A MILLION of stout horses-but the horses require relays in order to continue the work, and therefore at least double the number would be required in the course of

twelve hours, forming the amazing aggregate of ONE MILLION, equal to the labour of FIVE MILLIONS OF MEN.

"The volume or bulk of the great pyramid of Egypt is equal to nearly 5,333,333 cubic yards, and the weight of one cubic yard of its material being about two tons, its whole weight is 10,666,666 tons. The centre of gravity of the pyramid stands fifty-four yards above its base, and taking twelve yards as the average depth of the quarries from which the stones were raised, we have for the total altitude of that centre sixty-six yards, which multiplied by 10,666,666, give about 704 millions of tons, elevated one yard high.

"Now the British steam-engines represent a power of 500,000 horses; THESE MACHINES moving for twenty-four HOURS, can raise 3,420 MILLIONS OF TONS one yard high, taking Watt's estimate of 32,000 lbs. one foot high in a minute, for a single horse power, consequently they could raise 704 millions of tons, being the equivalent WEIGHT OF THE PYRAMID, in less than i

FIVE HOURS,

"M. Dupin, three years ago, astonished the institute of France, by showing that the British engines could raise all the stones of the pyramid from the quarries into their respective places by eighteen hours' work, but he must have greatly underrated the power of the steam-engines, even allowing for their rapid increase since that time. Herodotus tells us, that the great pyramid employed in its building the whole available population of Egypt for twenty years; Cheops, the king, was so detested for imposing this grinding labour on his subjects, which totally impoverished the country, that they suffered neither his own bones nor those of his posterity to repose in this absurd mausoleum. Now mark the difference between ancient and modern industry-between that of slaves and that of freemen. All the labour of Watt's engines is employed in productive operations, nourishing the people, and enriching the state to a degree which it is not easy to imagine or com

pute.

"At the period when James Watt rendered his engine applicable to every purpose of art, he made a present to his country of a power more economical, more disposable, more stupendous, and more essential, than all the other powers previously applied to manufactures.

I

"Milton's boldfiction of chariots moving by vital impulse is realised in the locomotive engine

Chariots winged, harness'd at hand,

Celestial equipage-and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within the spirit lived.'

The time is not far distant when chariots winged with fire
shall be seen flying over metallic pavements through all the
populous districts of the empire, transporting travellers and
merchandize with amazing smoothness and velocity..

"From these marvellous effects shall we remount to causes? shall we trace the early development of this master-mind, this true philosopher, this tutelary genius of Britain, who has done for the earth what Newton did for the Heavens-teaching us to explore its regions of land, water, and air, and to apply their productions to the uses of life." Here Dr. Ure gave an account of Mr. Watt's early education, which was by no means neglected either on his own part or that of his very respectable parents. At twenty-one years of age, he commenced business as a mathematical instrument maker in Glasgow, where he found congenial minds and zealous patrons in the celebrated men who then adorned our university. At that time, mathematics, the foundation of all the exact sciences, flourished here, for Robert Simpson was the teacher, a name which awakens many mingled emotions. Then Adam Smith, previously trained to habits of accurate thinking by the study of geometry and astronomy, shed the kindred glories of literature and science around him; and Black was ardently opening his auspicious career. of discovery. When will such a triumvirate again appear to cherish the nascent genius of another Watt! The Professor, after detailing minutely the various improvements of Mr. Watt upon the steam-engine, and the experiments he made in their prosecution, read some extracts from Mr. Watt's patent, which clearly showed that all the later varieties of the steam-engine were anticipated and described minutely by that philosopher; he then concluded nearly as follows:

"He has enabled us to descend to prodigious depths in the earth, formerly inaccessible; and has created there provinces of subterranean wealth, infinitely more important and valuable than all our colonies in East and Western Ind; provinces which the chances of war can never wrest from us, and which require no mighty military array to secure. And all this has been done with a little fuel, which he himself supplies, a little water, a cylinder, a piston, and a few levers, How truly did Bacon declare, "knowledge is power!" The knowledge of the laws of nature, arms our feeble hands with her most gigantic forces! How many populous and flourishing cities and towns have been created by the genius of Watt! What were Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds, Preston, Glasgow, and many others, before his engine gave them vitality? and what would become of them were it to disappear? What, in this case, would feed our multiplied population, what would pay the interest of our national debt, where would be the preeminence of Britain? Deprived of the boundless resources furnished by Watt, no Nelson could have been sent forth to sweep the ocean, for the meteor flag of England would, but for his vestal fire, long ere now have ceased to burn; and the three hundred millions expended in the Peninsular war was the produce of the alchemy of Watt.

"Nothing could be happier than the moral constitution of Mr. Watt's mind. Ardent in research, yet patient of disappointment; bold in his general views, gentle but firm in carrying them into effect, bland in the intercourse of social life, yet not without the raciness of genius, which gave an original zest to all he said, and rendered every casual companion his friend and admirer. There was but one thing which his soul seemed to loathe, and which called forth its latent artillery of sarcasm, and that was illiterate presumption.

But what new phenomenon do we behold! Mark that mighty vessel issuing from the port! She bears her gallant prow through the opposing billows. She braves alike "the battle and the breeze." In vain does the rage of man try to At her triumphant course; in vain do the elements resist er. See, she marshals the English fleet; she plants the var ships in their station, while their sails are furled alm. She manoeuvres them so as to baffle and surse foes. They are conquered, but flight is no longer The genius of Watt arrests them, as if by an irresispell. Then wars shall cease, because resistance shall peless,

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The hostile fraud shall fail,
And white-rou'd justice lift her golden scale."

"In the summer of 1805, I had the honour of spending two days with him at his villa of Heathfield, near Soho, on my return from a scientific tour through England. Many doubts and difficulties had occurred to me, some of which I ventured to state to Mr. Watt. Then the spring of knowledge flowed forth in a most refreshing stream, and wherever it turned flowers and fruits came up spontaneously. To every topic he gave singular interest, by the originality and justness of his views. His intellectual alembic had sublimed from every subject its purer essence, and left the grosser parts behind. Hence his memory, though vastly capacious and retentive, never betrayed the recollection of any thing dull or commonplace. Its compartments were all distinctly defined, and each was replenished with its peculiar store of intellectual wealth. Intense study is apt to engender grave and even recluse habits, as is seen in the biography of Newton, and many other illus trious philosophers. It may be doubted, therefore, if ever there existed so happily framed a mind as that of James Watt; which, deep and powerful like the ocean, could, in society, assume the sparkling vivacity and innocent playfulness of the crystal rill. This is the perfection of philosophy. Thus knowledge becomes truly amiable; and pursued in the spirit of Watt, it is calculated to render us dear to our friends, valuable to our country, and humble in the sight of God. Mr. Watt's piety was rational, steady, and unobtrusive. His benevolence discovered itself in every circumstance of his life, for he sought to do good to the extent of his power, being a perfect stranger to envy and every malignant feeling. And after a life so eminently useful, he surrendered his soul, in the utmost tranquillity, to that Supreme Intelligence which had, for eighty-four years, made him its peculiar care."

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