WATT, THE MAN
Of Watt, the genius, possessed of abilities far beyond those of other
men, a scientist and philosopher, a mechanician and a craftsman, one who
gravitated without effort to the top of every society, and who, even
when a young workman, made his workshop the meeting-place of the leaders
of Glasgow University for the interchange of views upon the highest and
most abstruse subjects--with all this we have already dealt, but it is
only part, and not the nobler part. He excelled all his fellows in
knowledge, but there is much beyond mere knowledge in man. Strip Watt of
all those commanding talents that brought him primacy without effort,
for no man ever avoided precedence more persistently than he, and the
question still remains: what manner of man was he, as man? Surely our
readers would esteem the task but half done that revealed only what was
unusual in Watt's head. What of his heart? is naturally asked. We hasten
to record that in the domain of the personal graces and virtues, we have
evidence of his excellence as copious and assured as for his
pre-eminence in invention and discovery.
We cite the testimony of those who knew him best. It is seldom that a
great man is so fortunate in his eulogists. The picture drawn of him by
his friend, Lord Jeffrey, must rank as one of the finest ever produced,
as portrait and tribute combined. That it is a discriminating statement,
altho so eulogistic, may well be accepted, since numerous contributory
proofs are given by others of Watt's personal characteristics. Says Lord
Jeffrey:
Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt
was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderful man.
Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such
varied and exact information--had read so much, or remembered
what he had read so accurately and well. He had infinite
quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain
rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which
extracted something precious out of all that was presented to
it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and yet
less astonishing than the command he had at all times over them.
It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in
conversation with him, had been that which he had been last
occupied in studying and exhausting; such was the copiousness,
the precision, and the admirable clearness of the information
which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor
was this promptitude and compass of knowledge confined in any
degree to the studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That
he should have been minutely and extensively skilled in
chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical
science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not
have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is
not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many
branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and
perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music and
law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern
languages, and familiar with their most recent literature. Nor
was it at all extraordinary to hear the great mechanician and
engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, the
metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising
the measures or the matter of the German poetry.
His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure,
by a still higher and rarer faculty--by his power of digesting
and arranging in its proper place all the information he
received, and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were
instinctively, whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every
conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to
take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be
condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never
appeared, therefore, to be at all encumbered or perplexed with
the _verbiage_ of the dull books he perused, or the idle talk to
which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of
intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to
have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to its
simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more
was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories
and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could
ever have derived from the most painful study of the originals,
and that errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere
clearness and plainness of his statement of them, which might
have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers without that
invaluable assistance.
It is needless to say, that, with those vast resources, his
conversation was at all times rich and instructive in no
ordinary degree; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing
than wise, and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the
substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social
in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or
more kind and indulgent toward all who approached him. He rather
liked to talk, at least in his latter years, but though he took
a considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested
the topics on which it was to turn, but readily and quietly took
up whatever was presented by those around him, and astonished
the idle and barren propounders of an ordinary theme, by the
treasures which he drew from the mine they had inconsciously
opened. He generally seemed, indeed, to have no choice or
predilection for one subject of discourse rather than another;
but allowed his mind, like a great cyclopaedia, to be opened at
any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and only
endeavour to select, from his inexhaustible stores, what might
be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their
capacity he gave himself no trouble; and, indeed, such was his
singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and
intelligible, that scarcely any one could be aware of such a
deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, though overflowing
with information, had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn
discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit
and pleasantry. He had a certain quiet and grave humour, which
ran through most of his conversation, and a vein of temperate
jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed
and inexhaustible information which formed its main staple and
characteristic. There was a little air of affected testiness,
and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction, with which he
used to address his younger friends, that was always felt by
them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity, and
prized accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that
ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep
and powerful, although he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat
monotonous tone, which harmonised admirably with the weight and
brevity of his observations, and set off to the greatest
advantage the pleasant anecdotes, which he delivered with the
same grave brow, and the same calm smile playing soberly on his
lips. There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any
more than pride or levity, in his demeanour; and there was a
finer expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession
in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any
other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for
all sorts of forwardness, parade and pretensions; and, indeed,
never failed to put all such impostures out of countenance, by
the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and
deportment.
In his temper and dispositions he was not only kind and
affectionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of
all around him; and gave the most liberal assistance and
encouragement to all young persons who showed any indications of
talent, or applied to him for patronage or advice. His health,
which was delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become
firmer as he advanced in years; and he preserved, up almost to
the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of
his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit, and
the social gaiety, which had illumined his happiest days. His
friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of
intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, never more
delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit to
Scotland in the autumn of 1817. Indeed, it was after that time
that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to
the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of
sculpture and statuary; and distributed among his friends some
of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young
artist just entering on his eighty-third year.
* * * * *
All men of learning and science were his cordial friends; and
such was the influence of his mild character and perfect
fairness and liberality, even upon the pretenders to these
accomplishments, that he lived to disarm even envy itself, and
died, we verily believe, without a single enemy.
Professor Robison, the most intimate friend of his youth, records that:
When to the superiority of knowledge in his own line, which
every man confessed, there was joined the naive simplicity and
candour of his character, it is no wonder that the attachment of
his acquaintances was so strong. I have seen something of the
world and I am obliged to say that I never saw such another
instance of general and cordial attachment to a person whom all
acknowledged to be their superior. But this superiority was
concealed under the most amiable candour, and liberal allowance
of merit to every man. Mr. Watt was the first to ascribe to the
ingenuity of a friend things which were very often nothing but
his own surmises followed out and embodied by another. I am well
entitled to say this, and have often experienced it in my own
case.
This potent commander of the elements, this abridger of time and
space, this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a
change in the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as
they are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt--was not
only the most profound man of science, the most successful
combiner of powers, and combiner of numbers, as adapted to
practical purposes--was not only one of the most generally
well-informed, but one of the best and kindest of human beings.
There he stood, surrounded by the little band of northern
_literati_, men not less tenacious, generally speaking, of their
own opinions, than the national regiments are supposed to be
jealous of the high character they have won upon service.
Methinks I yet see and hear what I shall never see or hear
again. The alert, kind, benevolent old man had his attention
alive to every one's question, his information at every one's
command. His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One
gentleman was a deep philologist, he talked with him on the
origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus;
another, a celebrated critic, you would have said the old man
had studied political economy and _belles lettres_ all his life;
of science it is unnecessary to speak, it was his own
distinguished walk.
Lord Brougham says:
We have been considering this eminent person as yet only in his
public capacity, as a benefactor of mankind by his fertile
genius and indomitable perseverance; and the best portraiture of
his intellectual character was to be found in the description of
his attainments. It is, however, proper to survey him also in
private life. He was unexceptionable in all its relations; and
as his activity was unmeasured, and his taste anything rather
than fastidious, he both was master of every variety of
knowledge, and was tolerant of discussion on subjects of very
subordinate importance compared with those on which he most
excelled. Not only all the sciences from the mathematics and
astronomy, down to botany, received his diligent attention, but
he was tolerably read in the lighter kinds of literature,
delighting in poetry and other works of fiction, full of the
stores of ancient literature, and readily giving himself up to
the critical disquisitions of commentators, and to discussion on
the fancies of etymology. His manners were most attractive from
their perfect nature and simplicity. His conversation was rich
in the measure which such stores and such easy taste might lead
us to expect, and it astonished all listeners with its admirable
precision, with the extraordinary memory it displayed, with the
distinctness it seemed to have, as if his mind had separate
niches for keeping each particular, and with its complete
rejection of all worthless and superfluous matter, as if the
same mind had some fine machine for acting like a fan, casting
off the chaff and the husk. But it had besides a peculiar charm
from the pleasure he took in conveying information where he was
peculiarly able to give it, and in joining with entire candor
whatever discussion happened to arise. Even upon matters on
which he was entitled to pronounce with absolute authority, he
never laid down the law, but spoke like any other partaker of
the conversation. I had the happiness of knowing Mr. Watt for
many years, in the intercourse of private life; and I will take
upon me to bear a testimony, in which all who had that
gratification I am sure will join, that they who only knew his
public merit, prodigious as that was, knew but half his worth.
Those who were admitted to his society will readily allow that
anything more pure, more candid, more simple, more scrupulously
loving of justice, than the whole habits of his life and
conversation proved him to be, was never known in society.
The descriptions given by Lords Brougham, Jeffrey, the genial Sir
Walter, and others, of Watt's universality of knowledge and his charm in
discourse recall Canterbury's exordium:
Hear him but reason in divinity
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish consumed,
You would desire the king were made a prelate;
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say--it hath been all in all his study:
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rendered you in music.
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.
If Watt fell somewhat short of this, so no doubt did the king so greatly
extolled, and much more so, probably, than the versatile Watt.
Dr. Black, the discoverer of latent heat, upon his death-bed, hears that
the Watt patent has been sustained, and is for the time restored again
to interest in life. He whispers that he "could not help rejoicing at
anything that benefited Jamie Watt."
The Earl of Liverpool, prime minister, stated that Watt was remarkable
for
the simplicity of his character, the modesty of his nature, the
absence of anything like presumption and ostentation, the
unwillingness to obtrude himself, not only upon the great and
powerful, but even on those of the scientific world to which he
belonged. A more excellent and amiable man in all the relations
of life I believe never existed.
There can be no question that we have for our example, in the man Watt,
a nature cast in the finest mold, seemingly composed of every creature's
best. Transcendent as were his abilities as inventor and discoverer, we
are persuaded that our readers will feel that his qualities as a man in
all the relations of life were not less so, nor less worthy of record.
His supreme abilities we can neither acquire nor emulate. These are
individual and ended with him. But his virtues and charms as our
fellow-man still shine steadily upon our paths and will shine upon those
of our successors for ages to come, we trust not without leading us and
them to tread some part of the way toward the acquisition of such
qualities as enabled the friend of James Watt to declare his belief that
"a more excellent and amiable man in all the relations of life never
existed." A nobler tribute was never paid by man to man, yet was it not
undeserved.
So passes Jamie Watt, the man, from view--a man who attracted,
delighted, impressed, instructed and made lifelong friends of his
fellows, to a degree unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled.
"His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'"