ion
of James Watt, by which the force detected was rendered uniform, instead
of fitful and spasmodic, as it had been before. And yet, important as
was the discovery of the one, and ingenious as is the invention of the
other, both are of slight account in the presence of the great fact of
nature observed by the English nobleman and humoured by the Scottish
artisan. The _genie_ whom the one captured and the other tamed, is the
great magic worker, apart from whose subtle strength their ingenuity had
been wasted, and had come to naught.

But here I must restrain my rovings, and recall my purpose to descant on
other points. And indeed the uses of water are so numerous and varied
that the subject might well engross a lecture by itself; and I must
needs therefore cut the matter short. It is only Hodge-Podge, moreover,
I have undertaken to dish up before you, and I must keep my word. For,
fain as I am to dilate on the many economic virtues of water, I must not
forget that the pot contains other ingredients, and that the dish I am
serving out of it would yield but poor fare, if it did not.

2. I come therefore to the next ingredient in the soup I am providing;
for, as the housewife said, "there's mutton intilt," and it is the most
important ingredient in the mess. But the animal which produces it, like
the kindred animals that produce the like, serves other purposes as
well, and these no less essential to the exigency of the race; and it is
of them I propose to speak. It is beside my design to enter on the
domain of the sheep-breeder, and attempt an account of the different
kinds reared by the farmer; enough to say that, numerous as these are,
they are all fed and tended for the benefit of the human family, and
that they minister to the supply of the same human wants.

The child, as it frolics on the lawn, stops his gambols and steps gently
aside to coax, to caress his woolly-fleeced companion; and the mother
talks softly to her child of the innocent darlings, and asks if they are
not lovely creatures, and beautiful to look at, as they timidly wander
from spot to spot, and nibble the delicate pasture. So it is to the
lively fancy of childhood, and so it is to the mother whose affections
are naturally melted into softness in the presence of simplicity; but
when economic considerations arise, and the question is one of service
and value, all such sentimental and aesthetic emotions pass out of
court, and only calculations of base