es. I would
not take this freedom if I were not sure it would be agreeable
to you; and that you will thank me for adding to the number of
those who from their knowledge of you must respect you, one who
is both an ingenious philosopher and a most worthy, honest man.
If anything new in magnetism or electricity, or any other branch
of natural knowledge, has occurred to your fruitful genius since
I last had the pleasure of seeing you, you will by communicating
it greatly oblige me.

This man must have been one of the finest characters revealed in Watt's
life. Altho he left little behind him to ensure permanent remembrance,
the extraordinary tributes paid his memory by friends establish his
right to high rank among the coterie of eminent men who surrounded Watt
and Boulton. Boulton records that "there being nothing which I wish to
fix in my mind so permanently as the remembrance of my dear departed
friend, I did not delay to erect a memorial in the prettiest but most
obscure part of my garden, from which you see the church in which he was
interred." Dr. Darwin contributed the verses inscribed. Upon hearing of
Small's illness Day hastened from Brussels to be present at the last
hour.

Keir writes, announcing Small's death to his brother, the Rev. Robert
Small, in Dundee, "It is needless to say how universally he is lamented;
for no man ever enjoyed or deserved more the esteem of mankind. We loved
him with the tenderest affection and shall ever revere his memory."

Watt's voluminous correspondence with Professor Small, previous to his
partnership with Boulton, proves Small at that time to have been his
intimate friend and counsellor. We scarcely know in all literature of a
closer union between two men. Many verses of Tennyson's Memorial to
Hallam could be appropriately applied to their friendship. Watt did not
apparently give way to lamentations as Boulton and others did who were
present at Small's death, probably because the receipt of Boulton's
heart-breaking letter impressed Watt with the need of assuming the part
of comforter to his partner, who was face to face with death, and had to
bear the direct blow. Watt's tribute to his dear friend came later.

Future operations necessarily depended upon the extension of the patent.
Boulton, of course, could not proceed with the works. There was as yet
no agreement between Watt and Boulton beyond joint ownership in the
patent. At this time, Watt'