the circle of our old
friends gradually diminishing, while our ability to increase it
by new ones is equally diminished; but perhaps it is a wise
dispensation of Providence so to diminish our enjoyments in this
world, that when our turn comes we may leave it without regret.

He writes to another correspondent, July 12, 1810:

I, in particular, have reason to thank God that he has preserved
me so well as I am, to so late a period, while the greater part
of my contemporaries, healthier and younger men, have passed
"the bourne from which no traveller returns." It is, however, a
painful contemplation to see so many who were dear to us pass
away before us; and our consolation should be, that as
Providence has been pleased to prolong our life, we should
render ourselves as useful to society as we can while we live.

And again, when seventy-six years of age, January, 1812, he writes:

On these subjects I can offer no other consolations than what
are derived from religion: they have only gone before us a
little while, in that path we all must tread, and we should be
thankful they were spared so long to their friends and the
world.

Sir Walter Scott declares:

That is the worst part of life when its earlier path is trod. If
my limbs get stiff, my walks are made shorter, and my rides
slower; if my eyes fail me, I can use glasses and a large print:
if I get a little deaf, I comfort myself that except in a few
instances I shall be no great loser by missing one full half of
what is spoken: _but I feel the loneliness of age when my
companions and friends are taken from me._

All his life until retiring from business, Watt's care was to obtain
sufficient for the support of himself and family upon the most modest
scale. He had no surplus to devote to ends beyond self, but as soon as
he retired with a small competence it was different, and we accordingly
find him promptly beginning to apply some portion of his still small
revenue to philanthropical ends. Naturally, his thoughts reverted first
to his native town and the university to which he owed so much.

In 1808 he founded the Watt Prize in Glasgow University, saying:

Entertaining a due sense of the many favours conferred upon me
by the University of Glasgow, I wish to leave them some memorial
of my gratitude, and, at the same time, to excite a spirit of
inquiry