e been most distinguished
by their usefulness to mankind, and by the spotless integrity of
their lives.

Lord Jeffrey says:

This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he
that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and
unenvied honors; and many generations will probably pass away,
before it shall have gathered "all its fame." We have said that
Mr. Watt was the great _improver_ of the steam engine; but, in
truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in
its utility, he should rather be described as its _inventor_. It
was by his inventions that its action was so regulated, as to
make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate
manufactures, and its power so increased, as to set weight and
solidity at defiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has
become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its
flexibility, for the prodigious power which it can exert, and
the ease, and precision, and ductility, with which it can be
varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that
can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can
engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it;
draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and
lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider
muslin and forge anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel
loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.

It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits
which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There
is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them;
and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most
magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a
thousandfold the amount of its productions. It is our improved
steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe, and exalted
and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the
political greatness of our land. It is the same great power
which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to
maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged
(1819), with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed
with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its
importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human
comforts and enjoyments, and rende