But the draining of mines was only one of the many applications of the steam-power now at his command, which Watt contemplated, and in course of time accomplished. During the whole twenty-five years, indeed, over which his renewed patent extended, the perfecting of his invention was his chief occupation, and notwithstanding a delicate state of health, and the depressing affliction of severe headaches, to which he was extremely subject, he continued throughout this period to persevere with unwearied diligence in adding new improvements to the mechanism of the engine, and devising the means of applying it to new purposes of usefulness. He devoted, in particular, the exertions of many years, to the contriving of the best methods of making the action of the piston communicate a rotary motion in various circumstances, and between the years 1781 and 1785, he took out four different patents for inventions having this in his view. It is gratifying to reflect, that even while he was yet alive, Watt received from the most illustrious contemporaries, the honours due to his genius. In 1785, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by the University of Glasgow, in 1806; and in 1808, he was elected a member of the French Institute. He died on the 25th of August, 1819, in the 84th year of his age. The beneficial results arising from the ingenuity of Watt have been surprising. The steam-engine has already gone far to revolutionise the whole domain of human industry; and almost every year is adding to its power and its conquests. In our manufactures, our arts, our commerce, our social accommodations, it is constantly achieving what, little more than half a century ago, would have been accounted miraculous and impossible. “The trunk of an elephant,” it has been finely and truly said, “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 like wax 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 muslins, and forge anchors; cut steel into ribbands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.”