Though endowed with great retentive powers, Watt would probably never have figured among the prodigies of a common school: he would have been slow to commit his lessons to memory, from the repugnance which he would feel to repeat like a parrot anything which he did not perfectly [Pg079] understand. The natural tendency of his mind to meditate on whatever came before it, would give him, to superficial observers, the appearance of dullness. Happily, however, he had a parent who was sufficiently clear-sighted, and who entertained high hopes of the growing faculties of his son. More distant and less sagacious relations were not so sanguine. One day Mrs. Muirhead, the aunt of the boy, reproaching him for what she conceived to be listless idleness, desired him to take a book and occupy himself usefully. "More than an hour has now passed away," said she, "and you have not uttered a single word. Do you know what you have been doing all this time? You have taken off, and put on, repeatedly, the lid of the tea-pot; you have been holding the saucers and the spoons over the steam, and you have been endeavouring to catch the drops of water formed on them by the vapour. Is it not a shame for you to waste your time so?" Mrs. Muirhead was little aware that this was the first experiment in the splendid career of discovery which was subsequently to immortalise her little nephew. She did not see, as we now can, in the little boy playing with the tea-pot, the great engineer preluding to those discoveries which were destined to confer on mankind benefits so inestimable. One of the social qualities of mind which was remarkable throughout his life, was the singular felicity and grace with which he related anecdotes. This power was manifested even in his earliest childhood. The following is an extract from a letter written by Mrs. Marion Campbell, his cousin, and the playfellow of his childhood:— "He was not fourteen when his mother brought him to Glasgow to visit a friend of hers; his brother John accompanied him. On Mrs. Watt's return to Glasgow, some weeks after, her friend said, 'You must take your son James home; I cannot stand the degree of excitement he keeps me in; I am worn out for want of sleep. Every evening before ten o'clock, our usual hour of retiring to rest, he contrives to engage me in conversation, then begins some striking tale, and, whether humorous or pathetic, the interest is so overpowering that the family all listen to him with breathless attention, and hour after hour strikes unheeded.'" [Pg080] Watt had a younger brother, John, who was subsequently lost by shipwreck, in a voyage from Scotland to the United States. This lad, having determined on following the business of his father, left James more completely at liberty to choose his own occupation. But such a choice was difficult for a student who commanded equal success in every thing to which he directed his attention.