A Watch must not only be well constructed, and on a good principle, but the brass must be hard, and the steel properly tempered. The several parts must be in exact proportion, and well finished, so as to continue in motion with the least possible wear. It must also be so made that, when taken to pieces, all its parts may be replaced as firmly as before. A bad Watch is one in which no more attention has been paid to the proportion of the parts, or durability of the material, than was necessary to make it perform for a time: it is either the production of inefficient workmen, or of those who, being limited in price, are unable to give sufficient time to perfect the work. In some instances these Watches will go well for a time; but as they wear, from friction, they require frequent repair, which cannot be effectually done. The most useful lesson is, that low price is not exactly another word for cheapness. If you wish to possess a good Watch, apply to a maker of known honesty and ability in the art he professes, and who, therefore, should be implicitly trusted. It has been said, that “no man ever made a true circle, or a straight line, except by chance;” and the same may be said of any machine which measured time exactly; indeed, positive accuracy can never be attained until an unchangeable material is discovered, of which the works may be constructed. These practical instructions are by Mr. Adam Thomson. How beautifully has Lord Herbert of Cherbury sung “to his Watch when he could not sleep:” Uncessant minutes, whilst you move you tell The time that tells our life, which though it run Never so fast or far, your new begun Short steps shall overtake: for though life well May ’scape his own account, it shall not yours. You are Death’s auditors, that both divide And sum whate’er that life inspir’d endures, Past a beginning; and through you we bide The doom of fate, whose unrecall’d decree You date, bring, execute; making what’s new, Ill, and good, old; for as we die in you, You die in time, time in eternity. --------------------- Footnote 13: _Archæologia_, vol. xxxvii. Footnote 14: