Section 144 James Watt and the Steam-Engine. — III
It has armed the feeble hand of (S. 3, N. 2) man, in short1, with a power to which no limits can be assigned2; completed3 the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter4, and laid a sure foundation for5 all those future miracles of mechanic power which6 are to aid and reward the labours of after generations. It7 is to the genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing! And certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind8. The blessing is not only universal, but9 unbounded; and the fabled10 inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by their rude11 contemporaries, conferred less important benefits (App. § 5) on mankind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.
This will be the fame of Watt with12 future generations, and it13 is sufficient for his race and his country.—Lord Jeffrey.
Notes
1 Commence the period with ‘In short’.
2 to assign limits to a thing, einer Sache Grenzen stecken.
3 Say ‘it has completed’, etc.
4 Materie, f.
5 zu.
6 Say ‘which are destined (zu etwas bestimmt sein, Comp. S. 87, N. 6) to assist and to reward the labours of (= of the) future generations’.
7 It — owing = All this we owe mainly to the genius of a single man.
8 Geschlecht, n.; use the verb in the Perfect; ever, je vorher.
9 sondern auch.
10 sagenhaft.
11 rude = inexperienced.
12 bei, with the def. art.
[13] dieser.