hen
first with his corporeal eyes he did see finished a perfect trial of his
Water-commanding Engine, delightful and useful to whomsoever hath in
recommendation either knowledge, profit, or pleasure.' And--never mind
the delay, reader--we will even look at that prayer, in which this world
and the next blend so strangely;

'Oh! infinitely omnipotent GOD! whose mercies are fathomless, and
whose knowledge is immense and inexhaustible; next to my creation
and redemption I render thee most humble thanks from the very
bottom of my heart and bowels, for thy vouchsafing me (the meanest
in understanding) an insight in soe great a secret of nature,
beneficent to all mankind, as this my water-commanding engine.
Suffer me not to be puffed up, O Lord, by the knowing of it, and
many more rare and unheard off, yea, unparalleled inventions,
tryals, and experiments. But humble my haughty heart, by the true
knowledge of myne owne ignorant, weake, and unworthy nature; proane
to all euill. O most merciful Father my creator, most
compassionatting Sonne my redeemers, and Holyest of Spiritts the
sanctifier, three diuine persons and one God, grant me a further
concurring grace with fortitude to take hould of thy goodnesse, to
the end that whatever I doe, unanimously and courageously to serve
my king and country, to disabuse, rectifie, and convert my
undeserved yet wilfully incredulous enemyes, to reimburse
thankfully my creditors, to reimmunerate my benefactors, to
reinhearten my distressed family, and with complacence to gratifie
my suffering and confiding friends, may, voyde of vanity or selfe
ends, be only directed to thy honour and glory everlastingly.
_Amen!_'

How this great invention faded and was forgotten till the days of Watt
and Fulton, is hardly worth surmising. It had been born and died long
before. Was it not in 1514 that Blasco de Garay set a steamboat afloat
on the Tagus? Sometimes, as in the case of John Fitch, it seems to have
grown spontaneously from the instinctive impulse to create, as Fichte
calls art. I have seen old men, who had known Fitch: their account of
his severely won improvements, and more recently his 'Life,' make me
believe that he owed nothing to precedent. But the marquis, I am sorry
to say, notwithstanding his prayer and his bold claim to originality,
cannot come off with so clear a record, so far