Section 144. James Watt and the Steam-Engine. III

It has armed the feeble hand of (S. 3, N. 2) man, in short⁠, with a power to which no limits can be assigned⁠; completed⁠ the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter⁠, and laid a sure foundation for⁠ all those future miracles of mechanic power which⁠ are to aid and reward the labours of after generations. It⁠ 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 kind⁠. The blessing is not only universal, but⁠ unbounded; and the fabled⁠ inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by their rude⁠ contemporaries, conferred less important benefits (App. § 5) on mankind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.

This will be the fame of Watt with⁠ future generations, and it⁠ is sufficient for his race and his country.—Lord Jeffrey.

Commence the period with ‘In short’.

to assign limits to a thing, einer Sache Grenzen stecken.

Say ‘it has completed’, etc.

Materie, f.

zu.

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’.

It — owing = All this we owe mainly to the genius of a single man.

Geschlecht, n.; use the verb in the Perfect; ever, je vorher.

sondern auch.

sagenhaft.

rude = inexperienced.

bei, with the def. art.

dieser.