Note 287 — Chapter XVII · Commercial Politics—The Albion Mills—Riots in Cornwall—Prosperity of Boulton and Watt.

“Your mind, my friend, is too active, too powerful for your body, and harasses it beyond its bearing. If this was the case with any other machine under your direction, except that in whose regulation your friends take so much interest, you would soon find out a remedy. For the present permit me to advise a more ample use of the oil of delegation through your whole machinery, and I am persuaded you will soon find some salutary effects from this application. Seriously, I shall conclude in saying to you what Dr. Fothergill desired me to say to Brindley—‘Spare your machine a little, or like others under your direction, it will wear out the sooner by hard and constant usage.’”—Josiah Wedgwood to Watt, December 10, 1782.