ease, on the dark bosom of the ocean, as he points it out from the little hill-top, that overlooks his native village.

If we pass from the contemplation of this sublime law of nature to others, which belong to animal or vegetable life, to those, which form and preserve the treasures of the earth, and of the sea, even down to those, which regulate the minutest particles of matter, the light of science will enable us every where to behold new and increasing wonders, and to remark the operations of infinite power, for ever varied, and yet for ever the same. It is impossible, that the mere perception of such laws should not afford pleasure to every rational mind. But when we further learn, that these very laws are made continually subservient to the use of man; that, by the knowledge of them, he is enabled to create power, and perfect mechanical operations; that he can make the winds and the waves, the earth and the air, heat and cold, the ductile metals and the solid rocks, the fragile flower and the towering forest, minister to his wants, his refinements, and his enterprise; we are compelled to admit, that the capacity, to trace back such effects to their causes, must elevate, and enlarge, and invigorate the understanding.

There is also real dignity, as well as delight, in such studies; and whenever they shall become the general accompaniment of mechanical employments, they must work a most beneficial change in the general structure of society. The arts of life are now so various and important, so intimately connected with national prosperity and individual comfort, that, for the future, a very large proportion of the population of every civilized country must be engaged in them. The time is not far distant, when the mechanic and manufacturing interest will form the great balancing power, between the conflicting interests of commerce and agriculture; between the learned professions, and the mere proprietors of capital; between the day-labourer, and the unoccupied man of ease. proportion to the degree of the knowledge, which shall belong to this collective interest, in proportion as its industry shall be combined with science, will be its influence on the well-being and safety of society. It is of the

In

first importance, therefore, that education should here exert its most extensive power; and, by elevating the morals, as well as stimulating the enterprise of artisans, give a triumph to intellect over mere physical force; and thus secure one of the most dangerous passes of social life against the irruptions of ignorance and popular fury. It is a truth not always sufficiently felt, that science, while it elevates the objects of desire, has, in the same proportion, a tendency to restrain the outbreakings of the bad passions of mankind.

I might remark, in the next place, that the pursuit of practical science is not only a source of inexhaustible pleasure, opening new avenues to rank and reputation; but it is, at the same time, one of the surest foundations of opulence. Mere mechanical labour, from the perpetual competition arising from an increasing population, has a natural tendency to descend in the scale of compensation. But this effect is astonishingly increased by the constant application of machinery, as a substitute for the labour of man. The perfection of machinery has, in this manner, at times, thrown whole classes of artisans out of employment, and compelled them to resort to new pursuits for support. Mere manual skill and dexterity. are nothing, when put in competition with the regularity, rapidity, and economy of machinery, working under the guidance of science. Now, it must be obvious, that in proportion as an artisan possesses science, will be his facility in passing from one branch of an art to another; and his ability to command a higher price for his services. His capacity, too, for adopting improvements, and keeping pace with the genius of the age, will (as has been already hinted) be thus immeasurably increased. So, that, in the narrowest and most limited view, there is a positive certainty of gain, by understanding the scientific principles of the art, which we profess.

But this would be a very inadequate view of the benefits arising from this source. It is the power of science, in awakening the dormant energy of genius; in pointing out to it the true means to arrive at great ends; in preventing it from being wasted in visionary schemes, or re

tarded by clumsy processes; in short, it is the power of science, in suggesting the first hint, or striking out the first spark, or directing the unsteady aim, or removing the intermediate obstacles, that constitutes its true value, and perhaps its noblest excellence. Even after the first step is taken, and the first development of inventive genius assumes shape and body, how many obstacles are to be overcome; how many unexpected difficulties are to be met; how many toilsome days and nights are to be consumed, in nice adjustments, and minute alterations! It is here that science may be said to foster and nourish genius; to administer to its wants, and soothe its disquietudes, and animate its inquiries. What logarithms are to the mathematician, knowledge of principles is to the mechanic. It not only abridges the processes of computation, and thus diminishes labour, but it puts him in possession of means and computations, otherwise absolutely beyond the reach of human calculation. After Fulton had securely achieved, in his own opinion, the invention of the steam-boat, months were consumed by him, as I learned from his own lips, in making the necessary calculations upon the resistance of fluids, in order to ascertain what was the best form for the boat, to ensure a successful issue to his experiment. I myself, in the course of my judicial life, have had occasion to learn from witnesses the origin, and history, and gradual formation, of two of the most elegant inventions in our own country; and, in both instances, the original machine, rude, and unsightly, and cumbrous enough, was brought into court, as the best proof of the first sketch, compared with the last labours of the admirable inventors. not the least hesitation in saying, that, if either of those extraordinary minds had been originally instructed in the principles of mechanical science, half their labours would have been saved. Sure I am, that one of them would not, with his later acquirements in science, have laid aside, for a long time, the creation of his own genius, as if in despair, that it could ever attain maturity.

I have

Í allude to the card machine of Whittemore, and the nail machine of Perkins. Of the former it would not

become me to speak in terms of confident praise, from my own want of the proper knowledge of machinery. But I must confess, that, when I first saw it, it seemed to me to be almost an intelligent being, and to do every thing but speak; and, whether considered with reference to the simplicity of its means, the accuracy and variety of its operations, or its almost universal capacity for common use, it deserves the highest commendation. Other inventions have since somewhat narrowed the sphere of its operations, and made its celebrity less felt. But I may quote the remark of one of our most ingenious countrymen, who, to a question put to him, what, after two months' examination of the patent office at Washington, and his own surveys elsewhere, appeared to him the most interesting of American inventions, unhesitatingly answered, Whittemore's card machine. The remark was made by Perkins; and perhaps no person, but himself, would have thought, that his own nail machine, which with its toggle-joint consumes bars of iron, and returns them in nails, with the tranquil grandeur of a giant, conscious of superior power, might not have borne the most strenuous rivalry.

And this leads me to remark, in the next place, as matter of pride, as well as of encouragement, that to mechanics themselves we are indebted for some of the most useful and profitable inventions of our age. I have already adverted to the perfection of the steam-engine by Watt. The cotton-machine of Arkwright constitutes an era in inventions, and has already thrown back upon Asia all her various fabrics, and compelled her to yield up to European skill the cheapest labour of her cheapest population. The inventions of Wedgewood have led to almost as striking a rivalry of the pottery and wares of the East. The cotton-gin, which has given to the cottongrowing States of the south their present great staple, is the production of the genius of Whitney. In the year 1794, the Carolinas and Georgia were scarcely known to our ablest diplomatists, as cultivators of the plant; so obscure and unimportant were its results. The invention of Whitney at once gave it the highest value; and laid

the broad foundation of their present wealth and prosperity. At this very moment, New England annually consumes, in her manufactories, more than one-fifth part of the eight hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton, the annual produce of their soil; which, but for him, would have had no existence. What wonders were accomplished by the self-taught architect, Brindley, himself a humble mill-wright; and yet of such vast compass of thought, that to him rivers seemed of no use, but to feed navigable canals, and the ocean itself but a large reservoir for water-works! What effects is our own Perkins producing, by one only of his numerous inventions,-the art of softening steel, so as to admit of engraving, and then hardening it again, so as to retain the fine point and polish of copper-plate, without the constant wear of the latter, and its consequent tendency to depreciation! He has enabled us, as it were, to stereotype, and multiply, to an almost incalculable extent, the most beautiful specimens of some of the fine arts; and cheapen them, so as to bring them within the reach of the most moderate fortunes. Many other illustrious instances of genius, successfully applied to the improvement of the arts, might be selected from the workshops and common trades of life. But in most of these instances it will be found, that the discovery was not the mere result of accident, but arose from the patient study of principles, or from hints gathered from a scientific observation of nice and curious facts. And it may be added, that, in all these instances, in proportion as the inventors acquired a knowledge of the principles of the arts, their genius assumed a wider play, and accomplished its designs with more familiar power and certainty. It is a subject of most profound interest, to observe to what grand results a common principle in mechanics, or an apparently insulated fact, may conduct us, under the guidance of a man of genius. The rule, for instance, in geometry, that the circumferences of circles are in proportion to their diameters, lies at the foundation of most of the operations of practical mechanics, and has led to the means of increasing mechanical power to an almost incalculable extent. The lever,