tributed rather to the acceleration than to the improvement of the proceffes. Agriculture has advanced to its prefent ftate principally through the endeavours of the practical husbandman, and has received little improvement from the fuggeftions of fcience; nor has modern chemistry, with its boafted difcoveries, yet been able to advance far enough in the theory of vegetable nutrition, to contribute greatly to the improvement of agricultural practices. In a word, whatever branch of manufactures we examine, we difcover little credit due to the interference of fcience, but find that the majority of the high improvements of modern times is to be attributed principally to the induftry and activity of uneducated individuals, and to that great and prevalent divifion of labour, which enables the operator to arrive at greater perfection in the confined and lefs complicated work to which his exertions are exclufively directed. But let us turn to the other fide of the question; let us examine the fources whence the mind has obtained many of its valuable fcientific acquifitions; and we fhall have little hesitation in affirming, that the improvement of manufactures has contributed in an effential manner to the promotion of natural knowledge. We shall illustrate this opinion by inftances relative to one or two of the more important articles of commerce and manufacture. The elegant manufacture of glass has been a fource or a medium of incalculable information. Had we not poffeffed glass in the perfection in which it is now wrought, "there are many things in heaven and earth which would never have been dreamt of in our philofophy." Without it, the "blank paper," as Mr. Locke has called it, of our comprehenfive intellect might have remained, as to phyfical fcience, but little variegated by the written characters of fenfation and reflection. The knowledge which we have acquired by the telescope is dependant on this manufacture, efpecially in combination with the working of metals. By this inftrument we have obtained much knowledge of the heavenly bodies; have difcovered new planets and fatellites; have obferved tranfits, and deduced important aftronomical inferences; and have refolved the galaxy into ftars. We have gained alfo by the cclipfes of the fatellites the most accurate means of afcertaining terrestrial longitude; and, by obferving the crefcent and gibbous forms of the two inferior planets, have thence deriv ed more convincing arguments for the truth of the Copernican fyftem. A ftill more various, though lefs extenfive, fource of knowledge has been opened to us by means of glafs, in its application to the microfcope. The ftructure, and confequently the economy, of animals and vegetables have been thus inveftigated and afcertained to a confiderable extent; the eye has been enabled to penetrate into a new and hitherto invifible world, where life is profufely beflowed upon the mere atoms, as it were, of organi zation: the nature of the connecting links in the chain of animal and vegetable exiftence has been difcovered; I mean of the zoophyta and lithophyta, or animal plants and mineral plants, as they were formerly denominated, which include the corallines, corals, fponges, &c. &c. In a word, the minutia of every department of nature heretofore infcrutable by human fenfes have been expofed to our free inveftigation, and their qualities and relations have furnished a mine of inexhauftible enquiry. Another application of the article glafs, in the formation of the airpump, has been scarcely lefs productive of phyfical knowledge. The mechanical properties of the atmofphere have been thus afcertained; its compreffibility and elafticity, its preffure upon all bodies with a determinate force, its neceffity to combuftion, &c.---From the difcovery of the atmospheric preffure, the phenomena of the rifing of water to a definite height in pumps, &c. have been explained; and from its com→ preffibility feveral important machines, as fire-engines, have been deduced by the inventive skill of man. Glafs has likewife afforded us the power of difcovering the nature of a fublime and extenfive agent in the operation of the globe, the electric fluid. For although amber (the electron of the Greeks, from which it derives its name) had developed in a trifling degree one of its phenomena, yet we are indebted to the machines of glafs for rendering it cognizable to the fenfes of touch, fight, and hearing, and for identifying it with the lightning of the clouds. It will be fufficient to name the barometer and thermometer, as inftruments conftructed of glass, and the fources of much information in meteorology, and other departments of fcience; as well as the prifm, the origin of all our philofophy of light and colours, and of our knowledge of the rainbow. And, laftly, in the conftruction of apparatus, in which alone aerial fluids could be confined and investigated, glafs has afforded us the means of acquiring the moft valua ble additions to our phyfical knowledge. It has impowered us to lift up the mysterious veil which Nature had fpread over many of her operations from the beginning of time, and to fcan the grand laws by which he has regulated animal and vegetable exiftence, and rendered the two kingdoms mutually conducive to the existence of each other. I allude to the knowledge we have obtained, through the medium of chemical inveftigation, of the compofition of the atmosphere; of its pollution by animal respiration, and its renovation by the tranfpiration of vegetables; of the compofition of water; of the laws of animal refpiration, and its fuccedanea in air or water, before and after birth; ́ ́ and of numerous important facts in the ecomony of nature, which chemiftry has prefented to our obfervation within the last thirty years. Thefe are fome of the various and extenfive fources of knowledge, which the improved manufacture of glafs has opened to our ufe. The unthinking manufacturer, toiling with his inftrument before the furnace, has thus been the remote caufe of the enlargement of human intellect, and the extenfion of mental acquifitions. But, although remote his influence, his toil was indifpenfible to that enlargement and thofe acquifitions: for the inftruments of glafs were not merely conducive, but were abfolutely essential, to the attainment of any portion of that phyfical fcience which we have mentioned. How long might the monkish idlers have pored over the learning of the antients in their cloifters, without bringing to light one truth from Ariftotle or Plato fo important in its practical confequences as the difcovery of the atmospheric preffure? And has not the knowledge of nature, which the microscope alone has furnished to the mind, much exceeded all the antient philofophy, and tranfcended in all probability the volume of facred myfteries which the priestess of Eleufis developed to the initiated in her temple? Yet great as the additions have been which science has received through the medium of glafs, the manufacture itself, the most elegant and beautiful of human productions, has been little indebted to science for its improvement. The potter would probably foon difcover, among the productions of his furnace, that fome combinations of earth and athes were converted into a vitrified mafs; and gradually to be able to purify thefe materials, or diveft them of extraneous fubftances, was little elle than a mechanical labour, aided by his common fenfe. That, the vitrification of earths was practifed in very uncultivated ages, is evinced by the remains of vitrified forts ftill extant in the north of Scotland. But from this valuable material, in philofophy as well as in the arts and comforts of life, let us turn our attention briefly to another mechanical department, and trace fome of the fteps of fcience to which it has afforded effential and indifpenfible aid. The working of metals has contributed fo largely, either immediately or remotely, to almost every production of art, that it is difficult to discover an inftance of mechanical production in which it has had no interference. Yet to the process of making steel, for inftance, all that fcience has contributed is the explanation of it. For though it had been practifed for centuries, the late improvements of chemistry afforded the first true idea of its nature. Manufacturers, taught by blind but fure experience, had for ages expofed iron to heat, wrapped in leather, paper, or other combuftible fubftances, but never dreamt that the valuable property which it thus acquires, of becoming hard by fudden cooling, and again foft and malleable by flow cooling, depended upon a portion of charcoal which it imbibes from the combustible matters around it. To the other metallurgic proceffes science has made but fmall contributions; but these proceffes, in conjunction with the manufacture of glafs, have contributed largely to the advancement of science. The conftruction of mathematical and aftronomical inftruments has been of effential utility to philofophy; and the accuracy of those of English artifts has made them in requeft in all parts of the globe. Conjoined with glafs, metals have been conducive to the acquifitions of philofophy, derived through the medium of the telefcope, mircofcope, air pump, and electrical machines; for in fome of thefe inftruments their ufe is fcarcely lefs to be difpenfed with than the glafs itself. And, above all, the application of metals to the manufacture of types for printing has produced fuch an accumulation and multiplication of every fpecies of knowledge, that fcience and literature have been prefented in abundance to those enquiring minds, who would otherwife have obtained but a feanty portion; and it has been diffused, like the rain of heaven, among the thoughtlefs multitude, who would otherwife have grovelled through their day in dark and undiscriminating ignorance. This fingle refult of the excellency of our workmen in metallurgy has added more to the body and fum of knowledge, has contributed more to multiply enlightened minds in the world, than has been contributed by fcience to the improvement of all the manufactures that exift. Well may we repeat, with Darwin, "The hand; bett gift of Heaven! to man "belongs." But, leaving the exclufive, confiderations of fcience, we may step afide to take a digreffive but important view of the influence of thofe mechanical operations on the enlargement of intellect, and extenfion of power. "The working of metals," to borrow the words of an' ingenious and philofophical lecturer, "is a branch of technical chemiftry; and it would be a fublime, though a difficult task, to afcertain the effects of this art upon the progrefs of the human mind. It has afforded to man the power of defence againft favage animals: it has enabled him to build houfes, much of the furface of the earth cities, and hips: and to model Mr. Davy, of the Royal Inftitution. after his own imaginations of beauty. It has furnished inttruments connected not only with his fublime enjoy ments, but likewife with his crimes and miferies; it has enabled him to opprefs and deftroy, to conquer and protect." We have, then, every reafon to conclude, that fcience, on the whole, has been advanced through the medium of certain articles of manufacture, in a degree far fuperior to any advancement of manufacture which it has contributed to produce. There are many manufactures, in reality, which are totally unconnected with science, neither improving it, nor receiving any improvement from it; the offspring of mere mechanical induftry. Of thofe where there exifis a reciprocal operation, or where fcience can interfere, it is evident how much the advantage is on the fide of the latter. And this conclufion leads us to view the importance of commerce with additional admiration. While we confider it as a medium of comfort, of wealth, and of civilization, its value will be enhanced in our estimation by the farther confideration of its influence in extending our knowledge, not only by communication with diftant and various regions of the globe, but, indirectly, by exciting the improvement of thofe manufactures which are ef fential as inftruments in the profecution of fcience, T. cording to the various circumftances which have attended him through life; but, perhaps, this felf-complacent idea was never carried to a greater excess than by the venerable patriarch of Italian poetry. He found, or rather imagin. ed, that his letters were intercepted and opened on the road by men of tafte, for the purpose of tran fcribing the ingenious fallies, or the flashes of eloquence, with which they fhould happen to be interfperfed. But at length, fays the bard, they grew weary of this modeft and orderly fpecies of theft, and retained his pacquets, that they might fave themfelves the trouble of tranfcribing them. Difgufted at this violation of the laws of civilized life, hoftile to all the confidence of intercourfe and fociety, he formed the determination to write no more. This refolution he announced in one of his letters, in which he takes leave of his friends in a formal manner, ending "Valete amici; valete epiftola." Hath fraught with cares my troubled wit! Witness this prefent prifon, whither fate Hath torn me, and thy joys I quit. Thou caus'dft the guilty to be loos'd From bands wherewith are innocents enclos'd; Caufing the guiltless to be straight referv'd, And freeing thofe that death had well deferv'd: But by her envy can be nothing wrought; So God fend to my foes all I have thought. David Garrick. WHEN this great actor was at Paris, he vifited the celebrated Madame Clairon. In the course of his converfation with her, he asked her if he had ever heard of the Gamut of the Paffions. She exprefiing her ignorance of what he meant, he immediately with his voice and countenance ran over the whole fcale and compafs of them, beginning with the most fimple, and gradually proceeding to the most complex. A friend of Mr. Garrick afking him why a whifper of his was heard throughout the whole theatre, whilft the loud acclamation of many of his colleagues was occafionally completely unintelligible, "The blockheads," replied he, "have no idea of diftinctnefs in their fpeaking; they know not how to acquire "A temperance that may give it smooth"nefs." Mr. Garrick had been told, that no more letters of Junius were to appear in the Public Advertiser. Ile mentioned to one of the noblemen about the court what he had heard. Junius, who had his eyes every where, was informed that Mr. G. had given this intelligence. He caused a letter to be fent to him at the theatre, just as he was going upon the stage to play one of his great parts. The letter was virulent and abufive, hinting to him, that he might well be contented Plaufu fui gaudere theatri, and not interfere in politics. The letter produced its effect, and this wonderful actor for once played ill. Gomberville PUBLISHED the very curious "Memoires du Duc de Nevers," in 2 volumes they begin at 1574, and go down to 1595. He was a quiet, inoffenfive man of letters, and reAided chiefly with the illuftrious hermits of Port Royal. He made this fimple and elegant epitaph for himfelf:- Les grands chargent leur fepulture De cent eloges fuperflus; Ma naiffance fût fort obfcure, Et ma mort encore plus. Whilft pompous epitaphs in trophy'd ftate The tombs embellish of the rich and Few words my humble lot may teftifyObfcure I liv'd, and more obfcurely die. Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul's. THIS learned divine having married a lady of a rich and noble family without the confent of her parents, was treated by them with great afperity. Having been told by the father that he was to expec no money from him, the Doctor went home, and wrote the following note to him: "John Donne: Anne Donne undone.”---This quibble had the defired effect, and the diftreffed couple were restored to fa vour. It was faid of Donne, as of Piçus de Mirandola, that he was rather born wife than made fo by ftudy; yet, as his biographer tells us," he left behind him the refultance of fourteen hundred authors, moft of them abridged and analysed with his own hand." Godeau, Bishop of Venice, USED to fay, that to compofs was an author's heaven; to correct his work, an author's purgatory; but to correct the prefs, an author's hell. Donatello. THE enthufiafm of ardent and of forcible minds' appears madness to those who are dull and phlegmatic. The pleafure it infpires is the greateft and most independent remuneration that men of genius receive for their efforts and exertions,→ Donatello, the great Florentine fculptor, had been long working at his ftatue of Judith; and, on giv-' ing the last stroke of the chifel to it, he was heard to exclaim, "Parla! fpeak now! I am fure you can!" great, ! |