Mr Harvey on the Science of Ship-building, 299 



ferent ships of war, are endeavouring to turn the balance 

 against us. France, to obtain superiority, wisely enlisted on 

 her side the genius and science of her geometers. By prizes, 

 by public rewards, by honourable distinctions, by every thing 

 that could excite emulation and scientific enterprise, she invit- 

 ed her geometricians to consider all the great problems con- 

 nected with shipbuilding, and to transfuse into the practical 

 operations of her dock-yards all that the most enlightened theo- 

 ries could teach. Some advantages surely must result to an 

 art to which such minds as Bouguer's and D , Alembert , s 

 could direct their attention. It is impossible indeed for a mind 

 accustomed to the higher orders of human thought to descend 

 to the lower walks of contemplation, without the latter being 

 in some degree improved. A mere theorist applying his spe- 

 culations to the practical details of an art can do nothing ; but 

 a man whose habits and modes of thought are built upon the 

 genuine principles of inductive science ; who looks at shipbuild- 

 ing neither with the eye of a merely speculative curiosity, nor 

 with the blank intelligence that too often unfortunately charac- 

 terizes the daily operators in the mechanical arts, can scarcely 

 direct his attention to any one of its departments, without in 

 some degree imparting to it a benefit. 



Shipbuilding to Britain, may with perfect justice be styled a 

 national art. It is one even more necessary to our nation- 

 al existence than those miracles of mechanical skill which have 

 placed our arts and manufactures on so proud and elevated a 

 level. Destroy our naval superiority, and our lofty pre-emi- 

 nence in commerce will soon be humbled in the dust. The 

 navy is the sinews of our strength, — the arm that gives us all 

 our political importance, and makes the name of Britain known, 

 respected, and feared in the remotest regions of the globe. 

 And what, we would ask, is the proud term Navy, which we 

 so often quote with feelings of exultation and hope, but a 

 name identified in the closest and strongest manner with the 

 science of shipbuilding. Give to our navy, therefore, not only 

 numbers, but every advantage which science and intelligence 

 can bestow. Let naval architecture be regarded peculiarly 

 as a National Art. Let its first elements, its feeblest begin- 

 ning — every thing that can contribute to its improvemenU*-be 



