328 Prelimmarij Essay to Reports on 



the planing-engine ; and had no intercourse existed between the 

 art of working iron, and the abstruse science of applied algebra, 

 we might yet have wanted those excellent instruments. An ex^ 

 tensive knowledge, in fact, of what can be done with materials 

 is essential to the contrivance of new modes of operating ; or 

 even necessary to the successful repetition of operations already 

 known. 



From the general cultivation of the minds of the workmen, 

 we might therefore expect an increase to the stability of human 

 society, an improvement in the style of execution of the various 

 manufactures, and a more fertile inventiveness. We are apt to 

 imagine that the improvement of our manufactures goes on by 

 starts, and that a few names only need be mentioned in their his- 

 tory. The course of improvement is indeed marked by a few 

 more considerable steps ; but beneath these, and concealed from 

 the mere casual glance, there flows a calm but rapid current. 

 Minute facts are communicated from one workman to another, 

 and the craft proceeds by insensible gradations ; the skill of the 

 workman gradually advances, creates a taste in the consumer for 

 a better article, and receives again from that improved taste a 

 reflected stimulus. Unless we had workmen skilful to execute, 

 our best arranged schemes would fall to the ground ; and unless 

 the artizan himself were able to appreciate the beauty of execu- 

 tion, we would be shocked, at every turn, by deformity and im- 

 perfection. But when the mason plies the mallet, he delights in 

 contemplating the finished cornice, and not merely, as we are 

 apt to imagine, the prospect of gain, but also the anticipation of 

 a higher enjoyment cheers him through his toil. And perhaps 

 the gratification of the architect himself is inferior to the delight 

 felt by his better workmen when they retire to contemplate the 

 finished edifice. 



While seeking the means for encouraging improvements in 

 the arts, we must not then imagine that our only business is to 

 reward the contriver of some important change. Of that task 

 the anomalous patent laws have eff'ectually relieved us. The 

 principal part of our employment should be to render public each 

 minute piece of detail, and to encourage the able workman to 

 communicate the results of his experience. We should endea- 

 vour to improve his taste by the exhibition of finer specimens 



