THE BIRTH OF INVENTION. 605 



bled lis to Mild the ciadle-laiid of iiiauy ])e()i)les. The third is folk-lore, 

 the survival of belief and eiistom among' the niieducated. The fourth 

 is archa'o]o<iy, history written in things. The tifth is ethnology, which 

 informs IIS that in describing tli is arc of civilization some races have 

 only marked time, Avhile others have moved witli radii of varyiu<:f lengths. 

 The result of this is that Ave now have on the eartli t.\])es of every sort 

 of culture it has ever known. At the present moincnt, within hailing 

 distance of yonder most beautiful dome in the world dwell all these wit- 

 nesses — the relics of the stone age, the Indian village of Xacochtank or 

 Anacostia, the folk-lore of both continents, and the literatures of the 

 world. \Yhile you are listening to the encoininms of our decade, pahe- 

 olithie man sends in the testimony of his handicraft, the Smithsonian 

 Institution treasures the inventions of the most i>rimitive races, and the 

 Bureau of Ktlmology unravels the mysteries of savage tongues. 



As the fragment of a speech or song, a Avaking or a sleeping vision, 

 the dream of a Aanished hand, a draught of water from a lamiliar spring, 

 the almost perished fragrance of a pressed llower, call back the singer, 

 the loved and lost, the loved and WM)n, the home of childhood, or the 

 parting hour, so in the same manner there linger in this crowning 

 decade of the crowning century bits of aiK-ient ingenuity which recall 

 to a whole people the fragrance and beauty of its ])ast. 



From the testimony of these five witnesses we learn that there never 

 was a time when man was not an inventor — never a time wheu he had 

 not some sort of patent on his invention. They aftiriu that every art 

 of living- and all the arts of ]»leasure were born in the stone age; that 

 graphic art, sculpture, architectnre, painting, nnisic, and the drama 

 had their childish ])rototy])es in tliat early day; that language is one 

 of the very earliest of inventions, the vehicle of savage oratory, philos- 

 ophy, and science. They aftlrni that society has been a series of inven- 

 tions from the first; that legislation, justice, government, lu'operty, 

 exchange, commerce, have not sprung' (uit of the ground, but within our 

 definition ai'c inventions. And even the creeds and cults of mankind, 

 whatever view you may take of the divine element underneath tliem, 

 have been thought out and wrought out with iniinite pains from time 

 t(»tiine l)yearnestsouls, lluttheyhad theiiorigin in thec.radlelaiid and 

 in the infancy of our race. What ween joy is only the full-blown llower, 

 the i)erfectcd Iruit of which they possessed the germ. liCt me enforce 

 this idea, as we glorify Ihe material |)rosi)erit\' of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, that many centuiies ago men sat <lown and with gi'cat ])ains and 

 scnrow invented the language, the ait, the industries, tlie social order 

 which made our machines feasible and desirable. 



There is no conflict between the testimony of 1 licse witnesses and the 

 doctrine commonly taught that men do not inxcnt customs and lan- 

 guages, but fall into them. Keflect a moment upon yoiii' own daily 

 life and you will recognize two sets of acti\ity, those Avliich yon origi- 

 nate and those in which vou loUow suit, .Vnimals can learn to follow 



