TIIK lilK'TH OF INVENTION. 607 



tuiiate suckling iVoin the ground to w liicli it hm[ been liuiied by tlie 

 bending of an unsafe bougb, tliat was a lact, a stage in the liistory of 

 invention. In our Dow-a(bxys eouehes of (h)\\n, swung from gikled 

 hinges, we ha\'e got far ahead of the papoose eradki, the memory of 

 which we perpetuate in nursery ihymes sung to (iliiklren, who wonder 

 why babies shoukl be hung in tlie tops of trees and think, doubtless, 

 that the falling cradle was a just retribution on the silly parents. 



What is more beautiful than an ocean steamer, with skin of steel 

 drawn o\ei' i ibs of steel and closed above against the intrusion of the 

 waves? Have you never seen the picture of the Eskimo, still in the 

 stone age, who, over a framework of driftwood or whale's rib. stretches 

 a covering of sealskin and learned therein to defy the waves hundreds 

 of years ago ? 



Only now and then tlie angry sky was ligiited lor the i)iiiiiitive man 

 by electricity, and even then it tilled him with terroi-. Hut it was he 

 that invented the api)aratus for conjuring from dried Avood, l)y a rude 

 sort of dynamo, the Promethean spark. It was our Aryan ancestors 

 that paid theii' devotions to the rising sun by kindling fresh lire eveiy 

 morning as the orb of day flashed his first beam across tlie earth. 



Who has not read, with almost breaking heart, the story of Palissy, 

 the Huguenot potter? But what have our witnesses to say of that 

 long line of humble creatures that conjured out of ])rophetic clay, with- 

 out wheel or furnace, forms and decorations of imperishable beauty 

 which are now being copied in glorified material in the best factories of 

 the world? In ceramic as well as in textile art the first inventors were 

 women. They quarried the clay, nmnipulated it, constructed and 

 decorated the ware, burned it in a rude furnace, and wore it out in a 

 hundred uses. 



He had no printing ]>ress, but he could tie knots in a marvellous 

 fashion and write letters on bark or on bits of raw hide and leave 

 memorials of himself in the book of stone, lie made words and sen- 

 tences, invented language, developed artistic forms of speech handed 

 down to us in the eloquent harangues of his sages. He breathed his 

 thoughts in poetry, a kind of childish rhythm. 



In the time of ^vhich we now are speaking the telegra]>h was a series 

 of signal fires and a wonderful code of signs, which a distinguished 

 scholar of our city has Just unravelled. 



Primitive man developed the art of wai-, means of offense and 

 defense; weapons of ])ercussion, for cutting and thrusting; prdjjcctilcs, 

 armor, fortification, strategy. 



^S^owhere has man pressed his hand so effectively ui)on nature as in 

 the domestication of animals. It is almost incredible that ravening 

 wolves and merciless felines should become faithful dogs and imrring 

 cats; that the wild sheej) and goat should descend from their inacces- 

 sible fastnesses, and yield their fleece ami flesh and milk; that horses, 

 asses, camels, elephants, should be induced to lend their backs and 



