608 THE BIRTH OF INVENTION. 



limbs to ligliteu the loads of the first common carrier. This process of 

 impressing Lis own qualities on wild creatures began very early in his- 

 tory, and has continued uniteLruptedly from first to last.* 



His affairs of state were managed tbrough his patent system. The 

 great inventors were made the rulers of the people, and his highest 

 title to nobility was a most puissant and ingenious one. 



He had courts of justice, heard witnesses, executed his laws. It is 

 true that the methods were summary, when a. (chancery suit was settled 

 by execution on the same day as the death of the devisor. But out of 

 his struggles came our methods, and the greatest drawback to secur- 

 ing justice now is the survival of his antiquated customs into our new 

 practices. 



He invented philosophies and sciences, explained the universe and 

 himself to himself. This seems puerile now, but it was the beginning 

 of all our own s])eculations, necessary to us at present, but which will 

 to-morrow become folk-lore. Over and over again, those who preceded 

 me on this jilatform have pointed to James Watt as the true deliverer 

 of mankind. Far be it from me to take one leaf from his laurel crown; 

 but the inventor of the alphabet, of the decimal system of notation, 

 of representative government, of the golden rule in morality were 

 greater than he. 



For the dream in stone and carving and decoration called a (cathedral, 

 "Where, through long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, 

 The pealing anthem swells the notes of praise," 



that early day has only to offer wild shouts in unison undei- the starlit 

 dome, touched by the first childish aspirations after the divine, or 

 hopes of immortality. 



While you look with admiration ui)on these panoramas of progress 

 you can not have failed to observe on the canvas that the art, the proc- 

 ess and rewards of inventing itself, have undergmie the very same 

 development and improvement as the things invented. There is in this 

 a marvellous similarity to the life processes of animals and plants. The 

 homogeneous yolk of the egg during incubation becomes wonderfully 

 complex and heterogeneous ; but all of these diverse parts come together 

 into a higher unity, in which each organ ministers to the good of all. 



*Iu a Saturday lecture delivered in the National Museum, March 18, 1882, the 

 author sought to combine the result of Morgan's culture stages, being seven, with 

 the work of Klenini, Tylor, Lane Fox, and Spencer, who had treated separate arts 

 from an evolutionary or, I should say, an inventional motive. This any one may 

 re})eat for himself hy ruling n broad sheet of paper into eight columns. At the top 

 of the several colunms Avrite the words of Morgan, or, l)ett(U-, the first.seveu Roman 

 numerals. In the.. lines down the left-hand margin write any words you choose to 

 examine, say music or wcapovs. The seven stages of music or of weapons would 

 appear by reading across the sheet from left to right. Care should be taken not to 

 confound the species of the same thought, for example, bruising, piercing, or slash- 

 ing weapons; or string music, with reed music or horn music. A table made thus 

 for all activities would be an index of all culture in all time. 



