ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 151 



tion of the lithographic process; but the accident did not occur, 

 and could not, till long and persevering pursuit of a method of 

 printing cheap music had brought together the polished stone, the 

 ink, the acid, — all the materials necessary to accomplisli the result. 

 Possibly it was an accident which led Goodyear to the use of sulphur 

 for the vulcanization of India rubber; but the accident, if such it 

 were, did not occur till years of expense and toil and experiment 

 with a great variety of materials had led the way to it. And the 

 rubber and the sulphur and all the appliances necessary for the ex- 

 periment were ready to his hand, all accumulated in the pursuit of 

 his lifelong purpose. Such experiences are common, and familiar 

 illustrations of them are found, as for instance, in the lives of Pal- 

 issy, the Huguenot potter, and William Lee, the inventor of the 

 stocking loom. In these the element of accident enters in some 

 degree into the consummation of the invention; but in every case it 

 is such accident as might have occurred a thousand times over with- 

 out result to other men whose minds were not intent upon the inven- 

 tion. Lamps had swung for centuries in the Italian cathedrals, 

 and men had idly counted their oscillations as they kept time to the 

 tedious delivery of generations of dull sermons ; but the isochronism 

 of their swing, if observed at all, was not regarded till Galileo 

 came. 



The true and only field that philosophy can concede to accident 

 in invention is that it supplements and sometimes abridges the 

 labor, calculation, and time of the inventor. To a man filled with 

 a steadfast purpose, all his senses alert to every means chance or 

 calculation may present to accomplish it, the most trifling incident 

 may furnish the clue, which has fled from him like an ignis fatuus. 

 To another the same chances may come and go continually without 

 result. And while it cannot be said that accident has no place in 

 invention, it must be conceded that its place is completely subordi- 

 nate to other elements. Great inventions have been the fruit 

 of accident in the same sense and to the same degree that a 

 ripened peach is the fruit of the rude blast that shakes it from the 

 bough. 



It is important in a discussion like this to keep clearly in mind 

 the difference between invention proper and discovery. The 

 function of the latter is to bring to light the material facts, and the 

 natural laws, which the former applies to useful purposes ; and in 

 respect to discovery, the element of chance, of accident, is im- 



