ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 155 



wire. The introduction of illuminating gas has created a demand 

 for metal tubing, and machines for its rapid and perfect manufac- 

 ture. And so every step in every art is marked by one or more 

 corresponding steps in other arts. 



These general principles, imperfectly stated as they are, by no 

 means exhaust the study of invention. . They only lie at its thresh- 

 hold. They are among the more obvious laws which inventions 

 follow as they are every day presented to the mind of those who deal 

 with them: so obvious, that I have found myself hesitating as to the 

 value of their presentation in this form ; a hesitation which is removed 

 by observing that, so far as writers upon early inventions are con- 

 cerned, they are unnoticed and apparently unknown. Further chap- 

 ters in Eurematics might be devoted to the elucidation of other truths 

 equally generic and universal, but more intricate and therefore less 

 obvious. I might cite for instance the tendency of civilization to 

 convert luxuries into necessaries, true not only of absolute civiliza- 

 tion but of every stage of it or every step towards it. The effect 

 of this tendency upon inventions is marked and positive. I might 

 cite the fact that invention is stimulated by rewards and retarded 

 by opposition, which history abundantly illustrates, — eminently the 

 histories of France in the middle ages, of The Netherlands, of Great 

 Britain, and of our own country. Another proposition might be 

 that the truth regarding biologic evolution — that the type of any 

 species which is to predominate is at its first appearance uncon- 

 spicuous — applies equally to the evolution of arts. Many such propo- 

 sitions more or less recondite might be stated, the adequate discus- 

 sion of which would require a volume ; but I can afford to pass 

 them by, as I have not set out upon an exhaustive study. The few 

 propositions considered are enough for the present purpose. 



I shall now discuss the progress of invention in a single direction, 

 partly as a study in itself, partly by way of illustration of the doc- 

 trines I have enunciated. I have selected the stone hatchet for 

 this purpose because in some of its ruder forms it represents the 

 earliest human workmanship of which any knowledge has come to 

 us, and also because in its rudest form it presents the evidences of 

 being the fruit of long antecedent growth. Further than this I 

 observe that primitive as it indeed is, and in its highest develop- 

 ment rude and ineffective in comparison with the finished imple- 

 ment of this age of steel, the thoughtful student of invention sees 

 in it the culmination for the time being of human art rather than 



