606 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



its ordinary accepted meaning is really a misnomer, as man 

 invents nothing. He only discovers the telescope, microscope, 

 telephone, railroad, steamship, or electric marvels ; he does 

 not invent them, because they are in the magic womb of 

 nature all the time ; and scores of other marvels too, about 

 which he at present knows nothing. A friend of mine holds 

 that man invents when he adapts certain simple natural laws 

 in a peculiar way, such as the compound microscope. I fancy 

 the adaptation is in nature all the time, and man only dis- 

 covers it. In my opinion, man only taps the box, and the 

 marvels appear. The true rendering of the word, however, is 

 correct, seeing that it is derived from invenire, " to come upon," 

 and the peculiarity is that the marvels only come upon us as 

 they are required for our benefit. Thus the man who dis- 

 covered the steam-engine is said to be one Solomon Cans, of 

 Normandy, in 1576. He was promptly put in a mad-house 

 (Bicetre), was there seen by the Marquis of Worcester, who 

 revealed the matter to the public, and was considered to be as 

 mad as Cans. The world was not exactly ready then, I sup- 

 pose, for the discovery. Neither did electric communication 

 " come in " until it was apparently necessary for European 

 man to communicate quickly with the newly-discovered Conti- 

 nents of America and Australia. The same with the steam- 

 ship. Before the time of Columbus the steamship would not 

 have been of much service. Sailors hugged the land, and 

 knew scarcely anything of the mariner's compass. Before the 

 discovery of the compass and the revelations of Bruno, Gali- 

 leo, Copernicus, and Newton, of what use would steamships 

 have been ? Man had no guide to cross the ocean save 

 the stars. True, the compass was discovered by the Chinese 

 three thousand six hundred years ago. But I do not wish it 

 to be understood that the compass was absolutely neces- 

 sary to navigation, as we managed without it by hugging 

 the shore ; but for much ocean traffic the compass and the 

 other revelations, I hold, were absolutely necessary. (It is 

 pleasant to find that astronomical discoveries are always 

 named as such, and not by the word "inventions.") The 

 electric light would not be of much service to the pigmies of 

 Central Africa. 



But let me proceed with the other examples I have been 

 collecting. A fish constructs and weaves its nest much like a 

 bird. Maoris and Fijians weave reeds most beautifully in 

 their houses. Weaving was, and is still, a most useful art 

 among savages, birds, fishes, &c. The shadow-bird of South 

 Africa builds its nest with about a cart-load of sticks, in three 

 compartments, divided by partitions — the outer one a guard- 

 room for the male bird, the centre one a nursery for the 

 young, and the inner one a living-room for the female. Like 



