;8o 



CHAP. I. 



On general methods, cf promoting indvjiry and arts, of unequivocal utility, 

 and certainty in their Operations. 



Sect. i. 

 AppUeation cf Philofophy and Science to ManufaElures, 



The improvements of mere manufaflurers, in their refpe£tive depart- 

 ments, are generally fuggefted, at firft, by accident. The difcoveries 

 which are prefented, by chance, are feldom puflied on, in any confe- 

 cutive order, or purfued up, through all the confequences of which, 

 they are capable. Thus, the experiments, of the praftical mechanic, 

 are too frequently unconnefted fads, rather technical notices, than fci- 

 cntific data. Illiterate men, confined in their views, by want of education, 

 difpirited in their aims, by want of encouragement, cannot be fuppofed to 

 have the time, the means, or the difpofition, to make deliberate, and 

 regular experiments ; but, fuppofing them to poflefs all thefe, they could 

 not be expefted, to make experiments with effeft. 



It is in the lap of opulence and encouragement, not, in the bofom 

 of penury and defpair, that we mull expeft to find the enlightened 

 manufafturer — a Clement Taylor, — an Onefiphorus Paid — an Arkwrigbt — 

 or a Wedge-wood. — Manufadures may be expcfted, to attain the mod 

 perfeft maturity, when reafon and philofophy, ftooping to the purpofes 

 of jcommon hfe, take the manufadurer by the hand, and lead him through 



the 



