1825.] 
the creation or discovery of New Wants, 
as rapidly as the old shall be supplied. 
An old‘author wrote a book—“ De Ar- 
tibus Deperditis,’ concerning lost (or 
forgotten) arts. Could these be re- 
covered, much, alas! of our present ig- 
norance might be informed—much of 
our future labour might be spared: but 
the art of creating new wants would be 
more valuable than them all. 
The Greeks and Romans, as history 
records, possessed many delightful (not 
to say glorious) arts, which we—woe 
worth the while—cannot come up to; 
the fact is so notorious, that we need 
not harrow up the reader’s feelings, or 
our own, by dwelling on modern inca- 
pacity to make glass malleable, to dye 
cloth purple by cooking fish, &c. &c. 
Archimedes’ burning lens was long re- 
garded as fabulous, until the French 
Count Buffon demonstrated its appli- 
cability to military affairs. Apollodorus 
puts all our quacking venders of patent 
medicines to shame—all that their in- 
fallible elixirs profess is to restore the 
functions of nature, and thus prevent a 
man from dying; but he mentions a 
plant, whose sovereign efficacy is such, 
that a dead body being rubbed with it, 
the anointed would instantly start into 
renewed life. This far surpasses the 
sage devices of our worthy Humane 
Society ! 
In the east, more especially in Chi- 
na, they have possessed, and, doubt- 
less, <till retain arts, the attainment of 
which is far beyond our tether: con- 
cerning many of these we are gravely 
informed; but these crafty people, well 
remembering the maxim, “ What man 
has done, man may do”—only obscurely 
hint at the exceeding comforts of pla- 
netary dwellings, and the vast privileges 
enjoyed by some of the “ inhabitants of 
earth,” who have obtained passing-good 
places in the moon, Indeed, as we 
have not yet heard that the “ indefati- 
gable fingers” of our illustrious country- 
women have succeeded in weaving a 
silken ladder of sufficient extent for 
the conyeyance of passengers thither ; 
and, even if that were done, we enter- 
tain a strange apprehension of difficulty, 
—particularly now that so much building 
is going on upon earth, that it is feared 
our common mother will be unable to 
afford a sufficiency of clay to satisfy the 
demand: for bricks; we entertain, we 
say, a strange apprehension of difficulty 
in finding masons and bricklayers to 
build’ ilEwsy houses, &c. Few peo- 
ple, probably, will as yet be found suffi- 
Note on Duvard. 
419 
ciently enlightened to regret the indis- 
tinctness, or the doubtful authenticity, 
of information on this point; as few, 
even with the assistance of M. Sfrayel’s 
wonder-working telescope, and all the 
concomitant inventions which its mar- 
vellous properties will, in the course of 
time, stimulate and urge into use, would, 
probably, avail themselves of any advan- 
tage accruing from such discovery; un- 
less they could be previously convinced 
how many yet undreamed-of wants there 
are that cannot remain unsatisfied in 
this our wonder-working sublunary 
sphere. 
Evidently these, and innumerable 
other mysterious arts, which we will 
leave to the dull brains of “strong-built 
pedants”* to attempt to reckon, must, 
should our hint be taken, and the re- 
covery be effected, lead to the fortunate 
discovery of those wants, which such 
arts or inventions were designed to 
supply ; and thus the present narrowed 
bound of our sphere of enjoyment 
would, oh happy! be enlarged, and 
we should be no more soul-damped 
with the view of “ fast-fading” plea- 
sures: for as our pleasures arise from 
the prospect of satisfying or filling up 
of our wants, the more of these wants 
are found, the more of happiness'may 
reasonably be looked for: our object, 
therefore, is attained—for, goaded by an 
unwearying search for pleasure, mista- 
kenly supposed to consist in real en- 
joyment, invention is perpetually on the 
whetstone, to accelerate their gratifica- 
tion; and it is equally, therefore, the 
province and the duty of recondite 
science to be employed in imagining,’ 
hitherto, unfelt necessities, and creating 
New Wants, 
———a—— 
Epitorrat Norte, intended to have fol- 
lowed the Letter of Mr. Duvard.+ 
UR correspondent puts, we think, 
rather too harsh a construction on 
what we certainly meant as a very 
good-natured suggestion, in our note 
upon his former communication, We 
had certainly no intention of taxing 
him with ignorance (and, most assur- 
edly, 
ORLY De EE ee 
* “ The strong-built pedant, who both night 
and day 
Feeds on the coarsest food the schools 
bestow, : 
And crudely fattens at base Burman’s stall, 
O’erwhelmed with phlegm, lies ina dropsy 
drown’d, 
Or sinks in lethargy before his time.” 
+ Vide pp. 304-5, of our November Number. 
3H? 
