PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 361 



differ. Men bound to labor, are the class of inventors ; men just 

 above want are the leaders of the host of inventors j and the 

 climate sharpens their wits to a keenness next to the edge of the 

 sword. Because of our inventions, we look around us on vast 

 accumulations of Avealth, at once the admiration and envy of our 

 non-inventive neighbors. The contact of our accumulations Avith 

 theirs, lies near the bottom of the present conflict. Our machines 

 are naturally pacific ; but it is the record of French history that 

 Watt and Arkwright subdued Napoleon, and Watt and Arkwright 

 were Roundheads. 



Mr. Garbanati Avould attribute differences between nations 

 more to institutions than to climate. Men from southern cli- 

 mates have been found to be better able to bear fatigue and 

 exposure, and Avhen their resources are taken from them, become 

 exceedingly industrious. The Anglo Saxon race can adapt itself 

 readily to any climate from the Arctic regions to the heats of Cen- 

 tral Africa. When men enslave others and make their slaves do 

 their work, they lose the inventive character. 



Mr. Fisher. — In order to make invention useful, it must 

 pass through different minds. The inventive faculty seems 

 to preclude the faculty of sober judgment, and practical skill in 

 details. Inventions therefore must pass through the hands of a 

 practical engineer, to reduce them to a proper shape for use. 

 And even he Avill be aided by consulting the master workman, 

 who Avill prune away expensive portions and make the machine 

 cheap as well as practicable. Finally the capitalist furnishes 

 the means of introducing the invention to public use. It Avould 

 be well if inventors could be convinced of the necessity for the 

 aid of these other classes in making their inventions practical. 

 There must be a market for inventions or they will be still-born. 

 Inventions must be encouraged ; and thus the influence of climate 

 will stimulate invention, if it acts upon the community and cre- 

 ates a demand for invention. 



Mr. Veeder said that it had been remarked by Daniel Webster 

 that the slave labor went to the south in this country, not neces- 

 sarily because the climate called for it there, but because there 

 was a demand there for the labor. The cultivation of the cotton 

 plant may have incidentally created the difference; without it 

 something else may have grown up in the south tending to stimu- 

 late invention. One kind of invention stimulates other kinds j 

 and may not freedom of the mind to act, be a greater incentive 



