Lesson L] INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 7 



raised but a very little way. On this, I soon imagined, that, by pulling round a wheel, 

 the weight iiii_-ht be raised to any height by tying a rope to the weight, and winding the 

 rope round the axle of the wheel ; and that the power gained must be just as great as the 

 wheel was broader thin the axle was thick ; and found it to be exactly so by hanging one 

 weight to a rope put tound the wheel, and another to the rope that coiled round the axle. 

 So that, in these two machines, it appeared very plain, that their advantage was as great 

 as the space gone through by the working power exceeded the space gone through by 

 the weight ; and this property, I also thought, must take place in a wedge for 



:i wood ; but then I happened not to think of the screw. By means of a t,. 

 lathe u-hich ;/.-// fattier had, and sometimes used, and a little knife, 1 was enabled to makt 

 wheels and other things necessary for my purpose. 



hen wrote a short account of these machines, and sketched out figures of them 

 with a pen, imagining it to be the first treatise of the kind that ever was written ; but 

 found my mUtake when I afterwards showed it to a gentleman, who told me that these 

 things were known long before, and showed me a printed book in which they were treated 

 of; and I was much pleased when I found that my account (so far as I had carried it) 

 agreed with the principles of mechanics in the book he showed me. And from that 

 (1 a constant tendency to improve in that science. 



" Bi. her could not afford to maintain me while I was in pursuit only of 



these matters, and I was rather too young and weak for hard labour, he put me out to a 



neighbour to keep sheep, which I continued to do for some years; and in that time I 



began to study the stars in the night. In the day-time I amused myself by making modeU 



itcels, and such other tilings as I happened to see. 



" I ; a considerable farmer in the neighbourhood, whose name waa 



James < 1 found him very kind and indulgent ; but he soon observed that in 



the evenings, when my work was over, I went into a field with a blanket about me, lay 



hack, and stretched a thread with small beats upon it, at .1: 

 a my eye and the stars; sliding the beads upon it till they hid such an .. 

 stars fr , in order to take their apparent distances from one another ; and then, 



laying the thread down on a paper, I marked the stars tin beads, according 



to the:: .ons, having a cat rat first laughed at me; 



but when I explained my meaning to him, he encouraged me to go on ; and that I 

 might make f.iir copies in the day-time of what 1 had done in the night, he often worked 



nt him with a message to the Rev. John Gilchrist, the minister 



at Keith, and Ferguson carried what he t- tar papers" 



show the clergyman, who was examining some maps. Mr (ul hust had 

 OHM conversation with Ferguson, lent hint a in ip to copy, and gave him a ; 

 passes, a ru k, and paper for the pui| >'. Il< - n c MI, \>'.< ted this task, and 



while : ..itii the map and copy under his arm, lie observed a 



man, named Alexander Cantli-y, painting a sun-dial on the wall of the school wl,> 

 formerly had three months' r .ml while staying to observe him, the 



master came out, and asked Ferguson what he had under his ami. Ferguson showed 

 him the map In- had drawn, which pleased tin- -rh..;n 1 . .u i v< ry imu-h, and the \ 

 also pi a the same timeilhat it was a pity such a lad o 



nconngtoi 

 r he arrived at the minister's, and while convening with him, a neighbouring 



