442 THE CENTURY, 



have stimulated the mechanical ingenuity of even a less 

 enthusiastic inventor than the Marquis of Worcester, 

 as of the wooden dove of Archytas, and the wooden 

 eagle and iron fly of Eegiomontanus. 



The Marquis, if he ever perused the little treatise 

 just quoted, would be keenly alive to the truthfulness 

 of the remark that &quot; it is none of the meanest dis 

 couragements, that any strange inventions are so 

 generally derided by common opinion, being esteemed 

 only as the dreams of a melancholy and distempered 

 fancy ; for that saying of Virgil, 



&quot; Dem ens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen,&quot; &c. 



&quot; hath been an old censure applied unto such as ven 

 tured upon any strange or incredible attempt.&quot; See 

 Math. Magick, 1648, p. 198. 



The Rev. Dr. Powell, in the last chapter of his 

 &quot; Humane Industry,&quot; 1661, treats of various minute 

 automata as &quot; Certain sports and extravagancies of 

 art,&quot; for which he offers an ingenious apology, observ 

 ing : &quot;As nature hath her ludicra, so art hath hers 

 too ; that is, some pretty knacks that are made, not so 

 much for use, as to show subtil ty of wit, being made de 

 Gaiete de Cceur, and for pastime as it were ; yet the 

 workmanship and elegancy of these may justly deserve 

 admiration ;&quot; concluding&quot; art, as well as nature, is 

 never more wonderful than in smaller pieces.&quot; After 

 describing small chains, locks, chariots, ships, clocks, 

 and insects, he remarks : &quot; though these knacks are 

 but little useful, and take up more time than needed to 

 be lost, yet they discover a marvellous pregnancy of 

 wit in the artificers ; and may be experimenta lucifera, 

 if notfrvgifera hints of greater matters.&quot; 



It will not appear strange to find the inventor of the 

 steam engine engaged toying with an artificial bird, an 

 imprisoning chair, a brazen head, or a riding horse, 



