USEFUL ARTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



PRIMITIVE MAN AND HIS NEEDS. EARTHENWARE. BALL- 

 AND-SOCKET JOINT. TOGGLE OR KNEE JOINT. 



Contrast between Savagery and Civilisation. Manufacture of Weapons- 

 Earthenware of Art. Sun-baked Vessels. Earthenware of Nature. Nest 

 of Pied Grallina. Analogy with the Babylonish Brick. Nest of the Oven- 

 bird. A partitioned Vessel. Necked earthenware Vessels. Nests of 

 Eumenes, Trypoxylon, and Pelopoeus. Proof of Reason in Insects. The 

 Ball-and-socket Joint. "Bull's-eye" of Microscope. The human Thigh- 

 bone. Vertebras of the Serpents and their Structure. The Sea-urchin and 

 its Spines. Legs and Antennae of Insects. The Toggle or Knee Joint, and 

 its Use in the Arts. The hand Printing-press and the Toggle-joint. The 

 human Leg and Arm. Power of the natural Toggle-joint. Fencing and 

 Boxing. Heads of Carriages. " Bowsing " of Ropes. Leaf-rolling Cater- 

 pillars. 



IN the primitive ages of Man the aids to civilisation were 

 very few and very rude. Some of them, especially those 

 which relate to hunting and war, have already been mentioned, 

 and we now have to deal with some of those which bear upon 

 domestic life. 



Here we are in some little difficulty, for it is not very easy 

 to draw the line where domestic life begins, or the mode in 

 which it shall be denned. We may at all events connect 

 domestic life with a residence of some sort, and may, in conse- 

 quence, neglect all such primitive savages as need no domestic 

 implements. 



Such, for example, are the few surviving Bosjesmans of 

 Southern Africa, not one of whom ever made a tool or an 

 implement, or looked beyond the present day. The genuine 

 Bosjesman can make a bow and poison his arrows, and he can 

 light a fire ; but there his civilisation ends. He cannot look 

 beyond the present hour, he has not the faintest notion of 



