212 INTERACTION OF NATURAL FORCES. 



rectly ; the writing boy of the older, and the piano-forte play- 

 er of the younger Droz : which latter, when performing, fol- 

 lowed its hands with his eyes, and at the conclusion of the 

 piece bowed courteously to the audience. That men like 

 those mentioned, whose talent might bear comparison with 

 the most inventive heads of the present age, should spend so 

 much time in the construction of these figures, which we at 

 present regard as the merest trifles, would be incomprehensi- 

 ble, if they had not hoped in solemn earnest to solve a great 

 problem. The writing boy of the elder Droz was publicly 

 exhibited in Germany some years ago. Its wheel-work is so 

 complicated, that no ordinary head would be sufficient to 

 decipher its manner of action. When, however, we are in- 

 formed that this boy and its constructor, being suspected of the 

 black art, lay for a time in the Spanish Inquisition, and with 

 difficulty obtained their freedom, we may infer that in those 

 days even such a toy appeared great enough to excite doubts 

 as to its natural origin. And though these artists may not 

 have hoped to breathe into the creature of their ingenuity a 

 soul gifted with moral completeness, still there were many 

 who would be willing to dispense with the moral qualities of 

 their servants, if, at the same time, their immoral qualities 

 could also be got rid of ; and accept, instead of the mutability 

 of flesh and bones, services which should combine the regu- 

 larity of a machine with the durability of brass and steel. 

 The object, therefore, which the inventive genius of the past 

 century placed before it with the fullest earnestness, and not 

 as a piece of amusement merely, was boldly chosen, and was 

 followed up with an expenditure of sagacity which has contri- 

 buted not a little to enrich the mechanical experience which a 

 later time knew how to take advantage of. We no longer 

 seek to build machines which shall fulfil the thousand services 

 required of one man, but desire, on the contrary, that a ma- 

 chine shall perform one service, but shall occupy in doing it 

 the place of a thousand men. 



