I.-, 



before mechanical science, doctoring and dosing before a 

 science of medicine. Agriculture, as an art, is as old ap Eden ; 

 as a science, the child of to-day. Metallurgy as an art, is 

 co-eval with Tubal-Cain ; as a science, an offshoot of modern 

 chemistry. There was, properly, no science of mechanicH, at 

 least in the modern sense, when the ponderous stones nt 

 the Pyramids were hoisted to their places, and there was no 

 proper science of architecture when the grand cathedrals of 

 the middle ages were erected. Yet the Pyramids still stand to 

 proclaim to us the high antiquity of mechanics as an art, and 

 the wonderful domes and arches and columns of the medieval 

 architecture, attest emphatically the perfection, even then, 

 both of the art of building and the genius of the builders. 



And so, always, in a new and forming state of socitty, the 

 arts come first, the sciences afterwards ; as our own country 

 exemplifies. The woodman's ax and the carpenter's ad/ 

 transformed forest trees into dwellings before the In it an 1st 

 settled their genera and species, or the scientific architect came 

 with his estimates and drawings. The farmer's plow did not 

 wait for the analysis of soils. The people built for themselves 

 ships before they did observatories ; and searched oceans and 

 continents for commerce before they did the heavens for stars. 

 Societies and Fairs for the encouragement of Arts and Manu- 

 factures were instituted long before the " American Associa- 

 tion for the advancement of Science" began to meet, or the 

 " National Academy" was founded by Act of Congress. And 

 mills and factories were built, and machine shops in operation, 

 before ever we began to hear of Schools of Science, or Insti- 

 tutes of Technology. 



And so of individual men. The artificers and inventors of 

 the world the men who revolutionize human industry and 

 manifold the wealth and power of nations by new machines 



