286 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



object of their inventors was to astonish and 

 amuse the public. We should form an erroneous 

 judgment, however, if we suppose that this was 

 the only result of the ingenuity which they dis- 

 played. The passion for automatic exhibitions, 

 which characterized the 18th century, gave rise 

 to the most ingenious mechanical devices, and 

 introduced among the higher orders of artists 

 habits of nice and accurate execution in the for- 

 mation of the most delicate pieces of machinery. 

 The same combination of the mechanical powers 

 which made the spider crawl, or which waved 

 the tiny rod of the magician, contributed in future 

 years to purposes of higher import. Those 

 wheels and pinions, which almost eluded our 

 senses by their minuteness, re-appeared in the 

 stupendous mechanism of our spinning-machines 

 and our steam-engines. The elements of the 

 tumbling-puppet were revived in the chronometer, 

 which now conducts our navy through the ocean ; 

 and the shapeless wheel which directed the hand 

 of the drawing automaton has served, in the 

 present age, to guide the movements of the 

 tambouring engine. Those mechanical wonders, 

 which in one century enriched only the conjuror 

 who used them, contributed in another to aug- 

 ment the wealth of the nation ; and those auto- 

 matic toys, which once amused the vulgar, are 

 now employed in extending the power and pro- 

 moting the civilization of our species. In what- 

 ever way, indeed, the power of genius may 

 invent or combine, and to whatever low or even 

 ludicrous purposes that invention or combination 

 may be originally applied, society receives a gift 

 which it can never lose ; and though the value 

 of the seed may not be at once recognized, and 



