STR DAVID BREWSTER. 193 



ignorant to the most learned ; and every person not only felt, 

 but expressed the feeling, that a new pleasure had been added 

 to their existence. 



The pirated instruments, of course, were only of the simple 

 form, and necessarily of rude and unscientific construction. 

 They, however, had the effect of deeply injuring the property 

 of the inventor; but the rage was soon over, and they were 

 thrown aside as a pleasing but useless toy. 



This, however, is not the case with the patent kaleidoscope, 

 which is of great service in exhibiting an infinite variety of 

 beautiful patterns, which are transferred to several of our 

 manufactures. The system of endless changes is named as 

 one of the most astonishing properties of the kaleidoscope. 

 With a number of loose objects, — pieces of glass, for example — 

 It is impossible to reproduce any figure we have admired, when 

 it is once lost; centuries may elapse before the same com- 

 bination returns. If the objects, however, are placed in the 

 cell so as to have very little motion, the same figure may be re- 

 called ; and, if absolutely fixed, the same pattern will return in 

 every evolution of the object plate. A calculation of the 

 number of forms is given upon the ordinary principles of com- 

 bination — namely, that 24 pieces of glass may be combined 



13917242888872552999425128493402200 

 times, an operation the performance of which would take 

 hundreds of thousands of millions of years, even upon the 

 supposition that twenty of them were performed every minute. 

 This calculation, surprising as it appears, is false, not from 

 being exaggerated, but from being far inferior to the reality. 

 It proceeds upon the supposition that one piece of glass can 

 exhibit only one figure, and that two pieces can exhibit only 

 two figures; whereas it is obvious that two pieces, though they 



