LITTLE THINGS IMPORTANT. 95 



forest ; and yet the germes of all their generations 

 must have been contained in the first oak-bud that 

 ever sprouted ; and but for the germination of that, 

 we should never have had an oak. Nor is the oak a 

 solitary instance ; for as we trace anything towards 

 its origin, we find that the limit which we approach 

 is that " nothing" out of which Almighty Power 

 spake and commanded " all things." 



It is, therefore, always dangerous to slight little 

 things, for little things are all beginnings ; and in 

 obtaining knowledge, and thence enjoyment, it is at 

 the beginning only that we can begin. All those 

 beginnings are in nature ; and those who discovered 

 and applied the property of water which has been 

 mentioned had no more to do in the making of that 

 property than those to whom it is altogether un- 

 known. Anybody, too, who possesses the organ 

 of sense necessary for the purpose, and will exercise 

 that organ, may know those beginnings ; and then 

 comes the proper exercise of man. One thing is 

 compared with another ; the process is continued ; 

 the relations of these things to each other are again 

 compared, those that are fit are adopted, those unfit 

 rejected : and thus discovery is piled upon discovery, 

 just as one little brick is piled upon another, until 

 the observant and reflective man rears a splendid edi- 

 fice, and calls it an invention ; and it adorns human 

 nature as much as the most magnificent material 

 palace adorns the earth. Even now they are erecting 

 in Westminster Abbey a monument to James Watt, 

 and, perhaps, it had been as creditable had it been 

 done some time ago. But James Watt needs no 

 memorial at their hands. Make the tour of these 

 kingdoms, and you shall find Watt's monument at 

 work at every village. Would you travel by land ? 

 that monument shall carry you along as fleet as the 

 winds. Would you travel by water 1 heed nothing 

 for wind and tide, for James Watt's monument will 

 overcome these for you. That monument is at this 



