432 ARCHITECHNICS. 



might be associated with the present group, as powerful means of 

 diffusing useful knowledge : but on account of other relations and 

 dependences, those arts are reserved for the subsequent departments. 



We have here spoken of the intellectual utility of the arts of con- 

 struction and conveyance ; from which their favorable influence on 

 morals, might, we think, be justly inferred : but their immediate im- 

 portance to the physical comfort and well-being of our race, is much 

 more obvious, if not more certain. The improvements in architec- 

 ture, above referred to, have doubtless contributed essentially to the 

 general improvement in health, and corresponding decrease in the 

 bills of mortality, exhibited in modern statistics ; while the improve- 

 ments in conveyance, have greatly stimulated commercial pursuits, 

 and thus furnished greater supplies of desirable commodities ; be- 

 sides enlarging the personal intercourse, and with it the social rela- 

 tions, of the various branches of the human family. That there are 

 drawbacks to these advantages, we must, indeed, admit, in the in- 

 creasing opportunities for crime, and temptations to luxury and vice ; 

 but most reluctantly should we believe that these drawbacks could 

 ever countervail the positive benefits already adverted to. 



The arts embraced in the present department, depend, generally, 

 like most of the following branches of Technology, on the principles 

 of Acrophysics, or Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. Accordingly, 

 they have been mostly classed by Dr. Ure, in his Philosophy of 

 Manufactures, under the divisions of Mechanical, and Chemical J%rts. 

 Were these arts intermingled with the sciences on which they depend, 

 this principle of classification would become a necessary one ; although 

 it would separate processes which are closely connected in their prac- 

 tice and application. But since, in the present work, we have adopted 

 the plan of separating the physical arts from the physical sciences, in 

 order that the principles peculiar to each may be examined in their 

 natural connection ; we here, for a similar reason, adopt the method 

 of treating the arts, rather in reference to their general uses and objects, 

 than to the scientific principles on which they depend. These prin- 

 ciples we suppose to have been previously studied ; and they may 

 then be easily referred to, in treating of Technology, as often as they 

 are called in question. 



The history of Architechnics, will be more naturally distributed 

 under its different branches : but we may here remark how rapidly 

 most of these arts have been improved in modern times. The 

 ancients were not entirely unacquainted with machinery ; though their 

 ponderous structures appear to have been raised, chiefly, at a great 

 sacrifice, by unaided human force. They made roads, and even 

 canals ; though without locks to overcome inclinations of the ground : 

 and they built ships, some of which were of great size ; though gene- 

 rally they were small, and their voyages confined to the coasts, lest 

 they should lose themselves in venturing more widely. But it was 

 reserved for modern science, to apply the magnetic needle, to guide 

 the beclouded mariner, over trackless seas, to worlds before unknown; 

 and to invent the steam engine, driving the rapid wheel along the 

 iron road, or through the billowy deep; instinct with life and motion ; 

 performing the labor and relieving the toils of thousands of horses ; 



