IN THE LAST HALF-CENTURY. 15 



send a message from London to York no 

 faster than King John might have done. 

 Metals were worked from their ores by 

 immemorial rule of thumb, and the centre 

 of the iron trade of these islands was still 

 among the oak forests of Sussex. The 

 utmost skill of our mechanicians did not 

 get beyond the production of a coarse 

 watch. 



The middle of the eighteenth century 

 is illustrated by a host of great names in 

 science— English, French, German, and 

 Italian— especially in the fields of chemis- 

 try, geology, and biology ; but this deep- 

 ening and broadening of natural knowl- 

 edge produced next to no immediate 

 practical benefits. Even if, at this time, 

 Francis Bacon could have returned to the 

 scene of his greatness and of his littleness, 

 he must have regarded the philosophic 

 world which praised and disregarded his 

 precepts with great disfavor. If ghosts 

 are consistent, he would have said, ' These 



