EVOLUTION OF THE MECHANIC ARTS.* 



In starting out with an exhilarating sense of freedom 

 upon the broad, wild prairie of a nearly new topic, it is in- 

 teresting to note that we are by no means without compass 

 or means of guidance. Our great Master, Herbert Spencer, 

 from the beginning has provided a place in his S3''stem of 

 philosophy for the mechanic arts and their evolution, by 

 establishing and declaring the principles of their psycho- 

 logical genesis. Fiske and Romanes have followed Mr. 

 Spencer ; and therefore if we at any time lose our way, we 

 have only to return to the safe starting-points these pilots 

 have fixed for us in the new psychology. 



Considering the world as a work-shop, and man as the 

 mechanic who is to run the shop, the particular bogey by 

 which we are met, the moment we begin to study the evolu- 

 tion of the mechanic arts, is the carpenter idea of Creation. 

 Even that idea places the mechanic and mechanical princi- 

 ples in command of the situation at the very outset. But 

 as there is a way of " protesting too much," so there is a 

 way of conceding too much. At all events the evolutionist, 

 if he would put his subject on a sound basis, must beware 

 of this concession, as applied to the Infinite and Eternal 

 Energy and its work, and reserve the ofiice of the supreme 

 carpenter and mechanic of the world to be conferred upon 

 Man himself. 



The mechanic arts, together with religion, the family, the 

 tribe, the city, law and government whether of status or 

 contract and civilization itself, ancient and modern, all 

 had a common origin and a common expression, at the 

 family-hearth and altar-fire, which was also a forge, located 

 in the inclosure which was at once a house, a shop, and a 

 sanctuary. And tracing back our American civilization to 

 one of its origins, we find it in hundreds of New England 

 structures still standing, that have been all of these at one 

 and the same time, within the memory and knowledge of 

 persons here present. 



* COPYKIGHT, 18!H), by James H. West. 



