64" DISCOURSE ON THE STUDY 



for reflection and wonder ; but it would require 

 not volumes merely, but libraries, to enumerate 

 and describe the prodigies of ingenuity which have 

 been lavished on every thing connected with ma- 

 chinery and engineering. By these it is that we are 

 enabled to diffuse over the whole earth the pro- 

 ductions of any part of it ; to fill every corner of 

 it with miracles of art and labour, in exchange for its 

 peculiar commodities; and to concentrate around 

 us, in our dwellings, apparel and utensils, the skill and 

 workmanship not of a few expert individuals, but 

 of all who, in the present and past generations, have 

 contributed their improvements to the processes of 

 our manufactures. 



(59.) The transformations of chemistry, by which 

 we are enabled to convert the most apparently use- 

 less materials into important objects in the arts, are 

 opening up to us every day sources of wealth and 

 convenience of which former ages had no idea, and 

 which have been pure gifts of science to man. 

 Every department of art has felt their influence, and 

 new instances are continually starting forth of the 

 unlimited resources which this wonderful science 

 developes in the most sterile parts of nature. Not 

 to mention the impulse which its progress has given 

 to a host of other sciences, which will come more 

 particularly under consideration in another part of 

 this discourse, what strange and unexpected results 

 has it not brought to light in its application to some 

 of the most common objects ! Who, for instance, 

 would have conceived that linen rags were capable 

 of producing more than their own weight of sugar, by 

 the simple agency of one of the cheapest and most 



