124 Jllechanic Arts. [Chap. IX. 



from all foreign matter, discharging the ink, and 

 rendering it again fit to receive new impressions ; 

 the methods which have heen devised for multiply- 

 ing copies of prints and manuscripts with ease, ex- 

 pedition, and cheapness; the various plans for 

 cutting and casting Nails, instead of the old and 

 tedious method of forming them on the anvil; be- 

 side a multitude of others, scarcely, if at all less 

 important, which time would fail to enumerate. 



Finally, the eifccts of the various improvements 

 wliich have been introduced into every department 

 of the mechanic arts, during the last age, in pro- 

 moting the conveniency, cheapness, and elegance 

 ot^ living, will readily occur to the most careless 

 observer. No one M-ill say that it indicates undue 

 partiality to our own times to assert, that at no 

 period of the world was the art of living, especi- 

 ally the comforts and convenienses of domestic 

 life, ever on so advantageous a footing as at pre- 

 sent. Ancient writers, indeed, have given highly 

 coloured pictures of the magnificence and sensua- 

 hty which reigned at different times in Greece and 

 Rome ; and in more modern da}'s we read many 

 descriptions of luxury which superficial thinkers 

 would suppose to indicate nnich greater plenty, 

 comfort, and splendour, than arc now commonly 

 enjoyed. But they are, for the most part/ descrip- 

 tions of plenty without taste, and of luxury with- 

 out enjoyment. When we compare the ancient 

 modes of living with the dress *, the furniture, the 

 equipage, the conveniences of travelling, and the 



* When the autlior speaks of the superiority of modern dress 

 to the ancient, he wi.shes to be understood not as asserting that it 

 is superior in its fonn : this he is persuaded would not be in all 



