THE STORY OF STEAM 



By the time the alphabet was invented and the 

 most advanced nations along the Mediterranean had 

 begun to use it, they had begun to use iron also. 

 With the use of the sharp iron implements the skill 

 of the people became greater and greater, and as their 

 skill increased the quickness of the mind increased 

 also. They began to inquire more and more into the 

 nature of those mysterious forces which they could 

 feel and use but could not see. In this way the race 

 of mankind had been going to school. Nature had 

 been the teacher, and they learned well the lessons 

 she was trying to teach them. 



The cave man, partly covered with a lion's skin, 

 would not think much: for he did not know much. 

 Even the lake dweller, dressed in a coarse linen cloth, 

 would only look out over the lake and wonder what 

 luck he would have in his fishing the next day. 



But the civilized and cultured Greek, dressed in a 

 closely woven tunic of the softest wool, would look 

 about him with seeing eyes and with a bus}^ mind. 

 As the rays of the setting sun fell upon a plant of 

 honeysuckle growing near him, he would see what a 

 graceful decoration it would make about the base of 

 a golden bowl, and he would use what he had seen 

 to make more beautiful the common things of daily 

 life. 



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