THE WORKS OF A WATCH. 373 



XXVII. 



ILLUSTRATION OF THE WORKS OF A WATCIL 



(See beginning of Chap L) 



Many, perhaps most, persons carry watches, 

 without ever thinking how such pieces of mechan- 

 ism become a measure of time. This incurious 

 habit is hurtful, for it may prevail to the neglect 

 of other objects. We must suppose such persons 

 to be quite indifferent to the structure of their 

 own frame, by which they move and have so 

 many enjoyments. The subject forms a good les- 

 son in mechanics for a youth. Let him look into 

 his watch, and learn how the wheels act, and how 

 all are regulated by the balance, to measure time. 



When men are advanced in science, they have 

 sometimes little objection to see the particular 

 subjects of their study involved in mystery. They 

 are apt to deliver things in the form of a paradox. 

 Thus they will affirm that the power of the hand, 

 exerted through a machine, may raise a weight of 

 many stones, and that one pound may weigh up 

 one hundred. We are entitled to say, that the 

 thing is impossible as the mechanist literally states 

 it ; that the props of the machine, the centre of 

 the levers and the axles sustain by much the 

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