778 Prospectus of the Royal Institution. 



Every consideration unites in showing how highly 

 important it must be to the progress of real improve- 

 ments to have some general collection of useful me- 

 chanical contrivances, constructed on the most approved 

 principles, and kept constantly in actual use, to which 

 application can be made as to a standard, in order to 

 determine whether the failure of experiments be ow- 

 ing to errors in principle, or to the mistakes of work- 

 men employed in the construction, or to those of the 

 servants intrusted with the management of the ma- 

 chinery. 



How useful, also, would such a repository be for 

 furnishing models and for giving instruction to ar- 

 tificers who may be employed in imitating them! 

 Workmen must see what they are to imitate : bare 

 description will not suffice to give them ideas so pre- 

 cise as to prevent error in the execution of the work. 



But this is also the case with mankind in general, 

 and even with the best informed ; for how great is 

 that effort of the imagination which is necessary to 

 form an adequate idea of what we have not seen! 

 Descriptions, though they be illustrated by the best 

 drawings, can give but very imperfect ideas of things ; 

 and the impressions they leave are faint and transi- 

 tory, and seldom excite that degree of ardour which 

 ought to accompany the pursuit of interesting im- 

 provements. Something visible and tangible is nec- 

 essary to fix the attention and determine the choice. 



This tacit recommendation from a respectable public 

 institution, where things judged worthy of public notice 

 will be exposed to view, must evidently tend to produce 

 the happiest effects. The manufacturer, as well as the 

 consumer, will become instructed as to the real value 



