Scientific Lectures. 173 



and that the first naval engineer constructed a vessel which has only 

 once since been exceeded in size ; and that the first architect built " a 

 city and a tower," which became one of the seven wonders of the 

 heathen world. We find, also, the architect of the Tabernacle, who 

 was " learned in all of the knowledge of the Egyptians," and him of 

 the first Temple, who was endowed by God with " wisdom and 

 knowledge " beyond that of any other man, and him, also, of the 

 second temple, who was possessed of all of the learning of the Chal- 

 deans. In profane history, we find Hercules deified for draining the 

 marshes of Thessaly ; and tlie first bridge builder, Semirimus, whom we 

 are the more proud of classing in our profession, as she was a woman, 

 and who is also said to have tunneled the Euphrates, constructed 

 canals and reservoirs for irrigation, and commenced the walls and 

 hanging gardens of Babylon. Of Phidias, the constructor of another 

 of the seven wonders, who built the first water works of Athens, 

 tunneling Mount Athos for two miles, with a passage of eight feet 

 diameter ; of Archimides, the military engineer, who defended Syra- 

 cuse so long by his science alone, against the whole power of Rome ; and 

 of Yitruvius, the analyst, by whose engineering rules we are yet gov- 

 erned. But the early history of the profession has been best written in 

 its monuments, extending from the days of Abraham to those of Constan- 

 tine. In the great temples of Assyria, Egypt, and India, and those of the 

 central and southern American continent ; of the long canals for 

 transport or irrigation in China, India and Egypt ; of the water 

 works, with their tunnels through mountains ; acqueducts over 

 valleys ; immense reservoirs, and systems of pipes, and in the great 

 military roads, bridges, and sewers, of the Romans. These histories 

 bring us down to the first centuries of the Christian era; the Augustan 

 age of ancient engineering ; after which civilization was overwhelmed 

 by or lapsed into barbarism, and engineering was only practiced by 

 a secret fraternity of masons, " The Brothers of the Bridge." 



Modern Engineering. 

 "With the revival of civilization in the seventeenth century, dates 

 the commencement of modern engineering, though the tenn will be 

 more particularly applied to the last hundred years. This revival 

 began in Italy, in the construction of canals for irrigation, and subse- 

 quently with those for transport with locks (which had not been used 

 before that time) ; in the investigation of the laws which govern the 

 flow and pressure of water, and in the construction of great hydraulic 



