772 Prospectus of the Royal Institution. 



ish; and, as the moral and physical powers of man 

 increase, new methods of improvement become prac- 

 ticable, which in an earlier state of society would have 

 appeared altogether visionary. 



Who among the ancients would have listened to 

 the extraordinary scheme of writing books with such 

 rapidity that one man by this new art should perform 

 the work of twenty thousand amanuenses ? What 

 philosopher would have given credit to the daring pro- 

 ject of navigating the widest oceans? or imagined 

 the astonishing effects of gunpowder? or even sus- 

 pected the useful and extended powers of the steam- 

 engine ? — discoveries which have changed the course 

 of human affairs, and of which the future effects can 

 scarcely yet be conjectured ! The men of those early 

 ages, in the confidence of their own wisdom, might 

 have derided them as impossible or rejected them as 

 unnecessary; but, to those who enjoy the fulf effect 

 of these and numerous other instances of successful 

 invention, it surely becomes a duty to reason upon 

 different principles, and to exert all means in their 

 power to give effect to the progress of improvement. 

 To point out the causes which impede this progress, 

 and to invite the public to join in effectually removing 

 them, is the purpose of the present address. 



The slowness with which improvements of every 

 kind make their way into common use, and espe- 

 cially such improvements as are most calculated to 

 be of general utility, is very remarkable, and forms a 

 striking contrast to the extreme avidity with which 

 those unmeaning changes are adopted, which folly 

 and caprice are continually bringing forth, and sending 

 into the world under the auspices of fashion. On the 



