20 Dr. Playfair’s Lecture on the Great Exhibition of 1851. 
this infinitely laborious process to a few inches of the material. 
It would appear that the less civilized nations attain a high de- 
gree of excellence in manufactures when they depend on mere 
ingenuity and labor, asin the muslins of Dacca and Chunderee, 
and do not involve an intimate acquaintance with natural forces. 
So far as regards beauty of design and the harmony of colors, 
European nations had little to teach, but much to learn. The 
rude pottery of Tunis was more elegant i in form than the com- 
mon pottery of modern Europe. The shawls and carpets of India, 
both as to design and harmony of coloring, were unequalled. So 4 
long as the manufactures involved human labor and a perception 
of beauty as their principal elements, the less civilized states 
equalled, and often excelled the productions of Europe. But 
when economy of time and of labor, or an enlightened compre- 
hension of a natural force, became essential conditions, then the 
on progress of European manufactures was manifested. 
rogress of civilization, with its necessary increase of hu- 
man ata compelled man to invent means for their gratifica- 
tion. The study of natural forces then became necessary, be- 
Augean stables by manual labor was impossible even to the en- 
vase powers of Hercules; but by the use of a natural force, in 
the form of the waters of the Alpheus, the work was speedily 
and effectually accomplished. 
he position of nations in the scale of civilization depends 
upon their greater or es oe with, and employment of, 
natural forces. All nations have a conception of their use, but 
their relative success arises from their applying them to the best 
advantage and under the most favorable circumstances. In the 
attempt to stotm the fort of Arcot, the Rajah drove before him 
numerous elephants, armed with iron plates, in the hope that the 
gates would yield to these living battering-rams. But the gallant 
Clive met this ill-applied, by a well-applied, force. The eighth 
of an ounce of gunpowder, propelling an ounce of lead from an 
iron tube, was sufficient to alter the direction of this misused 
force, and to cause the huge beasts to turn and trample upon the 
army using them as allies. 
Mechanics being a deductive science, and naturally growing 
from the observation of common phenomena, afforded powers 
which man availed himself of in an early state. The separate 
action of two mechanical forces being known, the result of their 
sa action can be predicated. But in chemistry it is very 
iff 
ent. ‘Two bodies, such as muriatic acid gas and ammonia- © 
cal gas being brought together, no eo ead could tell 
us that from these two gases a would be produced ; and 
nothing inherent in themelves could enable us to say, that the 
