Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. 127 



masters, showing their, mutually, injurious tendency ; on the expor- 

 tation of machinery, and the emigration of workmen ; on the appli- 

 cation and dura-tion of machinery, and on the effect of taxes, boun- 

 ties, and monopolies upon manufactures. Each of these compre- 

 hend important principles; and the whole work is illustrated by tables, 

 facts and reasoning, relative to the economy of machinery and man- 

 ufactures. 



An irresistible inference is deduced from the work, that a knowl- 

 edge of principles is important to statesmen and legislators, equally 

 with the philosophical student. While the latter unfolds the unknown 

 combinations of matter, detects their practical uses, and contrives 

 new associations, contributing to the perfection of the arts and the 

 comforts of social life ; the former should beware of impeding the 

 progress, or of obstructing the prosperity of such important interests. 

 If, in the concluding pages, the author, departing from the world 

 of utilities, where we have, with pleasure and instruction, accompa- 

 nied his progress, indulges in visions of romance, and gravely views 

 Iceland and Ischia, in the obscure perspective of remote ages, fur- 

 nishing " steam power in exchange for the luxuries of happier cli- 

 mates ;" and ships, under water, navigating and exploring the bottom 

 of unknown seas, yet the master spirit soon subdues the spell — the 

 balance is soon readjusted in a mind, habitually, disciplined by the 

 exact calculations of mechanical philosophy. Dismissing the delu- 

 sive enthusiasm of poetical fancies, he sees, that " the sun of science 

 has but penetrated the outer fold of nature's majestic robe." He 

 contemplates the undeniable evidences of design, in all the wonders 

 unveiled by modern learning, from the material portions of our plan- 

 et — the life which animates, and the intellectual beings which adorn 

 it — to the members and motions of those kindred systems, wander-^ 

 ing, but not-lost, " in the remoteness of space, where the eye glad- 

 dens by their forms of beauty, and the facuhies expand by decy- 

 phering their laws." 



Nor has science confined its benefits to the material world. It 

 has enlarged the range of intellectual achievement ; it has aided the 

 faculty of reason, that choicest gift of life, in "subjugating the ex- 

 ternal world" to the use of man. It places before him incontestible 

 evidence, that our own material globe — the countless host of radiant 

 spheres, which traverse the boundless extent of space, that himself, 

 the greatest mystery, the " master-piece of skill," all are the work 

 of an Almighty Creator, who sustains and governs the universe by 

 his own immutable laws. 



