1871.] Thoughts Suggested by Patent Rights. 513 



Now, if all men were honest, patents would not be required, 

 truth would be equal to a patent for the whole life. But if 

 all men were honest and good, what would be the use of 

 policemen or criminal courts, judges or barristers ? and 

 how small would the work be for arranging matters in a 

 friendly way in our civil courts ? He that has money will 

 carry out the invention to most profit ; and we know from 

 daily observation that unless he is obliged to pay the in- 

 ventor he will not do it. Now there is no use in denying 

 these things, they are well known. If inventors were to 

 be so foolish as to go on inventing, and to be robbed with- 

 out any hope whatever, they would be much duller than we 

 imagine them to be. We leave with little attention the 

 question whether inventors work for simple honour. The 

 very fact that, whenever an invention, scientific or otherwise, 

 can be used for making money, it is patented, is a sufficient 

 answer. But supposing it to be true that honour only were 

 wanted, it would be still an argument for patents. Men would 

 then receive their proper place as inventors and be registered 

 as such. Although we know that this would not satisfy them, 

 it may be called supplementary reasoning. A good guide to 

 the inventions made would be invaluable, and if it were 

 authoritative still more so. A good beginning is made in 

 the abridgments by the Patent Office, but we are sorry to 

 say it is far from being a record of purely honourable achieve- 

 ments ; we should be very glad to see it weeded so that 

 reading might be less wasteful of time. 



We may now look at the method by which the patenting 

 stage of an invention is arrived at. Some people, especially 

 such as have read about inventions and discoveries in 

 past times, and who have impressed on their minds stories 

 from their school books about glass being discovered by 

 accident when some people made a fire to cook by on the 

 shores of Syria, and about hens with clay on their feet 

 going over some sugar, have some idea that inventions are 

 generally accidents. If we examine the history of the two 

 inventions alluded to above, that of making glass as it is 

 now required to be made, and that of purifying sugar as it 

 is now purified, we shall find that each subject requires a 

 large portion of a lifetime for full understanding; nay, more, 

 if we look at the history of the men who have made certain 

 of the inventions included in the history, we shall find that 

 they have devoted the greater part of active, intelligent, and 

 valuable lives to one small portion. Such we assure the 

 men who believe in these typical inventions-by-accident, is 

 the truth concerning the progress in the arts. For glass we 



