112 PROFESSOR SHELLEY ON MANUFACTURING ART. 



eminent men who had pursued a similar line of study, and who would sef ve 

 as examples and incentives to future enterprise and invention, and his great 

 desire and hope was to be able to induce the students to emulate those 

 eminent examples. Many of those gentlemen who had now come to the 

 college with the object of studying the applied sciences had, he dared say, 

 already made up their minds as to the particular calling or profession which 

 they intended to educate themselves for, and which they afterwards pro- 

 posed following up. Many others, he dared say, were at the college study- 

 ing, and endeavouring to find that particular branch that suited their tastes 

 before they finally determined the exact course which they intended to 

 pursue in the future. He thought he might be allowed to tell each of these 

 classes of students that they were wise. For those who had made up their 

 minds as to their calling might rest assured that if they were determined to 

 adhere to their choice and persevere in their task they would overcome all 

 obstacles, and speedily attain excellence in the line they had chosen ; while 

 those who had not made up their minds might be confident that if they 

 studied well there would be abundant opportunities of turning their know- 

 ledge to good account, either in England or abroad. For a knowledge of 

 mathematics, chemistry, geology, and the development of machinery was a 

 means of daily adding to our material wealth ; and there would be a con- 

 stant demand for those men who had made it their study to understand 

 scientific principles. The section of applied science which it was his pro- 

 vince to draw their attention to was that of manufacturing art. Improve- 

 ments in manufacturing art and machinery had wrought mighty changes in 

 the condition of the world, which the Professor illustrated by referring to 

 the great social changes which had taken place owing to the development 

 of mineral wealth, caused by James Watt and the pumping-engine, by 

 railways, of which the steam-engine had been called the father, by the 

 changes in literature wrought by the printing-machine, and by the changes 

 effected by the improvement of the electric telegraph — in his opinion the 

 greatest of them all. He was sure that every one connected with this 

 university would be gratified to know that of the eminent men who had 

 advanced applied science, four had been professors there ; two out of the 

 four were not with them now, but they could not recall their memories to 

 their minds without feeling that by their talents, brilliant, discoveries, and 

 inventions, they had advanced us as a nation, and promoted our national 

 greatness. The principle of a given manufacture might be explained to, 

 and as easily understood by, any person of ordinary education ; but it did 

 not follow the process could be gone through without a number of years' 

 additional training and attention. The Professor proceeded to say that 

 labour performed by the hands of a man, without any other assistance, 

 would be extremely limited in the usefulness of its application ; and in 

 order to carry out any great work, some means should be found for uniting 

 the exertions of several men, or of increasing the power of one man. The 

 means of doing so was called machinery. The labour of cultivating the 

 ground or tilling the earth required in its primitive form but little skill and 



