245 
Mr T. Tredgold on Steam-Boats. 
with other nations, which must be highly conducive to our 
prosperity. While we were obliged to depend upon the natu- 
ral powers of the winds and tides, the uncertainty and hazard of 
life and property acted as a bar to commercial enterprise. It is 
true it did not put a stop to it, but it rendered the risk of safe 
conveyance great, and therefore expensive, and the time of 
transit long and tedious. 
The superior advantages of a moving power within the ves- 
sel, and completely under the control of its attendants, is too 
apparent to be insisted upon. For a power of this kind can be 
increased and diminished at pleasure, or totally removed, if oc- 
casion requires. It even can be directed in opposition to wind and 
tide, — affording a means of retreating from the danger of the 
conflicting elements, when their united powers oppose all ap- 
proach to the place of safety ; and in affording a more certain 
and secure mode of conveyance, a new impulse has been given to 
study the laws of motion in fluids, and the theoretical principles 
of naval architecture. 
It has been said, that, in these departments of science, the 
British are less advanced than other nations, and there is, per- 
haps, some truth in the remark ; for the operations of art have 
hitherto been but slightly directed by science in this country. 
The importance of a knowledge of science is only beginning to 
be felt ; and, in a short time, we hope it will be acted on with 
more success than it has been in any other place, or in any other 
age. It is much to be wished, that some able writer would 
mould the elements of pure science into a form fitted for the use 
of practical men, and teach the truths of physical science in the 
plainest and most simple manner, — not in the connected trains of 
systems, but in the most detached and independent form, recollect- 
ing, that it is the object of the practical man to acquire the me- 
thods of discovering the laws of nature as they actually operate, 
• — to ascertain their relations, to measure and compute forces, 
motions, and effects in the particular cases which arise in busi- 
ness. Knowledge of this kind does not require so much previ- 
ous systematic study as may be expected ; indeed, it is most ef- 
fectually cultivated, and rendered familiar by practice. It can- 
not be pursued with advantage without consulting nature; 
hence it leads to a close observance of natural phenomena. 
