The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1851-01-27
Origin and Progress ofInventIon.
DIaNITY Ion NEcHANIcAL PURSUITS.

| 1 DIGNITY OF MECHANICAL PURSUITS. y
I tits q. singular yagary that men towhose
genius and industry theworld is indebted for
what is most valuable in it, should have all
ways been held in low esteem. A habit Of
modern, it was passion in former times, to
look askant at those who use the hammer or
spade, under The fond delusion that the less
wise men have to do with gross matter, the
nearer they resemble the Great Spirit; where
as Go1iis the greatest of workers-the chief
of artifcers. SO far from locking up his
wisdom, in distractions, he is incessantly
embodying it in tangible things; and in them
lit is that his intelligence, ingenuity, and re-
source ara made manifest. What is this
world but one Of his workshops, and the uni
verse but collection of his inventions? In
him the squeamishness of half-formed phi
Ilosophers and of high-bred fashionables res
pecting manual andmechanical pursuits finds
no. sympathy, but terrible rebuke. His
works proclaim his preference for the mate
rial and useful to the merely imaginative, and
in truth it is in such that the truly beautiful
or sublime is to be found. A steamer is a
mightier epic than the lliad; and White
more, jacquard, and Blanchard, might laugh
even Virgil, and Milton, and Tasso, to
scorn.
| There is, moreover, mortality belonging
to the arts that as yet has been little needed;
lever, hammer, pulley, wedge, and screw,
are actual representations of great natural
Truths, and the men who revealed them may
be said to have been inspired The divine
aflatus flows through many channels. In
fact all truths are allied--the decalogue being
an exponent of moral, as are mechanical in
ventions of physical, and axioms in science
of philosophical verities-hence, whatever
science discovers and art applies is divine,
and ultimately tends to eradicate evil indeed,
all teachings begin with the arts, and moth
ing is more certain than that all must end
with them. five glance atexisting nations,
We invariably find those that excel in arts
and sciences most deeply imbued with moral
principles--the foremost and most active in
the benev lent enterprises of the age.
Inventors, then, are revealers and expound-
ers of the practical doctrines of civilization,
and more than any other class have they
shown us how to lessen life's evils and null
tiply its good. The connection of morals
with expanding science and art, and the me-
cessity of their union to the elevation of the
species, are beginning to elicit attention. 1t
is now perceived that deyiations from princi-
pies of science-either in agriculture, arts,
manufactures, in processes or pursuits of
any kind-are errors, and all errors, in an ex-
Itended sense, are sins-are violations of Di-
vine laws. And though sins Of ignorance
they carry, and will for ever carry, their pun
ishment with them, viz: in imperfect results
and the in1lction of unnecessary inconveni-
ences expenses, and toll, in spending strength
for naught.
Not till mechanical as we'll as ethical sci
ence.is fully explored and universally applied
can man attain his destiny, and evil be
swept from the earth.
1t has been regretted also, as an evil Of
magnitude, that, while the arts administer
to the necessities of the species, a general
knowledge Of them has not been demanded
as feature of popular education; that while
the works Of historians, poets, and theorists
have been adopted as models by which tc
form the taste and excite the ambition oi
youth, the great doctrines of life, as exem-
plifed in the processes by which the products
; Of the planet, its forces, and the properties
of its substances are converted into the ele.
, ments and accessories of material and con.
sequently of mental refinement, have beer
neglected.
But such are errors belonging rather to the
, pastthan the present or future. Their de
lection is presage of their disappearance
Evils incident 10 the progress Of society
they, with many Others, are only gradually
to be surmounted. The philosophy or phys.
les of the workshop is but beginning TO be
understood true estimates Of its value to
, be formed-indubitable proofs, however
that the movements of civilization are on.
ward and upward. 1t is now perceived that
in ordinary avocations. principles Of science
S are invoked that furnish subjects of research
to the profoundest minds, and such as may
serve to quicken and enrich the perceptions
: of the most inquisitive.
INVENTIONS AND WHAT THEY HAVE DONE.
A world without inventors would consis
only of forest and swamp. Before they ap
!, peared, it was, and where they are not, it is
an Australian jungle, through which mel
$ affiliated with beasts roam in quest Of miser
able subsistence and shelter. The difference
J between the civilized and troglodytes is, on
u class contrives, the other does not. Nothin,
# is clearer than THAI mechanical invention
n are ordained to animate, clothe, and odorn
naked and torpescent world-to infuse int,
}. the species the elements Of increasing vigo
1t and felicity. Even as arts multiply AM
e flourish, the chief labor Of working out tn
great problems Of existence continues to de
volve upon inventors. Without them tn
c prospects and hopes of the present had neithe
: been seen nor felt 1t is they who, by dis
e covering new physical truths, are establish
ing the grandest of moral ones-Pcrpctao
:, ProgreSs--illimitable advancementin social
u civil, and intellectual enjoyments.
Il The fact has scarcely, if ever, been glance
* at, that nearly every marked advance of civ
) iliLation began with and is due to inventors
v Without disturbing old records, it is enoug
!, to turn leaf of modern history. The sui
1t stitution of firearms for primitive weapons
le has wrought an entire change on the face {
,f society. Another and ever-memorable epoc
was introduced by the reyiyerS Of printin
!, and inventors Of type founding another B
II steam as motor; to say nothing Of the re'
:. olutions brought about more recently by spin
Il ming jennies, power looms, ocean steamin
gas-lights, photography, railroads, telegraph
&c, which SO honorably distinguish oI
u times from all that preceded them
VI But for the artifcer's skill, the sublime
II of the sciences had not been attempted, NJ
=. L.. of