New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-03
INTENTION.

INTENTION
The number of patented articles In our
country is so great that no one man can have
knowledge of them all. When one lnyen-
ton comes into general use, demand grows
ont of it for another which shall operate with
what it produces, or in combination with what
Others produce; and we may say that the hrst
invention of the human mind is comparable TO
the seed of fruit, since it contains within Itself
fine nucleus of innumerable leaves and branches
and other fruit and seed which in the progress OF
outgrowth take on innumerabe variations ana
DEVELOPMENTS. When tree is planted the growth
for a few seasons is slow and it is law that
the more valuable and enduring the sort the
more tardy is its progress; and when men first
PLANTED, no little energy was required, for the
| natural mind, being without standard, could
not look forward except by dim light to the
season of depending and fruitful branches
| Casualties of the passing time-lnsects, WINTER
with its snow, its cold, fierce winds, and FROST
searching for the heart and the handspring oflife
! seemed so dreful in their effects that when
| Spring showers and gentle sunshine came 1t
was almost miraculous to behold the bare twlgs
become adorned with tender leaves, and the
delicate bloom foreshadOw the fruit that was
| to be. AS ages passed, each gave little TO
the preceding of culture and care and finally
minds, grown into harmony with familiar
| trees, ASSOCIATED themselves from the mass
| of men, and the pursuit of horticulture issued
| out of ages of poverty, plague, and pain.
Not dissimilar has been the progress of In
yention, and in like manner has the mind OF
man struggled with the adyersites everywhere
| rushing in to avert, to overwhelm, and to
| DESTROY 1t is almost miraculous to see how
ideas have been preserved and matured amidst
the darkness; and now those ideas spread out
manifold, and triumph with foliage and fruit.
| We can see how the mind rises step by step
how, in gathering to itself comforts and
riches, it uses the power which these give 10
| grasp for still more, and changes arise, and
what seemed established conditions pass away.
! Inventions must be introduced by degrees,
! and only as strength is acquired. If the IN
ventions of the last thirty years could at
! once have been given to man in the age OF
| Queen Elizabeth, they would have been use
! less, because society and mental development
were not in condition to admit of their appl-
cation. There can DO no doubt that in ages
past many things were invented, or at least
conceived, which could neither be understood
nor adopted, for they were before their time,
and they noated back into the great, and, to
us, unknown infinity of intelligence and mech
anism.
We have, I'm our day. what would seem a
singular condition regarding applied inven-
tions. Notwithstanding the vast amount of
labor which they save, and of wealth which
they create we are still as much in need of
new inventions az were the people of any
former age, and this evidently because
the mind has enlarged, and new wants have
been created. Perhaps the need for new in
vcntions is felt nowhere so much as in the
household, and n grievOus burden rests upon
at least One-half of the race, which is more
sensibly felt because in other industries and
in the arts human ingenuity has brought
automatic labor into successful operation, aud
it is demanded that tho household shall en-
joy corresponding results. In this we are
not speaking of the higher, or of the wealthy,
but of tho great middle class. Upon in
vestigating the claims of the household, it
will be seen that the deficiency !arises from
want of motive power to perform the labor
now supplied by muscles unequal to the task.
The work for inventors is the discovery of
some power which shall DO cheap, so compact
that it will not be ungainly, and which can be
used in all places. We need philosophic and
analytic history of inventions. 1t would show,
we think, that progress commenced in the OBJ
vious, and that it has been gradually approach
ing to the abstract. The higher class of inyen-
tons demand deep research in every department
of human study, that each may contribute some
thing. The inventive and the creative powers
are akin, and the more we investigate
their relations the more will this part of the
nature of man appear to partake of those at
tributes which called the world itself into ex-
istence. However much is to he expected from
an individual during the extension of his ex-
istence, we ought not to look for one age to
accomplish much To the coming children,
work and endeavor and great cares must be
allotted, that they too, may spread out
branches, and that at no remote period of
time they may, by superior powers, bring out
of the invisible, despite unwilling nature, such
things rs elude our weaker grasp.
"
There is an enthusiastic man of science in
Calcutta, by name Cameron, and as that name