Tracing any invention upwards to its first beginnings, we shall discover, that these have been exceedingly rude and imperfect, proceeding from the simplest, and what would seem to us, the most obvious observations; and that it has advanced towards perfection, by having 'been led to change the materials with which it originally operated, and passing from one to another, has at each step of its progress discovered new qualities and acquired new powers.
I believe a lengthened inquiry into the history of inventions would lead to the following conclusions: --1st.Arts change materials.It having become difficult or impossible for men to obtain the materials with which they had been accustomed to operate, they have been led to adopt others, and, retaining the knowledge of the qualities and powers of the old, have added to them those of the new.
2d.Different arts adopt the same materials.Men have been encouraged to operate with new materials, from materials being presented to them, evidently better suited to their purposes than the old, could they be made submissive to their art.
3d.The operation of these circumstances, has slowly diminished the propensity of mankind to servile imitation, and given a beginning to science, by bringing to light the qualities and powers common to many materials;the general principles of things.
The limited objects of file present inquiry, however, forbid our entering into the lengthened train of speculation, that would be necessary fully to establish these conclusions by an adequate investigation of the progress of inventions.I shall content myself with adducing a sufficient number of instances to show, that this continual change has been a circumstance operating very beneficially and efficiently, in enlarging the bounds of human knowledge and power.
When men are deprived of the materials with which they used to operate in the production of necessaries, and between them and want have only such as are similar, but not the same, one of two things must happen.They must either conquer the difficulties of the new matter, or must perish.In the earlier ages of the world, it is scarce to be doubted, that the latter event was of not unfrequent occurrence.Tribes forced from their homes by more powerful tribes, must have been often led by hope, or driven by despair, into regions that had not before yielded to the dominion of man.
But, the materials which different regions present to human industry, are very seldom precisely alike.The new would differ from the old, in being in some respects worse, in others better adapted to its purposes, than they.The difficulties are much more apparent than the benefits, the former having generally to be overcome, before the latter be apprehended, or distinctly perceived.The attempt, then, would probably never be made, but for the promptings of necessity.Its success has two advantages.The subjection of the obstacles carries the inventive faculty a step farther forward;the larger returns made, owing to the circumstances in which the new material is superior, increase the rewards of industry.As the success of the attempt would advance the skill and the power of those who made it, so its failure would abandon them to famine.In the former case, the individuals whose intelligence and courage overcame the obstacles, would be exalted by posterity into gods, and demigods, in the latter, the field would remain open to more successful essays, in other times, and by other races.An inquiry, however, into the progress of the arts essential to the existence of man in any form of society, would carry us back to ages too remote, and involved in an obscurity too deep to penetrate.
