Chap. l.J History poüuted with accounts of Warriors. 3
and shoes which he wore, were the Work of his own hands.) Plato in-veighed with great indignation against Archytas and Eudoxus , for havingdebased and corrupted the excellency of geometry, by mechanical So-lutions, causing her to descend, as he said, from incorporeal and intellec-tual to sensible things; and obliging her to make use of matter, which re-quires manual labor, and is the object of servile trades.?
To the prevalence of such unphilosophical notions amongst the learnedmen of old, may be attributed, the irretrievable loss of Information re-specting the prominent mechanics of the early ages, those.“ Searching wits,
Who graced their age with neu- invented arts.” Virgil, En. vi, 900.
Their works, their inventions, and their names, are buried beneath thewaves of oblivion; whilst the light and worthless memorials of heroes,falsely so called, have floated on the surface, and history has become pol-luted with tainted descriptions of men, who, without having added anatom to the wealth, or to the happmess of Society, have been permittedto riot on the fruit of other men’s labors; to wade in the blood of theirspecies, and to be heralded as the honorable of the earth! And still, asin former times, humanity shudders, at these monsters being held up, asthey impiously are, to the admiration of the world, and even by someChristians too, as examples for our children.
“ We may reasonably hope,” says Mr. Davies in his populär Work onthe Chinese , “ that the Science and civilization which have already greatlyenlarged the bounds of our knowledge of foreign countries, may, bydiminishing the vulgär admiration of such pests and scourges of thehuman race, as military conquerörs have usually proved, advance and fa-cilitate the peaceful intercourse of the most remote countries with eachother, and thereby increase the general stock of knowledge and happmessamong mankind.” Vol. 1, 18.
“ Of what utility to us at this day, is either Nimrod, Cyrus, or Alexan-der, or their successors, who have astonished mankind from time to time ?With all their magnificence and vast designs, they are returned into nothingwith regard to us. They are dispersed like vapors, and have vanishedlike phantoms. But the inventors of the arts and Sciences laboredfor all ages. We still enjoy the fruits of their application and industry—they have procured for us, all the convenicncics of life—- they have con-verted all nature to our uses. Yet, all our admiration turns generally onthe side of thöse heroes in blood, while We scarce take any notice of whatwe owe' to the inventors op the arts.” Rollin’s Introduction to the Artsand Sciences of the Ancients.
Who that consults history, only for that which is usful, would not. pre-fer to peruse a journal of the daily manipulations of the laborers and me-chanics who furnished elothing, arms, ciilinary Utensils, and food for thearmies of old—to the most eloquent descriptions of their generals, or theirbattles 1 And as it is now with respect to accounts of such transactionsin past ages—so will it be in future with regard to similar ones of mo-dern times. Narrations of political corivulsions, recitals of battles, and ofhonors conferred on statesmen and heroes, while dripping with humangöre, will hereafter be unnoticed, or willbe read with horror and disgust,while DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE and DESCRIPTIONS OF USEFUL MACHINES,will be all in all.
It is pleasing to anticipate that day, which the present extensive andextending diffusion of knowledge is about to usher in, when despotism