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the speculations of ingenious men in these respects, that one might be al-most led to suppose thej had reasoned, like the lower animals from a com-mon instinct; and that the adage of Solomon, “ there is no new thing un-der the sun,” was as applicable to the inventions of man, as the Works ofnature. It would indeed be no very hard task to show that the preacherwas correct, to an extent not generally believed, when he penned the fol-lowing interrogatory and reply—“ Is there any thing whereof it may besaid,—See, this is new ?— it liaih been of old time which was before us.”Did a modern savan invent some peculiar surgical instruments of greatmerit 1 —similar ones were subsequently discovered in the ruins of Pom-peii. Have patents been issued in late years for economizing fuel in theheating of water, by making the liquid circulate through hollow gratebars l —the same device has been found applied to ancient Roman boilers.And the recent practice of urging fires with currents of steam (also patented)was quite common in the middle ages. (See remarks on the Eolipile inthe next book.) Numbers of such examples might be adduced from al-inost every department of the useful arts.
From the earliest times it has been an object to convert, whenever prac-tieable, the rectilinear and reciprocating movements of machines into cir-cular and continuous ones. Old machinists seem to have been led to thisresult by that tact or natural sagacity that is more or less common to alltimes and people : thus the dragging of heavy loads on the ground led tothe adoption of wheels and rollers—hence our carts and carriages :—therotary movements of the drill and the wimble superseded the alternatingone of the punch and gouge, in making perforations:—the horizontal wheelof the potter rendered modeling of clay vessels by hand no longer neces-sary:—the whetstone gave way to the revolving grindstone:—the turninglathe produced round forms infinitely more accurate, and expeditiously thanthe uncertain and irregulär carving or cutting away with the knife. Thequem, or original hand mill, was more efficacious than the alternate actionof the primitive pestle and mortar for bruising grain ; and the variousforces by which corn mills have subsequently been worked, have alwaysbeen applied through revolving mechanism. The short handles, on themoveable stone, by which females and slayes moved it round, became intime lengthened into levers, and being attached to the peripheries oflarger stones, slaves were sometimes yoked to them, who ground the grainby walking round a circular path. Subsequently slaves were replaced byanimals, and these, in certain locations, by inanimate agents—wind andwater. The period is unknown when man first derived rotary motionfrom the straight currents of fluids, for there is no sufficient reason to be-lieve that the water mill located near the residence of Mithridates was thefirst one ever used in grinding corn : that may have been the one firstknown to the Romans ; but it is very probable that such machines as wellas wind mills were in use in Egypt, Syria, China, and other parts of Asia ,in times that extend far beyond the confines of authentic history. An epi-gram of Antipater , a Contemporary of Cicero, implies that water millswere not then very common in Europe. “ Cease your Work, ye maids,ye who laboured in the mill: sleep now, and let the birds sing to the ruddymorning, for Ceres has commanded the water nymphs to perform yourtask; these, obedient to her call, throw themselves on the wheel, forceround the axle-tree, and by these means the heavy mill.”
Rotary motions were favorite ones with ancient philosophers : theyconsidered a circle as the most perfect of all figures, and erroneously con-cluded that a body in motion would naturally revolve in one.
To the Substitution of circular for straight motions, and of continuous for