HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

r 59

With this splendid extension of the mind in what may be considered mecha-nical enterprise, Constantins appears to have rested content: and howeverthe austerity of a philosopher may censure the vanity of the undertaking, andlament that the labour of mankind should have been so ineffectually employed,when it might have been more materially engaged in the promotion of naturalcomforts, and what is, in simple terms, denominated the first good of society ;yet although the particular and various points of mechanical knowlege, whichthe artificers must either have previously possessed, or with consummate dili-gence made themselves masters of, for the purpose of enabling them to carrythis grand project into execution, have not been so minutely preserved as topermit any accurate account of them, yet the certainty of the fact may recon-cile the extravagance, if it were only on the single ground of the temporaryadvantage which nautical as well as mechanical knowlege must inevitably havederived from it.

The subsequent wars which took place during the same reign, were eitherconfined to military operations, or if necessity at any time compelled, in aid ofthem, that the exertion of the naval architect should afford its necessary alli-ance and assistance, it extended no farther than his acting in a subordinatecapacity to the colleague who considered himself superior, and that his wantsand wishes only were to be attended to in the pursuit of one main object,which the utmost energy of his ally would never of itself be able to carryinto effect. To this opinion, raised and fostered by the very arrogant, andsuperior value presumptuously affixed, at that time, on the life and occupationof a soldier, the labours of the marine architect were confined merely to theequipment and construction of vessels intended for the conveyance, or neces-sary transport across the sea, either of the armies themselves, or of the differentstores, provisions, and military engines, which the nature of their operationsrequired.

The purposes of commerce * might, at this time, be said to afford the prin-cipal employment to the ship-builder. This had been invariably the case fromthe period when Rome became mistress of the world, till many years had

elapsed

* The following historical fact, related by Mr. Gibbon on the autho-ity of Julian himself in whosereign it happened, added to that of Zozimus, is not only so materially interwoven with the presentsubject of enquiry as to require insertion, but, independent of that consideration, cannot fail to be sopeculiarly interesting as to warrant the recital of it in this place, even were it, on other grounds, imper-tinent:—

“ The