HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

£07

bias of such ideas, it would have been extremely wonderful if mercantile pur-suits had in any degree flourished. It may perhaps be considered as muchmore extraordinary, that reflecting on the enormous weight of prejudice, whichthose who were hardy enough to addict themselves to commerce, had to con-tend against, that it did not totally sink beneath the pressure, and become, as itwere, obliterated from the human mind. Necessity, nevertheless, on someoccasions, and avarice on others, served to preserve through many centurieswhat certainly might be considered its lingering existence, when comparedwith the magnitude and the power of the countries themselves ; till at length,that violent and general convulsion, occasioned by the inroads and devastationsof the Vandals, the Goths, and the Huns, appeared to have put a final termi-nation to its existence.

Dormant, however, for a short time only, till a scion, casually planted in anobscure, and neglected, but on that very account a safe corner of the world,had taken sufficient root to promise the future growth, soon began to shootforth its branches, and display its flourishing, though youthful state. Themarine architects of former ages had principally, if not entirely, been underthe necessity of bending their minds to the exigencies of war, or the extrava-gant vanity of their sovereign. The fleets of Asdrubal, Scipio, and their suc-cessors, the floating castles of Ptolemy Philadelphus, or Caligula, might havecalled forth the exertions of the ablest mechanics of the time ; but no one has,as yet, been hardy enough to assert, that Archimedes ever bestowed a mo-ment’s attention in considering and explaining what would be the properestform which could be given to a vessel intended solely for mercantile purposes.Except among the Phoenicians, (who with a prudent precaution combined thepurposes of war and commerce, well knowing that the welfare of one mustinevitably depend on the support of the other) the galley, if it be fair to bestowon it that term, belonging to the merchant was built in the most artless mannerpossible consistent w'ith absolute safety, a practice which may in some measurereconcile to the belief of moderns, the accounts of those enormous vessels whichare reported to have been constructed in the earliest ages, when they reflect,that according to objects which they may cause to pass daily before their owiveyes, a common lighter may equal, if not exceed, in tonnage, a vessel which,because more scientifically formed in certain points, has been enabled to circum-navigate the world.

The