and daily
accommodations and pleasures upon the laborer in his cottage, which,
only two or three centuries ago, were luxuries in the palace of the
monarch. Through circumstances incident to the introduction of all
economical improvements, there has hitherto been great inequality in the
distribution of their advantages; but their general tendency is greatly
to ameliorate the condition of the mass of mankind. It has been
estimated that the products of machinery in Great Britain, with a
population of eighteen millions, is equal to the labor of hundreds of
millions of human hands. This vast gain is effected without the conquest
or partitioning of the territory of any neighboring nation, and without
rapine or the confiscation of property already accumulated by others. It
is an absolute creation of wealth--that is, of those articles,
commodities, and improvements which we appraise and set down as of a
certain moneyed value alike in the inventory of a deceased man's estate
and in the grand valuation of a nation's capital. These contributions to
human welfare have been derived from knowledge; from knowing how to
employ those natural agencies which from the beginning of the race had
existed, but had lain dormant or run uselessly away. For mechanical
purposes, what is wind, or water, or the force of steam worth, until the
ingenuity of man comes in, and places the wind-wheel, the water-wheel,
or the piston _between_ these mighty agents and the work he wishes them
to perform? But after the intervention of machinery, how powerful they
become for all purposes of utility! In a word, these great improvements,
which distinguish our age from all preceding ages, have been obtained
from Nature by addressing her in the language of Science and Art, the
only language she understands, yet one of such all-pervading efficacy
that she never refuses to comply to the letter with all petitions for
wealth or physical power, if they are preferred to her in that dialect.

Now it is easy to show, from reasoning, from history, and from
experience, that an early awakening of the mind is a prerequisite to
success in the useful arts. But it must be an awakening to thought, not
to feeling merely. In the first place, a clearness of perception must be
acquired, or the power of taking a correct mental transcript, copy, or
image of whatever is seen This, however, though indispensable, is by no
means sufficient.

_The talent of improving upon the labors of other