182 Miscellaneous. VOL. I. The Dignity of the Mechanic Arts. The pursuit of the mechanic's calling is advancement of the human race, is closely highly honorable, because the happiness and Instead of the compound being difficult to va- Consumption of Coal in Great Britain It has been asserted, that the exercise of manual skill has a tendency to degrade the mental powers. Years ago it was fashionable with the name of Mechanic, until it passed to assimilate vice and vulgarity and ignorance into the dictionary of our language; then if you sought this absurd word you would find it synonomous with meanness and servility. Shakspeare in order to take the public taste in his time invariably introduces some despicaThe quantity of iron annually produced in ble object, who pours out indecent trash and Great Britain may be taken at 700,000 tons; staggers to the nearest alehouse. What else and the quantity of coal required, at an averso much in character for a handy-craftsman? age, to produce each ton of iron, including Pope takes it for granted that the cobler and that used by engines, &c. may be estimated drunkard represent each other. But this nonat 5 tons; giving a total of 3,860,000 tons consumed in making iron. According to Mr. the light of intelligence and the progress of sense is, fortunately, fast disappearing before Kennedy, the quantity of coal consumed in reform. Intemperance never was peculiar to the cotton manufacture, in 1817, was upwards the workshop of the artizan; and if I were of 500,000 tons, and the manufacture has since more than doubled; so that allowing for engaged in the disagreeable employment of seeking out the unhappy victims of this vice, greater economy, we may fairly estimate the I should turn my attention to those who shun consumption of coal in the cotton trade at laborious employment, and are as ignorant 800,000 tons per year. Its consumption in the woollen, linen, and silk trades cannot be of the useful arts as of the principles of honesty. less than 500,000 tons. The smelting of cop- That manual labor, however, is no hinper ores of Cornwall, consume annually about 250,000 or 300,000 tons; and it is supposed drance to mental vigor is amply substantiated that the brass and copper manufactures re- both by experience and observation. It was quire nearly as much. In the salt works at a legal provision among the Jews that a fathCheshire, Worcestershire, &c. the consump-er must give his son a means of support in tion is probably not under, if it do not exceed 300,000 tons. The consumption in lime works may, it is believed, be estimated at 500,000 tons. It would appear therefore, that the total annual consumption of coal in Great Britain may be moderately estimated as follows: Domestic consumption, and smaller manufactures Production of pig and bar iron Cotton manufacture Woollen, linen, silk, &c. Copper smelting, brass manufac tures, &c. Salt works Lime works Exports to Ireland Tons. the knowledge of trade; and there never was a people more virtuous than the Hebrews. The cause of ignorance among the mechanics is not in their means of support, but in the value they set upon and the use they make of their time. The time of every man is valuable. He should say, I have so much time to dispose of: how can I make it the 15,000,000 most profitable. He would not work without and would likewise 3,850,000 adequate compensation; 800,000 set a proper value upon his earnings as the result of a certain amount of time. 500,000 A man ought not to dispose two thirds of his time for the mere supply of his daily 450,000 300,000 wants. Some time is indispensable to sustain the well being of his body. Some time is 500,000 necessary to keep the mind right. But both 21,350,000 these purposes will be lost sight of without a 750,000 fair compensation is allowed to professional Do. to colonies and foreign parts 600,000 labor. It rests with mechanics alone to elevate and keep in order the just standard of prices. The principles of fashionable politIf we suppose the above sum of 22,700,000 ||ical economy are against them; and they are tons costs the consumer, on an average, 7s. a likely to be circumvented by the wealthy. ton, it will be worth, in all £7,955,000 a year!-M'Cullock's account of the British Empire. Total, 22,700,000 With regard to the influence of a mechanic in society, it is said "it is of little consequence, few are swayed by his opinion." But we know No. 11. Result of Accident-Mechanics-Human System. the fallacy of this. It has ever been the desire of the wealthy and the learned to confine all influence to wealth and learning. But they have not accomplished it and never will. The power that sways mankind is neither riches nor knowledge singly,-it is TALENT. Find it where you will, talent possesses a potency irresistible. Now, talent (and by talent I mean active common sense with a readiness to make every thing serve its purpose) I say talent is more extensively and liberally shared among the working classes than any others. The opinion-a remnant of feudal times that the laborer knows nothing and should know nothing, but his trade, has seated itself like an incubus, upon the vital energies of the laborer. Let it be a fixed axiom with you, that he who has the desire and ability to enlighten and benefit his fellow men, has the opportunity always near him. If his rank in life should take weight from his opinion with those immediately about him, remember all will not so judge, and if he does any thing worthy to live, posterity will judge right. Result of Accident. Mechanics. 183 mechanics as one degree below those individ- After his own image God made man and endowed him with certain attributes, and placed him in the world with orders to exercise these attributes to his own advantage and his Maker's glory; and he who best subserves these purposes of his existence alone deserves to take precedence of his fellow man.-Cabinet. The Human System. Many of the most important discoveries in the field of science have been the result of accident. Two little boys of a spectacle maker in Holland, while their father was at dinner, chanced to look at a distant steeple, through two eye-glasses placed before one another. They found the steeple brought much nearer the shop windows. They told In the human system are 440 bones, and their father on his return; and the circum- each of them having forty distinct intentions stance led him to a course of experiments, or functions to fulfil; 246 muscles, and each which ended in the Telescope. Some ship- of them having different intentions. Bewrecked sailors once collected some sea-sides the tendons, nerves, ligaments, veins weeds on the sand, and made a fire to warm and glands of the body, there are not less their shivering fingers, and cook their scanty than 1500 million pores in the skin, through meal. When the fire went out they found which perspiration is continually flowing, that the alkali of the sea-weed had combined and above 100 million scales which compose with the sand and formed glass; the basis of the cuticle or skin of the body. There are all our discoveries in astronomy, and absolute- also the compound organs of life-the brain, ly necessary to our enjoyment. In the days the heart, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, when every astrologer, and every chemist the intestines, the organs of sense, with was seeking after the philosopher's stone, their varied connection; the blood, the bile, some monks carelessly making up their ma- the lymph, the saliva, the chyle, etc. terials, by accident invented gunpowder; which has done much to diminish the barbarities of war. Sir Isaac Newton's most important discoveries-concerning light and gravitation-were the result of accident.His theory and experiments on light were suggested by the soap bubbles of a child; and on gravitation, by the fall of an apple as he sat in the orchard. And it was by hastily scratching on a stone, a memorandum of some articles brought him from the washerwomans, that the idea of lithography first presented itself to the mind of Schenfelder. The astonishing ramification of the nerves and veins through the system, may be gathered from the fact, that the least puncture, though made by the smallest possible instrument, (the sting of a gnat for instance,) will both draw blood and produce pain—a proof that both a nerve and vein had been struck. Very few, even mechanics, think or know how much machinery there is in their own bodies. Not only are there joints and hinges in the bones, but there are valves in the veins, a forcing pump in the heart, and vari 184 Education-Perseverance-Sound Rules, VOL. I. ous other curiosities. One of the muscles of man arise and burst the shackles of insolent the eye forms a real pulley. The bones domination. How might he stretch his arms which support the bones are precisely in that to the "chief pillars," and bring down the form, which has been calculated by mathe-great temples of delusion. With his right matics to be the strongest for pillars, and hand, he could unbolt the flood-gates of supporting columns, that of hollow cylinders. truth; with the other, tear up the foundaThis form combines the greatest lightness tions of error. The demons of superstition with the greatest strength. Of this form are and oppression would stalk back to their the quills in birds' wings, where these re- dark abode; and intellectual, political, spirituquisites are necessary. al freedom, proclaim a jubilee on all the earth. An ingenious author asserts, that the length of a man's life may be estimated by the pulsations he has strength enough to perform. Thus, allowing 70 years for the common age of man, and sixty pulses a minute for the common measure of pulses in a temperate person, the number of pulsations in his whole life will amount to 2,207,520,000;|| but if by intemperance he forces his blood into a more rapid motion, so as to give seventy-five pulses in a minute, the same pulses would be completed in fifty-six years-consequently the life would be reduced fourteen years. Education. Perseverence. The maxim of the martyr of Bexar is curiously exemplified in the career of many among all classes, whom we see in our daily walks. "Go ahead" appears to be the impulse of the age. It is to be seen in every segment of the popular circles, from the avaricious to the philanthropic-from the impudent to the most servile from the proud aspirant after fame to the humble pilgrim to the shrine of love, who seeks no other happiness on earth than communion with a spirit like his own. Men cannot live and enjoy life rationally, without a purpose without an end in view, Among the millions of our countrymen which he deems worthy of his whole power there are few who do not affect to be go-to attain, at any sacrifice of ease and comverned by the sentiment, " knowledge is fort. He may have many such purposespower," yet how contradictory are our prac- such ends in view, and pursue them all with tical definitions of the aphorism. Indeed, so success-if they do not verge from the course passively do we consent to be contradicted by he takes, for the prime object of his happicircumstances and the force of habit, that, ness. In many instances, the multiplicity of having acquired the mere pounds and shil- objects may be made to accelerate his progress lings and pence information, absolutely ne- towards the completion of all his purposes by cessary to the vocation whereby we subsist, furnishing stimulants and aids to each other, we settle down as though we had exhausted while they draw him forward towards his gaol. the wisdom of Minerva, and our intellects Thus the desire of gain may aid and cherish had no capacity for greater things. The the desire of making humanity more happy, maxim "mind your own business," in this with the means of gain: the pursuit of fame case is observed to the letter, no one inter- may be cheered on by the certainty of making meddling with any department of education a beloved being more happy in the secret and not immediately connected with his own heartfelt participation she may have in the profession. The mechanic leaves a correct glory of success. orthography, legible penmanship and grammatical construction of sentences to the school-master, who in turn, leaves the toil of authorship to him who makes his living by the page or paragraph; the abstruse sciences again devolve upon those ambitious of a name hereafter; the learning of the church is considered exclusively the property of the priesthood, and last and worst, the lawyers alone learn law. So through all the gradations of scientific, moral, religious and civil research, we indolently trudge on the path immediately before us, without deigning a glance upon the glorious fields around. If knowledge be power, what prodigies of might are slumbering within us! In this nineteenth century, when its treasures are all free as the winds of heaven how might Perseverance is the secret-the only mystery of success in all the pursuits of life.— Wealth, fame, friends, science, content, and most of all, the pure triumph of heart over heart, the permanent union of souls in the ties, for which friendship is too cold a title and love too gross,—all are derived from the persevering pursuit that knows no turning, and will not admit into its vocabulary any word that signifies impossibility. Sound Rules. Be punctual to meet all engagements at the time appointed, and never make a contract unless you intend to fulfil it. In all your dealings be perfectly honest and upright, and as much as possible avoid all mistakes in the transaction of business. THE MECHANICS' REGISTER, OR, JOURNAL OF THE USEFUL ARTS, TRADES, MANUFACTURES, SCIENCE, &c. Vol. I. May, 1838. AN ADDRESS, [Concluded.] No. 12. is certain; and he is no longer obliged to wait for the wind to blow, or the stream to rise. He is not doomed, I say, to waiting-that most tedious method of passing time, that utter loss of time, that only utter loss of timefor it is the only condition in which a man can neither do any thing, nor think any thing sometimes been tempted to wish that there was some machinery, moral or physical, that would bring men punctually to committee meetings, to lectures, ay, and to church it In making these suggestions, I have scarcely strayed from the topic on which I am engaged. For, I can hardly think that the mind is fairly dealt with,—I can hardly think that—that loss, in fact, of patience itself. I have virtue, good nature, ay, that patience itself, has any fair chance, when the body is dried like a potsherd, or the eyes are bleared and vexed with smoke, or rheumatisms, aches and pains, as bad as those of the cave of Prospero, are ever coming in through the half open door, upon an apartment, almost as much exposed to the searching air without, as the mountain cave itself. But I have also spoken under this head of the relief from toil, which is, and is yet more to be, effected by the progress of the mechanic arts. It may, however, be recollected, and therefore objected against this topic, that I have already said, that labor-saving machines have ultimately had the effect, thus far, to increase labor, or at least to employ a greater number of hands. It is necessary, then, to discriminate. What toil is relieved? I answer, it is the hardest, the most uninteresting toil-the drudgery of toil, that is relieved. To speak more definitely, it is that part of labor which is employed as power.— The wheel now is turned, and the saw is pushed, and even the planing tool is propelled, by steam. The consequence is, that labor is becoming more a business of dexterity and less of strength; and toil is constantly rising to the dignity of an art. Man is learning that there is power enough in nature; and that his high office is to acquire the skill necessary to direct it. It is a further advantage to the mind, that the power which man thus brings to aid him, REG.-VOL. I.-No. 12. 185 self! But further; will not the time come when the improvements in machinery will yet more signally relieve mankind; when not only their strength, but their attention in a greater degree, may be spared from the care of gaining a subsistence; when in other words, they will give less labor to mere manual tasks, and have more time for reading and thinking. Without some intelligence, without some thought, labor is an intolerable drudgery. Man was not made to be a mere beast of burthen. The elements of toil are dark and heavy, and forever must be, till they are mixed up with in|| tellectual and moral light. It is, in this view, that I look with pity upon much of the toil that is in the world. I do not pity, there is no occasion to pity, the intelligent laborer; "the peasant saint, if such a one were anywhere to be met with, now a days." I can || scarcely conceive of any position more desirable, than that of the man who goes to his field or his workshop, with a moderate task to discharge, and a mind to think as well as a hand to work; who looks upon the elements he deals with as the teachers of wisdom and the ministers of piety; who studies and understands the philosophy of his mechanism and manufacture, his soil and flower-garden; and 186 An Address by the Rev. Orville Dewey. VOL. I. not the working in quarries-but upon the bare construction of the largest of which, 100,000 men were employed for twenty years-that in Egypt, I say, they held the memory of these mighty tyrants in perpetual execration. lives in his family to teach it the like wisdom. Labor, alas! too often wants such high and cheering ministration, and such holy ends.Its brow is too vacant and heavy. I know that there are exceptions-but to my eye oftentimes its brow is too heavy; its lips are too silent; its steps too weary. In every dark In the next place, industry is the great mass of worldly materials before it, there is school of human virtue. It is not enough to some truth, some principle; but the eye of say, that this dispensation is necessary to keep labor too seldom kindles at that truth, that men out of evil and mischief. It is not principle. Man may not sink towards the enough to say that the industrious are always condition of the animal, and find it well the most virtuous classes. But it is to be obfor him. Let him go to what task, to what served that human industry is placed in peconflict he will, and leave the immortal prin- culiar circumstances, especially fitted and ciples of his nature behind him, and he will designed to elicit and try the virtues of hufind himself deprived, not only of his shield, man beings. The animal, following his inbut of the very fire of courage. So it is on stincts, finds a certain facility in his path.— the steppes of Russia; so it is even in the Human industry, on the contrary, is always valley of the Rhine, and on the plains of It-a conflict with difficulties. The animal oraly. To my eye, there is no courage, no gans are precisely fitted to their respective cheering there; but faces, bowed down in tasks, and are already sufficient to all the pursad and bitter earnest to the daily task. May poses of animal industry. But man has to it be otherwise with us! May invention re-adjust his powers to an infinite variety of exlieve labor, and intellect be mixed with toil, till it become that high dispensation which God designed it to be, for the improvement and blessing of the world! But I find myself entering upon a topic which I intended to make a distinct one. For the arts of industry not only indirectly tend to improve society by increasing its comforts and relieving its toils, but they have a direct bearing upon the same end. ertions; ten thousand delicate manipulations and feats of dexterity are required of him; his eye is to be trained to precision, and his mind to taste; new instruments, too, are constantly to be invented to overcome the difficulties in his way. This, then, is the theatre of energy and patience; yes, and I add, of moral || wisdom and self-restraint. The animal may gorge himself, and can then lie down and sleep off his surfeit; and he takes no harm For in the first place, they elicit and em- from midnight dew, or the open and chill ploy the mind of society. I have already canopy that is spread over him. But man said, indeed, that it is most desirable and cannot endure such indulgence or exposure. needful that more thought, more insight into If he gives himself up to sensual excess, his principles, should be mixed up with the em-powers at once begin to fail him. His eye ployments of the mass of the people. But loses its clearness, his hand its dexterity, his still it is not to be forgotten, that labor, and finger its nicety of touch; and he becomes a especially cultivated labor, does and must lame, deficient and dishonored workman. exercise and task the intellect. It would be Nor is this all. How many natural ties the mistake only of the most arrant book-are there between even the humblest scene worm, to suppose that the mind never labors, of labor, and the noblest affections of humanbut over the written page or the abstract pro-ity! In this view the employment of mere position. The merchant, the manufacturer, muscular strength is ennobled. There is a the mechanic, is often a harder thinker than central point in every man's life, around the student. The machinist and the engineer which all his toils and cares revolve. It is are employed in some of the finest schools of that spot which is consecrated by the names intellect. Books, so far as they relate to these of wife, and children, and home. A secret, several employments, are only designed to an almost imperceptible influence from that make those engaged in them more accom- spot, which is like no other on earth, steals plished and intellectual laborers. There into the breast of the virtuous laboring man, are tasks, indeed, rising but little above the and strengthens every weary step of his toil, toils of the tread-mill, for which no such con- Every blow that is struck in the workshop sideration can be pleaded; and I cannot help and the field, finds an echo in that holy shrine hoping, that some method will be found to of his affections. If he who fights to protect relieve the labors of the hod. That which his home, rises to the point of heroic virtue; Herodotus tells us of the workmen who built no less may he who labors, his life long, to the pyramids, is not strange-that they held provide for that home. Peace be within those the memory of the royal projectors of those domestic walls, and prosperity beneath those unsightly mountains of stone and mortar, up-humble roofs! But should it ever be otheren the bare construction of one of which-wise; should the time ever come when the |