beautiful a scarlet as the French can, though with the same drugs, perhaps on account of the superior purity of the air. But though so much is necessary for the perfection of the more curious and complicated Manufactures, all nations possess those which are subservient to the common conveniences of life-the loom and the forge, particularly, are of the highest antiquity. Hen. Yes: I remember Hector bids Andromache return to her apartments, and employ herself in weaving with her maids and I remember the shield of Achilles. Fa. True: and you likewise remember, in an earlier period, the fine linen of Egypt: and, to go still higher, the working of iron and brass is recorded of Tubal Cain before the flood. Hen. Which is the most important, Manufactures or Agriculture? Fa. Agriculture is the most necessary, because it is first of all necessary, that man should live; but almost all the enjoyments and comforts of life are produced by manufactures. Hen. Why are we obliged to take so much pains to make ourselves comfortable? Fa. To exercise our industry. Nature provides the materials for man. She pours out at his feet a profusion of gems, metals, dyes, plants, ores, barks, stones, gums, wax, marbles, woods, roots, skins, earth, and minerals of all kinds! She has likewise given him tools. Hen. I did not know that Nature gave us tools. Fa. No! what are those two instruments you carry always about with you, so strong and yet so flexible, so nicely jointed, and branched out into five long, taper, unequal divisions, any of which may be contracted or stretched out at pleasure; the extremities of which have a feeling so wonderfully delicate, and which are strengthened and defended by horn? Hen. The hands? Fa. Yes. Man is as much superior to the brutes in his outward form, by means of the hand, as he is in his mind by the gifts of reason. The trunk of the elephant comes perhaps the nearest to it in its exquisite feeling and flexibility (it is, indeed, called his hand in Latin,) and accordingly that animal has always been reckoned the wisest of brutes. When nature gave man the hand, she said to him, "exercise your ingenuity, and work." As soon as ever man rises above the state of a savage, he begins to contrive and to make things, in order to improve his forlorn condition: thus you may re member Thomson represents Industry coming to the poor shivering wretch, and teaching him the arts of life: Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone, Hen. It must require a great deal of knowledge, I suppose, for so many curious works; what kind of knowledge is most necessary? Fa. There is not any which may not be occasionally employed; but the two sciences which most assist the manufacturer are mechanics and chemistry: the one for building mills, working of mines, and in general for constructing wheels, wedges, pulleys, &c. either to shorten the labour of man, by performing it in less time, or to perform what the strength of man alone could not accomplish;—the other in fusing and working ores, in dying and bleaching, and extracting the virtues of various substances for particular uses: making of soap, for instance, is a chemical operation; and by chemistry an ingenious gentleman has lately found out a way of bleaching a piece of cloth in eight and forty hours, which by the common process would have taken up a great many weeks. You have heard of Sir Richard Arkwright, who died lately.— Hen. Yes, I have heard he was at first only a barber, and shaved people for a penny apiece. Fa. He did so; but having a strong turn for mechanics, he invented, or at least perfected a machine, by which one pair of hands may do the work of twenty or thirty; and, as in this country every one is free to rise by merit, he acquired the largest fortune in the county, had a great many hun |