If sinners entice thee consent thou not.-Prov. i. 10. A stitch in time saves nine. Pas à pas on va bien loin. Les petits ruisseaux font les grandes rivières. Non is chusar coll' orso.-Italian proverb. Erba mala presto cresce.-Italian proverb. Donna che prende, tosto si rendi.-Italian proverb. Malum nascens facile opprimitur, inveteratum fit robustius.- Cicero, Virtus est, etiam effugere vitium. - Parva scintilla excitabit magnum incendium. Cacoethes epidemice grassatur. Animi acies cæcatur erroribus.--Cicero. Serum est cavendi tempus in mediis malis. Venienti occurrite morbo. Nemo repente turpissimus unquam fuit Obsta principiis. Dimidium facti, qui cœpit, habet.—Horace, Nascitur exiguus, viresque acquirit eundo.—Ovid. THEME XXII. Necessity is the Mother of Invention. INTRODUCTION. Many contrivances are devised to supply what is really needful. 1ST REASON. Till a thing be wanted, there is nothing to suggest it to the mind, and bring it under serious attention: But immediately the want is felt, the thoughts are directed towards it, and the subject is canvassed in all its bearings. 2ND REASON. Immediately a want is brought promi nently before the mind, ingenuity is set to work to contrive means of supplying the defect. 3RD REASON.-Till a thing be wanted, there is no demand for it, and no compensation held out for the labour and expense of invention: But immediately the want becomes pressing, there will be a demand and a liberal reward for those who satisfy it. 4TH REASON.-Necessity drives the mind to all sorts of experiments and contrivances; and these experiments and contrivances lead to useful inventions. 5TH REASON. In cases of real emergency men consult and combine together; and while in "many heads there is wisdom," in "combination there is great strength." 6TH REASON. Strong stimulus will often create faculties, or, at least, bring into operation such latent powers as the mind is wholly unconscious of under ordinary cir cumstances: But as no stimulus is so great as necessity, no motive can more forcibly arouse the latent powers of the mind, and excite them to energetic action. 7TH REASON. When the mind has been pondering upon a subject for any length of time, it seems to be possessed of a crescive power entirely independent of the faculty of reason; as sced becomes crescive by being buried beneath the soil. 8TH REASON. After meditating upon a subject for any length of time, the mind becomes so alert and vigilant, that incidents which would excite no notice under ordinary circumstances, become suggestive of most important consequences. SIMILES. Tailor birds sew their nests to the extremity of a leaf, in order to escape the ravages of serpents and monkeys A cat wishing to lap some cream from a ewer too narrow to admit her head, hit upon the following expedient: She set her forepaw into the cream pot, and then licked the cream off her foot; this she repeated till the ewer was drained. Two rats, wishing to get at some olive-oil contained in a cask, combined together in the following scheme: One thrust his tail into a small hole in the tub, and presented it to the other to suck; this was repeated first by one rat and then by the other, till both were fully satisfied. A crane wishing for a draught of water from a deep jug, filled it with pebbles till the water rose high enough to be reached without difficulty. Creeping plants deprived of a prop to twine around, will throw out their tendrils to a great length towards any opaque object, and ultimately attach them to the lower part of their own stem. The ingenuity of bees, when slugs, snails, or insects intrude in the hive, is very remarkable. If a slug happens to creep into the hive, it is attacked on all sides, and stung to death; but as the burthen is too heavy to be carried out, the dead body is enveloped with propolis, through which no effluvia can escape from the decaying carcass. If a snail get entrance into the community, a bee stings its sensitive horns, the snail instantly retires within its shell, and the bees glue all round the margin with propolis, so as to render the snail perfectly immoveable. If any insect intrudes which can be carried forth, it is first stung to death, and then pushed out of the hive. When ravens are unable to break a muscle-shell, they will carry the fish high up in the air, and dash it on a rock; by which means the shell is broken, and the fish exposed for food. Deer and hares exhibit wonderful contrivances when hunted. They will double, jump into a pool, start other game to deceive the dogs, run into sheepfolds, conceal themselves in the earth, jump, or mount walls, and contrive innumerable artifices to beguile the hounds and huntsmen. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-When Hannibal wanted to cross the Alps he contrived means to split and thaw the rugged mountains, so that even elephants laden with towers were able to pass where a single traveller, un encumbered with armour, had often been deterred by the difficulties of the way. When Hannibal was encompassed by Fabius in a mountain gorge, he fastened fire-brands to the horns of a herd of oxen, and setting them on a blaze, drove the oxen up the mountains. Fabius, supposing the lights to be carried by the Carthaginian army trying to make an escape, gave orders for immediate pursuit; but while the Romans pursued the oxen, Hannibal led off his army safely in the opposite direction. The Greeks having been foiled for ten years at the siege of Troy, wasted by pestilence, weakened by discord, and reduced to the last extremity, hit upon the contrivance of the wooden horse. When Ptolemy Epiphanes prohibited the exportation of papyrus from Egypt (which was the common material on which books were written by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans), Eumenes II., king of Pergamus, invented parchment as a substitute.-Plin. xiii. 21. The numerous inventions and contrivances of Alexander Selkirk, when he was shipwrecked on the island of Juan Fernandez, are known to every person who has read the beautiful tale of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel de Foe. The numerous inventions and contrivances of Archimedes, when Syracuse was besieged by the Romans, may be read of in any classical dictionary or Roman history. The safety-valve of the steam engine was invented by an idle boy, that he might not be interrupted in his games of marbles, by having to run every few minutes to open a small door to let off the superabundant steam. In 1831, on the occasion of the "strike at Manchester," several of the capitalists, fearing their business would be driven to other countries, had recourse to the celebrated machinists, Messrs. Sharp & Co., of Manchester, and requested him to direct the inventive talents of their partner, Mr. Roberts, to the construction of a self-acting “mule," in order to emancipate the trade from the tyranny of the workmen. In the course of a few months, Mr. Roberts produced the machine called "the self-acting mule," which will do the work of the head spinners far better than they I could do it themselves. The art of calico printing was for many years the sport of foolish journeymen, who led their employers a life of constant slavery and jeopardy; but at length capitalists sought deliverance from this bondage, and "the four-colour and the five-colour machines" (which now render calico printing an unerring and expeditious process) were invented, and mounted in all great calico establishments. It was in order to free masters from the intolerable domination of workmen, that "the self-acting apparatus for dying and rinsing calico prints" was invented. From the frequency of the "strikes" made by the croppers and hecklers, or flax-dressers, of Yorkshire, the masters invented machinery to render themselves independent of these impoverishing irregularities. QUOTATIONS.-Pythagoras used to say, "Ability and necessity dwell in the same cabin." Dr. Moffat says, "The secret of success lies in three letters, T R Y” But screw your courage to the sticking-place, Seek and ye shall find. Want is a bitter and a hateful good, Poverty is the mother of the arts. Usus est artium magister.- Columella. Dryden. Paupertas omnes artes perdocet.-Plautus. |