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whatever was his race matters very little , for the Soyers of this generation and those to come , will look contentedly at the sober swinging pendulum of the little ten shillings worth of mechanism , in the shape of a Dutch clock , hanging in the corner perchance of a bright redbricked kitchen , and bless the gift , if they do not remember the giver .
Nor ought fire insurance offices , as well as over-paid and underpaid good plain cooks , to forget Ahasuerus Eromantiel , for he was the improver , if not the originator of fire-engines . It is true they were small ; so small that they could be taken into a house , and carried without much difficulty up the oaken staircase ; but small engines are useful , at least in freeing trees and plants from plant-lice ,
and those minute yet rapacious species of animalculse which come under the general name of blight . In these two inventions , as in others , we see what a paucity there is in England of genuine English inventors , but though England lacks inventors and great musicians ( not that we would imply there is any connection between the two ) , it is the only country which knows how to appreciate the inventions
of genius truly . Erom the skilful Italian silversmith , and the German instrument maker , to the Spitalfields weaver driven from France by the Edict of Nantz , we owe numberless obligations , while it is to Italy , Germany , Erance , and the East , we look for those wonderful singers , whom we gladly call—and why should we not ?—our very
own . Thus Handel , to whom Arbuthnot , in addressing Pope , paid so high a tribute when he said , " conceive the highest you can of his abilities , and they are much beyond anything you can conceive , " and the great Herschel , are sons of genius whom England claims for her own , and their names are , and ever will be to us , as household words .
Passing by antiquarian research as it affects the history of inventions , we might show how little should we be able without it to appreciate fully , the beauties of our noble cathedrals , abbey churches , and ancient ivy-covered castles . To vulgar eyes , the most magnificent cathedral is what the fly perchance , and its foe , the spider , think it , the common and convenient effect of a marvellous idea . To them a
pillar is a mere pile of stones , and a sarcophagus a common coffin which they could see any day of the week at a parish funeral , a transept , a mere passage , and a real painted glass window , which they could not distinguish from a sham one of modern glass , something very funny , and exceedingly grotesque . As to the early
English style , Noman and Perpendicular screens , sun-dials , piscinae , credence-tables , and sedilias , they do not trouble their heads with such old-fangled things . These beauteous parts ranged in harmonious order like the verses in the Sibyl ' s grot , are to them like the same leaves when the breath of heaven has scattered them far and
wide , it is impossible , " revocare situs , aut jungere , " they see not the perfection of those several portions which combine to form the oneness of unbroken individuality . A knowledge of antiquity is useful , moreover , in preventing one voii . i . 2 r ' .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
whatever was his race matters very little , for the Soyers of this generation and those to come , will look contentedly at the sober swinging pendulum of the little ten shillings worth of mechanism , in the shape of a Dutch clock , hanging in the corner perchance of a bright redbricked kitchen , and bless the gift , if they do not remember the giver .
Nor ought fire insurance offices , as well as over-paid and underpaid good plain cooks , to forget Ahasuerus Eromantiel , for he was the improver , if not the originator of fire-engines . It is true they were small ; so small that they could be taken into a house , and carried without much difficulty up the oaken staircase ; but small engines are useful , at least in freeing trees and plants from plant-lice ,
and those minute yet rapacious species of animalculse which come under the general name of blight . In these two inventions , as in others , we see what a paucity there is in England of genuine English inventors , but though England lacks inventors and great musicians ( not that we would imply there is any connection between the two ) , it is the only country which knows how to appreciate the inventions
of genius truly . Erom the skilful Italian silversmith , and the German instrument maker , to the Spitalfields weaver driven from France by the Edict of Nantz , we owe numberless obligations , while it is to Italy , Germany , Erance , and the East , we look for those wonderful singers , whom we gladly call—and why should we not ?—our very
own . Thus Handel , to whom Arbuthnot , in addressing Pope , paid so high a tribute when he said , " conceive the highest you can of his abilities , and they are much beyond anything you can conceive , " and the great Herschel , are sons of genius whom England claims for her own , and their names are , and ever will be to us , as household words .
Passing by antiquarian research as it affects the history of inventions , we might show how little should we be able without it to appreciate fully , the beauties of our noble cathedrals , abbey churches , and ancient ivy-covered castles . To vulgar eyes , the most magnificent cathedral is what the fly perchance , and its foe , the spider , think it , the common and convenient effect of a marvellous idea . To them a
pillar is a mere pile of stones , and a sarcophagus a common coffin which they could see any day of the week at a parish funeral , a transept , a mere passage , and a real painted glass window , which they could not distinguish from a sham one of modern glass , something very funny , and exceedingly grotesque . As to the early
English style , Noman and Perpendicular screens , sun-dials , piscinae , credence-tables , and sedilias , they do not trouble their heads with such old-fangled things . These beauteous parts ranged in harmonious order like the verses in the Sibyl ' s grot , are to them like the same leaves when the breath of heaven has scattered them far and
wide , it is impossible , " revocare situs , aut jungere , " they see not the perfection of those several portions which combine to form the oneness of unbroken individuality . A knowledge of antiquity is useful , moreover , in preventing one voii . i . 2 r ' .