We shall not extend the detail of the invention of par ticular arts any farther, but take leave of the subject of the uselul arts with a few general remarks. The pro gress of the arts is often very anomalous ; and frequent ly much slower than we should naturally expect. The attractive power of the loadstone was well known to the ancients ; yet they were ignorant of its polarity, a pro perly by which it has become so beneficial to man. This property, if we may credit an old French poem, was known in France before the year 1180; yet it was long after this before any one thought of constructing a mari ner's compass. The first of these known in Europe was exhibited at Venice anno 1260, by Paulus Venetus, as his own invention, though probably borrowed from the Chinese. It was many years after, however, that it was first employed in navigation by Flavio, or John Gioya of Arnalphi, who also passed for the inventor. Although this instrument has been used in China for navigation for time immemorial ; yet to this day it is not near so perfect as it is in Europe. Instead of nicely suspending it, in order to make it act freely, it is pla ced upon a bed of sand, so as to be deranged by every motion of the ship ; and it is neither of a size nor form at all fitted for accuracy.
The history of the Portuguese discoveries on the west coast of Africa, affords another example of the slow progress of the arts at certain periods. In the begin ning of the fifteenth century, their knowledge of this coast was bounded by a promontory situated in north latitude, which, as it never had been doubled by the ves sels of Europe, received the name of Cape JVon. In 1410, the celebrated Prince Henry of Portugal fitted out a fleet of discovery, which doubled Cape Non, and pro ceeded along the coast to 26°, as far as Cape Bojadore, but had not the courage to pass this promontory. It was not till 1439, that a Portuguese captain doubled Cape Bojadore, in consequence of a storm, and the next year the Portuguese reached Cape Blanco, lat. 20°. Between this period and 1486, the Portuguese made frequent voy ages to Africa, and discovered and took possession of the various islands near its western shore. But it was not till this latter year that Bartholomew Diaz, employ ed by John II. of Portugal, doubled its southern pro montory, the Cape of Good Hope, which he called Cabo Tormentoso, or the Cape of Storms, from the tempes tuous weather he experienced in its neighbourhood. From that period the progress of discovery was as ra pid as before it had been dilatory ; and before the century was completed, the Indies had been visited by Vasco de Gama, by this newly explored route ; while a new and unheard of continent had been discovered in the west, by the genius and persevercncc of Christopher Colum bus.
The history of printing affords another remarkable example of the slow degrees by which new arts are brought to light. It is certain that the Romans were in the practice of carving letters on blocks of wood, and of employing them on certain occasions to abridge the tron ble of writing, by stamping names and inscriptions on parchment or wax. Nothing can make a nearer approach to the art of printing ; yct that invention was reserved for an obscure monk in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Chinese have for centuries practised the
art of printing books from blocks of wood, on which they carve the contents of a whole page ; but they have ne ver yet thought of the invention of moveable types, by which the labour of printing is so wonderfully expedi ted. • An ingenious artist, who has lately published lectures on the art of engraving, Mr Landseer, has offered some observations which may serve to account for the slow progress of the art of printing ; and to spew, that the progress of one class of the arts may be materially affect ed by that of another class, with which they might seem at first to have very little connection. " In tracing effects to their trite causes," says he, " it ought not to be for gotten, that the great benefits we have derived, and con tinue to derive, from engraving and printing, ought, in fairness, to be partly ascribed to the discovery of the means of converting rags into paper ; this probably help ed to sztgge.tt the idea of printing ; and perhaps two centuries and a half had scarcely more than brought this invention to the degree of perfection necessary for the reception of impressions from types and engravings. Had the modern art of making paper been known to the ancients, we had probably never have heard of the names of Faust and Finiquerra ; for, with the same kind of stamps which the Roman tradesmen used for their pot tery, and packages, books might also have been print ed ; and the same engraving which adorned the shields and pateras of the more remote ages, with the addition of paper, might have spread the rays of Greek and Etrurian intelligence over the world of antiquity," (p. 198.) Necessity, it has been often remarked, is the parent of invention : Hence we are not to expect the arts to flourish most in countries where nature has been the most bountiful. Certain disadvantages of situation, and difficulties to be surmounted, seem necessary to stimu late men to those happy efforts which excite the grati tude of posterity, by the permanent benefits derived from their improvements, in whatever conduces to the convenience of life. It was not in the luxurious plains of Asia, that the arts of greatest ingenuity and useful ness came to maturity, but the comparatively barren ter ritory of Phoenicia and of Greece. The Phoenicians, like the modetin Hollanders, were circumscribed within a narrow territory, very inadequate to a full supply of their wants. But they were active and enterprising, and possessed the advantage of a situation peculiarly well fitted for commercial intercourse. They arc ho noured by antiquity as the inventors of commerce ; and the instructors of other nations in the practice of that, and of the art of navigation. To them the ancients like wise ascribe the invention of weights and measures, (Po lyd. Virgil. 1. i. c. 19.) of arithmetic, (Stroh°, 1. 17.) and of writing, (Th. 1. 16.) They also peculiarly ex celled in various manufactures suited to the taste of the wealthy and luxurious, and formed with great ingenuity and skill.