In the present article, we pretend not to give a corn plete treatise on the science of carpentry. Such an un dertaking would far exceed the limits of a work like ours. But we can give a compendium of the most use ful information respecting the strength of timber, and endeavour to elucidate the mode of action in some of the more simple cases, that we may from thence draw some practical maxims of construction, which may be of use to the inquisitive but inexperienced carpenter. It is mat ter of regret, that almost the whole of our knowledge of this useful science is due to the labours of several learn ed foreigners, to whose works alone we must have re course for any thing like profound investigation. But these are, in a great measure, locked up from the access of our national artists, and they have been left by intui tive feeling, as it were, to elicit those principles, and establish those maxims, which might have been expect ed from the speculations of their learned countrymen. Their success has shown us, that the efforts of genius rise superior to the defects of education. Although we are very far from wishing to decry the well-earned fame of the great masters of our day, yet it is not to be doubt ed, that even their own confidence in their undertakings would be greater, and their success more certain, were their experience digested and regulated by scientific principles.
We should wish to call the attention of some of our learned countrymen, who have leisure and opportunity, to the prosecution of these investigations. There is a wide field for research, and their labours cannot fail of being well received in this age of improvement. It is hard that the nation, which boasts of Newton and Wren as the very founders, so to speak, of the modern mecha nics, should neglect the path w bleb originally led it to distinction among the scientific people of Europe. Our workmen are acknowledged to be the ablest, the most scientific, and intelligent, in the world. They well de serve to have their labours assisted, and their desire for information gratified by the researches of speculative men. Lct the latter enter the workshop, the building yard, or the manufactory, they will find themselves in the midst of au assembly of men of science, where, ere they can pretend to communicate instruction, they will perceive that they themselves have a great deal to learn.