The origin of Mr. Babbage's work will best explain its practical worth. He
considers it as one of the consequences that have resulted from the
Calculating Machine, the construction of which he has been long
superintending. Having been induced during the last ten years to visit a
considerable number of workshops and factories, both in England and on the
Continent, for the purpose of endeavouring to make himself acquainted with
the various resources of mechanical art, he was insensibly led to apply to
them those principles of generalization to which his other pursuits had
naturally given rise. It should be observed, that he has not attempted to
offer a complete enumeration of all the mechanical principles which
regulate the application of machinery to arts and manufactures, but he has
endeavoured to present to the reader those which struck him as the most
important, either for understanding the action of machines, or of enabling
the memory to classify and arrange the facts connected with their
employment. Or, a still more lucid explanation of the object of the volume
is--"to point out the effects and the advantages which arise from the use
of tools and machines;--to endeavour to classify their modes of
action;--and to trace both the causes and the consequences of applying
machinery to supersede the skill and power of the human arm."

To dwell upon the interest of these inquiries in a manufacturing country
like our own, would be a waste of time; as it would be to question their
full appreciation by the, _par excellence_, useful classes. Yet, a
lamentable indifference to manufacturing processes pervades wealthier
persons. Mr. Babbage observes, "those who possess rank in a manufacturing
country can scarcely be excused if they are entirely ignorant of
principles whose developement has produced its greatness. The possessors
of wealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which nearly or
remotely have been the fertile source of their possessions. Those who