enjoy leisure can scarcely find a more interesting and instructive pursuit
than the examination of the workshops of their own country, which contain
within them a rich mine of knowledge, too generally neglected by the
wealthier classes." This complaint is we fear but too well grounded; and
it is to such indifference, not to say ignorance, that we must attribute
the perversion of wealth from the encouragement of art and science to
objects less worthy of patronage. Unhappily for all states of mankind,
enjoyment too often drives from the mind of the possessor, the bare
remembrance of the means of acquisition: luxury forgets the innumerable
ingenuities that minister to its cravings, and wealth, once obtained,
unfits the mind for future self-exertion or sympathy for others. Many an
upstart voluptuary surveys the elegancies of his well-furnished mansion in
comparative ignorance of the means employed for their perfection; and, as
regards his stock of knowledge conducive to happiness, he is in a more
"parlous state" than the poor shepherd who had not been at court. How many
of the prodigals that cross in the steam-boat from Dover to Calais are
acquainted with the first principles of the mighty power by which they are
impelled, or have any feeling beyond vulgar wonder at its advantages!
Again, what account can such persons furnish of the curious processes
employed in workshops, which they have witnessed--as the manufacture of a
musket at Birmingham, a razor at Sheffield, a piece of cotton at
Manchester, a pair of stockings at Nottingham, a tea-cup at Worcester, a
piece of ribbon at Coventry, an anchor or a ship at Portsmouth, &c. Yet
these labours involve triumphs of ingenuity which once witnessed ought
never to pass from the memory.

We intend to devote a future page or two to exemplars from Mr. Babbage's
volume; but, as our extracts can be but solitary specimens we recommend
the reader who wishes fully to appreciate its worth to purchase the work.