(...)"inventions. The history of the mental acts is the account of an evolutionary series, beginning with taking notice and following examples, and ending with the highest co-operation in a great industrial establishment, with a symphony, with the writing of a dictionary, or with the framing of a government. The benefit or reward has also followed by analogy the processes of creation in Nature, from a single advantage accruing only to the inventor, up to a world-blessing conception.
As to the resources and powers of nature invoked, these have come into the service of man according to the law of ever-increasing complexity of structure for the performance of a greater variety of functions. The order of commanding kinetic energy has been the employment of—
1. Man-power in every pursuit.
2. Fire as an agent, in cooking, pottery, metallurgy, &c.
(...)"
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