That the arts had their rise in the East, and that they were conveyed
thence to the Greeks, and from them to the Romans, is universally
admitted. Respecting the inventions and discoveries however of the
earliest ages, nothing certain is known. Many of those most useful in
common life must have been the production of periods when men were
little acquainted with letters, or any sure mode of transmitting an
account of their improvements to succeeding generations. The taste
which then prevailed of giving to every thing a divine origin, rendered
traditional accounts fabulous; and the exaggeration of poets tended
more and more to make such authorities less worthy of credit. A variety
of works also, which might have supplied us with information on this
subject, have been lost; and the relations of some of those preserved
are so corrupted and obscure, that the best commentators have not
been able to illustrate them. This in particular is the case with
many passages in Pliny, an author who appears to have collected with
the utmost diligence whatever he thought useful or curious, and whose
desire of communicating knowledge seems to have been equal to his
thirst for acquiring it.
Of all those nations whose history has been preserved, the most
distinguished are certainly the Greeks and the Romans; but, as far as
can be judged at this remote period, the former were superior to the
latter in point of invention. The Romans indeed seem to have known
little, except what they borrowed from the Grecians; and it is evident,
by their sending their young men of rank to finish their education
in Greece, that they considered that country as the seat of the arts
and the sciences, and as a school where genius would be excited by
the finest models, while the taste was corrected and formed. From
some hints given however by Pliny and other writers, we have reason
to conclude that the Romans possessed more knowledge of the arts than
the moderns perhaps are willing to allow, and that some inventions,
considered as new, may be only old ones revived and again rendered
useful.
When Rome, abandoned to luxury and vice, became an easy prey to those
hordes of barbarians who overran the empire, her arts shared in the
general wreck, and were either entirely lost, or for a time forgotten.
The deplorable state of ignorance in which Europe was afterwards
plunged during several centuries, retarded their revival; and it was
not till a late period, when favoured and protected by a few men of
superior genius, that they began to be again cultivated. It cannot
however be denied, that several important discoveries, altogether
unknown to the ancients, which must have had considerable influence
on the general state of society, were made in ages that can hardly be
exempted from the appellation of barbarous. As a proof of this may be
mentioned the invention of paper[1], painting in oil[2], the mariner’s
compass[3], gunpowder[4], printing[5], and engraving on copper[6].
After the invention of the compass and printing, two grand sources
were opened for the improvement of science. In proportion as navigation
was extended, new objects were discovered to awaken the curiosity and
excite the attention of the learned; and the ready means of diffusing
knowledge, afforded by the press, enabled the ingenious to make them
publicly known. Ignorance and superstition, the formidable enemies of
philosophy in every age, began soon to lose some of that power which
they had usurped; and states, forgetting their former blind policy,
adopted improvements which their prejudice had before condemned.
Though it might be expected that the great share which new inventions
and discoveries have at all times had in effecting such happy changes
among mankind would have secured them a distinguished place in the
annals of nations, we find with regret, that the pen of history
has been more employed in recording the crimes of ambition and the
ravage of conquerors, than in preserving the remembrance of those
who, by improving science and the arts, contributed to increase the
conveniences of life, and to heighten its enjoyments. So little indeed
has hitherto been done towards a history of inventions and discoveries,
that the rise and progress of part of those even of modern times is
involved in considerable darkness and obscurity: of some the names of
the inventors are not so much as known, and the honour of others is
disputed by different nations; while the evidences on both sides are so
imperfect, that it is almost impossible to determine to which the palm
is due. To Professor Beckmann, therefore, those fond of such researches
are much indebted for the pains he has been at to collect information
on this subject; and though he has perhaps not been able to clear up
every doubt respecting the objects on which he treats, he has certainly
thrown much light on many curious circumstances hitherto buried in
oblivion.
The author, with much modesty, gives to this work in the original the
title of only Collections towards a History of Inventions: but as he
has carefully traced out the rise and progress of all those objects
which form the subject of his inquiry, from the earliest periods of
their being known, as far as books supplied information, and arranged
his matter in chronological order, the original title may admit,
without being liable to much criticism, of the small variation adopted
in the translation. The author, indeed, has not in these volumes
comprehended every invention and discovery, but he has given an account
of a great many, most of them very important.
Should any one be disposed to find fault with the author for
introducing into his work some articles which on the first view may
appear trifling, his own words, taken from the short preface prefixed
to the first volume of the original, will perhaps be considered as
a better exculpation than anything the translator might advance in
his favour. “I am sensible,” says he, “that many here will find
circumstances which they may think unworthy of the labour I have
bestowed upon them; but those who know how different our judgements
are respecting utility, will not make theirs a rule for mine. Those
whose self-conceit would never allow them to be sensible of this truth,
and who reject as useless all ore in which they do not observe pure
gold, as they display very little acuteness, must be often duped by
the tinsel glare of false metal; and they give me as little uneasiness
as those who have no desire to know the origin of inventions, or how
they were brought to their present utility. If my extending the term
Invention farther than is perhaps usual, by comprehending under it
several police-establishments, be a fault, it is at any rate harmless,
and on that account may be pardoned without much apology.”