Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/407

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the Royal Society.
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ence and Pleasure, while the one part of Men would not be content to live according to the first Plainness of Nature: And the other were compell'd to work with their Hands, for the Ease and Pleasure of their Masters Lives, and the Support of their own. From these Beginnings the Inventions of Peace and War, the Delights of Cities and Palaces, the Delicacies of Food, the Curiosities of Cloathing, the Varieties of Recreations took their Rise: And these have still continued to increase, either by some casual Discoveries, or by Luxury, or else as Men have, been driven by some new Necessities, to pass on farther to attempt new ways of maintaining themselves.

Sect. XXV. The Manual Arts are still improveable.This is the most natural Method of the Foundation and Progress of Manual Arts. And they may still be advanc'd to a higher Perfection, than they have yet obtain'd, either by the Discovery of new Matter, to imploy Mens Hands, or by a new Transplantation of the same Matter, or by handling the old Subjects of Manufactures after a new way, in the same Places.

And first, we have reason to expect, that there may still arise new Matter to be manag'd by Human Art and Diligence; and that from the parts of the Earth that are yet unknown, or from the new discover'd America, or from our own Seas and Land, that have been long search'd into, and inhabited.

First by new Matter from new Lands.If ever any more Countries, which are now hidden from us, shall be reveal'd, it is not to be question'd, but there will be also opened to our Observation, very many kinds of living Creatures, of Minerals, of Plants, nay, of Handicrafts, with which we have been hitherto unacquainted. This may well be expected, if we remember, that there was never yet any

Land