(318.) The power of inventing mechanical contrivances, and of combining machinery, does not appear, if we may judge from the frequency or its occurrence, to be a difficult or a rare gift. Of the vast multitude of inventions which have been produced almost daily for a series of years, a large part has failed from the imperfect nature of the first trials; whilst a still larger portion, which had escaped the mechanical difficulties, failed only because the economy of their operations was not sufficiently attended to.
The commissioners appointed to examine into the methods proposed for preventing the forgery of bank notes, state in their report, that out of one hundred and seventy-eight projects communicated to the Bank and to the commissioners, there were only twelve of superior skill, and nine which it was necessary more particularly to examine.
(319.) It is however a curious circumstance, that although the power of combining machinery is so common, yet the more beautiful combinations are exceedingly rare. Those which command our admiration equally by the perfection of their effects and the simplicity of their means, are found only amongst the happiest productions of genius.
