Mistellaneous.
THE Positive INFLUENCE of SCIENCE in the direction of labour, is exhibited in the operations of mechanics and chemistry applied to the arts, in the shape of machines for saving materials and labour,
MECHANICAL LABOURS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
and of processes for attaining the same economy.
THR history of Egypt presents nothing more wonderful than the magnitude and durability of the public works which were accom plished by her ancient inhabitants. Prodigal of labour and expense, her architects appear to have planned their structures for the admi
fluences of science upon labour; not so direct as the mechanical skill which has contrived the steam-engine, or so indirect as the operation of ethics upon the manufacture of a piece of woollen cloth; but which confer a certain, and in some instances enormous benefit upon pro ductions by the operation of causes which, upon a superficial view,
ration of the most distant posterity, and with the view of rendering the fame of their mechanical powers coeval with the existence of the
globe itself. It has been suspected that the omnipotent spirit of religion mingled with the aspiration of a more earthly ambition, in suggesting the labyrinth, and in realizing the vast conception of the pyramids. It must be acknowledged that in countries compa ratively rude, vastness of size takes precedence of all other qualities in architectural arrangements; and as a proof of this, it will not be denied that even the pyramids sink into insignificance when com pared with an undertaking proposed by Stesicrates to Alexander the Great, viz., the conversion of Mount Athos into a statue of the victorious monarch ; the left arm to be the base of a city containing
These are the in
appear to be only matters of laborious but unprofitable speculation. BUILDING MATERIALs IN Co. WExForD.—There is a remark
able sandstone formation nearly in the centre of the county at Knock-a-boka, near the Harrow, bearing a close resemblance to the Caen stone, but which for four or five centuries has remained con cealed. It can be worked at one-third cost of granite. In point of
durability it is said to be excellent. After the arrival of the Anglo Normans in the county, they erected several extensive ecclesiastical edifices chiefly of this stone, and many remains of it, where used for columns, fonts, &c., are still found in a high state of preservation. Slate likewise abounds in this county, but it has not been as ex
10,000 inhabitants, and the right to hold an urn, from which a river tensively applied to building purposes as that of other localities in was to empty itself into the sea. Herodotus speaks of the labyrinth Ireland. The clay in north Wexford is said to produce bricks ap as one of the most surprising efforts of human ingenuity and per proximating in quality to the well-formed and durable Flemish severance; and is said to be superior in magnificence to the temples bricks; and is capable of being moulded and fashioned like Terra of Ephesus, Samos, and other Greek structures. There are 3,000 Cotta. Limestone rocks are found in the vicinity of Wexford and apartments—1,500 above ground, and a like number below. The Hookhead, and yields a lime stated to be equal to the blue-lias lime pyramids during several thousand years have attracted the curiosity of England. of travellers, and given rise to much learned disquisition. In the ANCIENT ForTIFICATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA.-In the State of erection of the largest pyramid 100,000 men were employed, who Ohio there are numerous remains. At Cincinnati there is a circular were relieved every three months; ten years were spent on the wall or embankment, 800 feet across; the bank is 30 feet thick at road whereon the stones were to be drawn, and twenty years in the
formation of the pyramid itself, which is composed of stones skill fully cemented together, and none of them of less dimensions than 30 feet. The machinery for raising the stones is said to have been of wood, and necessarily rude, and by these tier after tier was com pleted; but we fear it must remain for ever a matter of conjecture how solid blocks of many hundred tons weight were separated from the adjoining mountain and lifted into the air by the means then at command. The dimensions of the great pyramid is stated, according
the base, and from three to six feet high. There are several others of smaller dimensions, besides four mounds, one of which is 27 feet
high, and 440 feet across.
On the summit of an elevated hill, two
miles below Hamilton, the walls of an ancient fortification enclose 80 acres of ground. In Highland County, two miles west of Chillicotta, there is a wall of stone from 12 to 15 feet high, and 4 or 5 feet thick, which encloses upwards of 100 acres. Near Piqua, in Miami
County, there is one which encloses about 17 acres in a circular form;
the walls all around are built of stone carried from the river, 600 to Herodotus, to have been 800 feet at base, and same height, though yards distant. A wall, from 4 to 7 feet high, extends seven miles Davison says the length of the sides was 746 feet, and the height from the Great to the Little Scioto river. The trees growing on
461 feet only. Various dimensions are given, but it is difficult to know on which to rely. Belzoni ascertained the dimensions of the second pyramid to be at base 684 feet, and height 456 feet. The sphinx, another Egyptian curiosity, representing a couchant figure of a beautiful woman combined with the body of a lion or other animal, and with outstretched paws 50 feet in length, was found to be 27 feet high above ground, 30 feet wide at the breast, and its entire length about 113 feet; but, according to Dr. Richardson, it is 120 feet, and the elevation of the head above the sand from 30 to 35 feet. A temple was erected at Sais in honour of Minerva, and the sanctuary brought by Amasis from Elephantine consisted of a single stone, and the carriage of it employed 2,000 men—all sailors —for three years; the length being 21 cubits, the width 14 feet, and the height 8 feet. It was placed at the entrance of the temple, and the reason assigned for its being carried no farther is “that the architect, reflecting upon his long fatigue, sighed deeply, and thereby alarmed the king, who considered it as a bad omen.” The practice of erect ing monolithic temples or sanctuaries hollowed out in a single stone, was very general in Egypt; but we question whether, with all the appliances of machinery now-a-days our mechanics could remove from a quarry and convey to a distance of 400 miles masses of rock 32 feet long, 21 feet broad, and 12 feet in height? Among the mechanical labours of the ancient Egyptians we ought to enumerate some of those extensive canals or water-courses, which were con
structed either for the purpose of irrigation or of facilitating the transactions of commerce.
In reference to the former class, we may
these cannot be less than 400 years old. There are remains of the same kind all the way from Ohio south and south-west to the Flori das. They are also found in Michigan to the north. On the river Huron in that district is a fortress with walls of earth quite the same
as those of Ohio and Kentucky; another, 3} miles below Detroit, enclosing several acres in the midst of an extensive marsh, with a breastwork 3 or 4 feet high. On the west of Lake Michigan is a circular breastwork with flanks reaching to the river, 4 feet high, extending nearly a mile, and capable of protecting 5,000 men. The outlines had been traced in angles, like modern fortifications. SoIENCE AND LABor.–Individuals whose occupations are chiefly of a laborious and physical nature, are exceedingly apt to draw in vidious comparisons betwixt the value of their own efforts and that of those classes of men who mainly depend for their subsistence on the exercise of their mental faculties.
To do so, however, is quite
adverse to the principles developed by political economists, and in reality quite unworthy of any man laying claim to the most common understanding. It is only by the extraordinary combination of sci ence with genius and capital, that the working man is furnished with employment, or enabled to support his family; and without a body of men in the country, whose labour consists simply of thinking, society would fall in pieces, and poverty visit the fireside of the arti san and peasant. Both mental and physical labourers, however, are working classes, and each should learn to know the value of the other. No one can say that mental labourers are not workers; they are, taken as a class, the hardest workers in the community.
particularize Joseph's river, as only one instance out of many in which RIGHT DIRECTION of TALENTs DEDICATED TO ART AND LITR the skill of the artificer rivalled the magnificence of nature. As a species of water conveyance, the canal which connected the Nile near RATURE is all that is required from those who address themselves Bubastis with the Red Sea at Arsinoë, in the vicinity of the modern to those pursuits. He, therefore, who beguiles a vacant hour of its Suez, was the most remarkable. Of the 92 miles of inland commu tediousness, by some effort of intellect that captivates the imagina nication of which it consisted, 65 were accomplished by human labour. tion, without poisoning the morals—and he, who by the exercise of Aristotle, Pliny, and Strabo ascribe the cutting of this canal to his art produces forms of beauty, which awaken in the mind that prin Sesostris. Facts such as these, with many others too numerous to ciple of taste which more than any other faculty requires cultivation mention, suggest to reflective minds the question, “Are we pro have each bestowed benefits upon the world, which may be accu gressing in everything?” rately enough measured even by the severe limitations of political ECONOMY of RISK AND LABour.—Whatever diminishes the risk economy; they are profitable labourers and benefactors of their to life or health in any mechanical operation, or any exertion of species. WoRKMEN's WAGES.–If wages were fixed by law at a high rate, bodily labour, lessens the cost of production by diminishing the premium, which is charged by the producers to cover the risk. The and population to continue to increase, the consequence would be, lightning conductor diminishes the risk of property, in the same that a portion of workmen would be employed at such rate, but the way that the safety lamp diminishes the risk of life, and by this rest would be reduced to beggary. On the other hand, if the rate diminution the rate of insurance is lessened, and the cost of pro fixed by law were too low, then all would be fully employed; but duction therefore lessened.
the most industrious and valuable workman would be reduced to a
