Before entering, however, upon the history of the manufacture in England, it will be proper to inquire into its ancient existence, and to trace its course from East to West;-not merely because this is a subject of natural and legitimate curiosity, and one which has been strangely neglected, but also because the result of the inquiry affords, by contrast, the strongest possible proof of the utility of machinery, and of the importance of those particular inventions which are afterwards to be described. It will be found that the manufacture of cotton was introduced into Europe at a comparatively late period, and existed there like a tropical plant in northern latitudes, degenerate and sickly, till, by the appliances of modern science and art, it suddenly shot forth in more than its native luxuriance, and is now rapidly overspreading the earth with its branches. Within one age, by the aid of machinery, the manufacture has made greater progress than it had previously made in many centuries.
Mechanical knowledge has taught man to substitute for the labour of his own hands, the potent and indefatigable agency of nature. The operations which he once performed, he now only directs. Iron, water, steam, all mechanical powers, and all chemical agents, are his faithful drudges, and not merely yield their mighty forces to his command, but execute works much more subtle and delicate than his own dexterity could accomplish. By this means, manufactures of every kind have undergone a transformation scarcely less important than that which takes place in the caterpillar, when it is changed from a creeping into a winged insect. The new power given to the cotton manufacture will be best appreciated, by contrasting with the lofty flight