Mississippi River-Improvement of, 878. South Carolina-Her Inviting Resources, 38. แ 66 Missouri-Immigrants, Mineral Wealth, Coal, Sugar Trade of New Orleans, 416. Soil, Productions, Public Lands, Tobacco, Massachusetts Slave Trade, 296. Mackerel Fishery, 478. Medicine in Ancient Times, 7. Mineral Resources of Tennesse, 620. Manufactures at South, 642. Mobile Commeroe, 645, Memphis and its Progress, 647. Petroleum-Element of National Wealth, 203. Prisoners of War in Confederacy, 219. Port Royal, S. C., 819. Potomac Swinton's Army of, 392. Piano-forte Manufactory of Knabe & Co., 71. Rice Prospects of the South, 428. Interests of Louisiana, 304. Southern People-Their History and Status, 837. Universities and Colleges of the South, 429. United States Grain Production, 79. Virginia-New Spirit and Development of, 53 Vine Culture in South Carolina, 44. Westminster Abbey, 178, 251. West India Emancipation-Its Results, 523. War, American, 1860-65-Journal of, 57, 189, Wine Producing Countries, Europe and United Wines-Production of, in South Carolina, 45. DE BOW'S REVIEW. . ESTABI ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1846. JULY, 1866. ART. I.-THE OLD AND THE NEW. THE discoverer is one who reveals what existed before, but remained unknown; the inventor is he who forms combinations entirely new, or which attain a proposed end by means before unknown. The one has to do with the principle; the other with the application of the principle. The former is theoretical, dealing with ideas and their relations to each other; the latter is practical, dealing with material substances and their relation to ideas. The two are rarely combined in the same person, as comprehensiveness and originality, the two rarest forms of human genius, are seldom found in the same individual. It is astonishing how long certain great facts, like the expansive power of steam, the composition of gunpowder, and the virtues of the magnetic needle, were known before the world was educated up to a point that made them available. Whoever carefully reads Plutarch, will be surprised at the number of hints at important practical ideas which he throws out. Dr. Livingstone found the germs of many such ideas among the rude tribes of Central Africa. Half civilized nations have made many important inventions, but they have failed to enlarge the bounds of science or of knowledge by any discoveries. Invention belongs to art; discovery corresponds to science, and is, consequently, higher in the scale of importance. The highest praise must be awarded to those great thinkers who have struck out new roads for the progress of the human mind, and who, as Buckle says, "are as the law-givers and founders of knowledge." The ancients deified that "fugitive occasion" which, if allowed to depart unemployed, is gone forever. To this we may liken invention, for which there are favorable moments and circumstances, that, if lost, may not again recur.* The Conquest of Mexico did not satisfy the cupidity of Cortez. He made an expedition to California, whither it was supposed a considerable number.of.Mexicans had fled with immense treasures, in consequence of the cruelty of the invader. The expedition was unsuccessful and after Cortez returned, he believed, like many..who afterwards. prosecuted the search, that had he gone further he would have discovered the El Dorado. The traditional wealth of California, however, was neither hidden in caves nor consecrated in temples, but existed in the soil itself. To have made the desired discovery, the Conqueror had only to take up a handful of the dust, which bands of Jesuits and adventurers had trodden carelessly under foot for three hundred years, in search of gold. This is the history of many inventions. What is immediately before the eye, is neglected; the El Dorado is always just beyond. Inventions may be periodical; but one cannot say of them what Michelet says of the precious metal: "Every great revolution of the world is also the epoch of a great apparition of gold." It is curious to notice how many inventions have been copied from nature; at least, how many have been suggested by the operations of insects and animals. Not satisfied with availing himself of the skill of his own species, man has learned from the patient, little workers in the earth and water, the secret of their mysterious labors. The nautilus suggested the idea of sailing ships; spiders build their miniature suspensionbridges; and the diving-bell is an imitation of the curious. aquatic insect whose long respiratory tube enables it, when immersed in the water, to remain in connection with the air above. To how many useful inventions also, has necessity, that sargitor ingenii, as Perseus calls it, given rise. The French Revolution, by cutting off luxuries, stimulated the production of useful articles. Saltpetre, which had formerly been imported from India, was found hidden in the soil. Potash, so long an expensive article of import, they learned to manufacture from vegetable ashes. The war with England having deprived the French of soda, it was feared that the manufacture of glass would be ruined. They began to manufacture soda, and, in a short time, an abundance of the indigenous article was produced at half the former cost. Sulphur, hitherto *We are indebted to Edouard Fornier's Vieux-Neuf for many curious facts relative to modern inventions and discoveries. brought from Sicily, was procured from iron pyrites. The Egyptian ammon was no longer sought for ammonia, but the bones of animals employed instead, for its production. The English embargo, under Napoleon, deprived the French of sugar, but that article was soon supplied in abundance from the beet and other saccharine vegetables. We might fill pages with the list of inventions made by poor and enthusiastic men, the fruits of which have been enjoyed by others. "Thou shalt bring forth in sorrow, sorrow," seems to apply alike to man and woman. Poverty and misfortune in life, with doubtful and useless posthumous fame, have been the usual fate of inventors. But in our more appreciative time not a few live to enjoy the splendid reward of their labors. Fulton wished to be buried on the banks of the Ohio, so that his troubled spirit, should it revisit earthly scenes, might be soothed by the puff of the steamers, which, he foresaw, would one day navigate that noble river. Morse, who has developed the use of the twin agent of steam, bears gracefully in life his load of wealth and honors. There are those who are willing to devote their lives to invention simply from enthusiasm, and a wish to benefit the world by their labors. The idea of "patent rights," however, is not new, and would seem to have been borrowed from the culinary arrangements of the Sybarites, among whom gastronomic inventions were rewarded by the State. In 1701, Louis XIV. granted a patent to Louis de Beaumont for the sale of snow and ice, which were also sold among the Romans as in our own time. The Duke de Bouillon took out a patent for a "vermin exterminator;" and the celebrated Madame de Maintenon, not long before she became Queen of France, obtained a brevet for improved furnaces and ovens. A Frenchinan secured the exclusive right to a rotary steam-engine, almost an exact copy of the revolving machine invented by Hero, of Alexandria. In the Museum of Portici there is one of the "portable kitchens" of the ancients found at Herculaneum, which came into general use after having been patented by an Englishman, there being in neither of these cases danger of prosecution by the original inventor. The Anglo-Saxon mind has contributed more than any other to the progress of invention; and the English have shown as remarkable an aptitude for seizing upon new ideas as upon newly-discovered lands. Some one has enumerated the valuable inventions which they have appropriated to themselves, the credit of which belongs to others. Among these are the illumination of dwellings by gas, the distillation of sea-water, the process of disinfecting the air and of preserving fruits;. the hydraulic press, invented by Pascal, the fire-engine and the construction of iron ships. To these may be added the Congreve rocket. A captain in the service of the East India Company, observing the great destruction of life caused by the projectiles of the Mahrattas, borrowed from them the idea, and made known to the world the formidable rocket which bears his name. The weapon, however, has doubtless been in use in India from time immemorial. Philostratos speaks of them as "torrents of fire" and "flaming clouds," falling upon armies and destroying them. Alexander the Great, frightened, it is said, by the report of these terrible weapons, resembling thunder-bolts, did not venture to attack the country of the Mahrattas. Apropos of fire-arms, Hero of Alexandria is said to have recommended the projecting of balls by means of confined air. Leonardi da Vinci applied steam to the same purpose. In order to strike a decisive blow at the cotton interest of England, Napoleon in 1810, offered a premium of a million francs for the best flax-machine. Philip de Girard obtained the patent, but thinking that he had won the prize too easily, they placed new and almost insurmountable difficulties in his way, which however he finally overcame yet without receiving the promised reward. All his means were invested in the undertaking, and the overthrow of Napoleon accomplished his ruin. Two of his associates, however, sold the patent in England for £25,000. The advocates or opponents of almost any existing form of government can defend their position by appealing to the experience of former times. Chateaubriand, however, says of the representative system that it takes rank with the three or four great discoveries that have created a new world. Many of the principles of our free government can be traced back to the forests of ancient Germany. Now and then a great genius seems endowed with universal comprehension; and we find in the works of Plato not only the theory of the forms of government existing in his time, but those also which have existed since, and in fact almost everything that pertains to the science of government. Strabo predicted that France from her peculiar physical conformation would form a single monarchy, and Stephen Marcel attempted for his country what the Revolution afterwards accomplished. Many governmental usages, usually supposed to be of modern origin, date from a remote antiquity. The Athenians had a more stringent custom-house system than is now to be found in Europe. Voltaire complained that he could not send a pot of confiture to Madame Deffaud of Geneva. Aristophanes hits off in one of his plays, the Social |