An object is frequently not seen, from not knowing how to see it, rather than from any defect of the organ of vision.

The half minute which we daily devote to the winding-up of our watches is an exertion of labour almost insensible; yet, by the aid of a few wheels, its effect is spread over the whole twenty-four hours.

No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last advances towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede them.

Telegraphs are machines for conveying information over extensive lines with great rapidity.

If we look at the fact, we shall find that the great inventions of the age are not, with us at least, always produced in universities.

Science in England is not a profession: its cultivators are scarcely recognised even as a class. Our language itself contains no single term by which their occupation can be expressed. We borrow a foreign word [Savant] from another country whose high ambition it is to advance science, and whose deeper policy, in accord with more generous feelings, gives to the intellectual labourer reward and honour, in return for services which crown the nation with imperishable renown, and ultimately enrich the human race.

At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.