Contents. Some typographical errors have been corrected;a list follows the text. (In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers]clicking directly on the imagewill bring up a larger version.) (etext transcriber's note) |
NATURE’S TEACHINGS
NATURE’S TEACHINGS
HUMAN INVENTION
ANTICIPATED BY NATURE
BY THE LATE
REV. J. G. WOOD, M.A., F.L.S., Etc.
AUTHOR OF “HOMES WITHOUT HANDS,”
“MAN AND BEAST, HERE AND HEREAFTER,” ETC.
NEW AND REVISED EDITION
LONDON
J. S. VIRTUE & CO., Limited, 26, IVY LANE
PATERNOSTER ROW
{vi}
LONDON:
PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED.
CITY ROAD.
PREFACE.
A GLANCE at almost any page of this work will denote its object. It isto show the close connection between Nature and human inventions, andthat there is scarcely an invention of man that has not its prototype inNature. And it is worthy of notice that the greatest results have beenobtained from means apparently the most insignificant.
There are two inventions, for example, which have changed the face ofthe earth, and which yet sprang from sources that were despised by men,and thought only fit for the passing sport of childhood. I allude, ofcourse, to Steam and Electricity, both of which had been child’s toysfor centuries before the one gave us the fixed engine, the locomotive,and the steamboat, and the other supplied us w