The change in the issue of events thereby produced is the existence of flour and bran, instead of wheat.Bread, until such time as it is in process of consumption, is an instrument.The change which it has undergone is that induced by the processes of kneading, fermenting, and baking.The want it supplies is food.The power which has operated on it is the art and industry of the baker.The change on the issue of events thereby produced is the existence of bread, instead of flour.
Though it may seem strange to rank all these in one class, that of instruments, nevertheless, the doing so is rather unusual than improper.They are all means toward the attainment of an end, and, for the attainment of this end, that is, the production of bread, do they alone exist.The blade as it springs from the soil, and the soil on which it grows, form together an instrument for this end, the plant when it has extracted all the nourishment from the soil which that can give, and is ripe on the ground, is an instrument;when it is cut and put up sheltered from the weather, it is still an instrument;so is the grain when separated from it; so it is when ground in the mill;so it is when in loaves, put apart for consumption, until the moment arrives when it is consumed.It is impossible, if we call it at first an instrument, to point out when it ceases to be so, until the moment when it is actually consuming.
All tools and machines are instruments.Thus a carpenter's saw is an instrument.The changes effected in the matters of which it is composed, for the purpose of rendering it an instrument, are, there having been given a fit form and temper to the steel plate of which it is made and a handle having been adjusted to it.The wants which it tends to supply are multifarious, according to the uses to which it is put.The power that renders it an instrument is the art and industry of him who makes, and of him who uses it.The changes effected in the issue of events by its fabrication and use, are the dividing into regular parts suited to different purposes, a great number of pieces of timber.
In a similar manner it might be shown, that houses, ships, cattle, gardens, household furniture, manufactories, manufactured goods, and stores of all sorts are in this sense, instruments.But it is, I apprehend, unnecessary further to multiply instances; every thing that man, for the purpose of gaining an end, brings to exist, or alters in its form, its position, or in the arrangement of its parts, is an instrument.
As man is thus enabled to provide for the wants of futurity, by his knowledge of the course of events, it naturally follows, that in any particular situation, his power to provide for them, is measured by the extent and accuracy of his knowledge.If that knowledge be diminished, his power will be diminished.Thus a deficiency of skill in the art of agriculture, or of baking, wilt alike occasion a diminution of the quantity of food to be got from a field applied to the cultivation of wheat.Neither can his power be increased, but by an increase of his knowledge.It is impossible to point out any improvement in any art, which does not depend on some new observations, or reasons, on the course of events connected with that art.
The generally admitted axiom, that knowledge is power, may not be strictly true.Many facts have been observed which have not yet been applied to any useful purpose, though it is probable they will, in time, be so applied.
But, though it may not be strictly true, that all knowledge immediately gives power, it is so, that all power springs from knowledge, and is measured by its extent and accuracy.Neither can it be disputed, that it operates by enabling man's reasoning faculties, so to direct his industry, as to induce certain changes in the form and arrangement of the parts of material objects converting them into instruments."Ad opera nil aliud petest homo, quam ut corpora naturalia admoveat et amoveat; reliqua natura intus transigit."CHAPTER II.OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES COMMON TO ALL INSTRUMENTS, AND OF THOSEPROPER TO SOME.
All instruments agree in the following three particulars:
1.They are all either directly formed by human labor, or indirectly through the aid of other instruments themselves formed by human labor.
Sometimes, though rarely, instruments are constructed by labor alone.
Thus occasionally rough stone fences are put up, by the hand alone, without the intervention of even a single tool.But, in most instances, the aid of other instruments is employed.It is seldom, that even the most common laborer is not assisted in his operations by some implement or another.
But, whatever instrument or instruments may have cooperated with labor in the formation of any other instrument, they themselves have been either altogether, or in part, formed by labor; and, by retracing the course of things farther and farther back, we inevitably come to the conclusion, that labor was, in this sense, "the first price, the original purchase money that was paid for all things," and thus that, directly or indirectly, it is to be looked on as the agent that gives form to every instrument.
For the sake of simplifying the succeeding speculations, as much as may be, labor will be considered as the agent employed in the formation of all instruments.When the cooperation of other instruments is implied in the means by which any particular instrument is constructed, the degree in which they cooperate is understood to be measured by the quantity of labor for which their cooperation is, or might be, procured: and, in this sense, that cooperation is spoken of as an equivalent to labor.The rules, according to which the one thus measures the other, will he discussed subsequently.
2.All instruments bring to pass, or tend, or help, to bring to pass events supplying some of the wants of man, and are then exhausted.
