The fine arts and the mechanic arts are quite different in regard to the manner in which they are brought to perfection.  Individual capacity and genius will make a man, even without much teaching, excel in one of the fine arts; whereas, in the mechanic arts, to know how an operation is performed is every thing, and all men can do it nearly equally well.  The consequence of this is, that, as experience improves the manner of working, the mechanic arts improve, from age to age, as long as they are encouraged and practised.  It is not so with the fine arts, or only so in a very small degree, and from this it arises, that, in sculpture, poetry, painting, and music, the ancients, perhaps, excelled the moderns.  In the mechanic arts they were quite inferior.  The best examples of this, (and better need not be,) are an antique medal, boldly and finely executed, but ragged on the edges, not on a flat ground, or of equal thickness, compared with a new guinea, or a Birmingham button tamely engraved but trimly executed.  In the former, there is every mark of the artist, none of the machine.  In the latter, there are some faint and flat traces of an artist, but great proof of mechanical excellence.  The skill of the artist, necessary to produce the first, cannot be commanded, though it may, by encouragement, be called forth; but the reunion of talents, such as are necessary for the latter, is so certainly obtainable, that it, at all times, may be procured at will, after it has once been possessed.

—–­ {209} In 1790 the French laid down the law of patents, on the English plan, and rather, in some respects, improved; but the people never understood it.  The lawyers never understood it; and, even before the anarchy came on, it was evident it would never produce any very great effect, for want of proper administration. -=-

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Security, to reap the fruits of improvements, is all that is wanted, and this the law of patents, as applied and enforced in England, affords in a very superior degree.  Although, by the communication everywhere, the ground-work of every art whatever is now no longer confinable to any one nation, though the contrary is the case, and that the knowledge necessary circulates freely, and is extended by a regular sort of system, in periodical publications of various descriptions, yet the manner of turning that knowledge to advantage does not, by any means, seem equally easy to communicate.

The legislature of the United States of America has, indeed, in this case, done full justice to the encouragement of arts and to inventions; but circumstances, as has been already said, make other objects more advantageous for the employment of labour and skill in that country.  For these reasons, therefore, we may look forward with some confidence, to the flourishing of arts and manufactures, for a long term of years, if the same attention that has been paid to their encouragement still continues; but neither this advantage alone, nor all the advantages united, that have been enumerated, will be sufficient to preserve our superiority, if those, who regulate the affairs of the country, do not favour them.