Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1785).pdf/34

 be more prejudicial than uſeful, and conſequently be more deſerving of cenſure than commendation. But, if it ſhall appear that I have not wantonly divulged their defects, without offering at the ſame time a certain and effectual remedy, I may fairly hope, that my invention will receive that approbation and encouragement, which is due to great improvements, in objects of univerſal uſe and importance.

From the various methods, which have been ſucceſſively uſed to ſecure property, or to inſure perſonal ſafety, it may be collected that the arts of violation have improved in at leaſt an equal degree, with the contrivances which mechanical ingenuity hath invented and applied for ſecurity. And this evil hath ariſen (in the caſe of Locks) from the miſapplied efforts of ingenious mechanics, to effect that by a complex principle, which a ſimple one only can produce. In proof of one part of this propoſition, I may refer