Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/14

iv for enabling the memory to classify and arrange the facts connected with their employment. Still less have I attempted to examine all the difficult questions of political economy which are intimately connected with such inquiries. It was impossible not to trace or to imagine, among the wide variety of facts presented to me, some principles which seemed to pervade many establishments; and having formed such conjectures, the desire to refute or to verify them, gave an additional interest to the pursuit. Several of the principles which I have proposed, appear to me to have been unnoticed before. This was particularly the case with respect to the explanation I have given of the division of labour; but further inquiry satisfied me that I had been anticipated by M. Gioja, and it is probable that additional research would enable me to trace most of the other principles, which I had thought original, to previous writers, to whose merit I may perhaps be unjust, from my want of acquaintance with the historical branch of the subject.

The truth however of the principles I have stated, is of much more importance than their origin; and the utility of an inquiry into them, and of establishing others more correct, if these should be erroneous, can scarcely admit of a doubt.

The difficulty of understanding the processes of manufactures has unfortunately been greatly overrated. To examine them with the eye of a manufacturer, so as to be able to direct others to repeat them, does undoubtedly require much skill and previous acquaintance with the subject; but merely to apprehend their general principles and mutual relations, is within the power of almost every person possessing a tolerable education.

Those who possess rank in a manufacturing country, can scarcely be excused if they are entirely ignorant of principles, whose development has produced its greatness. The possessors of wealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which, nearly