application of science to art.

Let us now observe what a varied number of mechanical and agricultural
appliances are required to furnish us with this cheap literature. There
is agriculture, in the growth of the fibre that produces the material of
which the printing paper is made; then the flax-mill is brought into
play to produce the yarn to be woven; then weaving to produce the
cloth; after this, dyeing. Then the fine material is used for various
purposes too numerous to mention; and after it has performed its own
proper work, and is cast away as rags, no more to be thought of by its
owner, it is gathered up as a most precious substance by the papermaker,
who shows us the true value of the cast-off rags. Subjected to the
beautiful and costly machinery of the paper-mill, the rags turn out an
article of so much value that without it the world would almost come to
a stand-still. Yet further, we have next the miner, who by his labour
brings to the surface of the earth the metal required to produce the
type for printing; after this the printing-press; and next the chemist,
who by certain chemical combinations gives us the ink that is to spread
knowledge to the world, by making clear to the eye the thoughts of
authors who have applied their minds for the instruction and amusement
of their fellow-men. But we do not end here; consider also that each and
all, the farmer, the spinner, the weaver, the chemist, the miner, the
printer, and the author, must respectively have a profit out of their
various branches of industry, and does it not strike one forcibly what
a boon to the world is this all-important application of science to
art--putting within the reach of the poor man and the working man the
means of cultivating his mind, and so, by giving him matters of deep
interest to think over, keeping him from idleness and perhaps sin (for
idleness is the root of most evil), and making him a happy family-man
instead of a public-house frequenter.