cavity of the skull, gradually heated the liquid. Very soon the steam generated forced out the plugs with a loud report: it then escaped with violence in two streams, and raised a thick cloud between the deity and his stupified worshippers. It would appear that in the middle ages some monks found their account in this invention, and that the head of Busterich has performed its office before other than Teutonic multitudes." Evidences are too numerous and too strong to leave a doubt of the frequent use of physical phenomena by the Roman Church as miraculous interventions of God and spiritual beings. A priesthood driven to such subterfuges to maintain a character for sanctity must be in the deepest state of degradation. It is only for a time, however, that a religion can be supported by such hollow pretences, and hold an ignorant people in mental thraldom and spiritual darkness. The influence of habit and the authority of prescription are not easily broken, it is true, more especially when surrounded with such threats, temporal and spiritual, as those with which the Roman Church supports its interests. But deeply as that false Church has degraded the nations which have listened to its pretended miracles, (as much by the atheism it has produced among the educated, as by the unthinking belief and fanaticism engendered among the lower orders,) it is consoling to know that the day will come when the simple truths of Christianity will break down all forms of deception, and Christ shall live and reign in the hearts of a people who shall be his true and spiritual worshippers.

CHAPTER II.

WHAT WAS DONE TOWARDS THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STEAM-ENGINE BEFORE THE TIME OF JAMES WATT.

THE importance to which the steam-engine has risen during the present century, has given so much interest to the history of its invention and progressive improvement, that almost every nation in Europe has presented a claim to the honor of having done something towards its production. It was not, perhaps, to be expected that such a controversy should have been carried on, during the early part of this century, without the display of some national animosity. The minds of men had been too deeply scarred by the iron hoof of devastating war to permit a peaceful examination of even a question of scientific priority. The claims of honorable competition were viewed with jealousy, and the prejudices of some pugnacious minds even tainted the streams of scientific history. This rancorous and litigious spirit has been in a great measure subdued, however, and men may now discuss the question without being charged with national animosity or personal hatred.

With these disputes, however, we shall no further concern ourselves than may be necessary for a clear and impartial statement of the history of the steam-engine, which we shall, with all candor, endeavor to collect from the works of those who have engaged themselves in scientific discovery or mechanical invention.

The first claim to the honor of inventing a steam-engine is presented by Spain in behalf of Blasco de Garay, a sea-captain, who, in 1543, petitioned the Emperor Charles V. for an opportunity to make trial of a machine by which he could propel vessels without oars. The petition was granted, and a vessel of two hundred tons' burthen was placed at his disposal and under his charge. In her he fixed his machinery, and a trial was made in the port of Barcelona, on the 17th of June, 1543. As he took the precaution. to conceal his machinery, the only information obtained about it was, that he had a large boiler, to which wheels were somehow attached on both sides of the vessel, and that by their rotation the latter was propelled. The experiment was successful, and the commissioners, with one exception, reported the speed to be a league an hour. For some reason, not now to be discovered, the performance was viewed less favorably by Ravaga, the king's treasurer, who stated that the machinery was complicated, the boiler dangerous, and the speed not more than two leagues in three hours. In spite of this opposition, however, the expenses of the experiment were paid by the government, and the inventor was rewarded, but

the machinery was taken out of the vessel, and no more was heard of the discovery. The nature of the force employed can only be conjectured, and the principle and action of the contrivance are so entirely unknown, that it would be idle to speculate upon the amount of honor to be awarded to Blasco de Garay.*

France next introduces us to two authors, for whom she claims honorable notice. Flurence Rivault, a gentleman of the bedchamber to Henry IV., and preceptor to Louis XIII., published in 1605 a work on Artillery. In this book he states, that if a bomb-shell be one-third filled with water, and then plugged, it will burst with great violence if placed over a fire. He seems to have been aware that this explosion was produced by the accumulation of steam; but supposing him to have been the first to have discovered the fact, it still remains a doubt whether he knew it to be the effect of its expansive force.

Solomon de Caus was architect and engineer to Louis XIII., and his merits in connection with our present subject have been warmly advocated by M. Arago, and other modern French authors. In the year 1612, he entered the service of the elector palatine, who married the daughter of James I. With that prince he went to England, and was engaged by the Prince of Wales in the decoration of his gardens at Richmond. In 1615,

*It is proper to mention, that some writers question the genuineness of the documents on the strength of which this interesting episode in Spanish history rests.

he published a work on Motive Forces, and this book became the source, two hundred years after, of bitter dispute and angry contention. M. Arago blames the English authors for disallowing the claim of De Caus to the honor of a share in the invention of the steam-engine, and attributes their opposition to the desire of monopolizing for their native country all the credit of the discovery. Such a motive would be as dishonorable as foolish; but we can see no evidence for the imputation.

The bursting of a ball of copper by the pressure of confined steam, which was one of De Caus's experiments, had been previously performed by Flurence Rivault; and in the temple of the god Busterich, as has been shown in a previous chapter, the fact was as well known to the initiated as to the engineers of the seventeenth century. The experiment on which his claim to a discovery rests, is that of forcing a column of water up a tube fixed in a copper vessel, by the united expansive power of air and steam. But, after all, the question is, whether he, like many before him, believed the extraordinary force thus developed to arise from the mingling of steam with the air in the vessel, or whether he was conscious of the great expansion of steam and the increase from pressure. In one of his descriptions, he uses the following terms of explanation:- "The violence of the vapor which causes the water to rise proceeds from the same water, which vapor goes out from the cock after the water with great violence." From this