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 Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy inventions 
to his censure.  
 Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy inventions 
to his censure. 
 Electric telegraphs, printing, gas,
 Tobacco, balloons, and steam,
  Are little events that have come to pass
 read more 
 Electric telegraphs, printing, gas,
 Tobacco, balloons, and steam,
  Are little events that have come to pass
   Since the days of the old regime.
    And, spite of Lempriere's dazzling page,
     I'd give--though it might seem bold--
      A hundred years of the Golden Age
       For a year of the Age of Gold. 
Everything that can be invented has been invented.
Everything that can be invented has been invented.
 We issued gorged with knowledge, and I spoke:
 "Why, Sirs, they do all this as well as we."
 read more 
 We issued gorged with knowledge, and I spoke:
 "Why, Sirs, they do all this as well as we."
  "They hunt old trails" said Cyril, "very well;
   But when did woman ever yet invent?" 
 She has a housewife's hand; but that's no matter:
 I say she never did invent this letter;
  read more 
 She has a housewife's hand; but that's no matter:
 I say she never did invent this letter;
  This is a man's invention and his hand. 
Want, the mistress of invention.
Want, the mistress of invention.
 He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams 
out of cucumbers, which were to be put read more 
 He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams 
out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically 
sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers. 
 The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and 
when the man of genius returns to the read more 
 The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and 
when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the 
vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him 
as one of themselves--the creature of habits and infirmities. 
 A tool is but the extension of a man's hand, and a machine is but 
a complex tool. And read more 
 A tool is but the extension of a man's hand, and a machine is but 
a complex tool. And he that invents a machine augments the power 
of a man and the well-being of mankind.