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134 TRAVELS
theim. This cabinet is open to the infpection of every body; but
if you with to fee it alone, or without being interrupted by a
crowd of f{pectators, a gratuity of about an Englifh fhilling given
to the door-keeper will procure you this favour. My infpe@tion
influenced me to remark, that many mechanical inventions and
improvements, which are produced to the Englifh nation as new,
may be found to have originated in Germany, and to have been
previoufly known in Sweden. This fhould put the peaple of
England upon their guard not to betray their ignorance in giving
approbation and patronage to things that are borrowed from other
nations, and held out to them as inventions. ‘That favoured
country pofleffes fo much original genius, and has been the foun-
tain of fo much excellence, that it is vain, foolifh and fuperfluous
in its inhabitants to plume themfelves on mechanical novelties
firft brought to light in other nations.
Although it muft be confeffed, that the Swedith academies are
not altogether formed on plans that ftand the teft of philofophical
fcrutiny, yet it cannot be denied that there is notwithftanding in
Sweden, and even in the academies, much genius and induftry
’ directed to ufeful purpofes, and productive of the beft fruits.
The original intention of thofe inftitutions certainly was good,
though they were afterwards perverted and abufed; for when
men meet and converfe freely together, they have an opportunity
of comparing their ideas, of confirming their opinions when
right by the obfervations of others, or correcting them when
wrong by their criticifms. Different notions are ftarted by dif-
ferent
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