innovation versus vested interest
Your sudden appearance, Dr.Slop, quoth my uncle, resuming
the discourse, instantly brought Stevinus into my head. (My
father, you may be sure, did not offer to lay any more wagers
upon Stevinus's head.) -Because, continued my uncle Toby,
the celebrated sailing chariot, which belonged to Prince
Maurice, & was of such wonderful contrivance and velocity,
as to carry half a dozen people thirty German miles, in I don't
know how few minutes,-was invented by Stevinus, that great mathematician
and engineer.
You might have spared your servant the trouble, quoth Dr.Slop
(as the fellow is lame) of going for Stevinus's account of it,
because in my return from Leyden thro' the Hague, I walked
as far as Schevling, which is two long miles, on purpose to
take a view of it.
That's nothing, replied my uncle Toby, to what the learned
Peireskius did, who walked a matter of five hundred miles,
reckoning from Paris to Schevling, and from Schevling to
Paris back again, in order to see it,-and nothing else.
Some men cannot bear to be out-gone.
The more fool Peireskius, replied Dr.Slop. But mark, 'twas
out of no contempt of Peireskius at all;-but that Peireskius's
indefatigable labour in trudging so far on foot, out of love for the
sciences, reduced the exploit of Dr.Slop, in that affair, to
nothing:-the more fool Peireskius, said he again.-Why so?-
replied my father, taking his brother's part, not only to make
reparation as fast as he could for the insult he had given him,
which sat still upon my father's mind;-but partly, that my father
began really to interest himself in the discourse.-Why so?-said
he. Why is Peireskius, or any man else, to be abused for an
appetite for that, or any other morsel of sound knowledge: for
notwithstanding I know nothing of the chariot in question,
continued he, the inventor of it must have had a very
mechanical head; and tho' I cannot guess upon what principles
of philosophy he has atchieved it;-yet certainly his machine has
been constructed upon
solid ones, be they what they will, or it could not have
answered at the rate my brother mentions.
It answered, replied my uncle Toby, as well, if not better; for,
as Peireskius elegantly expresses it, speaking of the velocity
of its motion, Tam citus erat, quam erat ventus; which,
unless I have forgot my Latin, is, that it was as swift as the
wind itself.
But pray, Dr.Slop, quoth my father, interrupting my uncle (tho'
not without begging pardon for it, at the same time) upon what
principles was this self-same chariot set a-going?-Upon very
pretty principles to be sure, replied Dr.Slop:-And I have often
wondered, continued he, evading the question, why none of our
gentry, who live upon large plains like this of ours,- (especially
they whose wives are not past child-bearing) attempt nothing
of this kind; for it would not only be infinitely expeditious upon
sudden calls, to which the sex is subject,-if the wind only
served,-but would be excellent good husbandry to make use of
the winds,which cost nothing, and which eat nothing, rather
than horses, which (the devil take 'em) both cost and eat a
great deal.
For that very reason, replied my father,'Because they cost
nothing, & because they eat nothing,'-the scheme is bad;-it is
the consumption of our products, as well as the manufactures
of them, which gives bread to the hungry, circulates trade,-
brings in money, and supports the value of our lands;-and tho', I
own, if I was a Prince, I would generously recompense the
scientifick head which brought forth such contrivances;-yet I
would as peremptorily suppress the use of them.