"It is the kind of proverb intending character
of Englishmen and they are better improve than to invent, better
to advance on the designs plans which other people have laid down
than to form schemes and designs of their own." "most of our great advances in arts, in trade, in government,
and in almost all the great things, we are now masters of, and in
which we so much exceed all of our neighboring nations, are reall
founded upon the inventions of others." "Even our woolen manufacture itself, with all the admirable
improvements made upon it by the English, since it came into thei
hands, is part of building upon other men's foundations, and
improving on the inventions of the Flemings: The wool indeed was
English, but the wit was all Flemish; we had the materials, but n
more understood the virtue of making them, then the world
understood the making of gun power, tho' they had always the
sulfur and the salts, which are now the proper ingredients of tha
dreadful composition."
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu