Every mind is so constituted as to take a positive pleasure in the exercise of ingenuity in adapting means to an end, and in watching the operation of them--in accomplishing by the intervention of instruments what we could not accomplish without--in devising (when we see an object to be effected which is too great for our _direct_ and _immediate_ power) and setting at work some _instrumentality_ which may be sufficient to accomplish it.
[Illustration: Steam Engine] It is said that when the steam-engine was first put into operation, such was the imperfection of the machinery, that a boy was necessarily stationed at it to open and shut alternately the cock by which the steam was now admitted and now shut out from the cylinder.

One such boy, after patiently doing his work for many days, contrived to connect this stop-cock with some of the moving parts of the engine by a wire, in such a manner that the engine itself did the work which had been intrusted to him; and after seeing that the whole business would go regularly forward, he left the wire in charge, and went away to play.
Such is the story.

Now if it is true, how much pleasure the boy must have experienced in devising and witnessing the successful operation of his scheme.

I do not mean the pleasure of relieving himself from a dull and wearisome duty; I do not mean the pleasure of anticipated play; but I mean the strong interest he must have taken in _contriving and executing his plan_.

When, wearied out with his dull, monotonous work, he first noticed those movements of the machinery which he thought adapted to his purpose, and the plan flashed into his mind, how must his eye have brightened, and how quick must the weary listlessness of his employment have vanished.