)£fpenmental  Xeatslation  n
Did  it  spring  forth  perfect  from  the  wise  forethought ­
  of  Parliament,  as  Minerva,  fully  armed
and  equipped,  leaped  from  the  head  of  Jupiter  ?
On  the  contrary,  did  not  our  wise  landowners  and
practical  men  oppose  railways  to  the  very  utmost,
until  they  discovered  what  a  mistake  they  were
making  ?  There  is  no  great  blame  to  them.  Who,
indeed,  could  see  in  the  rude  tram-line  of  Benjamin
Outram  the  germ  which  was  to  grow  into  the  maze
of  lines  and  points  and  signals,  which  we  now  pass
through  without  surprise  at  Clapham  Junction  or
at  London  Bridge  ?  That  most  complex  organisation, ­
  a  great  railway  station,  is  entirely  a  product
of  frequent  experiment.  Gradatim—step  by  step—
would  be  no  unapt  motto  for  any  great  industrial
success.  In  such  matters  experiments  are  both
intentional  and  unintentional.  Of  the  former  the
public  hears  little,  except  when  they  result  in  some
profitable  patent.  The  preliminary  trials  are
usually  performed  in  secret,  for  obvious  reasons,
and  the  unsuccessful  ones  are  left  undescribed,
and  are  quickly  forgotten.  As  to  unintentional
experiments,  they  are  too  numerous.  Every
railway  accident  which  happens  is  an  experiment
revealing  some  fault  of  design,  some  insufficiency
in  the  materials,  some  contingency  unprovided  for.
The  accident  is  inquired  into,  and  then  the  engineers
set  to  work  to  plan  improvements  which  shall
prevent  the  like  accident  from  happening  in  the
future.  If  we  had  time  to  trace  the  history  of  the