Antiques.(John Adams on emulation)(Brief Article)

EMULATION, which is imitation and something more--a desire not only to equal or resemble, but to excel, is so natural a movement of the human heart, that, wherever men are to be found, and in whatever manner associated or connected, we see its effects.... Emulation really seems to produce genius.

John Adams, "Discourses on Davila," 1790-1791

The American revolutionaries may never have heard the term industrial revolution, but they had a growing sense of the changes described by that later phrase. Already in 1773 Provost William Smith of the College of Philadelphia recognized the category of activity that included "such Mechanic Arts, Inventions arid useful Improvements, as tend to shorten Labor, to multiply the Conveniences of Life, and inrich the Community" Three years later, in his profoundly influential Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith asserted that everyone "must be sensible how much labour is facilitated and abridged by the application of proper machinery." Competition, he felt, would encourage inventiveness and mechanical innovation. Smith felt that "an unrestrained competition never fails to excite...emulation."

The word emulation, much more current then than now, was frequently applied to achievement in the mechanical arts and skill in writing. Benjamin Franklin was given to emulation both as a craftsman and as a writer, taking for his model of good writing the Spectator. He would take notes on an essay, write his own version, and compare the two. Finding that his use of words was limited, he designed exercises ...