English Proverbs – NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Proverb Expansion

 NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

‘Mater artium necessitas’ goes the Latin proverb i.e. Necessity is the mother of invention. But St. Augustine went a step further when he said ‘Necessitas non habet legem’ i.e. necessity knows no law. It just means that when a scientist feels that the human beings require a certain facility he tries to invent means to satisfy human need. He bypasses the existing social laws and conventions.

Since the beginning of the world man has been inventing things for his safety, need, comfort and even for luxury. Fire was most probably his first invention. It brought him safety beasts, provided him relief from cold and later on cooked his food. Inventions have a long history of human efforts to satisfy his needs. When skins did not suffice as clothes he reared sheep and prepared clothes from wool. He wanted cooler clothes, cotton was evolved. Looking to the scarcity of meat man developed food grains from the seeds available in nature.

But man doesn’t live for food cloth and house. He has an ambitious nature. He has human feelings for those who suffer. He wants to crush those who oppose him. These two special cravings of man are responsible for the noblest products and the most devastating things. The former inspired him to invent X-rays, a number of drugs, anesthesia to benumb the organs at the time of operation. Hundreds of instruments were invented to keep life intact. His ambition to be the superior most led him to invent nuclear bombs, missiles, satellites and a number of agents of destruction.

Sober ideas necessitate man to communicate with others. He invented means of communication. Hundreds of years of toil exhausted the physical and mental pressures. He invented robot for the former and computer for the latter. Man is not a machine. It has feelings and emotions. Strained feeling and hurt emotions required recreation. He invented movies, radio, television, video and video games. Now his ambitions have crossed the space barrier. Although ruling other planets is a fantastic need, he has sent his fact finding satellites that have crossed Mars and Venus. It may be a fake necessity. Still it has resulted in the invention of Space Ships.