英文备注译文：

所有东方国家的一个独特特征是，各种艺术中最美丽的手工标本都是用最简单但同时又最笨拙的工具制成的。此外，工匠们很少固定下来，或安置在方便他们使用的车间里，但他们通常带着他们的商店和设备在全国各地旅行。所附的数字代表了一位铁匠，他拥有的工具几乎比中国任何其他工匠都多，但他的工作表现最差。他们的铸铁既轻又好，但他们的熟铁制品却无足轻重：他们既不能制造铰链，也不能制造锁，甚至不能制造可以称之为好的钉子。

史密斯的风箱是一个带有阀门活塞的盒子，当不使用时，它可以作为一个座位，也可以容纳他的工具；细木工把他的尺子当作手杖，而放着工具的那只箱子则是他工作的长凳：这是印度和中国成千上万人的权宜之计。

英文原文：

It is a peculiar feature in all the Oriental nations, that the most beautiful specimens of workmanship in the various arts are made with the most simple and at the same time most clumsy tools. The artificers moreover, are rarely fixed, or settled in a workshop convenient for their purposes, but generally travel about the country carrying their shop and apparatus with them. The annexed figure represents an tinerant smith, who has more tools than almost any other artificer of China, and yet performs his work the worst. Their cast iron is light and good, but their manufactures of wrought iron are very indifferent: they can neither make a hinge, nor a lock, or even a nail that can be called good.

The bellows of the smith is a box with a valvular piston , which , when not in use , serves as a seat , and also to contain his tools . The barber also makes a seat of bis basket ; the joiner uses his rule as a walking stick , and the same chest that holds his tools serves him as a bench to work upon : such are the expedients which thousands resort to , both in India and china.

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