Influences of knowledge in the direction of labour and
capital--Astronomy--Chronometer--Mariner's
compass--Scientific travellers--New materials of
manufactures--India-rubber--Gutta-percha--Palm-oil--
Geology--Inventions that diminish risk--Science raising
up new employments--Electricity--Galvanism--Sun-light--
Mental labourers--Enlightened public sentiment.
Lord Bacon, the great master of practical wisdom, has said that "the
effort to extend the dominion of man over nature is the most healthy and
most noble of all ambitions." "The empire of man," he adds, "over
material things has for its only foundation the sciences and the
arts."[24] A great deal of the knowledge which constitutes this dominion
has been the property of society, handed down from the earliest ages. No
one can tell, for instance, how the art of leavening bread was
introduced amongst mankind; and yet this process, now so familiar to
all, contributes as much, if not more, than any other art to the
wholesome and agreeable preparation of our food. Leavening bread is a
branch of chemistry, and, like that process, many other processes of
chemistry have been the common property of civilized man from time
immemorial. Within a few centuries, however, science has applied its
discoveries to the perfection of the arts; and in proportion as capital
has been at hand to encourage science, has the progress of the
application been certain and rapid. The old Alchemists, or hunters after
the philosopher's stone, sought to create capital by their discoveries.
They could not make gold, but they discovered certain principles which
have done as much for the creation of utility in a few hundred years as
the rude manual labour of all mankind during the same period. Let it
not be supposed that we wish to depreciate manual labour. We only wish
to show that labour is incomparably more prolific when directed by
science. Mahomet Bey, the ruler of Tunis, was dethroned by his subjects.
He had the reputation of possessing the philosopher's stone, or the art
of turning common metals into gold. The Dey of Algiers restored him to
his throne upon condition that the secret should be communicated to him.
Mahomet, with great pomp and solemnity, sent the Dey of Algiers a
plough. This was so far well. He intimated that to compel production by
labour is to make a nation rich. But had he been able to transmit some
of the science which now controls and guides the operations of the
plough--the chemical knowledge which teaches the proper application of
manures to soils--the rotation of crops introduced by the
turnip-husbandry, which renders it unnecessary that the ground should
ever be idle,--he would have gone farther towards communicating the real
philosopher's stone.
The indirect influence, too, of a general advance in knowledge upon the
particular advance of any branch of labour, is undeniable;--for the
inquiring spirit of an age spreads itself on all sides, and improvement
is carried into the most obscure recesses, the darkest chinks and
corners of a nation. It has been wisely and beautifully said, "We cannot
reasonably expect that a piece of woollen cloth will be wrought to
perfection in a nation which is ignorant of astronomy, or where ethics
are neglected."[25] The positive influence of science in the direction
of labour is chiefly exhibited in the operations of mechanics and
chemistry applied to the arts, in the shape of machines for saving
materials and labour, and of processes for attaining the same economy.
We have described the effects of some of these manifold inventions in
the improvement of the condition both of producers and consumers. But
there are many particulars in which knowledge has laboured, and is still
labouring, for the advance of the physical and moral condition of us
all, which may have escaped attention; because these labours operate
remotely and indirectly, though not without the highest ultimate
certainty and efficiency, in aiding the great business of production.
These are the influences of science upon labour, not so direct as the
mechanical skill which has contrived the steam-engine, or so indirect as
the operation of ethics upon the manufacture of a piece of woollen
cloth; but which confer a certain and in some instances enormous benefit
upon production, by the operation of causes which, upon a superficial
view, appear to be only matters of laborious but unprofitable
speculation. If we succeed in pointing out the extent and importance of
those aids which production derives from the labours of men, who have
not been ordinarily classed amongst "working men," but who have been
truly the hardest and most profitable workers which society has ever
possessed, we shall show what an intimate union subsists amongst those
classes of society who appear the most separated, and that these men
really labour with all others most effectually in the advancement of the
great interests of mankind.
[Illustration: Harrison.]
When Hume thought that a nation would be behind in the manufacture of
cloth that had not studied astronomy, he perhaps did not mean to go the
length of saying, that the study of astronomy has a real influence in
making cloth cheaper, in lessening the cost of production, and in
therefore increasing the number of consumers. But look at the direct
influence of astronomy upon navigation. A seaman, by the guidance of
principles laid down by the great minds that have directed their
mathematical powers to the study of astronomy--such minds as those of
Newton and La Place--measures the moon's apparent distance from a
particular star. He turns to a page in the 'Nautical Almanac,' and, by a
calculation directed principally by this table, can determine whereabout
he is upon the broad ocean, although he may not have seen land for three
months. Sir John Herschel, who unites to the greatest scientific
reputation the rare desire to make the vast possessions of the world of
science accessible to all, has given, in his 'Discourse on the Study of
Natural Philosophy,' an instance of the accuracy of such lunar
observations, in an account of a voyage of eight thousand miles, by
Captain Basil Hall, who, without a single landmark during eighty-nine
days, ran his ship into the harbour of Rio as accurately, and with as
little deviation, as a coachman drives his stage into an inn-yard. But
navigation not only depends upon lunar distances, but upon an instrument
which shall keep perfect time under every change of temperature produced
by variety of climate. That instrument is a chronometer. Every one who
possesses a watch, however good, must have experienced the effects of
heat or cold upon its accuracy, in making it go faster or
slower--perhaps a minute in a week. Now if there were not an instrument
that would measure time so exactly that between London and New York not
a minute, or large fraction of a minute, would be lost or gained, the
voyage would be one of difficulty and uncertainty. A Yorkshire joiner,
John Harrison, at the beginning of the last century, found out the
principle of the chronometer, which consists in the union in the
balance-spring of two metals, one which contracts under increased
temperature, and one which expands; and on the contrary under diminished
temperature. Harrison worked for fifty years at his discovery; and he
obtained a parliamentary reward of 20,000_l._
[Illustration: Greenwich Observatory.]
The English chronometers are set by what is called Greenwich time. At
the Greenwich Observatory a ball falls from a staff exactly at one
o'clock; and by the application of electricity, a similar ball falls at
the same instant at Charing Cross. The beautiful instruments that are
constantly at work, and the laborious calculations which are daily
proceeding, at the Observatory, are essentially necessary for the
maintenance of a commerce that embraces the whole habitable globe.
But what has this, it may be said, to do with the price of clothing?
Exactly this: part of the price arises from the cost of transport. If
there were no "lunar distances" in the 'Nautical Almanac,' or
chronometers, the voyage from New York to Liverpool might require three
months instead of a fortnight. But go a step farther back in the
influence of science upon navigation. There was a time when ships could
hardly venture to leave the shore. In the days of our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors, a merchant who went three times over sea with his own craft,
was entitled to rank as a thegn, or nobleman. Long after this early
period of England's navigation, voyages across the Atlantic could never
have been attempted. That was before the invention of the mariner's
compass; but even after that invention, when astronomy was not
scientifically applied to navigation, long voyages were considered in
the highest degree dangerous. The crews both of Vasco de Gama, who
discovered the passage to India, and of Columbus, principally consisted
of criminals, who were pardoned on condition of undertaking a service of
such peril. The discovery of magnetism, however, changed the whole
principle of navigation, and raised seamanship to a science. If the
mariner's compass had not been invented, America could never have been
discovered; and if America, and the passage to India by the Cape of Good
Hope, had never been discovered, cotton would never have been brought to
England; and if cotton had never been brought to England, we should have
been as badly off for clothing as the people of the middle ages, and the
million of working men and women, manufacturers of cotton, and dealers
in cotton goods, would have been without employment.
Astronomy, therefore, and navigation, both sciences the results of long
ages of patient inquiry, have opened a communication between the
uttermost ends of the earth; and therefore have had a slow, but certain
effect upon the production of wealth, and the consequent diffusion of
all the necessaries, comforts, and conveniences of civilized life. The
connexion between manufactures and science, practical commerce and
abstract speculation, is so intimate that it might be traced in a
thousand striking instances. Columbus, the discoverer of America,
satisfied his mind that the earth was round; and when he had got this
abstract idea firmly in his head, he next became satisfied that he
should find a new continent by sailing in a westerly course. The
abstract notion which filled the mind of Columbus that the earth was a
sphere, ultimately changed the condition of every living being in the
Old World that then existed, or has since existed. In the year 1488, the
first geographical maps and charts that had been seen in England were
brought hither by the brother of Christopher Columbus. If these maps had
not been constructed by the unceasing labours of men in their closets,
Columbus would never have thought of discovering "the unknown land"
which occupied his whole soul. If the scanty knowledge of geography
which existed in the time of Columbus had not received immense additions
from the subsequent labours of other students of geography, England
would not have twenty-seven thousand merchant ships ready to trade
wherever men have anything to exchange,--that is, wherever men are
enabled to give of their abundance for our abundance, each being
immensely benefited by the intercourse. A map now appears a common
thing, but it is impossible to overrate the extent of the accumulated
observations that go to make up a map. An almanac seems a common thing,
but it is impossible to overrate the prodigious accumulations of science
that go to make up an almanac. With these accumulations, it is now no
very difficult matter to construct a map or an almanac. But if society
could be deprived of the accumulations, and we had to re-create and
remodel everything for the formation of our map and our almanac, it
would perhaps require many centuries before these accumulations could be
built up again; and all the arts of life would go backward, for want of
the guidance of the principles of which the map and the almanac are the
interpreters for popular use.
[Illustration: Linnaeus in his Lapland dress.]
There never was a time when man had so complete possession of the planet
which he inhabits as the present. Much of the globe has yet to be
explored; but how much is familiar to us that was comparatively unknown
even at the beginning of the present century. How thoroughly during that
period have we acclimated many of the plants of distant lands, which are
now the common beauties of our gardens and greenhouses. There are
thousands of timber-trees coming to rapid maturity in our parks and
pleasure-grounds which thirty years ago grew only in the solitudes of
California and Australia. One enterprising man, James Douglas, whose
father was a working mason at Scone, bestowed upon this country, about
twenty-five years ago, two hundred new species of plants which are now
of common culture, and he gave us a tree of the pine-tribe, called after
his name, which will in all probability become one of the most valuable
of our timbers, from its strength, its rapid growth, and its enormous
size. What impelled James Douglas, and hundreds of other travellers of a
similar character, to encounter the perils of travel in desert regions,
but the abstract love of science, which made them naturalists in their
closets before they were explorers and discoverers? We are familiar with
the name of Linnaeus, and the Linnean system of botany; and some may
think that this great naturalist was not doing much for knowledge when
he classified and arranged what we call the vegetable kingdom. When very
young, Linnaeus underwent many hardships in travelling through Lapland,
in search of plants. So far, some may say, he was well employed. He was
equally well employed when he made such an inventory, to use a familiar
term, of all the known plants of his time, as would enable succeeding
naturalists to know a distinct species from an accidental variety, and
to give a precision to all future botanical investigation. Other
naturalists have produced other systems, which may be more simple and
convenient; but the impulse which Linnaeus gave to botanical discovery,
and thence to the increase of the vegetable wealth of Europe, can never
be too highly appreciated.
In every branch of natural history the study of the science, in its
manifold forms of classification, is constantly leading to the most
valuable discoveries connected with our means of existence. Some twenty
years ago all the timber of the Hartz Forest in Germany was destroyed by
a species of beetle, which, gnawing completely round the bark, prevented
the sap from rising. This destructive animal made its appearance in
England; and science very soon discovered the cause of the evil, and
provided for its removal. If there had been no knowledge of natural
history here, not a tree would have been left in our woods: and what
then would have been the cost of timber. The naturalist is now carrying
his investigations, with the aid of the microscope, into the lowest
departments of animal life. He finds the causes of blight and mildew,
and knows the species of the minutest insect that mars the hopes of the
farmer and the gardener. The chemist steps in; and the ravager is
destroyed or rendered less noxious.
It is to the scientific travellers that we owe the successive
introduction of new materials of manufactures. Of the enormous extent in
which such new materials affect production, we may form some adequate
notion from the mention of three--India-rubber, Gutta Percha, and
Palm-oil.
In 1853 we imported 1,940,000 lbs. of caoutchouc or India-rubber. The
gum of a Brazilian-tree, discovered by some scientific Frenchman in
1735, had been employed for nearly a century for no higher purpose than
rubbing out pencil-marks. After 1820 the mode of applying the substance
for the production of water-proof garments was discovered. But even in
1830 we only imported 50,000 lbs. Since then caoutchouc has become one
of our great materials of manufacture, applied, not only to clothing,
but to useful articles of every description. Its great property of
elasticity has rendered it available in numberless instances beyond
those of making cloth water-proof and air-tight. When we discovered how
to make India-rubber soluble by spirit, we obtained our water-proof
clothes, our air-cushions, and water-beds. When machinery drew out the
lump of gum into the finest threads, and connected them with cotton,
flax, silk, or worsted, in a braiding-machine, we became provided with
every species of elastic web that can render dress at once tight and
easy. But chemistry has carried the use of India-rubber further than the
spirit which dissolves it, or the machinery which splits it into minute
threads. Chemistry has combined it with sulphur, and thus added in a
remarkable degree to its strength and its elasticity. It has made it
independent of temperature. It has doubled its utility. "Vulcanized
India-rubber" is one of the most valuable of recent inventions.
It is a striking characteristic of our age, and particularly as compared
with the period when India-rubber was first sent to Europe, that the
application of gutta percha to the arts immediately followed the
discovery of the substance. In 1842, Dr. Montgomerie was observing a
wood-cutter at Singapore at his ordinary labour. Looking at the man's
axe he saw that the handle was not of wood, but of some material that he
had not previously known. The woodman told Dr. Montgomerie that, hard as
the handle was, it became quite soft in boiling water, and could be
moulded into any form, when it would again become hard. It was a gum
from a tree growing in various islands of the Eastern archipelago,
called _pertsha_. Specimens were immediately sent to the Society of
Arts; and the inquiring surgeon to the Presidency at Singapore received
the Society's gold-medal. In 1842-3, Mr. Lobb, visiting these islands to
collect botanical specimens, also discovered the same tree, and the gum
which issues from it.
In twelve years the wonderful utility of this new material has been
established in very various applications. But the gum would have
remained comparatively useless but for the inventive spirit which has
subdued every difficulty of a new manufacture. The substance is now
applied to the humblest as well as the highest purposes. It is a
clothes' line defying the weather; it is a buffer for a railway
carriage. It is a stopping for a hollow tooth; it is a sheathing for the
wire that conveys the electric spark across the Channel. It is a
cricket-ball; it is a life-boat in the Arctic seas. It is a noiseless
curtain-ring; it is a sanitary water-pipe. It resists the action of many
chemical substances, and is thus largely employed for vessels in
bleaching and dyeing factories; it is capable of being moulded into the
most beautiful forms, and thus becomes one of the most efficient
materials for multiplying works of ornamental art. The collection of
gutta percha has given a new stimulus to the feeble industry of the
inhabitants of Java and Sumatra, and Borneo, and a new direction to the
commerce of Singapore. It has brought the people of the Indian
archipelago into more direct contact with European civilization.
[Illustration: Elaeis Guineensis, and Cocos butyracea, yielding
Palm-oil.]
What the use of gutta percha is doing for the Malays, the use of
palm-oil is doing for the Africans. A great commerce has sprung up on
the African coasts, in which statesmen and philanthropists see the
coming destruction of the slave-trade. In 1853 we imported seventy-one
million lbs. of palm-oil and eighteen million lbs. of cocoa-nut oil. The
greater part of this oil is for making candles. It is equal to
three-fourths of all the tallow we import. What has created this
enormous manufacture of one of the most improved articles of domestic
utility? Knowledge. The palm-oil candles have been brought to their
present perfection by chemical and mechanical appliances, working with
the most complete division of labour, carried through by the nicest
economy resulting from great administrative skill. 'Price's Candle
Company' is a factory, or rather a number of factories, in which, in
the exact proportion that the health, the comfort, and the intelligence
of the workers is maintained in the highest efficiency, the profits of
the capitalist are increased. The superior quality of the products of
the oil-candle factories is the result of chemistry. A French chemist
discovered that fats, such as oil, were composed of three inflammable
acids--two of which, called stearic and margaric, are solid; and one
called oleic, fluid. Another substance called glycerine is also present.
The oil is now freed from the oleic acid and the glycerine, which
interfere with its power of producing light, and the two solid acids are
crystalized. What are called stearine and composite candles are thus
produced, at a cost which is really less than that of the old
tallow-candles, when we consider that they burn longer and with greater
brilliancy, besides being freed from a disagreeable smell and from a
tendency to gutter. Candles from animal fat have also been greatly
improved by chemical appliances in the preparation of the tallow.
Science, we thus see, connects distant regions, and renders the world
one great commercial market. Science is, therefore, a chief instrument
in the production of commercial wealth. But we have a world beneath our
feet which science has only just now begun to explore. We want fuel and
metallic ore to be raised from the bowels of the earth; and, till within
a very few years, we used to dig at random when we desired to dig a
mine, or confided the outlay of thousands of pounds to be used in
digging, to some quack whose pretensions to knowledge were even more
deceptive than a reliance upon chance. The science of geology, almost
within the last quarter of a century, has been able, upon certain
principles, to determine where coal especially can be found, by knowing
in what strata of earth coal is formed; and thus the expense of digging
through earth to search for coal, when science would, at once pronounce
that no coal was there, has been altogether withdrawn from the amount of
capital to be expended in the raising of coal. That this saving has not
been small, we may know from the fact, that eighty thousand pounds were
expended fruitlessly in digging for coal at Bexhill, in Sussex, not many
years ago, which expense geology would have instantly prevented; and
have thus accumulated capital, and given a profitable stimulus to
labour, by saving their waste. But geological science has not only
prevented the expensive search for coal where it does not exist, but has
shown that it does exist where, a few years ago, it was held impossible
to find it. The practical men, as they are called, maintained that coal
could not be found beneath the magnesian limestone. A scientific
geologist, Dr. William Smith, held a contrary opinion; and the result of
his abstract conviction is, that the great Hetton collieries have been
called into action, which supply a vast amount of coal to the London
market, found beneath this dreaded barrier of magnesian limestone.
Geology--however scanty its facts at present are, compared with what
they will be when miners have been accustomed to look at their
operations from the scientific point of view--geology can tell pretty
accurately in which strata of the earth the various metals are likely to
be found; and knowing, to some extent, the strata of different
countries, can judge of the probability of finding the precious metals
as well as the more common. Sir Roderick Murchison, in 1844, expressed
his belief, in a public address, that gold existed in the great Eastern
Chain of Australia. In 1849, an iron-worker in Australia, reading this
opinion, searched for gold, and found it. The discovery was neglected,
till an enterprising man came from California, and completed the
realization of the scientific prediction. The gold-diggings of Australia
are producing, by their attraction to emigrants, changes in the amount
and value of labour in the United Kingdom, which may materially affect
the condition of every worker in the parent-land; and they have given an
immense impulse to our home industry. The importance of gold, merely as
a material of manufacture, may be estimated from the fact that in
Birmingham alone a thousand ounces of fine gold are worked up every
week; and that ten thousand ounces are annually used in the porcelain
works of Staffordshire.
Whatever diminishes the risk to life or health, in any mechanical
operation, or any exertion of bodily labour, lessens the cost of
production, by diminishing the premium which is charged by the producers
to cover the risk. The safety-lamp of Sir Humphry Davy, by diminishing
the waste of human life employed in raising coals, diminished the price
of coals. The contrivance is a very simple one, though it was no doubt
the result of anxious and patient thought. It is a common oil-lamp, in
which the flame is surrounded with a fine wire-gauze. The flame cannot
pass through the gauze; and thus if the destructive gas of a coal-mine
enters the gauze and ignites, the flame cannot pass again out of the
gauze, and ignite the surrounding gas. Sometimes the inner flame burns
with a terrible blue light. It is the symptom of danger. If the lamp
were an open flame the fire-damp would shake the pit with one dreadful
explosion. The safety-lamp yields a feeble light; and thus,
unfortunately, the miner sometimes exposes the flame, and perishes. The
magnetic mask, which prevents iron-filings escaping down the throats of
grinders and polishers, and thus prevents the consumption of the lungs,
to which these trades are peculiarly obnoxious, would diminish the price
of steel goods, if the workmen did not prefer receiving the premium in
the shape of higher wages, to the health and long life which they would
get, without the premium, by the use of the mask. This is not wisdom on
the part of the workmen. But whether they are wise or not, the natural
and inevitable influence of the discovery, sooner or later, to lessen
the cost of production in that trade, by lessening the risk of the
labourers, must be established. The lightning conductor of Franklin,
which is used very generally on the Continent, and almost universally in
shipping, diminishes the risk of property, in the same way that the
safety-lamp diminishes the risk of life; and, by this diminution, the
rate of insurance is lessened, and the cost of production therefore
lessened.
[Illustration: Franklin medal.]
We have given many examples of labour-saving processes produced by
science. We may regard it as a compensating principle that science is
constantly raising up new employments. In 1798, Galvani, an Italian
physician, accidentally discovered that the muscles of a dead frog were
convulsed by the body coming in contact with two metals. Soon after,
Volta, another Italian physician, produced electric currents by a
combination of metals in what was called the voltaic-pile. Who could
have imagined that the patient working-out of the scientific principle
that was evolved in the movement of Galvani's dead frog, should have
raised up new branches of human industry, of the most extensive and
varied utility? Galvanic batteries used to be considered amongst the
toys of science. They now send an instantaneous message from London to
Paris; and fill our houses with the most beautiful articles of metallic
manufacture, electro-plate. About sixteen years ago it was discovered
that a piece of metal might receive a fine permanent coating of another
metal by the agency of galvanism. The discovery created a strong
interest in men of science, and many small experiments were tried to fix
a coating of copper to some other metal. Manufacturing enterprize saw
the value of the discovery; which has been simply described in a popular
work:--
"Diluted sulphuric acid is poured into a porous vessel; this is placed
in a larger vessel containing a solution of sulphate of copper; a piece
of zinc is placed in the former, and a piece of silver or of copper in
the latter, and both pieces are connected by a wire. Then does the
wondrous agent, electricity, begin its work; a current sets in from the
zinc to the acid, thence through the porous vessel to the sulphate,
thence to the silver or copper, and thence to the conducting wire back
again to the zinc; and so on in an endless circuit. But electricity
never makes such a circuit without disturbing the chemical relations of
the bodies through which it passes; the zinc, the silver or copper, the
sulphuric acid, the oxygen, and the hydrogen--all are so far affected
that the zinc becomes eaten away, while a beautiful deposit of metallic
copper, derived from the decomposition of the sulphate, appears on the
surface of the silver or copper. Copper is not the only metal which can
be thus precipitated; gold, silver, platinum, and other metals may be
similarly treated."[26]
[Illustration: Electro-gilding.]
When experiment had proved that every imaginable form of cheap metal
could be coated with silver or gold, by the agency of electro-chemistry,
an immediate demand was created for designers, modellers, and moulders.
Vases of the most beautiful forms were to be produced in metal which
should have the properties of solid silver without its costliness. The
common metal vase is dipped into a tank containing a solution of silver.
It is placed in connection with the wires of the galvanic battery. Atom
after atom of the silver in solution clings to the vase, which soon
comes out perfectly silvered. The burnisher completes its beauty. It is
the same with a solution of gold. The pride of riches may boast the
value of the solid plate, which tempts thieves to "break in and steal."
The nobler gratification of taste may secure the beauty without the
expense or risk of loss.
But the great principle thus brought into practical use is carried
farther in the realms of art. It becomes a copying process. It can
multiply copies of the most minute engraving without in the slightest
degree deteriorating the beauty of the engraver's work. The copy is as
good as the original.
The same principle of depositing one metal upon another in minute atoms
has produced galvanized tinned-iron--iron which will not rust upon
exposure to weather, and thus applicable to many purposes of
building--and iron which can be applied to many objects of utility with
greater advantage than tin-plate.
There are few houses now without their daguerreotype portraits of some
member of the family. This is a portrait copied from the human face by a
sunbeam. The name daguerreotype is derived from the Frenchman Daguerre,
who announced his discovery at the time when our countryman, Mr. Fox
Talbot, was engaged in working out the same wonderful problem. We notice
this branch of recent invention merely to point out how science and art
call forth mechanical labour. When every house has its little portrait,
there will naturally be a great demand for frames. The manufacture of
daguerreotype-frames, both here, and in the United States, has furnished
a new field of employment.
Every scientific discovery, such as photography, is a step in advance of
preceding discovery. If Newton had not discovered the fundamental
properties of light, in the seventeenth century, we should, in all
likelihood, have had no photography in the nineteenth. Abstract science
is the parent of practical art.
[Illustration: Newton.]
It has been said by an American writer, who has published several
treatises well-calculated to give the workman an elevated idea of his
rights and duties, that the "man who will go into a cotton-mill,--who
will observe the parts of the machinery, and the various processes of
the fabric, till he reaches the hydraulic press, with which it is made
into a bale, and the canal or railroad by which it is sent to market,
may find every branch of trade, and every department of science,
literally crossed, intertwined, interwoven with every other, like the
woof and the warp of the article manufactured."[27] This crossing and
intertwining of the abstract and practical sciences, the mechanic skill
and the manual labour, which are so striking in the manufacture of a
piece of calico, prevail throughout every department of industry in a
highly-civilized community. Every one who labours at all profitably
labours for the production of utility, and sets in motion the labour of
others. Look at the labour of the medical profession. In the fourteenth
century, John de Gaddesden treated a son of Edward II. for the small-pox
by wrapping him up in scarlet cloth, and hanging scarlet curtains round
his bed; and, as a remedy for epilepsy, the same physician carried his
patients to church to hear mass. The medical art was so little
understood in those days, that the professors of medicine had made no
impression upon the understanding of the people; and they consequently
trusted not to medicine, but to vain charms, which superstitions the
ignorance of the practitioners themselves kept alive. The surgical
practitioners of Europe, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, put
their unhappy patients to the most dreadful torture by their mode of
treating wounds and broken limbs. When they amputated a leg or an arm
they applied the actual cautery, or red-hot iron, to stop the effusion
of blood. Ambrose Pare, one of the most eminent of the French surgeons
of that period, who accompanied the army to the siege of Turin, in 1536,
thus describes the mode in which he found his surgical brethren dealing
with gun-shot wounds:
[Illustration: Ambrose Pare.]
"I was then very raw and inexperienced, having never seen the treatment
of gun-shot wounds. It is true that I had read in the Treatise of Jean
de Vigo on wounds in general, that those inflicted by fire-arms partake
of a poisonous nature on account of the powder, and that they should be
treated with hot oil of elder, mixed with a little theriacum. Seeing,
therefore, that such an application must needs put the patient to
extreme pain, to assure myself before I should make use of this boiling
oil, I desired to see how it was employed by the other surgeons. I found
their method was to apply it at the first dressing, as hot as possible,
within the wound, with tents and setons; and this I made bold to do
likewise. At length my oil failed me, and I was fain to substitute a
digestive, made of the yolk of eggs, rose-oil, and turpentine. At night
I could not rest in my bed in peace, fearing that I should find the
wounded, in whose cases I had been compelled to abstain from using this
cautery, dead of poison: this apprehension made me rise very early in
the morning to visit them; but beyond all my hopes, I found those to
whom I had applied the digestive, suffering little pain, and their
wounds free from inflammation; and they had been refreshed by sleep in
the night. On the contrary, I found those to whom the aforesaid oil had
been applied, feverish, in great pain; and with swelling and
inflammation round their wounds. I resolved, therefore, that I would
never burn unfortunate sufferers from gun-shot in that cruel manner
again." Francis I., king of France, having a persuasion that, because
the Jews were the most skilful physicians of that day, the virtue was in
the Jew, and not in the science which he professed, sent to Charles V.
of Spain for a Jewish physician; but finding that the man who arrived
had been converted to Christianity, he refused to employ him, thinking
the virtue of healing had therefore departed from him. A statute of
Henry VIII. says, "For as much as the science and cunning of physic and
surgery is daily within this realm exercised by a great multitude of
ignorant persons, of whom the greater part have no insight in the same,
nor in any other kind of learning: some, also, con no letters on the
book, so far forth, that common artificers, as smiths, and weavers, and
women, boldly and accustomably, take upon them great cures, in which
they partly use sorcery and witchcraft, partly apply such medicines to
the disease as be very noxious, and nothing meet, to the high
displeasure of God, great infamy to the faculty, and the grievous damage
and destruction of diverse of the king's people." When such ignorance
prevailed, diseases of the slightest kind must have been very often
fatal; and the power of all men to labour profitably must have been
greatly diminished by the ravages of sickness. These ravages are now
checked by medical science and medical labour.
But even within our own times how greatly has general ignorance retarded
the exertions of medical science to diminish suffering and to reduce the
amount of mortality! The prejudices against vaccination have rendered it
extremely difficult to eradicate small-pox, however certain the result
of the great discovery of Jenner. According to the present law, all
children, born in England and Wales after August 1, 1853, _must_ be
vaccinated at the public expense. Such a law would have been very
difficult of execution twenty years ago. The people had then seen the
scarred faces from small-pox disappearing amongst them. They had learnt
that, at the beginning of this century, vaccination, or the puncture of
the skin with matter originally obtained from the cow, was rooting out
the small-pox, which used to destroy, not more than a hundred years ago,
thirty-six thousand persons annually, in this kingdom. But yet they had
prejudices. No medical man would practise inoculation--a great blessing
in its day--because the disease was thus kept amongst us. But still many
ignorant persons did not avail themselves of the law passed fourteen
years ago, under which their children _might_ be vaccinated at the
public cost. The undoubted testimony of the whole medical profession
proves that vaccination in almost all cases prevents small-pox, and in
all cases mitigates its evil. But that testimony further proves that if
vaccination were universal, small-pox would wholly disappear; and that
is the reason why vaccination is now compulsory.
But we may regard the influences of knowledge upon the direction and
aid of profitable labour, even from a higher point of view. The sciences
and arts cannot be carried forward except in a country where the laws of
God are respected, where justice is upheld; where intellect generally is
cultivated, and taste is diffused. The religious and moral teacher,
therefore, who lifts the mind to a contemplation of the duties of man,
as they are founded upon a belief in the Providence of an all-wise and
all-powerful Creator, is a profitable labourer. The instructor of the
young, who dedicates his time to advancing the formation of right
principles, and the acquirement of sound knowledge, by his pupils, is a
profitable labourer. The writer who applies his understanding to the
discovery and dissemination of moral and political truth, is a
profitable labourer. The interpreter and administrator of the laws, who
upholds the reign of order and security, defending the innocent,
punishing the guilty, and vindicating the rights of all from outrage and
oppression, is a profitable labourer. These labourers, it may be said,
are still direct producers of utility, but that those who address
themselves to the imagination--the poets, the novelists, the painters,
and the musicians--in every polished society, are unprofitable
labourers. One word is sufficient for an answer. These men advance the
general intellect of a country, and they therefore indirectly advance
the production of articles of necessity. We have already shown how the
study of the higher mathematics, upon which astronomy is founded, has an
influence upon the production of a piece of woollen cloth; and we beg
our readers to bear this connection in mind when they hear it said, as
they sometimes may, that an abstract student, or an elegant writer, is
not a producer,--is, in fact, an idler. The most illustrious writers of
every country, the great poets,
"High notions and high passions best describing,"
have, next to the inspirations of religion, lifted mankind, more than
any other class of intellectual workmen, to their noblest pursuits of
knowledge and virtue. Even those who especially devote themselves to
give pleasure and amusement, call into action some of the highest and
purest sources of enjoyment. They lead the mind to seek its recreations
in more ennobling pursuits than those of sensuality; their arts connect
themselves by a thousand associations with all that is beautiful in the
natural world; they are as useful for the promotion of pure and innocent
delight as the flowers that gladden us by their beauty and fragrance by
the side of the corn that nourishes us. An entire community of poets and
artists would be as unprofitable as if an entire country were dedicated
to the cultivation of violets and roses; but the poets and the artists
may, as the roses and the violets, furnish the graces and ornaments of
life, without injury, and indeed with positive benefit, to the classes
who more especially dedicate themselves to what is somewhat exclusively
called the production of utility. The right direction of the talents
which are dedicated to art and literature is all that is required from
those who address themselves to these pursuits. He, therefore, who
beguiles a vacant hour of its tediousness, by some effort of intellect
which captivates the imagination without poisoning the morals,--and he
who by the exercise of his art produces forms of beauty which awaken in
the mind that principle of taste which, more than any other faculty,
requires cultivation,--have each bestowed benefits upon the world which
may be accurately enough measured even by the severe limitations of
political economy;--they are profitable labourers and benefactors of
their species.
The positive influence of the labours of the poet and the artist upon
the advance of other labour might be easily shown. In their productions,
especially, supply goes before demand, and creates demand. It has been
calculated by an American writer, that the number of workmen who have
been set in action--paper-makers, printers, binders--by the writings of
Sir Walter Scott alone, in all countries, would, if gathered together,
form a community that would fill a large town. The Potteries of Etruria,
in Staffordshire, could not have existed unless Mr. Wedgwood had
introduced into our manufacture of china the forms of Grecian art,
bequeathed to us by the taste of two thousand years ago, and thus
created a demand which has furnished profitable labour to thousands.
There are four thousand musical-instrument makers in Great Britain. What
has given their industry its chief impulse? The divine art of Handel,
Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Rossini, Mendelsohn. If these great composers,
and many others, had not raised music into something higher and more
capable of producing enjoyment than the rude melodies of uncivilized
tribes, there would have been no trade in pianofortes.
[Illustration: Sir Walter Scott. From Sir F. Chantrey's Bust.]
We have entered into these details, principally to show that there are
other and higher producers in society than the mere manual labourers. It
was an ignorant fashion amongst the mental labourers of other days to
despise the class of the physical labourers. They have learnt to know
their value; and there should be a reciprocal knowledge. Both classes
are working-classes. No one can say that the mental labourers are not
workers. They are, we may truly affirm, taken as a class, the hardest
workers in the community. No one ever reached eminence in these pursuits
without unwearied industry: the most eminent have been universally
despisers of ease and sloth, and have felt their highest pleasures in
the absorbing devotion of their entire minds to the duties of their high
calling. They have wooed Knowledge as a mistress that could not be won
without years of unwearied assiduity. The most eminent, too, have been
practical men, despising no inquiry, however trifling it might appear to
common eyes, and shrinking from no occupation, however tedious, as long
as it was connected with their higher duties.
[Illustration: Pianoforte Manufactory.]
There is no higher duty than that of endeavouring so to lead public
opinion, as that the general mind of the community shall be directed to
noble and unselfish ends. The poet, the historian, the essayist, the
novelist, have the responsibility of keeping alive the love of freedom,
the hatred of oppression, the cultivation of Christian charity. There
never was a truly great nation that had a low literature. It is the
glory of our nation that its literature is amongst its best possessions;
and that the general scope and tendency of that literature are
calculated to raise and cherish an enlightened public sentiment.
Whatever be the amount of national wealth--however various the comforts
and luxuries which private riches may command--it is quite certain that
without that courage and intelligence which make a people free and keep
them so, the public and private accumulations are comparatively
worthless. There is a beautiful Eastern story which may better
illustrate this position than any lengthened argument.[28]
[Illustration: Statue of Bacon.]
"It is related that a man of the pilgrims slept a long
sleep, and then awoke, and saw no trace of the other
pilgrims. So he arose and walked on; but he wandered from
the way, and he proceeded until he saw a tent, and an old
woman at its door, and he found by her a dog asleep. He
approached the tent, saluted the old woman, and begged of
her some food; whereupon she said to him, Go to yon
valley, and catch as many serpents as will suffice thee,
that I may broil some of them for thee. The man replied, I
dare not catch serpents, and I never ate them. The old
woman therefore said, I will go with thee, and catch some
of them, and fear thou not. Then she went with him, and
the dog followed her, and she caught as many of the
serpents as would suffice, and proceeded to broil some of
them. The pilgrim could not refrain from eating; for he
feared hunger and emaciation: so he ate of those serpents.
And after this, being thirsty, he demanded of the old
woman some water to drink; and she said to him, Go to the
spring, and drink of it. Accordingly he went to the
spring; but he found its water bitter; yet he could not
refrain from drinking of it, notwithstanding its exceeding
bitterness, on account of the violence of his thirst. He
therefore drank, and then returned to the old woman, and
said to her, I wonder at thee, O thou old woman, and at
thy residing in this place, and thy feeding thyself with
this food, and thy drinking of this water.--How then, said
the old woman, is your country? He answered her, Verily,
in our country are spacious and ample houses, and ripe and
delicious fruits, and abundant sweet waters, and excellent
viands, and fat meats, and numerous sheep, and everything
good, and blessings of which the like exist not save in
the Paradise that God (whose name be exalted!) hath
described to his just servants.--All this, replied the old
woman, I have heard; but tell me, have you any Sultan who
ruleth over you, and oppresseth in his rule while ye are
under his authority; and who, if any one of you committeth
an offence, taketh his wealth, and destroyeth him, and
who, if he desire, turneth you out from your houses, and
eradicateth you utterly? The man answered her, That doth
sometimes happen. And the old woman rejoined, If so, by
Allah, that dainty food and elegant life, and those
delightful comforts, with oppression and tyranny, are
penetrating poison; and our food, with safety, is a
salutary antidote."
[Illustration: Bas-Relief on Gutenberg's Monument: Comparing a printed
Sheet with a Manuscript.]
[24] We have taken this sentence as a motto which may point to the
general scope of this volume.
[25] Hume's Essays.
[26] 'Curiosities of Industry.' By George Dodd.
[27] 'Everett's Working Man's Party.' Printed in the American Library of
Useful Knowledge, 1831.
[28] Note in Mr. Lane's admirable translation of the 'Thousand and One
Nights,' original edition, vol. ii. p. 635.