38 On the Division of Labour as 



this very study, which he has employed in his letter to the 

 Archduke John, dated in August, 1816 : ** They must however 

 remember, when they undertake such a task, that it is not by 

 the gigantic exertions of fancied talents, but by the stubborn 

 perseverance of indefatigable industry, that we can ever hope 

 to obtain, for ourselves and our successors, an admission into 

 the hidden treasuries of nature and art." (MuseumCriticum,vii.) 



So far therefore as Mr. Champollion possessed more perse- 

 verance, or was able to concentrate on his researches a greater 

 portion of industry than Dr. Young, it would of necessity be 

 admitted by this gentleman, that his contemporary had an 

 advantage over him. However this may be, it appears to me 

 that the remark which you have made on the subject implies 

 an opinion which, though blindly adopted by many persons, 

 and very generally applied on various occasions in life and in 

 literature, is not only erroneous in theory, but is fraught also 

 with extensive practical mischief. 



The great principle of the Division of Labour, which has 

 been so successfully introduced into commerce and into manu- 

 factures, and into mechanical operations in general, and of 

 which the importance has been so favourite a subject of exag- 

 geration with the political economists of modern times, has a 

 tendency to raise the operations of machinery into a rivalship 

 with those of intellect and science ; but I am mistaken if the 

 same principle, when applied too strictly to the human mind, 

 has not also a tendency to depress its faculties into the simili- 

 tude of mere inanimate machinery ; and it seems to me to lower 

 the energy of the understanding, as much as it increases the 

 flexibility of the fingers. 



When a man devotes his whole life to a single pursuit, he is 

 quite secure of doing more in it than by a temporary applica- 

 tion ; but it is equally certain that he has less chance of doing 

 any thing great, than by taking a wider and more distant view 

 of collateral objects, and watching his opportunity to start the 

 game, which must rise of itself, before he can possibly hunt it 

 down. 



A determination to follow a single object is a most abundant 

 source of the self deception so commonly seen in men em- 

 ployed in the professions. There is a disposition in regular 



