^66 Mr Sang's Annual Report on the 



fear of the accuracy of the performance. The workman, instead 

 of hewing away the iron by mere physical strength, forms his 

 tools so as to produce the required effects. The self-feeding ap- 

 paratus relieves him from the drudgery even of attendance, ex- 

 cepting when intellect is essential to the process. The mental 

 as well as the physical energy is thus economised, and oppor- 

 tunity is left for their full employment at those times when they 

 are really needed. The proper fastening of the work upon the 

 plate, so that the pressure exerted in cutting may not bend the 

 parts, the action of particular cutters, and the effects of short 

 or long strokes upon the engine itself, fall under peculiar notice, 

 and the possibility of attaining to greater and greater precision 

 is exhibited. 



If we go into a similar comparison of the other parts of the 

 process, results exactly analogous are reached, and it appears 

 that the self-acting or engine tools raise the standard of excel- 

 lence, and tend in a corresponding manner to elevate and im- 

 prove the mind. 



That the kind of employment in which we may be engaged 

 exerts a powerful influence on the morals and on the intellect, 

 is tolerably evident on a review of the state of the labouring 

 classes. We find that particular degrees of intellectual and 

 moral development are attached, with variations indeed in indi- 

 vidual cases, to different employments ; and that the greatest 

 diversities occur among those tradesmen who have the lightest 

 physical and the heaviest mental labour. 



The whole progress of the human mind resolves itself into 

 the lessening of bodily exertion. It is this which constitutes 

 the distinction between the present state of society in Britain, 

 and that state in which it existed before the Roman conquest. 

 The mere contrivance of the facility of production is not indeed 

 the whole cause of civihsation, but it is that one which leaves to 

 every other room /or operating ; and as such is its influence 

 on the human race generally, it is to be expected that the like 

 influence will be produced on any particular class. Contrast 

 for a moment the state of the machine-makers before the inven- 

 tion of the slide-rest and planing engine with their present state ; 

 they left their work in the evening Avearied, or rather worn out. 



