306 M. Arago on Machinery considered in Belation 



which can supply a hundred thousand, without wearing, will sup- 

 plant fifty copper-plates. The plainest arithmetic, therefore, 

 they contended, demonstrates that the majority of engra- 

 vers (forty-nine out of the fifty), will be forced to leave their 

 benches, — to throw away their graver for the trowel and the 

 pick-axe, or to implore charity on the public ways. For the 

 twentieth time we beseech you, anticipators of evil, to remem- 

 ber the principal element of the problem ye pretend to solve ! 

 — consider the insatiable desire of wellbeing which nature has 

 implanted in the heart of man ; — think that the gratification 

 of one want whets the appetite for the satisfaction of another, 

 — that our desires increase with the cheapness of the supply 

 which supports them, and to such an extent as to defy the 

 creative energies of the most powerful machines. 



But to return to engravings. The immense majority of the 

 public never thought of them when they were dear, and when 

 cheap, they are in universal demand. They have already be- 

 come the ornaments of our best books, and they confer on 

 second-rate works the best prospect of sale. Even in our al- 

 manacs, the antique and hideous representations of Nostra- 

 damus and ^Mathieu Laensberg have given place to picturesque 

 views, which in a few seconds transport our immoveable ci- 

 tizens from the banks of the Oanges to those of the Amazon, 

 — from the Himalayas to the Cordilleras, — from Pekin to New 

 York. Behold too, the poor engravers whose ruin was so pi- 

 teously foretold. They were never so numerous — never so well 

 employed. 



All these are unanswerable facts ; and from them one con- 

 sequence most assuredly does not follow ; viz. That in the world 

 we live in, among its inmates, such at least as nature has 

 created them, the employment of machinery diminishes the 

 number of workmen required in the several branches of in- 

 dustry. With other habits, manners, and passions, a different 

 conclusion might be reached ; but the probabilities on this sup- 

 position may be left to be wrought out by those who speculate 

 upon the domestic economy of the inhabitants of the Moon, 

 Jupiter, or Saturn. 



Confined within much narrower limits, I inquire, — If, after 

 having thus sapped the very foundation of the system of the 



