216 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



the rent of premises being so much less, water 

 to be got by sinking a well, and wages a little 

 cheaper. They retain a shop and office in the 

 city, but have the work done miles away. 

 But even this is distinctively associated with 

 centralisation. The workmen are merely paid 

 human machines ; they do not labour for their 

 own hands, in their own little shops at home." 



This kind of thing is still the factory 

 system, though possibly placed under better 

 conditions. From an intelligent mechanic or 

 a creative artist, and one made in the image 

 of God, man sinks to a mere machine-minder, 

 and in the process he loses the dignity of 

 manhood. 



The unrest among the working classes in 

 the towns is largely due to the lack of joy 

 in their work ; the joy of creating and seeing 

 the fulfilment of some work in its entu-ety. 

 As a cog in the industrial machine the work- 

 man loses his grip on life. And the agri- 

 cultural labourer isolated in a lonely cottage, 

 working often from morning till night without 

 another human being visible to appeal to, 

 through lack of fellowship cannot live his life 

 fully. It is natural that he should become 

 insensitive to the quickening of thought 



