248 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



be expected with the power he now holds that he will 

 be content with the present state of things. Such 

 a condition tends to make society unstable. The 

 operative feels himself regarded as a mere tool, and 

 when its sharp edge has gone he is cast aside as worth- 

 less. There is no sympathy. All is reduced to a 

 mere mechanical routine. If there be a fault it is the 

 system that is in fault. 



The leaders of science have too often prostrated them- 

 selves to the mere object of commercial success. The 

 fundamental question is nearly always, fi Will the 

 discovery pay ? " They have disclaimed in great part the 

 more noble objects of investigation. To obtain a patent 

 for some material discovery, some new combination, in 

 a word to make wealth out of science is generally the 

 object of scientific investigation. But there are noble 

 exceptions. We speak of the majority. The mental 

 power of man is almost wholly sacrificed to the acqui- 

 sition of wealth. Buy, buy at the cheapest, sell at the 

 dearest, involves active competition, not of emulation, 

 but of extermination between employers and employed ; 

 and of necessity it involves a brutal system of sweating 

 to the weakest, who may be unable to hold their own. 

 The greater the output through new inventions, im- 

 proved machinery, the more acute the competition, and 

 more over-production must be the result, tending to 

 drive the workers to starvation. 



The rivalry between the employers produces a con- 

 centration to departmental detail which is destructive 

 to the higher thinking powers. Men exhaust their 

 minds in one department of business, and they are 

 lost to the greater grasp of human affairs ; they 

 become the tools of the charlatan the very instant 



