THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 465 



ing of these articles to others; and eventually the making 

 of bronze, thus gradually differentiated from a pre-existing 

 occupation, becomes an occupation by itself. But now mark 

 the ramified changes which follow this change. Bronze 

 soon replaces stone, not only in the articles it was first used 

 for, but in many others; and so affects the manufacture of 

 them. Further, it affects the processes which such improved 

 utensils subserve, and the resulting products — modifies 

 buildings, carvings, dress, personal decorations. Yet again, 

 it sets going sundry manufactures which were before impos- 

 sible, from lack of a material fit for the requisite tools. And 

 all these changes react on the people — increase their ma- 

 nipulative skill, their intelligence, their comfort — refine 

 their habits and tastes. 



It is out of the question here to follow through its succes- 

 sive complications, this increasing social heterogeneity that 

 results from the production of many effects by one cause. 

 But leaving the intermediate phases of social development, 

 let us take an illustration from its passing phase. To trace 

 the effects of steam-power, in its manifold applications to 

 mining, navigation, and manufactures, would carry us into 

 unmanageable detail. Let us confine ourselves to the latest 

 embodiment of steam-power — the locomotive engine. 

 This, as the proximate cause of our railway-system, has 

 changed the face of the country, the course of trade, and 

 the habits of the people. Consider, first, the complicated 

 sets of changes that precede the making of every railway — 

 the provisional arrangements, the meetings, the registra- 

 tion, the trial-section, the parliamentary survey, the litho- 

 graphed plans, the books of reference, the local deposits and 

 notices, the application to Parliament, the passing Stand- 

 ing-Orders Committee, the first, second, and third read- 

 ings: each of which brief heads indicates a multiplicity of 

 transactions, and the further development of sundry occu- 

 pations, (as those of engineers, surveyors, lithographers, par- 

 liamentary agents, share-brokers,) and the creation of sun- 



