12 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



which govern human society. The work of pleasing men, 

 even of amusing them, may also help in this great task if it 

 enables the workers to return to it with new vigor and 

 enthusiasm. 



It would not be possible, however, to draw any sharp dividing 

 line between those occupations where individual success depends 

 upon skill in controlling physical forces and material things, and 

 those where it depends upon skill in controlling social forces 

 and men. The success of almost every person, unless it be 

 that of the pioneer in an uninhabited wilderness, depends, in 

 some slight degree at least, upon his ability to adapt himself to 

 social as well as physical conditions, upon his ability to deal 

 successfully with other men as well as with things. And there 

 is scarcely any one, unless it be the politician, whose success 

 does not depend in some slight degree at least upon knowledge 

 of physical forces and the properties of things', together with 

 some skill in applying that knowledge. Nevertheless, there 

 are certain occupations where success depends primarily upon 

 power over things, and to a slight degree upon power over men, 

 and vice versa. The farmer, the sailor, the mechanic, the en- 

 gineer, and the experimental scientist may all be put in the 

 former class. In the latter we should probably put, in addition 

 to the politician, who is the example par excellence, the lawyer, 

 the actor, the preacher, the teacher, and the salesman, every 

 one, in fact, whose active work consists mainly in talking, or 

 whose success depends mainly upon being keen judges of 

 human nature. 



Upon this topic the words of Thomas Carlyle are not only 

 instructive but inspiring as well. 



Two men I honor, and no third. First, the toilworn Craftsman that with 

 earth-made Implement laboriously conquers the Earth, and makes her man's. 

 Venerable to me is the hard Hand ; crooked, coarse ; wherein notwithstand- 

 ing lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the Scepter of this Planet. 



