256 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



human life, which he does care for, are not enhanced by 

 such growths as these. 



Even the industrial development of the nineteenth 

 century, though it has brought upon us cruel losses, has 

 its compensations, and it is the part of the philosopher 

 to make the most of them. The compensation that I have 

 now in mind is the vastly increased facility of locomotion 

 which scientific discovery and commercial enterprise have 

 placed at our command. As for the defacement of nature, 

 if any words of mine could bring remorse upon the offenders, 

 they should not be wanting, for I am persuaded that very 

 much of this damage is needless. The Waesland, between 

 Antwerp and Ghent, densely populated and busy with 

 machinery, is much of it fruitful orchard. In Saxony 

 only one per cent, of the soil is unused ; the output of 

 cotton, linen, leather and machinery is so large, that this 

 little country is one of the chief manufacturing districts 

 of Europe. Yet it is a pleasant land, a land of cornfields 

 .and fruit-trees. I maintain that the manufacturer has 

 no more right to trample underfoot all that does not help 

 him to make a profit than has the man who is in a hurry 

 to catch a train to push rudely aside the people who stand 

 in his path. A little thought, some faint preference for 

 what is beautiful over what is ugly, would spare us many 

 of the worst injuries that are being done to our country. 



In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, besides 

 those who travelled to earn money, only the wealthy, 

 or those who had a passion for travel, visited any foreign 

 land. There were plenty of young noblemen who made 

 the grand tour with a tutor, visited France and Italy, 

 and returned to show 



" How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, 

 Excels a dunce that has been kept at home." 



Here and there too there might be found such a singular 

 example as that of Descartes, who, though only moderately 

 wealthy and weak in health, contrived to visit every part 



