SOCIETIES ABE NOT MADE, BUT GROW. 373 



works from which God rested as a labourer rests. Man 

 was supposed to be moulded after a manner somewhat akin 

 to that in which a modeller makes a clay-figure. And of 

 course, in harmony with such ideas, societies were tacitly 

 assumed to be arranged thus or thus by direct interposition 

 of Providence ; or by the regulations of law-makers ; or by 

 both. 



Yot that societies are not artificially put together, is a 

 truth so manifest, that it seems wonderful men should have 

 ever overlooked it. Perhaps nothing more clearly shows 

 the small value of historical studies, as they have been 

 commonly pursued. You need but to look at the changes 

 going on around, or observe social organization in its lead- 

 ing peculiarities, to see that these are neither supernatural, 

 nor are determined by the wills of individual men, as by 

 implication historians commonly teach ; but are consequent 

 on general natural causes. The one case of the division of 

 labour suflSces to show this. It has not been by command 

 of any ruler that some men have become manufacturers, 

 while others have remained cultivators of the soil. In 

 Lancashire, millions have devoted themselves to the making 

 of cotton-fabrics ; in Yorkshire, another million lives by 

 producing woollens ; and the pottery of Staffordshire, the 

 cutlery of Sheffield, the hardware of Birmingham, severally 

 occupy their hundreds of thousands. These are large 

 facts in the structure of English society ; but we can as- 

 cribe them neither to miracle, nor to legislation. It is not 

 by " the hero as king," any more than by " collective wis- 

 dom," that men have been segregated into producers, 

 wholesale distributors, and retail distributors. 



The whole of our industrial organization, from its main 

 outlines down to its minutest details, has become what it 

 is, not simply without legislative guidance, but, to a con- 

 siderable extent, in spite of legislative hindrances. It has 

 arisen under the pressure of *human wants and activities. 



