HEROES OF INDUSTRY 



exploits of a Belisarius, a Pepin, or a Godfrey 

 de Bouillon, were ages in which neither a Co- 

 lumbus nor a Gutenberg was possible. Amid 

 such chronic political turmojl, there was no sur- 

 plus energy which could be devoted to the 

 exploration and colonization of remote coun- 

 tries, nor was there enough security for industry 

 at home to permit the adoption of new devices 

 for facilitating industrial processes. In the sec- 

 ond place, it was necessary both that commer- 

 cial operations should have begun to cover a 

 wide geographical range, and that the physical 

 sciences should have made considerable pro- 

 gress. The application of both these consider- 

 ations to the case of a discoverer like Columbus 

 is obvious enough ; but both are equally appli- 

 cable to the case of such an inventor as Ark- 

 wright. Supposing that such a man could have 

 been produced, and could have invented his 

 spinning machine in the age of Augustus or 

 of Trajan, no such results would have followed 

 as were brought about a hundred years ago in 

 England. The general knowledge of machinery 

 was insufficient, and the general extension of 

 commerce was also insufficient. And so it fol- 

 lows, in the third place, that when men of the 

 intellectual calibre of Watt and Arkwright were 

 born in such a state of society as that of ancient 

 Rome, their attention was turned to other 

 things, and not to the mechanical arts ; they 

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