Evolution of the Mechanic Arts. 211 



to bustles, liip-pads, and things of that order; but as 

 women seem to be coming in these latter days back into 

 contact with actual sublunary and business affairs, it may 

 be expected that in future their influence will be felt to a 

 much greater extent than ever before in this field of human 

 endeavor. 



It remains to consider: 1. What are the effects of 

 Machinery and Inventions in agriculture and manufactures ? 

 2. Have they benefited the laboring classes? 3. What 

 are their effects on .the increase of wealth ? 4. What are 

 their effects on the progress of civilization ? 5. What are 

 their effects on the development of the human body ? and, 

 6. What are their effects on the development of the 

 human mind ? 



Here are six distinct topics, each worthy of treatment in 

 an entire essay, but which can receive only the attention of 

 a few words. In considering each of them it is necessary 

 to keep in mind the distinctions between the abstract and 

 the relative, between what ought to be and what can be, 

 between what is right and what the laws, the courts, the 

 customs and the methods of society and business sanction. 

 Here, as elsewhere and always, the first thing to seek is : 

 The Kingdom of God, and His righteousness ; whereupon 

 you may be sure that " All these things shall be added unto 

 jou" provided you understand the "Kingdom of God and 

 His righteousness" to mean the supremacy of abstract, 

 natural and divine justice not such justice as man admin- 

 isters, but such as God administers and would teach man 

 to administer. This by no means begs the question, but 

 indicates that the true answers to the six questions depend 

 on how much justice can be practically realized at human 

 hands. 



The answer to the first question is : That, in agriculture 

 particularly, it depends on how the machinery is used 

 whether it is used in accordance with the natural law of 

 its use in the ultimate, divine system of things. If quicken- 

 ing or facilitating production by the use of machinery in- 

 volves exhaustion of the soil, then the seeming bemefit is a 

 disaster, since the farmer is inevitably removing, parting 

 Avith, or destroying, his capital, and will see the time when 

 his desolated farm Avill drive him into exile and beggary, 

 in punishment for his injustice yes, his crime committed 

 against his land, the storehouse of the supply of life. An 



