22 THE DECENTRALISATION 



tion of both brings about the grandest results. 

 In proportion as technical knowledge becomes 

 everybody's virtual domain, in proportion as it 

 becomes international, and can be concealed 

 no longer, each nation acquires the possibility 

 of applying the whole variety of her energies 

 to the whole variety of industrial and agricul- 

 tural pursuits. Knowledge ignores artificial 

 political boundaries. So also do the industries ; 

 and the present tendency of humanity is to have 

 the greatest possible variety of industries 

 gathered in each country, in each separate region, 

 side by side with agriculture. The needs of 

 human agglomerations .correspond thus to the 

 needs of the individual ; and while a temporary 

 division of functions remains the surest guarantee 

 of success in each separate undertaking, the 

 permanent division is doomed to disappear, and 

 to be substituted by a variety of pursuits 

 intellectual, industrial, and agricultural cor- 

 responding to the different capacities of the 

 individual, as well as to the variety of capacities 

 within every human aggregate. 



When we thus revert from the scholastics of 

 our text-books, and examine human life as a 

 whole, we soon discover that, while all the 

 benefits of a temporary division of labour must 

 be maintained, it is high time to claim those of 

 the integration of labour. Political economy 



