292 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



become a habit, peace has become dear that is, relatively 

 speaking. And when it is remembered that the new process 

 of milling finds a ready acceptance everywhere, that water- 

 mills are constructed wherever a water stream is available for 

 the purpose, it is easy to see how immensely beneficial it is 

 to mankind, and what a great benefactor its inventor has 

 proved. His invention has made life easier to every one, has 

 secured a living to a multitude, has, with the prosperity it has 

 caused, permitted a large increase of population. The 

 increase of people extends the area and power of peaceful 

 labour (if the word civilisation be inapplicable), since they 

 will spread beyond the former limits of the community, 

 cultivate more land, raise the amount of produce, and thus 

 add to the augmentation of the general prosperity. After 

 the water-mill comes the windmill, which at once doubles 

 the results obtained by the water-mill, and in addition causes 

 competition, a new factor which works to the consumer's 

 advantage. Later comes the steam flour-mill, which multiplies 

 these results a hundred times ! The modern miller stands 

 intellectually and socially far above his predecessor. He has 

 travelled and has acquired an extensive knowledge of the 

 world ; he is more than a trader ; he is to a certain extent 

 a learned man : he is conversant with some questions of 

 political economy, and somewhat, maybe, with chemistry a 

 branch of knowledge which enables him to know the different 

 properties of every description of wheat grown in various 

 countries, each weed being affected by the climate and soiL 

 Socially, too, he stands very high; his sons are brought up 

 to become merchants, engineers, manufacturers, politicians, 

 writers, lawyers, scientific men, each of them an agent of 

 progress or a centre of social influence. 



Each industry has a history similar to that of milling ; so 

 that the preceding description of growth and results applies 

 to brewing, from the poorest beverage to the richest product 

 of the modern brewery; weaving, from sackcloth to silk, 

 velvet, lace, tapestry, and so on ; glass-making, from opaque 

 glass to lenses, spectacles, the telescope, the microscope, the 

 spectroscope ; metallurgy, from the rough bronze weapon 

 and implement to the steel engine, physical implements, 



