THE NATURAL MAN 263 



The harvester, then, is less and less in the harvest 

 field. His great day there is done. Hand labour is 

 such a maker of manhood, the brawn and bone, the 

 endurance and patience, that this change must have 

 its drawbacks. We feel this rather than think it ; to 

 reach such a conclusion by logical thought would 

 mean collecting and examining and a lifetime of 

 evidence. There are so many wheels within wheels; 

 energy diverted from hand work in the field may be 

 energy applied to more skilled or brainier work in other 

 branches of industry; and so on. A Royal Commis- 

 sion could not collect the evidence in years which we 

 should need to reason out this question decisively. 



One thing we can be sure of: nothing can stop the 

 progress of the machine. We might as well try to 

 stop steam or electricity. The machine is destiny. 

 It is playing a part as little liable to suppression 

 as is Competition. It amounts to one of the fixed 

 laws which there is no erasing from the statute- 

 book. If it be a car of Juggernaut though who 

 believes this to-day ? hand labour must be crushed 

 by its wheels. Hence I cannot find much enthu- 

 siasm for tentative return to the scythe, hand-bind- 

 ing, even the flail which a worthy friend of mine in 

 the fairest of Test villages had thought of bringing 

 back to keep the farm hands on the land in winter. 

 These are but the curiosities of industry. 



A south-country villager who has tried his fortune 

 in the land of the great wheat plains is sure at least 



