PRIME-MO VERS. 35 1 



force of their own bodies ; and therefore, early in the world's history, 

 there must have been the attempt by the offer of some consideration 

 or reward to induce the robust in body but not in mind, to work 

 under the directions of these men of superior intelligence. But when 

 such aid as this became insufficient, the way in which, in all proba- 

 bility, the people of those days endeavoured to satisfy the further 

 demand would be to make captives of their enemies, and to reduce 

 them to a state of bondage to grind at the mill, to raise water, or, 

 yoked by innumerable cords and beams, to draw along the huge 

 blocks required in the foundations of a temple, or for the building of a 

 pyramid, or to act in concert on the many oars of a galley although 

 by what means this last-named operation was performed is not very 

 clear. And doubtless, coupled with this condition of bondage, there 

 must have been an amount of human suffering which is too frightful 

 to be contemplated. 



Such machines as those to which I have called attention could not 

 have been invented and brought into use without the exercise of much 

 mechanical skill ; but considerable as this skill must have been, it had 

 never originated a Prime-Mover, it had given no source of power to the 

 world, but had left it dependent on the muscular exertions of human 

 beings and of animals. 



Great then was the step, and a most distinct era was it in mechani- 

 cal science, when for the first time a Prime-Mover was invented and a 

 machine was brought into existence which, utilizing some hitherto 

 disregarded natural force, converted it into a convenient form of power 

 by which as great results could be obtained as were obtainable by 

 the aggregation of a large number of human beings, and could be 

 obtained without bondage and without affliction. 



There are probably few sights more pleasing to one who has been 

 brought up in factories than to watch a skilful workman engaged in 

 executing a piece of work which requires absolute mastery over the 

 tools that he uses, and demands that they should "have the constant 

 guiding of his intelligent mind. Handicraft work of such a kind 

 borders upon the occupation of the artist ; and to see such work in the 

 course of execution is, as I have said, a source of pleasure. But when, 

 descending from this, the work becomes more and more of the charac- 

 ter of mere repetition, and when it is accomplished by the aid of im- 



