194 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



cording as the work was done) to be accomplished 

 afterwards to complete the cultivation. 



But it is not so now. Since the birth of the steam- 

 engine no such very long time ago the whole ele- 

 ments of the question are altered. There exists now 

 a portable power not limited to horizontal action 

 like the horse, nor to vertical action like a man using 

 the spade or hoe, which if merely told what to do 

 will go and do it, merely dropping a hint into your 

 ear that circular motion is its favourite. 



But the willing giant stands idly panting and 

 smoking : for nobody can agree to tell him what to 

 do. One says, " go and plough !" another says, " go 

 and dig," each mistaking the means for the end, and 

 trying to yoke this youngest born of human genius 

 to the peddling routine of manual or equine capacity j 

 out of the very perversity of backsightcdness that 

 clings to forms and modes which belonged to the im- 

 plements not to the task backsightedness that would 

 with equal reason puzzle its brains in looking for tlie 

 pole and splinter-bar of a locomotive, the pendulum 

 of a watch, or the paddle-boxes of a screw-steamer. 



But if it is not ploughing, and it is not digging, 

 what is it? "Go to the Mole thou dullard" (the 

 old proverb might be travestied) , " consider her ways 



