THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 203 



this parable. When Steam-power is brought into 

 the field, (audiat qui aures habet !) it will " play out 

 this play" over again. Its faculty and virtue consist 

 not in pulling vehicles or implements, but in driving 

 wheels : and when steam-driven wheels will tear up 

 granite roads into shingle and gravel, and move the 

 Carriage too, (for so it did, only not fast enough for 

 modern travellers,) what forbids the hint being taken 

 by the " audax Japeti genus," that have happily ap- 

 plied so many accidental hints before, and the same 

 refractory giant being set to rasp up cleverly and 

 methodically with sharpened Mole-like claws, the 

 tender soil, when he has shown his ability to tear so 

 tough a one with the mere palm of his hand ? And 

 what forbids, either, that he should spare off a little 

 of his redundant steam in moving his own carcase 

 along, meanwhile, at a pace of little more than half a 

 mile an hour ? " What you save in speed you gain 

 in power;" and an instrument (as broad as Cross- 

 kill's Clod-crusher,) wlu'ch completes the whole work 

 of tillage, as it moves along, will hardly be required 

 to go much faster. At that speed it would cover four 

 acres a day not of ' ploughing,' not of ' harrowing/ 

 not of 'rolling/ not of 'scuffling,' not of 'rolling 

 again? 'cross -ploughing,' 'clod -crushing,' 'rolling 



