198 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



cular difficulty or peculiarity about the mechanism of 

 cultivation, to " forbid the banns " between the soil 

 and the steam-engine : it is generally felt that the 

 match will take place some day, slow and unpromising 

 as the courtship may seem at present. I join hands 

 in this belief; and in the meantime ask your special 

 attention to these preliminary points, which may help 

 to account for past delay, and possibly to advance the 

 question from its present silent condition. Silent, 

 because invention is apt to be so. Self-interest keeps 

 it so ; and in the meantime a generation may pass by, 

 and nothing be practically done towards a consum- 

 mation which, once accomplished, it requires no ghost 

 to see that Great Britain would leap ahead in agri- 

 culture as much as her mines of coal and iron, and 

 her still deeper and richer mine of mechanical skill 

 and improvement, have led her to do in every art and 

 manufacture upon which the breath of steam has been 

 brought to bear.' 



Here in fact lies the grand motive in the matter ; 

 and one so emphatically important in reference to 

 this particular application of steam-power yet to be 

 achieved that one cannot help wishing that all who 

 really think at all about it who are not of that class 

 of infidels who think the womb of invention is age- 



