THE 'STEAM-CULTIVATOR.' 199 



stricken, and that nothing is possible but what has 

 been done would come into committee upon the sub- 

 ject, and abating a little of that exclusive faith which 

 each has in his own cleverness and chance, would help 

 to bring in this tide, as the tide of human progress is 

 wont to come in not by one great wave, all at once, 

 but a great many waves after and upon each other. 



There is one grain of comfort, and of corresponding 

 hope, visible already. A good many thinkers have 

 got quit of the ste&m-plough, and got as far as the 

 spade : that is something. It is something, I repeat, 

 to have got to the spade ; for those who have got thus 

 far will not stay long there. The public mind moves 

 slowly ; but once in motion, the inertia once shaken 

 off, and the vis inertia once set a-going, it will never 

 stop till it reaches the goal. 



Again and again be it repeated, that it is not 

 ploughing, neither is it digging, that we want. These 

 are only means. What we want is the end : we care 

 not for the process. Give me A SEED-BED : show me 

 the soil comminuted, aerated, and inverted, six or eight 

 inches deep, and I will not ask you how it came so. 

 What does that matter ? If you wanted your coffee 

 ground for breakfast, to a certain fineness of texture, 

 would you be very particular to ask whether the mill 



