414 JAMES WATT. 



Rigorous logicians, they broke in the farms, the sickle 

 intended to reap the corn, the flail that was to beat the 

 corn, the sieve by the aid of which the corn is winnowed. 

 And, in fact, are not the sickle, the flail, and the sieve 

 means for shortening labour ? The spade, the hoe, the 

 plough, the seedsower, could not find grace in the eyes 

 of this blinded horde ; and if any thing surprises me, it 

 is that in their fury they spared the horses, a sort of 

 machine comparatively cheap to keep, and each of which 

 could do daily as much work as six or seven men. 



Political economy has fortunately obtained a place 

 among the sciences of observation. The substitution of 

 machines for animated beings has been so often tried 

 during many years past, that people cannot hereafter but 

 perceive the general results amidst some accidental 

 irregularities. These results are as follows : 



By sparing manual labour, machines enable us to 

 manufacture at a cheaper rate ; the effect of this cheap- 

 ness in an increased demand, sueh an increased demand 

 (so vivacious is our desire to be well off) that notwith- 

 standing the most inconceivable lowering of price, the 

 money value of the totality, of the merchandise produced, 

 surpasses each year what it was before the improve- 

 ment ; the number of workmen employed by each branch 

 of industry increases with the introduction of means for 

 manufacturing expeditiously. 



This last result is exactly contrary to what is wished 

 for by those who hate machines. At first sight it may 

 appear paradoxical, yet we shall soon see it proved by 

 a rapid examination of the most confirmed industrial 

 facts. 



When, three centuries and a half ago, the printing 

 machine was invented, copyists used to furnish books to 



