[E8] “Deeds are greater than words. Deeds have such a life, mute but undeniable, and grow as living trees and fruit-trees do; they people the vacuity of Time, and make it green and worthy.”—“Past and Present,” p. 139. By Thomas Carlyle. London: Chapman & Hall.
[E9] “Natural science is the point of interest now, and I think it is dimming and extinguishing a good deal that was called poetry. These sublime and all-reconciling revelations of nature will exact of poetry a correspondent height and scope, or put an end to it.”—Letter of R. W. Emerson to Anna C. L. Botta, “Memoirs of —. By her friends,” 8vo, pp. 459. J. Selwin, Tait & Sons.
CHAPTER XVII.
POWER OF STEAM AND CONTEMPT OF ARTISANS.
A few Million People now wield twice as much Industrial Power as all the People on the Globe exerted a Hundred Years ago. — A Revolution wrought, not by the Schools and Colleges, but by the Mechanic. — The Union between Science and Art prevented by the Speculative Philosophy of the Middle Ages. — Statesmen, Lawyers, Littérateurs, Poets, and Artists more highly esteemed than Civil Engineers, Mechanics, and Artisans. — The Refugee Artisan a Power in England, the Refugee Politician worthless. — Prejudice against the Artisan Class shown by Mr. Galton in his Work on “Hereditary Genius.” — The Influence of Slavery: it has lasted Thousands of Years, and still Survives.
What the civil engineers and mechanics of England have done for that country the same classes here have done for America. It is by these classes that all civilized countries have been made prosperous and great. And the agent through which the power of man has been augmented a thousand-fold is steam. “In the manufactures of Great Britain alone, the power which steam exerts is estimated to be equal to the manual labor of four hundred millions of men, or more than double the number of males supposed to inhabit the globe.”[39] This is the most significant fact of all time, namely, that a few millions of people in a small island now wield twice as much industrial power as all the people on the globe exerted one hundred years ago. And it is a fact of the utmost significance that the public educational institutions of England contributed scarcely anything to this industrial revolution, whose influence now comprehends all civilized countries. The men by whom it was wrought came not from the classic shades of the universities, but from the foundery, the forge, and the machine-shop. There has been very little change in educational methods since the time when Bacon said, “They learn nothing at the universities but to believe.” He proposed that a college be established and devoted to the discovery of new truth. No such college has, however, been established, but many new truths have been discovered. Suppose all the universities of England, of the United States, and of all other highly civilized countries had, from the time of Bacon, been conformed to his ideas, and devoted to the discovery of new truths? Such a course would have united science and art, and insured vastly greater progress, no doubt, than that which has actually taken place. The union of science with art has thus far been rendered impossible by reason of the wide prevalence of purely speculative views. The speculative philosophy of the Middle Ages still projects its baleful influence over our institutions of learning. Abstract ideas are still regarded as of more vital importance than things. Statesmen, lawyers, littérateurs, poets, and artists are more highly esteemed than civil engineers, machinists, and artisans. Mr. Smiles, in his excellent work on the Huguenots, has shown that England owes to the French and the Flemish immigrants “almost all her industrial arts and very much of the most valuable life-blood of her modern race.”[40] Commenting upon this fact in his work on “Hereditary Genius,” Mr. Francis Galton says,
“There has been another emigration from France of not unequal magnitude, but followed by very different results, namely, that of the revolution of 1789. It is most instructive to contrast the effects of the two. The Protestant emigrants were able men, and have profoundly influenced for good both our breed and our history; on the other hand, the political refugees had but poor average stamina, and have left scarcely any traces behind them.”[41]
[39] “Brief Biographies: James Watt,” p. 1. By Samuel Smiles. Chicago: Belford, Clark & Co., 1883.
[40] “In short, wherever the refugees settled they acted as so many missionaries of skilled work, exhibiting the best practical examples of diligence, industry, and thrift, and teaching the English people in the most effective manner the beginnings of those various industrial arts in which they have since acquired so much distinction and wealth.”—“The Huguenots,” p. 107. By Samuel Smiles. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1867.
[41] “Hereditary Genius,” p. 360. By Francis Galton, F.R.S., etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1880.
This is the testimony of a distinguished student of biology; and it is to the effect that the refugee artisan is of immense value to the country where he finds an asylum, while the refugee politician is of no value at all. We should naturally say, our author having made this important discovery will enlarge upon it. First of all, he will deduce the conclusion that if the refugee politician is of no value to the country where he finds an asylum, the home politician is an equally unimportant factor in the social problem. Then he will make an exhaustive study of the industrial class as the chief basis of his propositions and speculations on the subject of the science of life. Not at all. Mr. Galton, in his work on “Hereditary Genius,” offers another striking illustration of the repressive force of habit and the influence of popular prejudice. In his classifications of men according to their professions, with a view to the inquiry whether “genius, talent, or whatever we term great mental capacity, follows the law of organic transmission—runs in families, and is an affair of blood and breed”—in such classifications Mr. Galton forgets for the time being that there is an industrial class. He runs through the entire social scale, from “the judges of England between 1660 and 1865,” not omitting Lord Jeffreys, down through statesmen, commanders, literary men, poets, musicians, men of science, painters, divines, the boys in Cambridge, oarsmen, and wrestlers of the North Country, but has no word to say of the civil engineers, or of the inventors—those immortal men whose monuments in stone and iron exist in every corner of England.