I mentioned to you that I expected to see some manufactories; yesterday Dr. Bartlett conducted us all, except Edward, who is gone for a short time to visit a relation, to several; and our curiosity was fully satisfied. I had seen some formerly, but without taking much notice of them: I viewed them all as something very common and rather mean; the case is altered now, I am taught to reason about them, and to admire the goodness of God displayed in the ingenuity of man. O, my dear mother, how wonderful are the ways of Providence! I must repeat an observation of Dr. Bartlett’s before I relate a conversation which passed between Emilia, Charles, and I, after we returned home.
The poor, said he, whilst they are earning their own bread, provide necessaries and superfluities for the rich; who, in return, often to aggrandize themselves, fight their battles, plan their laws, and enable the mechanics to send their work to foreign markets. The labourer also, who tills the ground, and anxiously turns the produce to a good account, that he may be able to pay his rent, is protected by the rich, and may reasonably expect to solace himself after his toil, under the shade of the trees his fathers have planted, or those he himself has reared. Thus does heaven bind us all together, and make our mutual wants the strong cement of society; and even the follies of individuals are so overruled as to produce good to the whole. Well, now for our conversation.
CHARLES.
You do not complain, I hope, that you have taken the trouble to accompany us?
WILLIAM.
Complain, no, I should have been very sorry to have missed so pleasing and instructive a sight.
CHARLES.
I for my part, am very well pleased. What skilful, laborious men there are in the world; and how much of the comfort of our lives, depends on the exertions of our fellow-creatures; and must arise from the labours of those poor uneducated people, the rich are too apt to despise.
WILLIAM.
Yes, I have often seen that persons of high rank treat them as if they were not made of the same flesh and blood.—I have seen that they scarcely moved their hats to a mechanic, though he bows himself almost to the ground.