'Come away,' said Mab. 'They are very noisy, these British Polynesians, and the mob makes me miserable. Let us go back.'
'I am ready,' said the Owl. 'I don't wonder that London has this effect on you at first. You are not sufficiently automatic, and a non-automatic mind has always much to contend with.'
CHAPTER VII.
MACHINERY AND THE SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT.
'Now to the eye of Faith displayed,
The Prototype is seen,
In every office, every trade,
I mark, in human garb arrayed,
The conquering Machine!
By careful evolution planned,
With many a gliding wheel,
To warn, to comfort, to command,
Or fly, or drive a four-in-hand,
Or dance a Highland Reel!
When, urged no more by Passions gale,
Or impulse unforeseen,
Humanity shall faint and fail,
Upon its ruins will prevail
The conquering Machine!'
Perhaps the exhibition of machinery struck Queen Mab with more horror than any other novelty in this country. The Owl declared that she ought to develop a stronger automatic principle, and he therefore took her to an exhibition full of appliances for making the world over again, if ever, as North-country folk say, it 'happened an accident' All the different industries of the higher life were represented, and the scene was calculated to drive a non-automatic mind, as the Owl called Queen Mab's, entirely out of itself in the course of three-quarters of an hour.
There was machinery, worked by electricity, for beating gold to that degree of fineness that it could not be seen except through a powerful microscope, and there was the powerful microscope for seeing it through, also worked by electricity.
'Why do they want it so fine?' asked Mab.
'In order,' said the Owl, 'that they may be able to take a microscope to it, and so increase the demand for microscopes. The trades play into each other's hands. Look at these watches making themselves.'
He pointed to an arrangement of ropes and wheels and pulleys and electricity, directing the movements of a few human assistants with admirable dexterity and precision.
'You don't have anything like that in Polynesia!' said the Owl with pardonable pride.