word
_manufacture_ in its literal and proper sense. It means the making of
things _by the hand_. It does not mean the making them by machinery.
And, while I plead with you for a true humility in rivalship with the
works of others, I plead with you also for a just pride in what you
really can honestly do yourself.

You must neither think your work the best ever done by man:--nor, on the
other hand, think that the tongs and poker can do better--and that,
although you are wiser than Solomon, all this wisdom of yours can be
outshone by a shovelful of coke.

170. Let me take, for instance, the manufacture of lace, for which, I
believe, your neighbouring town of Nottingham enjoys renown. There is
still some distinction between machine-made and hand-made lace. I will
suppose that distinction so far done away with, that, a pattern once
invented, you can spin lace as fast as you now do thread. Everybody then
might wear, not only lace collars, but lace gowns. Do you think they
would be more comfortable in them than they are now in plain stuff--or
that, when everybody could wear them, anybody would be proud of wearing
them? A spider may perhaps be rationally proud of his own cobweb, even
though all the fields in the morning are covered with the like, for he
made it himself--but suppose a machine spun it for him?

Suppose all the gossamer were Nottingham-made, would a sensible spider
be either prouder, or happier, think you?

A sensible spider! You cannot perhaps imagine such a creature. Yet
surely a spider is clever enough for his own ends?

You think him an insensible spider, only because he cannot understand
yours--and is apt to impede yours. Well, be assured of this, sense in
human creatures is shown also, not by cleverness in promoting their own
ends and interests, but by quickness in understanding other people's
ends and interests, and by putting our own work and keeping our own
wishes in harmony with theirs.

171. But I return to my point, of cheapness. You don't think that it
would be convenient, or even creditable, for women to wash the doorsteps
or dish the dinners in lace gowns? Nay, even for the most ladylike
occupations--reading, or writing, or playing with her children--do you
think a lace gown, or even a lace collar, so great an advantage or
dignity to a woman? If you think of it, you will find the whole value of
lace, as a possession, depends on the fact of its having a beauty which
has been the reward o