and
in its products, the wheels and rails and locomotives, is a standing
proof of the development which goes on in the mind of man when
brought constantly to bear upon one subject. As with the development
of species, so it is with that of machinery: rude and more general
forms first, finer and more specialized forms afterwards. There is
every reason to hope, for this factory is a proof of the advance
that has been made. It would seem that the capability of metal is
practically infinite.

But what an enormous amount of labour, what skill, and what
complicated machinery must be first employed before what is in
itself a very small result can be arrived at! In order that an
individual may travel from London to Oxford, see what innumerable
conditions have to be fulfilled. Three thousand men have to work
night and day that we may merely seat ourselves and remain passive
till our destination is reached.

This small nation of workers, this army of the hammer, lathe, and
drill, affords matter for deep meditation in its sociological
aspect. Though so numerous that no one of them can be personally
acquainted with more than a fractional part, yet there is a strong
_esprit de corps_, a spirit that ascends to the highest among them;
for it is well known that the chief manager has a genuine feeling of
almost fatherly affection for these his men, and will on no account
let them suffer, and will, if possible, obtain for them every
advantage. The influence he thereby acquires among them is
principally used for moral and religious ends. Under these auspices
have arisen the great chapels and places of worship of which the
town is full. Of the men themselves, the majority are intelligent,
contrasting strongly with the agricultural poor around them, and not
a few are well educated and thoughtful. This gleaning of
intellectual men are full of social life, or, rather, of an interest
in the problems of social existence. They eagerly discuss the claims
of religion _versus_ the allegations of secularism; they are shrewd
to detect the weak points of an argument; they lean, in fact,
towards an eclecticism: they select the most rational part of every
theory. They are full of information on every subject--information
obtained not only from newspapers, books, conversation, and
lectures, but from travel, for most have at least been over the
greater part of England. They are probably higher in their
intellectual life than a large proportion of the s