not
prevent their doing in the end good service if they persevere. And,
meanwhile, the mode of action they have to pursue, and the sort of
habits they must fight against, ought to be made quite clear for every
one to see, who may be willing to look at the matter attentively and
dispassionately.

Faith in machinery is, I said, our besetting danger; often in machinery
most absurdly disproportioned to the end which this machinery, if it is
to do any good at all, is to serve; but always in machinery, as if it
had a value in and for itself. What is freedom but machinery? what is
population but machinery? what is coal but machinery? what are railroads
but machinery? what is wealth but machinery? what are, even, religious
organizations but machinery? Now almost every voice in England is
accustomed to speak of these things as if they were precious ends in
themselves, and therefore had some of the characters of perfection
indisputably joined to them. I have before now noticed Mr.
Roebuck's[397] stock argument for proving the greatness and happiness of
England as she is, and for quite stopping the mouths of all gainsayers.
Mr. Roebuck is never weary of reiterating this argument of his, so I do
not know why I should be weary of noticing it. "May not every man in
England say what he likes?"--Mr. Roebuck perpetually asks: and that, he
thinks, is quite sufficient, and when every man may say what he likes,
our aspirations ought to be satisfied. But the aspirations of culture,
which is the study of perfection, are not satisfied, unless what men
say, when they may say what they like, is worth saying,--has good in
it, and more good than bad. In the same way the _Times_, replying to
some foreign strictures on the dress, looks, and behavior of the English
abroad, urges that the English ideal is that every one should be free to
do and to look just as he likes. But culture indefatigably tries, not to
make what each raw person may like, the rule by which he fashions
himself; but to draw ever nearer to a sense of what is indeed beautiful,
graceful, and becoming, and to get the raw person to like that.

And in the same way with respect to railroads and coal. Every one must
have observed the strange language current during the late discussions
as to the possible failure of our supplies of coal. Our coal, thousands
of people were saying, is the real basis of our national greatness; if
our coal runs short, there is an end of the greatness of Engl