weary the nervous system by the excessive attention which they of necessity require. Thus, in order to spin the finest thread on a spinning wheel there must be great accuracy, both in the velocity of the wheel and in the muscular power exerted in drawing out the thread. This requires an effort of attention which the human system cannot long maintain, and of course, the thread will frequently be uneven. But by means of machinery both of these operations may be adjusted with mathematical accuracy; and as machines have no nerves, they will be perfectly faithful to that adjustment. Hence machinery is necessarily used in the manufacture of such articles as require for their formation identity of result, such as screws, types, etc. Nevertheless it is a singular fact that no fabrics have yet been produced by machinery equal to the Belgian lace or the India shawls wrought by hand. Careful training and hereditary knack, cultivated through many generations, enable human nerves and muscles to bring forth the most delicate and perfect products of labor and skill, though at an immense expenditure of labor. 5. By means of machinery, we are enabled to accumulate power. We thus exchange a continuous and small force for a sudden and violent one. Such is the case with the pile-driver, and the common beetle or mallet, when used in combination with the wedge.

6. By the same means we are enabled to exchange a short and irregular effort for a continuous and regular movement, or to spread the action of a short, over a long period of time. This is done in clocks, watches, and other similar machinery. Here we spread the action of a minute over a day, or a week, and with almost mathematical accuracy.

In consequence of the above mentioned application of machinery, various other advantages are realized in production. For instance; there is frequently a great saving of material, as in the change from making boards with the adze, to that of making them with the saw; and again the labor of natural agents is so much cheaper, that many arti

cles, which would otherwise have been worthless, are now deserving of attention, as they may now be profitably endowed with some form of value.

We append to these remarks upon the use of natural agents an extract very graphically describing the power of the steam engine, which has commonly been ascribed to Lord Jeffrey, of Edinburgh:

"It (the steam engine) has become a thing, stupendous alike for its force and its flexibility; for the prodigious power which it can exert; and the ease, precision, and ductility with which it can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an ele-· phant, that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it; draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as a gossamer; and lift up a ship of war, like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin, and forge anchors; cut steel into ribbons, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.

"It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which these inventions have conferred upon the country. There is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them, and in all the most material, they have not cuiy widened most magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied, a thousand fold, the amount of its productions. It is our improved steam engine, that has fought the battles of Europe, and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same great power, which enables us to pay our national debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged, with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation.

"But these are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has increased, indefinitely, the mass of human comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible, all over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned ; completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanical power, which are to aid and reward the iabors of after generations."

CHAPTER VI.

DIVISION OF LABOR.

THE effectiveness of labor is increased by systematizing its operations. The principle is that different kinds of labor be distributed to different classes and individuals, so that each shall do that for which he is best fitted.

The principle comes out of that order of nature which has given to certain regions of the earth peculiar adaptations for certain productions and to certain individuals peculiar endowments for certain kinds of work; and also from providential circumstances which have directed the efforts of different nations and classes and individuals, to specific forms of production.

It is illustrated on a broad scale, in the different industries of different nations, adapted to their respective advantages. It thus gives rise to the wide commerce of the world. It is illustrated also in all civilized communities, in the distribution of the various forms of service, trades and professions to different people, according to their several capacities, tastes and circumstances. It thus gives rise to the multifarious exchange of values in detail, which passes objects of desire from producers to consumers, and constitutes so large a part of the business of every civilized community. It is manifest that the results of productive labor are both increased and improved when the farmer and the baker, the blacksmith and the jeweler, the weaver and the tailor, the merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, etc.,

each devotes his energies to the work of his particular calling.

Some application of the principle is essential to the organization of civilized society; and civilization advances as this principle is carried out in minute details. The ramifications of the principle are many and exceedingly intricute. For illustration, we may start with the loaf of bread on our table and trace out the various forms of labor directly or indirectly concerned in bringing it before us, fit for food. The loaf came to us from the baker, who received his flour from the miller, who in turn received his grain from the farmer. This line of connection is simple and direct. But if we step into the bakery, we see at once that many other forms of labor are involved in this product. The mason and the brick-maker and the limeburner have all done something to build the oven; the services of the carpenter, the blacksmith and the tinner, were necessary to form the few simple tools required; another line of laborers were employed to cut or dig, to transport and to prepare the fuel; others still were concerned in producing the salt, the yeast and the soda mixed with the chief ingredient; and the tools and materials of each of these branches of labor required many other kinds of labor. We pass to the mill whence the flour came, and here we have to recognize besides the miller and his immediate helpers, the various laborers who improved the water-power, built the mill, prepared the mill-stones, contrived and framed the machinery, consisting of many parts, cach involving diverse labor and skill, and those who made the barrels, and packed and transported the flour; and in addition to these, are the many a little further off who furnished the instruments and materials for their varied work. We pass on to the farmer who raised the wheat, and with him pass before us all concerned in the culture and harvesting of his crop, all who had to do with clearing,

fencing and draining the fields, and all employed in the manufacture of his divers tools. Then, back of all these, was the seed-wheat and the complication of labor involved in its production; and in each line of industry noticed, the ramifications run back indefinitely to the labor of many groups and successive generations of men. Who can reckon up all the different persons and forms of labor represented thus in the bread just ready to be eaten?

Contrast with this complicated division of civilized industry, the rude efforts of the savage who combines in one person all kinds of labor. The Indian squaw makes her own hoe, scratches the ground, plants her corn, tends it, gathers it, pounds it into hominy, brings in her own fuel, wets up her cake and bakes it in the ashes. The cost of this imperfect product, reckoned in hours of toil spent upon it by the single laborer, is more than a hundred fold greater than that involved in producing the better article, which represents an infinitesimal quota of labor expended by each of a hundred or more persons contributing to the common result.

From this broad, general view, it is evident that this principle of Division of Labor must enter into every department of Political Economy. Indeed, the whole science grows out of the manifold bearings of this principle in the structure and functions of civilized society.

But as it relates to the department of Production, the principle is presented in a narrower and more specific view. Here the expression Division of Labor has a technical meaning, respecting the production of one or another particular product. Suppose an establishment for the manufacture of an article, watches for instance, is projected. The largest and best results with the least expenditure of labor are desired. Obviously it will greatly economize labor to give to each man or set of men one part of the watch to