 of man's life being rendered miserable as
well as enslaved. Slaves are tolerably happy if they have good masters, and the
revolution will not occur in our time, nor hardly in ten thousand years, or ten
times that. Is it wise to be uneasy about a contingency which is so remote? Man
is not a sentimental animal where his material interests are concerned, and
though here and there some ardent soul may look upon himself and curse his fate
that he was not born a vapour-engine, yet the mass of mankind will acquiesce in
any arrangement which gives them better food and clothing at a cheaper rate, and
will refrain from yielding to unreasonable jealousy merely because there are
other destinies more glorious than their own.
    The power of custom is enormous, and so gradual will be the change, that
man's sense of what is due to himself will be at no time rudely shocked; our
bondage will steal upon us noiselessly and by imperceptible approaches; nor will
there ever be such a clashing of desires between man and the machines as will
lead to an encounter between them. Among themselves the machines will war
eternally, but they will still require man as the being through whose agency the
struggle will be principally conducted. In point of fact there is no occasion
for anxiety about the future happiness of man so long as he continues to be in
any way profitable to the machines; he may become the inferior race, but he will
be infinitely better off than he is now. Is it not then both absurd and
unreasonable to be envious of our benefactors? And should we not be guilty of
consummate folly if we were to reject advantages which we cannot obtain
otherwise, merely because they involve a greater gain to others than to
ourselves?
    With those who can argue in this way I have nothing in common. I shrink with
as much horror from believing that my race can ever be superseded or surpassed,
as I should do from believing that even at the remotest period my ancestors were
other than human beings. Could I believe that ten hundred thousand years ago a
single one of my ancestors was another kind of being to myself, I should lose
all self-respect, and take no further pleasure or interest in life. I have the
same feeling with regard to my descendants, and believe it to be one that will
be felt so generally that the country will resolve upon putting an immediate
stop to all further mechanical progress, and upon destroying all improvements
that have been made for the last three hundred years. I would not urge more than
this. We may trust ourselves to deal with those
