A real cause of regret is that the invention of machinery has not yet advanced far enough. This is an evil which is sure to be remedied as time passes on; and perhaps the advance has been as rapid as has been consistent with the safety of society. But as long as there are purely mechanical employments which shorten life and stunt the intellect, we may be sure that man has not risen to his due rank in the scale of occupation, and that he is doing the work of brute matter. As long as the sharpener of needles bends coughing over his work, and young children grow puny amidst the heated atmosphere of spinning factories, and the life of any human being is passed in deep places where God’s sunshine never reaches, and others grope with the hands after one servile task in a state of mental darkness, we may be sure that we have not discovered all the means and applied all the powers which are placed within our reach. It is necessary that steel should be ground; but the day will come when it shall be a marvel that men died to furnish society with sharp needles. It is necessary that cotton threads should be tied as they break; but it cannot for ever be that life should be made a long disease, and the spirit be permitted to lie down in darkness in the grave for such a purpose as this. If society understood its true interest, all its members would unite to hasten the time when there shall be no unskilled labour appointed to human hands. It is far nobler to superintend an engine than to be an engine; and when all experience proves that a hundred such superintendents are wanted in the place of one of the ancient human instruments, it appears truly wonderful that men should resist a progression which at once increases the comforts of multitudes, ensures the future prosperity of multitudes more, and enhances the dignity of man by making him the master of physical forces instead of the slave of his fellow man. Next to providing for the increase of Capital by direct saving, and by economy of the labour which is the source of capital, it is important to economize capital in its application. One principle of this economy,—that capital is most productive when applied in large quantities to large objects,—is illustrated by the comparative results of large and small farming. ------- PRODUCTION being the great end in the employment of labour and capital, that application of both which secures the largest production is the best. Large capitals, well managed, produce in a larger proportion than small. In its application to land, for instance, a large capital employs new powers of production,—as in the cultivation of wastes; – – – enables its owner to wait for ample but distant returns,—as in planting; – – – facilitates the division of labour; – – – – – the succession of crops, or division of time; – – – – – reproduction, by economizing the investment of fixed capital; – – – – – the economy of convertible husbandry;