Industry puts an entirely new face upon the productions of nature. By labour man has subjugated the world, reduced it to his dominion, and clothed the earth with a new garment. The first rude plough that man thrust into the soil, the first rude axe of stone with which he felled the pine, the first rude canoe scooped by him from its trunk to cross the river and reach the greener fields beyond, were each the outcome of a human faculty which brought within his reach some physical comfort he had never enjoyed before. Material things became subject to the influence of labour. From the clay of the ground, man manufactured the vessels which were to contain his food. Out of the fleecy covering of sheep, he made clothes for himself of many kinds; from the flax plant he drew its fibres, and made linen and cambric; from the hemp plant he made ropes and fishing nets; from the cotton pod he fabricated fustians, dimities, and calicoes. From the rags of these, or from weed and the shavings of wood, he made paper on which books and newspapers were printed. Lead was formed by him into printer's type, for the communication of knowledge without end. But the most extraordinary changes of all were made in a heavy stone containing metal, dug out of the ground. With this, when smelted by wood or coal, and manipulated by experienced skill, iron was produced. From this extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society--arms, hammers, and axes were made; then knives, scissors, and needles; then machinery to hold and control the prodigious force of steam; and eventually railroads and locomotives, ironclads propelled by the screw, and iron and steel bridges miles in length.