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with as much horror from believing that my race can ever be superseded or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.
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