The handle of
the spade is like the knob at the end of the humerus; the shaft is the
additional bone, and the oblong iron plate is the new form of the hand
which enables its possessor to disturb the earth in a way to which his
original hand was unequal. Having thus modified himself, not as other
animals are modified, by circumstances over which they have had not even
the appearance of control, but having, as it were, taken forethought and
added a cubit to his stature, civilisation began to dawn upon the race,
the social good offices, the genial companionship of friends, the art of
unreason, and all those habits of mind which most elevate man above the
lower animals, in the course of time ensued.
"Thus civilisation and mechanical progress advanced hand in hand, each
developing and being developed by the other, the earliest accidental use
of the stick having set the ball rolling, and the prospect of advantage
keeping it in motion. In fact, machines are to be regarded as the mode
of development by which human organism is now especially advancing, every
past invention being an addition to the resources of the human body. Even
community of limbs is thus rendered possible to those who have so much
community of soul as to own money enough to pay a railway fare; for a
train is only a seven-leagued foot that five hundred may own at once.
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