Man may be defined as the only animal that can strike a light, -the solitary creature that knows how to kindle a fire. This is a very fragmentary definition of the "Paragon⑦ ofanimals," but it is enough to make him the conqueror of all the rest. The most degraded savage has discovered how to rub two sticks together, or whirl the point of one in a socket in the other till the wood is kindled. And civilized man, as much as his savage brother, is a fire-worshipper in his practical doings. The great conquering peoples of the world have been those who knew best how to deal with fire. The most wealthy of the active nations are those which dwell in countries richly provided with fuel. No inventions have changed the entire world more than steam and gunpowder. We are what we are, largely because we are the ministers and masters of Fire.
Clothe-less creatures by birth, we are also tool-less ones. Every other animal is by nature fully equipped and caparisoned for its work; its tools are ready for use, and it is ready to use them. We have first to invent our tools, then to fashion them, and then to learn how to handle them. Two-thirds at least ofour industrial doings are thus preliminary. Before two rags can be sewed together, we require a needle, which embodies the inventiveness of a hundred ingenious brains; and a hand, which only a hundred botchings and failures have, in the lapse of years, taught to use the instrument with skill.
It is so with all the crafts, and they are inseparably dependent one on another. The mason waits on the carpenter for his mallet, and the carpenter on the smith for his saw; the smith on the smelter for his iron, and the smelter on the miner for his ore. Each, moreover, needs the help of all the others; -the carpenter the smith, as much as the smith the carpenter; and both the mason, as much as the mason both. This helplessness of the single craftsman is altogether peculiar⑧to the human artist. The lower animals are all poly artists,amongst whom there are no degrees of skill; and they have never heard of such a doctrine as that of the division of labour.
The industrialness, then, of man, is carried out in a way quite peculiar to himself, and singularly illustrative of his combined weakness and greatness. The most helpless, physically, of animals, and yet the one with the greatest number of pressing appetites and desires, he has no working instincts (at least after infancy) to secure the gratification of his most pressing wants, and no tools which such instincts can work by. He is compelled, therefore, to fall back upon the powers of his reason and understanding, and make his intellect serve him instead of a crowd of instinctive impulses, and his intellect-guided hand instead of an apparatus of tools. Beforethat hand, armed with the tools which it has fashioned, andthat intellect, which marks man as made in the image of God, the instincts and weapons of the entire animal creation are as nothing. He reigns, by right of conquest, as indisputably as by right of inheritance, the king of this world.
- GEORGE WILSON
WORDS
apparatus, collection. caparisoned, harnessed. catalogue, list. constructing, fashioning. craftsman, skilled worker. defined described. despotic, tyrannical. execute, perform. fragmentary, imperfect. gracefully, elegantly. gratification, indulgence. illustrative, expository.
indisputably, unquestionably.
industrial, manufacturing.
infallible, incapable of error. inheritance, descent. inseparably, indissolubly. inventiveness, ingenuity. organization, animal life. preliminary, preparatory. provided, supplied. remedying, correcting. sustains, supports. tabernacle, dwelling-place. temperate, mild. transmutation, alteration. unfaltering, unhesitating. volition, exercise of will.
NOTES
① Arch-architect.-An example of how a word loses its primary meaning in composition. Architect means, literally, chief-builder; but as its secondary meaning is merely designer of buildings, in order to convey the idea of pre?minence the prefix requires to be repeated; so arch-architect means chief designer, or originator.
② Where English ships of oak.-For example, the ships of Sir John Franklin"s expeditionlost in the north polar seas.
③ Grecian columns.-The three great orders of Grecian architecture are the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. The columns in the three orders are readily distinguishable by the ornaments peculiar to their capitals; but they differ essentially in their proportions.
④ Corinthian acanthus capitals.-The capital of the Corinthian column is highly ornamented, usually with leaves of the acanthus, or herb bear"s-foot.
⑤ Gothic pillars.-The Gothic style of architecture became prevalent in the twelfth century; but its rise dates from the ninth. Its great peculiarity is the pointed arch, whence it is sometimes called the pointed style.
⑥ Petrified plants.-The expression is not to be taken in its literal sense, of plants converted into stone, as in the case of fossils. It means simply plants carved in the stone pillars.
⑦ Paragon, a model or pattern, implying superiority or excellence. The quotation is fromHamlet , Act ii, Scene 2.
⑧ Polyartists, performers of many kinds, or parts of work, at the same time. Thus the same bee markets, makes bee-bread, honey and wax, builds store-houses, &c.
QUESTIONS
What is the great difference between man and the lower animals, as Industrial workers? Of what two deficiencies are man"s industrial arts the result? What arts result from his unclothedness? What is it, more than the arts themselves, that makes man peculiar as an industrial animal? How, in this respect, may man be defined? Show how two-thirds of all our industrial doings are preliminary. Show how the crafts are thus inseparably dependent on one another. How does man"s industrial-ness illustrate his combined weakness and greatness?
