power of wind, water, and electricity; and (c) artificially produced
mechanical power; it is the first principle of economy to use all
available vital power first, then the inexpensive natural forces, and
only at last have recourse to artificial power. And this because it is
always better for a man to work with his own hands to feed and clothe
himself, than to stand idle while a machine works for him; and if he
cannot by all the labor healthily possible to him feed and clothe
himself, then it is better to use an inexpensive machine--as a windmill
or watermill--than a costly one like a steam-engine, so long as we have
natural force enough at our disposal. Whereas at present we continually
hear economists regret that the water-power of the cascades or streams of
a country should be lost, but hardly ever that the muscular power of its
idle inhabitants should be lost; and, again, we see vast districts, as
the south of Provence, where a strong wind* blows steadily all day long
for six days out of seven throughout the year, without a windmill, while
men are continually employed at a hundred miles to the north, in digging
fuel to obtain artificial power. But the principal point of all to be
kept in view is, that in every idle arm and shoulder throughout the
country there is a certain quantity of force, equivalent to the force of
so much fuel; and that it is mere insane waste to dig for coal for our
force, while the vital force is unused, and not only unused, but in being
so, corrupting and polluting itself. We waste our coal, and spoil our
humanity at one and the same instant. Therefore, wherever there is an
idle arm, always save coal with it, and the stores of England will last
all the longer. And precisely the same argument answers the common one
about "taking employment out of the hands of the industrious laborer."
Why, what is "employment" but the putting out of vital force instead of
mechanical force? We are continually in search of means to pull, to
hammer, to fetch, to carry. We waste our future resources to get this
strength, while we leave all the living fuel to burn itself out in mere