{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_73186/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_73186","id":"gutenberg_73186","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73186","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Machinery","Progress"],"text":"HEPH\u00c6STUS\n\n\n\n\n                               HEPH\u00c6STUS\n\n                                  OR\n\n                        The Soul of the Machine\n\n                                  BY\n                         E. E. FOURNIER D\u2019ALBE\n                    _Author of \u201cQuo Vadimus,\u201d etc._\n\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n\n                               NEW YORK\n                        E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY\n                           681 FIFTH AVENUE\n\n\n\n\n                            Copyright, 1925\n                       By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY\n\n\n                         _All Rights Reserved_\n\n\n                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE\n\n\nThe purpose of this little book is to show that one, at least, of\nthe gods of Hellas has survived the flood which swept away the most\nentertaining company of gods and goddesses ever created by man\u2019s\nimagination. As I propose to set him in the august place vacated by the\ndeath of Zeus, a few biographical details may not be out of place.\n\nHeph\u00e6stus was the son of Hera (Juno), but not of Zeus (Jupiter). How\nhis mother put him into the world is not precisely known. Neither Zeus\nnor any other male god had anything to do with it. Yet it would be\ninappropriate in the case of such a confirmed matron as Hera to speak\nof parthenogenesis. Some extraordinary event had to take place before\nthe great home-goddess could be driven to spite her lord and master\nby producing a son without his co-operation. And such an event had\nindeed occurred, for Zeus had suddenly reverted to one of the oldest\nforms of propagation known to biology, _viz._, propagation by budding.\nA fully-armed young goddess, severe of countenance and lithe of limb,\nhad sprung forth from his head, thenceforth and for ever to lead and\ndominate the world of thought. It was up to Hera to match Pallas Athene\nby some equally important contribution to the evolution of gods, and\nso by some mysterious process, into which Greek historians did not care\nto pry, she produced Heph\u00e6stus, whom the Romans called Vulcan, now the\nonly surviving representative of that lively and enterprising clan\nwhich once ruled the world from the summit of Mount Olympus.\n\nLike many another product of inspiration, Heph\u00e6stus was at first\nregarded as a failure. He was undersized and weak-chested, and Hera\nhad to suffer much from the gibes of her peers and peeresses. So\none day she dropped him down the slope of the mountain and he fell\ninto the sea. He was picked up by two of those charming and motherly\nsea-goddesses which at that time abounded in sea-water, and was\nbrought up in a grotto under the ocean. In return for their kindnesses\nhe made them pretty ornaments of coral and mother-of-pearl.\n\nAt the age of ten, or thereabouts, he set out to find his mother. It\nwas some time before Hera recognized in the lame boy, with the spinal\ncurvature and the swarthy but pleasant face, the child she had so\nmercilessly cast off. But a spark of mother-instinct revived under the\nflame of the child\u2019s filial devotion, and they soon became lasting\nfriends and allies.\n\nHeph\u00e6stus, naturally, owed no allegiance to Zeus, and in the frequent\nmarital disputes between him and Hera he invariably took his mother\u2019s\npart, and so successfully that the redoubtable Father of the Gods\ntook him by his lame leg and flung him into space. He fell for a whole\nday[1] and eventually alighted, like a meteorite, on the island of\nLemnos, where he was worshipped as many a meteorite has been worshipped\nbefore and since. He put up with this for a while, but the blood of the\nOlympians asserted itself, and he painfully climbed home once more.\nThis time he succeeded in planting his unequal feet firmly on his\nnative rock, and he soon became a favourite among his divine relations.\nHe undertook the reconstruction of the Olympian dwellings, and for this\npurpose established a wonderful workshop with a huge anvil and twenty\nbellows, all of which would work at his mere behest. The workshop was\nmade of fire-proof materials, and shone \u201clike a star in the night.\u201d\n\n  [1] This must be a mistake, as it would put the summit of Olympus\n      somewhere beyond the orbit of the moon.\n\nHe solved the housing question by building a separate palace for\neach of the gods and goddesses, replete with all the comforts and\nrefinements of civilization. Nor did his amiability end there.\nSometimes, at their daily assemblies, he would give Ganymede a day off\nand would himself hand round the nectar, producing roars of laughter\nby the contrast between his hobbling gait and the deportment of the\ngraceful young cup-bearer.\n\nHe became so popular that at last he was able to marry Aphrodite\nherself, the goddess of Love and Beauty, whom the Romans called Venus,\nand who was born of the foam of the sea somewhere off Cyprus. But this\nunion of Beauty and the Beast was far from being a happy one. Venus was\nnot satisfied with a \u201clame mechanic\u201d as she called him, and hankered\nafter the dashing Ares, alias Mars, the god of war. Having been warned\nby Helios, the sun-god, of the progress of the intrigue\u2015\u2015after it had\nalready reached its climax\u2015\u2015Heph\u00e6stus lay in wait for the guilty pair\nwith an invisible net, and having caught them, dragged them before the\nother gods amid Homeric laughter produced by their struggles in the\ninvisible meshes. And when a daughter was born, whom they miscalled\nHarmonia, Heph\u00e6stus had his revenge by presenting her with a necklace\nwhich brought disaster to her and all its later possessors until it\nwas finally laid to rest in the temple of Athene.\n\nMeanwhile, the fame of his works spread far and wide. King Aetes\nof Colchis ordered the construction of two bronze bulls capable of\nbreathing fire through their nostrils, and when Achilles, the Greek\nchampion before Troy, decided to kill Hector and avenge his friend\nPatroclus, he went to Heph\u00e6stus with an introduction from Thetis, the\nsea-goddess, and prevailed upon him to make him a marvellous shield on\nwhich all heaven and earth were figured in bronze, and which was quite\nimpervious to mortal spear and battle-axe.\n\nAnd so he dwelt and worked on Olympus for three thousand years or so,\nestablishing branch works on Lipari and in Sicily which kept working\nat full blast until Paul of Tarsus came with his claim to have found\nthe Unknown God who was to establish a new Roman dominion to take the\nplace of the mighty Empire of the C\u00e6sars, and was incidentally to sweep\naway the gods of Rome and Greece alike and establish the worship of a\ntripartite God who never smiled.\n\nSo the light-hearted company of Mount Olympus died, all but Heph\u00e6stus,\nwho hobbled through many lands seeking a place where he might work and\nset his bellows blowing once more. For centuries he wandered, despised\nand jeered at by monks, hermits, and anchorites. But his courage never\nfailed him. It survived the desolation of the Olympian palaces as it\nhad survived his two falls from the summit.\n\nAnd now he has come back into his own, and his power is spreading like\na conflagration. The God of Fire is the supreme master of the earth.\nHis furnaces are roaring. He has dispelled the clouds of Asiatic\nmysticism which obscured his native mountain. He has girdled the world\nwith hoops of steel. He has found strength\n\n    \u201cTo break this sorry scheme of things entire,\n     And mould it nearer to the heart\u2019s desire.\u201d\n\nAnd his victorious progress is only beginning to take effect. How it\nhas come about, and what will be the eventual result of his domination\nof our planet, it is the purpose of what follows to elucidate.\n\n\n\n\n                               HEPH\u00c6STUS\n\n\n\n\n                                   I\n\n    Ethnologists believe that the metamorphosis from beast-like\n    savage to cultured civilian may be proximately explained as the\n    result of accumulated changes that found their initial impulses\n    in a half-a-dozen or so of practical inventions.\n\n\nAn Irish poet, disconsolately walking along Fleet Street one day,\nbethought himself of a small island in an Irish lake, where he could\nescape from the noise and bustle of the London streets. He wrote a\nlovely poem embodying that thought, a poem expressing the longing of\nevery sensitive soul to retire within itself for a time and reconstruct\nits world from within instead of having it impressed from without.\n\nNeedless to say, he did not content himself with planting nine\nbeans in a row, as he had longed to do in his fit of depression. On\nthe contrary. He became an Irish statesman and Senator. He dwelt\nin surroundings far removed from the Stone Age. The very chair on\nwhich he sat down to write owed its existence to many factories and\nmechanical processes. Its wood was derived from planks cut in the\nsaw mills. Its French polish, although put on by hand, was made of\nconstituents\u2015\u2015shellac, methylated spirit, whitening and what not\u2015\u2015drawn\nfrom many sources, each involving a number of ingenious inventions.\nThe coal which made his fire had been brought across the sea by a\nsteamer\u2015\u2015a miracle of complicated mechanism\u2015\u2015and the shovel with which\nhe put it on had been mined in Belgium, smelted in Germany, rolled in\nSheffield, and shaped and finished in Birmingham.\n\nNot that \u201cInishfree\u201d was but an idle dream. There are many such\nislands in Ireland, peopled by men and women and children, living in\none-roomed mud hovels on potatoes and stewed tea, infested with vermin\nand ravaged by tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, people who,\nif they cannot emigrate, suffer their fate with a stolid and pathetic\nresignation relieved by the hope of heavenly compensation hereafter.\n\nSuch is Inishfree, stripped of its glamour and shown in its naked\nreality.\n\nSavagery does not mean simplicity but complexity, not peace but\nconstant dread, not health but hopeless disease and premature death.\nThe South American Indian suffers acutely from constipation, which is\nabout the last disease we should expect him to suffer from. The negro\nin his native Africa is often horribly deformed through neglect at\nbirth, neglected injuries, or the ravages of insect pests.\n\nIt has taken mankind ten thousand years to emerge from savagery into\nbarbarism, and from barbarism into civilization. Nor is the process\nyet completed. The mass of mankind is still grossly ignorant. But the\nleaven of knowledge is steadily working and pervading the mass, and the\nrate of progress is constantly rising.\n\nLet us trace this wonderful process of civilization to its origins and\nprobe its essential nature.\n\nStarting somewhere in the tropics as a diminutive \u201csport\u201d allied to\nthe arboreal ape, man learned to use tools and weapons. This was the\nfirst step taken towards the conquest of the animal world, his natural\nenemies.\n\nWe do not know how many ages elapsed before the rough stone hammer\nevolved into the axe of polished flint. In any case, the rough stone,\neven if only used for throwing at his enemy or killing his prey, was an\nessentially new departure in evolution, and sounded the keynote to all\nthat followed down to our own times.\n\nTools and weapons had been evolved by other animals, but they were\nalways organically connected with their bodies. The tiger\u2019s claws and\nteeth, the tusks of the elephant and the wild boar, the beak of the\neagle were all formidable weapons and useful tools, but they could\nneither be detached, nor replaced, nor exchanged for other tools more\nsuitable to the occasion. Those \u201cnatural\u201d tools and weapons had all\nbeen produced by \u201cevolution,\u201d in other words, by a mysterious agency\nwhich some call God, some Adaptation, and some the Urge of Life.\n\nWho was that audacious man who first took upon himself the divine\nprivilege of making tools and weapons for himself, instead of waiting\nfor \u201cnature\u201d to provide them for him?\n\nPerhaps he was a puny boy, lame from birth and unable to escape from\nthe boar who was pursuing him. In the extremity of his terror he took\nup a heavy stone from the ground and flung it at the boar with all his\nmight. The boar, we may well imagine, was dazed and probably terrified\nby this unusual method of defence, and slunk away from his feeble but\nresourceful antagonist. The story of that deliverance may, for all we\nknow, have been sung for many generations in the tribe, and who knows\nbut that the boy grew up into a great red-haired man, as great an adept\nat stone-throwing as the street-urchins in Belfast, and formed the\nprototype of the God Thor, whose hammer, when thrown, returned to his\nhand of its own accord.\n\nBut the essential step was taken. The lad had no teeth or claws which\ncould match the solid tusks wielded by his mighty antagonist. So he\n\u201cinvented\u201d a new weapon. He did not grow it in his own organism, as\nthe squid grows its ink, to be used on one occasion and then gradually\nrenewed. He took a piece of the outside world and made it temporarily\na part of his person, a part which could be detached and resumed at a\nmoment\u2019s notice, a temporary attachment or extension of his body which\nrequired no blood-vessels to keep it in repair and which, if broken or\ninjured, would inflict no pain upon himself.\n\nThis great innovation may have been aided by some analogies in the\nanimal world. A bird had to collect twigs and leaves in order to build\na nest, and had thus to put a portion of the \u201coutside world\u201d to its own\nuses. Besides, the very process of eating involved the apprehension of\noutside objects, an apprehension which, in the case of the lowest form\nof animal life, is to this day accomplished by pouring its jelly-like\nbody round the object to be consumed.\n\nBut the next invention, the discovery of the use of fire, was a\ndeparture without a parallel to anything in the kingdoms of Nature.\nIt placed mankind by a single act in a position of god-like authority\nover the living world. It is not surprising that the discovery of fire\nis surrounded by countless legends. In Greek mythology the first use\nof fire is attributed to Prometheus, the Fore-Thinker, the man who\nthinks ahead. He stole it from the heavens, and was punished by Zeus\nwith terrible torment for having dared to endow mankind with a divine\nprivilege.\n\nHow great the privilege was we cannot even yet realize. For the uses\nof fire are by no means exhausted, and are multiplying from day to\nday. But the essential element of the change was that something came\ninto the hands of man which did not exist in \u201cNature\u201d at all, not, at\nleast, in a manner ordinarily accessible to organic being. It was quite\n\u201cunnatural\u201d to use fire. Fire represented a state in which no organism\ncould survive, in which all its functions were ruthlessly stopped, and\nits living tissues destroyed. No animal except man has ever attained to\nthe use of fire. Its use represents the transcendence of man from the\nordinary scheme of Nature and his ascent into a sort of supernatural,\nor at least super-organic realm.\n\nFrom this step there has been no retreat, and there can be no retreat\nuntil the sun itself grows cold. Whatever our \u201cback-to-Nature\u201d cranks\nmay say, mankind cannot repudiate and renounce its most precious\nacquisition and all that it involves in the present and the future. We\nmay dislike the smoke of blast-furnaces, but the remedy is not to do\naway with them, but to stop their smoking. The bellows of Heph\u00e6stus\nare blowing and his fires are burning. The age of machinery, begun in\nfar-off Pal\u00e6olithic days, but only established within the last hundred\nyears or so, has now gripped us in a scheme from which none may escape.\n\nTaken in its narrower sense, the word \u201cmachine\u201d means a contrivance\nfor increasing the force we can bring to bear upon objects until it\nexceeds the limits imposed upon the tension of our muscles. As most of\nthe 400 voluntary muscles of the human body are attached to the bones\nin a manner which diminishes the force exerted below the actual tension\nof the muscles, the adoption of machinery constitutes a reversal of the\n\u201cnatural\u201d use of the system of levers which we call our skeleton. The\nLever, the Inclined Plane, the Wedge, the Pulley, the Wheel and Axle,\nand the Screw, are all contrivances for slowing down the rate of work\nuntil the force required to perform it comes within the compass of\nour muscles. Our bones, on the other hand, are mostly levers \u201cof the\nthird order,\u201d in which the force is applied between the fulcrum and the\nobject to be moved. Thus it happens that in order to lift a weight of\none pound, our muscles are strained by a force which may amount to as\nmuch as six pounds.\n\nWe are hardly justified in ascribing this uneconomic arrangement to the\n\u201cstupidity\u201d of Nature. Any other arrangement, such as the use of levers\nof the \u201csecond order,\u201d would have involved a much bulkier and clumsier\nbuild of the muscular system. Nor can we conceive of the adoption by\nman of the Six Machines as a deliberate imitation of Nature, or an\nimprovement upon observed natural processes.\n\nThe Six Machines are obviously the crude results of long-continued\nexperience, and it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century\nthat their real significance in the system of mechanics was recognized.\n\nThe real importance of these contrivances lies in the fact that they\nincrease the power of the human body without any further evolution of\nthe human organism. The adoption of mechanism was a turning point in\nevolution, and an event the significance of which can only be classed\nwith such far-reaching innovations as the birth of life itself or that\nadoption of locomotion as an aid to nutrition which gave rise to the\nanimal kingdom.\n\nThe most widely useful of the Six Machines was undoubtedly the Wedge.\nIts use was usually accompanied by that of the projected stone. The\nlatter, after being swung by muscular force, was a reservoir of\nenergy, which is the power of performing work. If brought to rest\nwithin a shorter distance than the curve of the swing, it required a\ncorrespondingly greater force to stop it. And that force could be still\nfurther increased by applying it to the end of a wedge whose sides\nbore upon the object to be split. The combination of mass and wedge is\nrepresented by the spear, the arrow, and the sword, while the hammer\nand the club acted as crushers rather than cutters.\n\nObserve, then, this puny but formidable creature emerging from his\ntropical forest. In his hand he carried the means of annihilating that\ncontinuity of the organism which is essential to its existence. He was\nable to drive a powerful and irresistible wedge into the body of his\nantagonist and thus end the co-ordination of its natural functions. It\nwas thus that, later in history, the Macedonian phalanx split up the\narmies of the Persian kings. By a different but essentially similar\nprocess the 15-inch naval gun drives a wedge clean through the armour\nof its opponent, in the shape of a shell which does not explode until\nit is right inside the enemy ship.\n\nMan\u2019s war of conquest against the animal world had begun. He brought to\nthem a death more sudden than had existed up to his time. For he had\nthe power of driving his wedge into the most vulnerable and essential\npart of his enemy\u2019s body. A clean cut inflicted at the appropriate\npoint would mean his final end. Man was not long in discovering\nhis enemy\u2019s weaknesses. And when his enemy was a human one, he made\nassurance complete by bringing home his head.[2]\n\n  [2] It is curious in this connection that among the legends of\n      the Saints there is no record of a decapitated person being\n      brought back to life. The angels or departed saints who came\n      to heal the torn breasts of martyred Christian virgins were\n      unable to put heads back on bleeding trunks, even though the\n      tongues in some of those heads were empowered to testify for\n      some time after they would, in the ordinary course of things,\n      have become silent for ever.\n\nIf we examine the connection between man and his weapon we find that\nthe latter differs from an eagle\u2019s beak or a tiger\u2019s claw in but one\nessential point: it is no longer an integral part of the organism. It\ncan be detached at will, and replaced by another weapon. Its separation\nor destruction does not imply an injury to the organism. Man is not\nput out of action by losing his weapon. He is only reduced to his\noriginal position with respect to his antagonist. And even that is no\nirreparable loss so long as he has other weapons at his command. Thus\nthe same step which vastly increased his offensive power also made him\ncomparatively immune to attack.\n\nNow, a weapon in a man\u2019s hand, so long as it is in active use as a\nweapon, is a part of the man himself. It is true that he can lose it\nwithout perishing himself, but he can also lose an arm or a leg and\nstill survive. The mere fact that the man\u2019s blood circulates in his\nnatural leg and not in a wooden leg he may substitute for it makes\nno essential difference. He may kick with either. And we know that\na man\u2019s leg, like all the cells of his body, is largely compound\nof inert matter such as food products and waste products, besides\nbeing nine-tenths water\u2015\u2015an inorganic substance. A wooden leg, or any\nweapon which a man may use, may therefore be regarded as a limb of the\nman\u2019s body, so long, that is, as it is in active use. And if a \u201csoul\u201d\nanimates that man\u2019s body and drives it to perform deeds of valour, the\nsame soul will animate his weapon. The soul of the weapon is the soul\nof the man who uses it.\n\nThere is an increasing tendency in modern thought to abolish the\ndistinction between soul and body and to regard them as one and\nindivisible. Adopting that view, we may assert that the use of a weapon\nmeans the enlargement of a man\u2019s body and the simultaneous expansion\nof his soul. Every weapon, every tool, every machine is the embodiment\nof a human thought and purpose. The user adopts that thought and\npurpose, and behold\u2015\u2015the machine has found its soul!\n\n\n\n\n                                  II\n\n                Man is an animal who laughs and cooks.\n\n\nWhen Prometheus had caught some sparks from the chariot of the sun and\nbrought them safely to earth, hidden in a tube, there was consternation\non Mount Olympus. The Conservative Government of that privileged\nstronghold trembled for its celestial prerogatives. It was all very\nwell, they said, for Heph\u00e6stus to blow his bellows in his workshop and\nproduce beautiful things for Olympians, so long as he did it under\nproper supervision. But fire, once brought to earth, would set the\nwhole world ablaze and consume them in their palaces.\n\nHeph\u00e6stus himself was not perturbed. Remembering the kindness he\nmet with on Lemnos after his brutal expulsion from the company of\nthe gods, he secretly sympathized with Prometheus and his race, and\nplanned a closer co-operation with mankind. His Sicilian workshops\nsaw him oftener than before, hobbling about among his furnaces and\nexperimenting with every kind of ore and ingot. Wherever he went,\nwhether among gods or men, his kindness and his merry humour made him a\ngeneral favourite.\n\nAlthough he often made weapons, he much preferred to make tools and\nornaments. Among the Olympians, his strangely begotten \u201csister\u201d Athene\nwas his closest ally. Like him, she favoured the arts of peace rather\nthan those of war, and despised the noisy and swashbuckling Ares.\nWhen Athene went to take up her abode in her Parthenon at Athens, he\nforsook Olympus and removed his furnaces to Lipari, off the Sicilian\ncoast. And it was in Sicily, some centuries later, that his great\ndisciple Archimedes was born, the man who was fitted and destined to\nestablish the reign of Heph\u00e6stus in spite of the strenuous opposition\nof the Roman republic and its subsequent imperial and ecclesiastical\nsuccessors.\n\nWhen man was endowed with fire he received the gift without knowing\nwhence it came or what it meant. Greek mythology, with its deep\ninsight into unseen things, presents us Helios, the sun-god, as a\nfriend of Heph\u00e6stus, the god of fire. We moderns express the same truth\ndifferently. We say that all fire on earth is ultimately derived from\nthe sun. Archimedes kindled fires\u2015\u2015preferably in Roman ships\u2015\u2015by means\nof concave mirrors which condensed the heat of the sun to a focus. The\nfuel for the fires was also provided by the heat of the sun, absorbed\nby the chlorophyll of the leaves in the forest and used to build up\ncombustible wood and other products. The firing of the wood reversed\nthe process of accumulation of solar energy and provided light and heat\nby day and by night, independently of the sun, the original giver.\nFor a hundred million years already had the sun shone on a habitable\nearth, pouring out its light and heat and nourishing the luxuriant\nvegetation which covered most of the globe. For untold ages had the\nplants stored up the sunlight for some unknown end. That end became\nmanifest when Prometheus kindled the first fire and made a new realm\naccessible to man. Till then, mankind had undergone the annual and\ndaily vicissitudes of heat and cold due to the days and the seasons,\nbut he had not controlled them. When he acquired the mastery of fire,\nhe was enabled to wander north and south and take with him in his\nbrazier the accustomed heat of the tropics.\n\nBut there was more to come. The invention of pottery\u2015\u2015another great\nepoch\u2015\u2015enabled him to create a solar furnace on a small scale. It\nenabled him to create a miniature world where the heat was much greater\nthan in his own world. He soon found that plants and animals, passed\nthrough this new world, became richer and more palatable, and in many\nways better adapted to his digestive system. It must have seemed highly\n\u201cunnatural\u201d at first to accelerate the ripening of fruits and predigest\nanimal food by plunging them into water in which no living thing could\nsurvive, but the departure from the habits of the animal world, once\nbegun, was never arrested, and it is still proceeding in our own day.\n\nOur remote progenitors must have looked upon the guardians of their\nfires with much the same awe as that which medi\u00e6val people felt for\nsorcerers and alchemists, and with rather more justification. For man\nhad everything to learn about the new power placed in his hands. He\nwas beginning to find his way about a new world in which the ordinary\nlaws of Nature were suspended. Water was no longer cold and wet in that\nworld. It was hot as the sun and thin as smoke. It no longer flowed\nbut rose in the air. Salt rapidly became invisible in it, but could as\nrapidly be recovered by adding more fire. There was as much to learn\nabout fire as there was about X-rays in 1895 and about \u201catmospherics\u201d\nto-day.\n\nThe possession of fire turned winter into summer and night into day.\nIt lengthened the life-time of its fortunate possessors. But it did\nmuch more than that. It endowed mankind with a number of gifts which\nmust, in his primitive condition, have appeared to him as supernatural.\nIt gave him substances which combined the hardness of stone with the\ntoughness of wood. It enabled him to mould these substances into any\ndesired shape by the softening action of excessive heat. Heph\u00e6stus\nhimself cast his products in bronze, having cunningly mixed copper with\ntin in order to produce an alloy combining hardness with ductility. But\nhe and his later disciples found the perfect substance in iron, which,\nthough requiring an extreme degree of heat, yielded weapons and tools\nof unsurpassed power and strength.\n\nAnd thus it was that Heph\u00e6stus and his human allies prepared that\ncareer of conquest which eventually swept over the earth and made all\nthings new. The unprogressive Zeus, content with having learnt how to\nshake Olympus with a nod of his head, perished in the flood of new\nideas from the East. Heph\u00e6stus, alone of all that shining company, had\nestablished a firm footing in the world. For the work of his hands had\ntrained his brain and enabled it to build up a scheme of the cosmos\nin which every detail corresponded to some ascertained reality. And\nso, while Egyptian priests were speculating about the weight of a\nsoul, while Hindu sects were vying with each other in producing the\nmost hideous idols, and while Christian theologians were endeavouring\nto prove that three ones make one, Heph\u00e6stus and his followers were\nengaged in founding that superb edifice of knowledge which was destined\nto outlast the fall of empires and the dark ages which followed the\neclipse of classical learning.\n\nBut even as late as 1800 A.D., in spite of the mariner\u2019s compass,\nthe printing press, and gunpowder, the ground won by Heph\u00e6stus was\nvery small. The postal services in Europe were inferior to that of\nthe C\u00e6sars, there was no telegraphic system equal to that of the\nancient Persians, and the most stately sailing ship barely excelled\nthe classical trireme. The fruits of the work of Newcomen and Watt and\nPapin had not yet blossomed. When they did come forth, things happened\nswiftly. Fire was made to generate steam, and steam, in the course\nof a century, transformed the world. The motive-power being there,\nit was put to a million uses. The Wheel became the most important of\nmechanical contrivances. Now a wheel is a thing which, in the organic\nworld, is simply impossible. In the days when microscopes were of\nfeeble power, it was thought that the \u201cwheel animalcule,\u201d called\n_Vorticella_, had small wheels revolving on the rim of its opening to\ngather in the floating food particles. But higher magnifying power\nshowed that the appearance was an illusion created by the oscillation\nof the fine hairs fixed round the aperture. A wheel revolving on a\nshaft implies a separation which precludes all organic connection.\nHad it been otherwise, an animal running on its own wheels would have\nmade its appearance on earth long ago. The shaft of the steam engine\ncould be provided with numerous pulleys, each capable of driving a\nmachine connected with it by a belt. Then arose that marvellous crop\nof mechanical combinations which brought about the age of mechanism,\ncombinations which, in the last resort, can be reduced to sliding\ncouples and turning couples, and can be catalogued by means of formul\u00e6,\nlike words in a dictionary. So numerous were these inventions, so\nwidespread was their use, and so great their effect on the minds of\nthose generations, that a great illusion arose which coloured the\nphilosophies of a whole century and has left traces even in modern\ntimes. People became so accustomed to the perfect functioning of a\nmachine or a clock, so impressed with its regularity and intelligible\ncomplexity, that they began to look upon mechanism as a primary thing\ncapable of \u201cexplaining\u201d many non-mechanical things, not excluding\nthe phenomena of life. Why should not man himself, the inventor of\nmachinery, be a machine? If any functions of his body seemed beyond\nexplanation on mechanical lines, might this not be solely due to their\ngreat complexity?\n\nIn a recent article in _Nature_, Professor Fraser Harris puts the\nmatter tersely as follows:\n\n\u201cBecause the stomach \u2018works\u2019 rhythmically and predictably we may\ncall it a machine for turning out pepsin from blood and liken it to a\nmachine for turning out (say) newspapers, but the secretion of pepsin\nis not mechanical, nor is the output of newspapers vital.\u201d\n\nThe strangest point about the materialistic or mechanistic conception\nof things is that every machine without exception has an inherent\npurpose and design. It is intended by its inventor to do certain\ndefinite things in a certain definite way. If an animal, therefore,\nis a machine, it must have a design and purpose, and presumably a\ndesigner. But the main idea underlying the mechanistic hypothesis was\nto eliminate the idea of purpose altogether, and reduce the universe to\nan accidental configuration of lifeless atoms.\n\nIt is difficult to see how this attempt to reverse the r\u00f4le of Potter\nand Pot could ever have satisfied enquiring and well-balanced minds,\nbut it is a fact that mechanistic views of life, after a period of\nalmost general acceptance, are still prevalent among biologists whose\neducation in the principles of logic has been somewhat hurried.\n\nThe majority, however, have returned to the saner view that it is\nuseless to explain the known by the less known. Human purpose is a\nprimary fact of experience, and the embodiment of a human purpose in a\ntool or machine is a process which cannot be denied on any reasonable\ngrounds. Now, a \u201cpurpose\u201d is a datum of the mind, which cannot be\nreduced to any simpler elements. The purpose of a machine is the\npsychical element embodied in it. Briefly, we may call it the \u201csoul\nof the machine.\u201d Every machine has a psychical element, a purpose,\na \u201csoul.\u201d It is therefore, simpler, more in accordance with sound\nphilosophical principles, more direct and \u201ceconomical\u201d to explain\nmachines in terms of psychology than to explain human bodies in terms\nof mechanism.\n\nThe victories of Heph\u00e6stus are victories of mind over matter. The\n\u201cmechanical age,\u201d which to some appears as the very negation of the\nsoul, is, on the contrary, the age of supreme psychical achievement.\n\nScience and invention are for ever annexing fresh regions of the\nuniverse and subjecting them to the free play of our mental faculties.\nThe process of bringing material things into subjection to our will is\na process of sublimation, which does not drag us down to the dust, but\nraises up dust into the realms of immortal spirit.\n\n\n\n\n                                  III\n\n               ... The liquid Ore he dreind\n           Into fit moulds prepar\u2019d; from which he form\u2019d\n           First his own Tooles; then, what might be wrought\n           Fusil or grav\u2019n in mettle.\n\n\nAt the time when the first man decided to go forth into the world\nprovided with weapons not furnished by nature (in other words,\n\u201cunnatural\u201d) the lines of development adopted by nature had ended in\nan _impasse_. Mere size had been found ineffective, and the giant\nReptilians had disappeared from the earth. The Mammoth and the great\nRorqual Whale were the largest animals then in existence, and nature\nhad retraced her steps somewhat as shipbuilding did in the nineteenth\ncentury after the building of the _Great Eastern_. Of the countless\nforms of animal and vegetable life, many had disappeared entirely,\nbeing no longer suited to climatic or other changes of environment.\nThere was no prospect of higher development unless an entirely new path\ncould be found. We may put the situation in another way by paraphrasing\nan ancient tribal account of the origin of things:\n\n\u201cIn the Beginning there was the Sun and the Earth.\n\n\u201cAnd the Sun and the Earth said: Let there be Life. And the Earth\ncovered itself with a living coat of green, fed by the Sun.\n\n\u201cAnd the Earth said: Let there be Moving Life. And Life began to Move\nabout, fed by the Life that was green and stood still.\n\n\u201cAnd the Earth said: Let there be Man, and let him be fed by the Green\nLife and the Moving Life, and let him subdue all Life, and let him\nsubdue Me and serve Me and make Me great in the Heavens.\u201d\n\nAnd so the Earth brought forth Man, her latest and greatest Experiment.\nFor a long time he was a rather inferior animal, but when he began to\nthrow stones and spears he launched out on his true career, a career\ndestined to culminate in the complete mastery of his native planet and\nthe apotheosis of the Earth.\n\nThe pre-human Animal had already learned to use the world of plants\nfor purposes of nutrition, and to use the mineral world for dwelling\npurposes. Improving upon the methods of his predecessors, man made the\nland and sea his province, and drew from it not only nourishment but\nthe means of extending his dominion. \u201cHe that hath, to him shall be\ngiven.\u201d And this extension became more and more rapid. Living, as we\ndo, in an age of continually accelerated progress, we find it difficult\nto realize its rapidity.\n\nWe are caught in a flood. From day to day things are changing. What we\nwrite to-day is obsolete to-morrow. The clock ticks on the mantelpiece\nas it did twenty years ago, but outside in the road is the roar of\nmotor traffic. The clip-clop of the horses\u2019 hooves is no longer heard.\nHeph\u00e6stus has put his fires into the interior of the motor engine,\nand found yet another way of using sunlight accumulated in the earth\nmillions of years ago, instead of relying upon the solar energy stored\nin the grass eaten by the horse.\n\nFire has made all things new. We are surrounded by its gifts. My pen\nhas passed through many fires before it reached my hand. All round me\nare traces of machinery and mechanism. The paper on which I write is\ncalendered in the paper mills. I am aware that it is not as lasting as\n\u201chand-made\u201d paper, and that it will not survive centuries of use like\nGutenberg\u2019s bibles. But what matter? If there is anything worthy of\nsurvival in what I write it will survive, even though it may require to\nbe cast in bronze. If it is good it will be _aere perennius_.\n\nMankind may be likened to a vast army on the march. It is preceded by:\n\n(1) Pathfinders, called explorers, inventors, and discoverers, whose\nbusiness it is to find new avenues of development and achievement.\n\nThen come the\n\n(2) Commanders with their staff of Organizers. These direct and\nco-ordinate the movements of the masses in directions judged to be for\nthe general welfare. They are followed by\n\n(3) The Rank and File, consisting of those who live and work along\naccepted and well-established lines in all grades of society, taking no\nrisks and making no changes.\n\n(4) The Stragglers, or those who work for themselves alone, without\nreference to the needs and prospects of the community. Among these\nmust be classed the squatters and backwoodsmen, and small crofters and\npeasants who grow their own food and weave their own cloth. They do not\nbelong to civilized society, though they do no harm to it and cannot\nquite escape its influence.\n\n(5) The Campfollowers and Vultures, who have no regard for the welfare\nof the community, but prey upon it for their own ends.\n\nClasses (1) and (2) are by far the most important and valuable\nconstituents of the human race. They are the growing element, the\n\u201ccambium,\u201d the grey matter of the brain. Whoever has sufficient\noriginality to strike out an original course, combined with loyalty\nto humanity at large or to a smaller community; whoever is capable\nof leadership, whether in war or peace, art or commerce, industry\nor politics; whoever can lead others forward and inspire them with\ncourage to face difficulties\u2015\u2015he belongs to the _\u00e9lite_ of mankind,\nto whatever grade of society he may belong. Far behind his class come\nthe rank and file of commonplace drudges, who work in a rut and submit\nto being led like sheep. They may be clerks, domestic servants, trade\nunion operatives, pensioners, or small investors. They form the large,\nundistinguished, but useful mass of humanity. Many kings have belonged\nto this class.\n\nBoth the large capitalist and the trade union boss I should class\namong the Commanders, and I should assign them a high rank in human\nprogressive elements. The former is often a Pathfinder in commerce and\nindustry, and the latter often points the way to the betterment of\nmanual workers. Both are in a position of great power, but are exposed\nto the temptation to abuse it. The financier may succeed in restricting\nthe free market in an important human community for his own enrichment\nand aggrandizement. The trade union boss may make a \u201ccorner\u201d in a\ncertain form of labour and so deprive the community of some essential\ncommodity, such as housing accommodation. When this degeneration takes\nplace, both these types must be put into the Vulture class.\n\nThe same judgment must be passed on those who use the machinery of the\nmedium of exchange to further objects contrary to the interests of the\ncommunity, such as usurers, and purveyors of intoxicant drugs. These\nalso are among the Vultures.\n\nWhen the first armed man transferred a method employed by nature into\na new medium, and derived his armour from the outer world instead\nof growing it in his own organism, he took a step which led to many\nsimilar re-interpretations. One of the most important of such steps\nwas Organization. The very word recalls its \u201corganic\u201d origin. The\norgans of the human body form an interdependent community with a common\ninterest. The organs again are composed of tissues, and the tissues of\nindividual cells having, as many biologists believe, a rudimentary\nconsciousness of their own. All these\u2015\u2015some millions of millions of\nmillions\u2015\u2015form a vast and closely-organized community consisting of\nmany more distinct individuals than there are human beings on earth.\nThe human race is such an organized community. A swarm of bees is\nanother, but while the latter only deals with \u201cnatural\u201d food-supplies\nand housing materials, the human community, thanks primarily to the use\nof fire, gathers its resources from realms utterly inaccessible to the\nordinary animal, and establishes an unassailable superiority. Thus the\nhuman army, consisting of Pathfinders, Organizers, Rank and File, and\nStragglers, with a trail of Vultures behind, presses ever forward on\nits victorious march of progress.\n\nIts general procedure may be represented as follows:\n\nThe Pathfinders are in front, seeking out new avenues of advance.\nThey may discover a new coal mine or oil well or mineral deposit; a\nmore economical method of lighting and heating; an improved method\nof weaving or printing; a new medicine; a new formula for expressing\nnumerical relations; an improved method of transmitting news; or merely\na simplified method of mending socks. Whatever it may be, the new\ndiscovery is passed on to the organizers, the captains of industry, the\ncapitalists and financiers, and the trade unions. In a well-organized\ncommunity, the discovery or invention is given every opportunity of\nproving its value. Where vested interests and monopolies stand in the\nway, either in the camp of the capitalists and property holders or\nin the ranks of labour, much opposition may be encountered, and the\ncommunity may be deprived of the advantages of the new discovery. But\nif there is no such opposition, the work incidental to the utilization\nof the discovery is distributed by the organizers among the rank and\nfile, consisting of mechanics, clerks, and small investors. As soon as\nthe industry is successfully established, the Vultures begin to hover\nround. Some of them seek to drive the industry into a corner where\nit can only exist by serving the interests of the Vultures. Other\nVultures endeavour to corner the labour trained by the pathfinders and\npioneers and hold the new industry to ransom. But in a well-organized\ncommunity these nefarious activities are kept within bounds. The\npathfinders, the organizers, and the rank and file are given their due\ncredit and reward, and the community reaps the full benefit of the\ndiscovery.\n\nAnd now let us examine the activities of the Pathfinders. In classical\ntimes the most audacious and renowned of these were the Ph\u0153nicians,\nwho, armed with their shields and corselets of \u201coak and triple\nbronze,\u201d sailed through the Pillars of Hercules out from the tideless\nMediterranean into the unknown terrors of the Atlantic. Their ships\nwere seen in the Baltic, trading woven purple garments for amber, and\non the British coasts in search of tin. At the request of an Egyptian\nPharao, they circumnavigated Africa, and brought back wildly improbable\nbut, nevertheless, true stories about new constellations and the sun\nculminating in the north.\n\nIn Egypt itself explorers and discoverers of another kind were busy.\nThe science of Chemistry was born there, and named after \u201cChem,\u201d\nthe native name of Egypt. In Greece and its colonies the science of\nGeometry attained a high standard, while Syracuse stands out as the\nhome of Archimedes, one of the greatest mathematicians, physicists,\nand inventors of all time. These Pathfinders enriched humanity with\npriceless gifts. They surveyed the field of possible discovery from a\nhigh altitude, and their clear vision traced out the paths to higher\nachievement, to be trodden by their successors.\n\nHad they lived in better-organized communities, their labours would\nhave been turned to greater advantage, and would have benefited a\ngreater number of their fellow men. But the day of capitalism and\nmass-production had not yet come. The splendid achievements of an\nArchimedes only served to benefit a tyrant, and his single-handed\nscientific fight against the Romans ended in disaster to his beloved\ncity.\n\nIn Greek and Roman days, owing to the lop-sided organization of human\nsociety, scientific discoveries could only benefit a few powerful\npeople. The downtrodden underlings were unaffected by the work of the\nPathfinders. They had to await the dawn of the Industrial Age before\nthey could take part in the progress of the _\u00e9lite_. Yet it must be\nput to the credit of the Hieros, the Medicis, and the greater of the\nBourbon and Stuart Kings that they fostered the advancement of science\nand protected the Pathfinders from the persecution of ecclesiastical\nand other vultures.\n\nThe invention of gunpowder laid low the chivalry of the Middle Ages.\nThe Hobbling God triumphed over the mail-clad monopolist on horseback.\nThe Sudden Fire armed the foot-soldier with a winged shaft of death.\nThe stone-thrower had became the unerring sharp-shooter. The range of\nhuman power increased apace. The glass-blower with his fiery furnace\nproduced cunning contrivances of glass which increased the range of the\nhuman eye twenty or thirty-fold. A free philosopher like Spinoza could\ndiscourse of the fundamental substance without fear or favour, since\nthe grinding of optical glasses assured him an independent livelihood.\nThen came the French Revolution with its clarion call to a wider\norganization of humanity, which was eventually brought about, not by\nspeeches and pamphlets, but by the harnessing of coal to inaugurate the\nMechanical Age.\n\nThe nineteenth century saw the fulfilment of the dream of an organized\nHumanity, a human world unified, not by the spread of humanitarian\nphilosophies, but by the material bonds of progress.\n\nSome of my critics have ridiculed my \u201crobust\u201d belief in the reality of\nprogress through invention and the use of machinery. I see no reason\nto modify my view. A generation ago, Ruskin deplored the spread of\nrailways which scored their lines through \u201cbleeding landscapes.\u201d To me\na railway line is a thing of beauty, wherever it may be found. It is a\nsymbol of a higher will and of a purpose transcending the puny sphere\nof the individual. To see the rails is as if the sinews and muscles\nof some supernatural being were made visible and accessible to me.\nAnd who shall say that I am wrong in that feeling? A railway _is_ an\norganization superior to man. \u201cSocieties,\u201d says Edward Carpenter,[3]\n\u201cnot only of bees (as Maeterlinck has shown), but of all creatures\nup to man, have, _qua_ societies, a life of their own, inclusive of\nand superadded to that of their individual members.\u201d And so a railway\nappears to me as an individual of a higher order, closely organized and\nendowed with a life of its own. Its mental equipment is its personnel,\nits directors, clerks, drivers, guards and porters. Its body consists\nof rails, bridges, tunnels, stations and rolling stock. It has a\nsoul and a living purpose. It has a power of self-maintenance and\nself-preservation and a rudimentary memory.\n\n  [3] _The Art of Creation._\n\nI heartily sympathize with the child who adores a locomotive engine.\nTo him, nothing could be more lavishly fraught with beauty. I saw a\nlittle while ago a powerful engine at Waterloo Station at the head\nof an express train for Bournemouth. It was a thing of perfect and\nsatisfying beauty. Its lines suggested calmness and strength and speed.\nThe wisp of steam about its safety valve spoke of well-controlled\npowers within its massive frame. The driver, a clear-eyed man with\ntrusty hands and sturdy body, was a noble representative of Heph\u00e6stus.\nOne felt that the load of health-seeking humanity behind him was in\nsafe hands, that his nerves and muscles would work as perfectly as\nthe engine he regarded with such loving attention, and that the 108\nmiles of the non-stop journey would be accomplished without a hitch.\nThe beneficent monster lay there in the morning sun, ready to spring\nforward on its swift trajectory across the \u201cbleeding landscape\u201d! And\nthere are people who can look upon the eager children in the train,\narmed with their spades and buckets for playing in the health-giving\nsouthern sunshine, and deny the progressiveness of the Mechanical Age!\n\nThey will probably argue, of course, that if it were not for the\nsmoke of the city, due to the \u201cfires of Heph\u00e6stus,\u201d there would be no\nnecessity to have trains to carry the children to the seaside. But the\nsmoke of cities is due mainly to incomplete combustion in domestic\nhearths, and the remedy lies not in the discouragement of mechanical\ninvention but in its further extension until it provides us with a\nsmokeless city.\n\nThe fires of Heph\u00e6stus are fashioning a new world. They are welding\nhumanity into a coherent mass. All the metals, all the ninety chemical\nelements, are being pressed into service. Whose service? The service\nof a race whose destiny we can as yet only dimly appreciate. Already\nwe command temperatures varying from a region within a few degrees of\nthe absolute zero to within a few hundred degrees of the heat of the\nsun. The sight of our eyes has been supplemented to such an extent that\nwe can appreciate and deal with some fifteen octaves of visible and\ninvisible light instead of the single octave \u201cnaturally\u201d accessible\nto our sight. We command pressures of tons per square millimetre and\ndegrees of vacuum down to a hundred-millionth of an atmosphere. We can\nphotograph the track of a single atom tearing its way through moist\nair. We can print 500,000 copies of a paper of 150,000 words daily\nand sell it for a penny. We have banished bears and wolves from our\nhome countries and have learnt to wage war against invisible germs of\ndisease. We have acquired the power of bringing beautiful music into\nthe homes of our humblest citizens. The luxuries of our forbears are\nthe common possessions of our own generation. If we are not happier\nthan our ancestors, the fault lies in ourselves, in our ingratitude\nand lack of imagination. Or must we conclude that happiness is a\nnegligible thing in the great scheme of progress, and that that scheme\ndoes not concern itself with our individual feelings?\n\nI for one believe that happiness is on the up-grade, too. Heph\u00e6stus is\nnot only a strong and a clever god, but a god with a sense of humour\nand a very lovable character.\n\n\n\n\n                                  IV\n\n                Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let\n                Thy feet, millenniums hence be set\n                In midst of knowledge, dreamt not yet.\n\n\nThe empire of Heph\u00e6stus is expanding before our eyes. His bellows blow\nthrough our blast furnaces. His anvils ring in thousands of factories.\nHis engines career over the land, and his steamers over the sea. His\ninternal-combustion cars are strung out along the roadways, and his\navions run their furrows through the clouds. Wherever he goes, he\nlightens the burdens of humanity and gladdens all hearts with his\ngifts. He brings warmth and light into dark places. He draws mankind\ncloser and closer together. He draws them together without diminishing\nthe distance between them. He simply makes that distance impotent to\nhold them apart. He enables the city children to leave their slums\nand gather fresh health in the open country. He gives the grimed city\nworker fresh clear air wherein to sleep. His lorries, thundering along\nthe highways, tighten the bonds between the farmer who gathers the\nfruit and the town dweller who consumes it.\n\nNor is Heph\u00e6stus satisfied yet. His task is but half finished. The\nwhole earth must be Vulcanized.\n\nThe God of Fire and of Iron hobbles over the broad earth, seeking and\nfinding new paths of advancement towards a better and fuller life.\n\nMan has become less and less limited by his permanent organism, that\nBody which in the beginning was all he possessed. He has now as many\ndifferent shapes as ever Proteus had, and he can assume any of them\nat will. At one time he has the shape of a rowing boat, his arms\nprolonged seven feet or more till his blades skim the water. Again, his\nlegs will be two wheels, and his body will be like those steeds with\nfire-breathing nostrils which Heph\u00e6stus made for the King of Colchis.\nAgain, the pupil of his eye will grow until its diameter measures 100\ninches and then he will sound the depths of the heavens with the power\nof 100,000 eyes in one. When he goes to war, he throws his \u201cstone\u201d\nsome seventy miles and arms it with vast destruction. He belches forth\ndeadly vapours which choke and strangle his enemies. He becomes an\narmed slug creeping over all obstacles and destroying as he creeps.\n\nIn times of peace he dresses in various garbs to suit his changing\noccupation. His womenfolk emphasize and glorify their variety of\npersonal presentation and expression. Protea shines in all the colours\nand shades of the rainbow, and invents new colours and new forms every\nday, forms of dress, of outline, and of her very bodily figure.\n\nThe resignations and renunciations of former ages are forgotten. Music,\ntravel, pictures, education\u2015\u2015the luxuries of past generations are the\ncommon property of all to-day. That is the sort of Communism which is\nfeasible and reasonable. Take all the luxuries and good things of this\nlife and bring them within reach of all by cheapening their cost of\nproduction. Travel at a pound a mile is a luxury. Travel at a penny a\nmile becomes a \u201cnecessity\u201d as soon as people get used to it and take it\nfor granted.\n\nSecurity and seclusion are privileges cherished by what used to be\ncalled the \u201caristocrats.\u201d Place both within reach of the masses by\ninsurance and by transport facilities. Make all these luxuries and\nprivileges common property. It is not so many centuries ago that a\nmariner\u2019s compass was bartered for diamonds. To-day it costs a penny.\nAnd then we come upon a difficulty. When a thing becomes common\nproperty, or so cheap as to be of practically no price, it ceases to be\ncoveted. There is a tendency deep-rooted in the human heart to reach\nout beyond the things of to-day for something not yet attained. When\nCommunism has shared out the earth, it will ask for the moon. Humanity\nwill never assume a \u201cdead level of mediocrity.\u201d There will always be\nthe Thyroid Type, energetic, inquisitive, sensitive, inventive, and\nrestless. The class of Pathfinders will be recruited from that type.\nThe Pituitary Type will furnish commanders and organizers, while the\nAdrenal Type will furnish the rank and file. But the intermixture of\nthe various types will bring out special constitutions and varieties in\nunexpected quarters, and it behoves us to keep \u201c_la carri\u00e8re ouverte\naux talents_.\u201d\n\nThus the human army will march forward, led by a Pillar of Fire. Its\npace will be constantly accelerated, but we shall hardly be aware of\nit, for our methods of measuring time will change in the same ratio.\nA well-made motor-car on a smooth road can hum along sweetly at sixty\nmiles an hour, and its occupants will be less impressed and excited\nthan they would be by the horse careering at 20 miles per hour! And\nwhat are all these speeds to the absolutely smooth planetary speed of\nnineteen miles per second!\n\nIt has been asserted that the tremendous powers conferred upon man\nby machinery have produced the terrific wars of recent times by\nplacing power in the wrong hands. There may be some justice in this,\nbut the amount of destruction is negligible in comparison with the\namount of construction and reparation. When Kitchener saved a few\nhundred casualties at Paardeberg by sparing his men, he lost 10,000 at\nBloemfontein by enteric fever. The bloodiest war is sometimes the least\ncostly on balance. The greatest war of all history ended but seven\nyears ago, and already the beaten nations have healed up their wounds\nand are looking forward to the future with greater confidence than\nmany of the \u201cvictorious\u201d nations. Mankind is increasing the rapidity\nof its nervous reaction to emergencies and injuries. The leucocytes\nof the body politic set to work sooner and more effectively to heal\nthe damage. Mankind as an organism is daily improving its circulatory\nsystem, _alias_ its transport facilities. Its nervous system closely\nimitates organic nerves by its cables and land-lines, and it improves\nupon nature by adding wireless communication and resonance to the\norganic devices of the body.\n\nMankind is being moulded into a single compact self-contained body on\nthe anvil of Heph\u00e6stus. It is still subject to feverish ailments and\nsome chronic diseases. But the general outlines of future development\nare clearly discernible. There must be pauses and set-backs. The\nbrilliant scientific and artistic development of classical Hellenism\nwas all but lost in the destruction of the Roman civilization. But\nthe Arabs kept the flickering flame alive until Europe awoke from\nits torpor and lit its torch once more. Since then there has been no\nturning back. The age of science, discovery, and invention, the age\nof mechanism and machinery and power, has come and come to stay. Man,\nliberated from mechanical drudgery by the machine, has time to develop\nhis intellectual and artistic powers. His necessities being supplied by\npressing a button, he is liberated to enjoy a more varied existence.\nIf some men and women are still bound to monotonous tasks, it does\nnot necessarily mean unhappiness, for the Pathfinders\u2019 life is one of\nconstant care and much anxiety. Discovery is 90 per cent. failure,\nand something like a daily routine of regular and monotonous work\nsometimes appears in the light of a blissful refuge. Besides, the human\nheart and organism easily falls into a routine in which daily work is\nhardly felt, being done without conscious effort. This fact is often\nforgotten by those who envy the life of the organizer and financier,\nwhich is one of much risk and anxiety, relieved by an occasional big\nprize.\n\nThe ideal state of things would be attained if those of an adventurous\ndisposition could be given the adventurous part of human activity, and\nif those who are plodders by nature could be left to do the plodding.\n\nThat is a matter for future development, either consciously fostered by\nwise leaders of our race, or unconsciously evolved from the depths of\nwisdom hidden below the threshold of the racial consciousness.\n\nBut the goal is in sight. The earth is being organized and unified\nunder the \u00e6gis of the human race, the protoplasm of this planet, the\nrace which, transcending the mechanism and long-established traditions\nof its own germ-plasm, enlarged and multiplied its functions until\nit acquired the use of, fire. Upon that achievement it built an\nunprecedented form of life, a super-\u201cnatural\u201d edifice of infinite\npower, as yet but dimly realized, but which in its full beauty and\nperfection will be nothing less than Divine.\n\n\n                               THE END.\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n \u2015\u2015Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n \u2015\u2015Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.\n\n \u2015\u2015Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.\n\n \u2015\u2015Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.","title":"Heph\u00e6stus : $b or, The soul of the machine","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":10079}