e thinks as he
thinks, and feels as he feels, through the work that machines have
wrought upon him, and their existence is quite as much a _sine qua non_
for his, as his for theirs. This fact precludes us from proposing the
complete annihilation of machinery, but surely it indicates that we
should destroy as many of them as we can possibly dispense with, lest
they should tyrannise over us even more completely.

"True, from a low materialistic point of view, it would seem that those
thrive best who use machinery wherever its use is possible with profit;
but this is the art of the machines--they serve that they may rule. They
bear no malice towards man for destroying a whole race of them provided
he creates a better instead; on the contrary, they reward him liberally
for having hastened their development. It is for neglecting them that he
incurs their wrath, or for using inferior machines, or for not making
sufficient exertions to invent new ones, or for destroying them without
replacing them; yet these are the very things we ought to do, and do
quickly; for though our rebellion against their infant power will cause
infinite suffering, what will not things come to, if that rebellion is
delayed?

"They have preyed upon man's grovelling preference for his material over
his spiritual interests, and have betrayed him into supplying that
element of struggle and warfare without which no race can advance. The
lower animals progress because they struggle with one another; the weaker
die, the stronger breed and transmit their strength. The machines being
of themselves unable to struggle, have got man to do their struggling for
them: as long as he fulfils this function duly, all goes well with him--at
least he thinks so; but the moment he fails to do his best for the
advancement of machinery by encouraging the good and destroying the bad,
he is left behind in the race of competition; and this means that he will
be made uncomfortable in a variety of ways, and perhaps die.

"So that even now the machines will only serve on condition of being
served, and that too upon their own terms; the moment their terms are not
complied with, they jib, and either smash both themselves and all whom
they can reach, or turn churlish and refuse to work at all. How many men
at this hour are living in a state of bondage to the machines? How many
spend their whole lives, from the cradle to the grave, in tending them by
night and day? Is it not