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writers of amusing and imaginative works , and the highest order of actors and public orators are mental art-men . The useless and mischievous art-men are those who prey upon the ignorance and gullibility of mankind , such as quack doctors , preachers who make religion a mere trade , editors of party newspapers , professed gamblers , barristers who are open to any hire , professed thieves , who steal by finesse , writers of
immoral books , designing lawyers , and various others . Eighthly . — Machinist-men . —These are the handicraft copiers of works of art , who repeat over and over again the same processes . As invention goes on , the demand for this
kind of labour will continue to decrease . A division has been made by political economists between the skilled and unskilled labourers , but this is a fallacious distinction . All labour requires skill , i . e . requires practice before , a man can excel in it , some more , some less . One man will dig- a larger piece
of ground in a given time , after long practice , than another can at the commencement , and digging is the commonest of all labour except sweeping . And even in sweeping there are degrees , one can only sweep plain surfaces , while another is
unmatchable " round a post ; " and skill therefore is merely a question of degree . In some operations great truth of eye and dexterity of hand are required , and this must be the case with most original operations , as , for example , miniature-painting-. But in all things for which there is a large demand , in which multiplied copies are required , machines are far better than human hands . Thus engravings and statues may be
multiplied ad xnftnitum after they are once originated . This is never likely to be the case with paintings . It is a common practice to call machine-inventors and machine-copiers by the same name—' mechanics ' , but there is a wide distinction between them . Mechanician is the proper name for the art of the former —mechanics for the latter—for they only work on the same
system as a machine , without any mental exertion . Some of the highest talent in Kngland is to be found amongst the inventors of machinery , and also of works of art , for they depend upon their own resources , but the operations of the mechanics have a tendency to crush native genius and therefore the faster they are superseded the better . The mechanics should become builders of machines , and cease to be machines
themselves ; and this will be the case ere all those now born will die . Ninthly . —Manufacture-men . —These are the employers of mechanics and labourers , who , by superior dexterity and a certain power of organization , contrive to keep a large number of human hands at work , and extract a very large per centage from them in return , whereby they realize gr ^ at fortunes , and in two or three generations become idle-men , and , if they
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& 9 t Social Classification *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1836, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2657/page/28/
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