Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe

“ People became so accustomed to the perfect functioning of a machine or a clock, so impressed with its regularity and intelligible complexity, that they began to look upon mechanism as a primary thing capable of “explaining” many non-mechanical things, not excluding the phenomena of life. Why should not man himself, the inventor of machinery, be a machine? ”

“ A wooden leg, or any weapon which a man may use, may therefore be regarded as a limb of the man’s body, so long, that is, as it is in active use. And if a “soul” animates that man’s body and drives it to perform deeds of valour, the same soul will animate his weapon. The soul of the weapon is the soul of the man who uses it. ”

“ The human race is such an organized community. A swarm of bees is another, but while the latter only deals with “natural” food-supplies and housing materials, the human community, thanks primarily to the use of fire, gathers its resources from realms utterly inaccessible to the ordinary animal, and establishes an unassailable superiority. Thus the human army, consisting of Pathfinders, Organizers, Rank and File, and Stragglers, with a trail of Vultures [50] behind, presses ever forward on its victorious march of progress. ”

“ The purpose of a machine is the psychical element embodied in it. Briefly, we may call it the “soul of the machine.” Every machine has a psychical element, a purpose, a “soul.” It is therefore, simpler, more in accordance with sound philosophical principles, more direct and “economical” to explain machines in terms of psychology than to explain human bodies in terms of mechanism.
The victories of Hephæstus are victories of mind over matter. ”

“ Whoever has sufficient originality to strike out an original course, combined [46] with loyalty to humanity at large or to a smaller community; whoever is capable of leadership, whether in war or peace, art or commerce, industry or politics; whoever can lead others forward and inspire them with courage to face difficulties—he belongs to the élite of mankind, to whatever grade of society he may belong. ”

“ Whatever our “back-to-Nature” cranks may say, mankind cannot repudiate and renounce its most precious acquisition and all that it involves in the present and the future. We may dislike the smoke of blast-furnaces, but the remedy is not to do away with them, but to stop their smoking. The bellows of Hephæstus are blowing and his fires are burning. The age of machinery, begun in far-off Palæolithic days, but only established within the last hundred years or so, has now gripped us in a scheme from which none may escape. ”

“ The strangest point about the materialistic or mechanistic conception of things is that every machine without exception has an inherent purpose and design. It is intended by its inventor to do certain definite things in a certain definite way. If an animal, therefore, is a machine, it must have a design and purpose, and presumably a designer. ”

“ The glass-blower with his fiery furnace produced cunning contrivances of glass which increased the range of the human eye twenty or thirty-fold. A free philosopher like Spinoza could discourse of the fundamental substance without fear or favour, since the grinding of optical glasses assured him an independent livelihood. Then came the French Revolution with its clarion call to a wider organization of humanity, which was eventually brought about, not by speeches and pamphlets, but by the harnessing of coal to inaugurate the Mechanical Age. ”

“ Thus the human army will march forward, led by a Pillar of Fire. Its pace will be constantly accelerated, but we shall hardly be aware of it, for our methods of measuring time will change in the same ratio. A well-made motor-car on a smooth road can hum along sweetly at sixty miles an hour, and its occupants will be less impressed and excited than they would be by the horse careering at 20 miles per hour! ”

“ Man’s war of conquest against the animal world had begun. He brought to them a death more sudden than had existed up to his time. For he had the power of driving his wedge into the most vulnerable and essential part of his enemy’s body. ”

“ Music, travel, pictures, education—the luxuries of past generations are the [69] common property of all to-day. That is the sort of Communism which is feasible and reasonable. Take all the luxuries and good things of this life and bring them within reach of all by cheapening their cost of production. Travel at a pound a mile is a luxury. Travel at a penny a mile becomes a “necessity” as soon as people get used to it and take it for granted. ”

“ But the next invention, the discovery of the use of fire, was a departure without a parallel to anything in the kingdoms of Nature. It placed mankind by a single act in a position of god-like authority over the living world. It is not surprising that the discovery of fire is surrounded by countless legends. In Greek mythology the first use of fire is attributed to Prometheus, the Fore-Thinker, the man who thinks ahead. ”

“ But the essential element of the change was that something came into the hands of man which did not exist in “Nature” at all, not, at least, in a manner ordinarily accessible to organic being. It was quite “unnatural” to use fire. Fire represented a state in which no organism could survive, in which all its functions were ruthlessly stopped, and its living tissues destroyed. No animal except man has ever attained to the use of fire. Its use represents the transcendence of man from the ordinary scheme of Nature and his [11] ascent into a sort of supernatural, or at least super-organic realm. ”

“ The fires of Hephæstus are fashioning a new world. They are welding humanity into a coherent mass. All the metals, all the ninety chemical elements, are being pressed into service. Whose service? The service of a race whose destiny we can as yet only dimly appreciate. Already we command temperatures varying from a region within a few degrees of the absolute zero to within a few hundred degrees of the heat of the sun. ”

“ As most of the 400 voluntary muscles of the human body are attached to the bones in a manner which diminishes the force exerted below the actual tension of the muscles, the adoption of machinery constitutes a reversal of the “natural” use of the system of levers which we call our skeleton. The Lever, the Inclined Plane, the Wedge, the Pulley, the Wheel and Axle, and the Screw, are all contrivances for slowing down the rate of work until the force required to perform it comes within the compass of our muscles. ”

“ And there are people who can look upon the eager children in the train, armed with their spades and buckets for playing in the health-giving southern sunshine, and deny the progressiveness of the Mechanical Age! ”

“ For a hundred million years already [25] had the sun shone on a habitable earth, pouring out its light and heat and nourishing the luxuriant vegetation which covered most of the globe. For untold ages had the plants stored up the sunlight for some unknown end. That end became manifest when Prometheus kindled the first fire and made a new realm accessible to man. Till then, mankind had undergone the annual and daily vicissitudes of heat and cold due to the days and the seasons, but he had not controlled them. ”

“ The luxuries of our forbears are the common possessions of our own generation. If we are not happier than our ancestors, the fault lies in ourselves, in our ingratitude and lack of imagination. Or must we [63] conclude that happiness is a negligible thing in the great scheme of progress, and that that scheme does not concern itself with our individual feelings?
I for one believe that happiness is on the up-grade, too. Hephæstus is not only a strong and a clever god, but a god with a sense of humour and a very lovable character. ”

“ Living, as we do, in an age of continually accelerated progress, we find it difficult to realize its rapidity.
We are caught in a flood. From day to day things are changing. What we write to-day is obsolete to-morrow. ”

“ If we examine the connection between man and his weapon we find that the latter differs from an eagle’s beak or a tiger’s claw in but one essential point: it is no longer an integral part of the organism. It can be detached at will, and replaced by another weapon. Its separation or destruction does not imply an injury to the organism. Man is not put out of action by losing his [18] weapon. He is only reduced to his original position with respect to his antagonist. ”

“ In Greece and its colonies the science of Geometry attained a high standard, while Syracuse stands out as the home of Archimedes, one of the greatest mathematicians, physicists, and inventors of all time. These Pathfinders enriched humanity with priceless gifts. ”

“ When man was endowed with fire he received the gift without knowing whence it came or what it meant. Greek mythology, with its deep insight [24] into unseen things, presents us Helios, the sun-god, as a friend of Hephæstus, the god of fire. We moderns express the same truth differently. We say that all fire on earth is ultimately derived from the sun. Archimedes kindled fires—preferably in Roman ships—by means of concave mirrors which condensed the heat of the sun to a focus. ”

“ A fully-armed young goddess, severe of countenance and lithe of limb, had sprung forth from his head, thenceforth and for ever to lead and dominate the world of thought. It was up to Hera to match Pallas Athene by some equally important [vii] contribution to the evolution of gods, and so by some mysterious process, into which Greek historians did not care to pry, she produced Hephæstus, whom the Romans called Vulcan, now the only surviving representative of that lively and enterprising clan which once ruled the world from the summit of Mount Olympus. ”

“ The organs of the human body form an interdependent community with a common interest. The organs again are composed of tissues, and the tissues of individual [49] cells having, as many biologists believe, a rudimentary consciousness of their own. All these—some millions of millions of millions—form a vast and closely-organized community consisting of many more distinct individuals than there are human beings on earth. ”

“ There is a tendency deep-rooted in the human heart to reach out beyond the things of to-day for something not yet attained. When Communism has shared out the earth, it will ask for the moon. Humanity will never assume a “dead level of mediocrity.” There will always be the Thyroid Type, energetic, inquisitive, sensitive, inventive, and restless. The class of Pathfinders will be recruited from that type. The Pituitary Type will furnish commanders and organizers, while the Adrenal Type will furnish the rank and file. ”

“ Had it been otherwise, an animal running on its own wheels would have made its appearance on earth long ago. The shaft of the steam engine could be provided with numerous pulleys, each capable of driving a machine connected with it by a belt. Then arose that marvellous crop of mechanical combinations which brought about the age of mechanism, combinations which, in the last resort, can be reduced to sliding couples and turning couples, and can be catalogued by means of formulæ, like words in a dictionary. ”

“ In any case, the rough stone, even if only used for throwing at his enemy or killing his prey, was an essentially new departure in evolution, and sounded the keynote to all that followed down to our own times. ”

“ Besides, the human heart and organism easily falls into a routine in which daily work is hardly felt, being done without conscious effort. This fact is often forgotten by those who envy the life of the organizer and financier, which is one of much risk and anxiety, relieved by an occasional big prize. ”

“ Upon that achievement it built an unprecedented form of life, a super-“natural” edifice of infinite power, as yet but dimly realized, but which in its full beauty and perfection will be nothing less than Divine. ”

“ The majority, however, have returned to the saner view that it is useless to explain the known by the less known. Human purpose is a primary fact of experience, and the embodiment of a human purpose in a tool or machine is a process which cannot be denied on any reasonable grounds. ”

“ We have banished bears and wolves from our home countries and have learnt to wage war against invisible germs of disease. We have acquired the power of bringing beautiful music into the homes of our humblest citizens. ”

“ Whatever it may be, the new discovery is passed on to the organizers, the captains of industry, the capitalists and financiers, and the trade unions. In a well-organized community, the [51] discovery or invention is given every opportunity of proving its value. Where vested interests and monopolies stand in the way, either in the camp of the capitalists and property holders or in the ranks of labour, much opposition may be encountered, and the community may be deprived of the advantages of the new discovery. ”