第71章

It is otherwise, as we have seen, in cases where the return, though copious, is distant.European travellers are surprised at meeting these little floating farms, by the side of swamps which only require draining to render them tillable.It seems to them strange that labor should not rather be bestowed on the solid earth, where its fruits might endure, than on structures that must decay and perish in a few years.The people they are among think not so much of future years as of the present time.The effective desire of accumulation is of very different strength in the one, from what it is in the other.The views of the European extend to a distant futurity, and he is surprised at the Chinese, condemned, through improvidence and want of sufficient prospective care, to incessant toil, and, as he thinks, insufferable wretchedness.The views of the Chinese are confined to narrower bounds, he is content, as we say, to live from day to day, and has learnt to conceive even a life of toil a blessing.The power which the singular skill and dexterity of this people, notwithstanding their deficiency in the strength of that principle that forms the subject of this chapter, gives them, to work up into instruments supplying a larger circle of wants, many materials that would otherwise lie dormant, is seen in various instances besides those referred to.It may be sufficient to mention the manufacture of silk, and the cultivation and manufacture of tea.They are both instances of the power of the inventive faculty to form instruments, soon bringing to an issue events, that repay, according to the rate at which labor is there repaid, considerably more than the cost of their formation.

However we explain it, it will I think be admitted as a fact, that Europeans in general far exceed Asiatics both in vigor of intellect, and in strength of moral feeling.The average duration of human life is also with them more extended, and property more secure.These circumstances give much superior power to the accumulative principle in the one continent, to what it has in the other, and occasion the instruments constructed in each to be of very different orders, and to form a strong contrast when compared together.The attention of an European, when he visits Asia, is arrested by the slightness and want of strength, solidity, finish, and consequently durability, of every instrument he sees.Were an Asiatic city deserted, the place where it stands would, in half a century be scarcely discernible.

The instruments constructed being of the more quickly returning orders, all materials which require much labor, and bring in only distant returns, are neglected.Mud takes the place of stone, wood of iron.In Europe, on the other hand, in proportion as the minds of the people are reflective and intelligent, and their habits moral, we find that the interests of futurity operate on them so largely as to occasion a great capacity to be given to materials, on which, in Asia, a very small capacity would be bestowed, or which would there be altogether neglected.The most stubborn morasses are drained, and converted into arable lands; roads, canals, bridges, fences, dwelling-houses, furniture, tools, utensils, in short all instruments whatever indicate that the farmers of them have regard to a distant futurity, and are willing to give up for its interests a large portion of the means of present enjoyment.

It is to be observed, however, that in Europe invention has in general made much greater progress than in Asia.Perhaps in their knowledge of agriculture and horticulture the Chinese equal most European nations, but in other arts they are far inferior, and, with the exception of them, no Asiatics, in the knowledge of these or of other arts, can compete with Europeans.On the other hand, the wages of labor in Europe, are far higher than in Asia.This circumstance, countervailing the other, would probably, in many cases, bring the durability and efficiency of the instruments constructed in both continents nearly to an equality, were it not for the existing difference in the strength of the accumulative principle.

The examples we have hitherto considered have been of societies, where the principle of accumulation has been either advancing, or, at least, not sensibly retrograding.It may be well to turn our attention to the effects produced by a sensible decrease in its strength.The history of the declining ages of the Roman empire furnishes us with such an one.