A mechanical
condition would therefore be one wherein an individual acts without
intelligence or volition, according to certain laws or habits coming to
him from others; a mechanical state of society, one wherein the
government moves on according to the will of one or more men, without
thought, love, or even attention from the mass of the people, content
only with their acquiescence. On the other hand, a rational condition,
both of society and of the individual, would be that in which the
thought, will, and love of the individual gave strength and life to
every act.
The question whether our social state is becoming mechanical, losing
personal thought and volition, is of great and vital importance, on
account of the terrible major premise that lies beneath. For prove but
once that this is the fact, and there comes upon us the great general
truth: 'The nation that is growing mechanical is hastening toward its
destruction.' The proof of this assertion is written everywhere in
history. The limits of this article render it impossible that a tithe of
the proof should be brought forward in its support, and therefore only
the most general truths can be laid down for the reader to verify from
his own historical knowledge. No fact is more indisputable than that
every preceding civilization has had its birth, progress, and death,
differing only in length from the life of a mortal man; and in the state
of each one, in proportion as this mechanical tendency increased, in
that proportion their national life departed.
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