But just when it was wanted, God did show them. About the middle of
the last century the iron in the Weald was all but worked out; the
charcoal wood was getting scarcer and scarcer, and there was every
chance that England, instead of being ahead of all nations in iron,
would have fallen behind other nations; and then where should we
have been now?
But, just about one hundred years ago, it pleased God to open the
eyes of certain men, and they invented steam-engines. Then they
could pump the mines, then they could discover and use the vast
riches of our coal-mines. Then, too, sprung up a thousand useful
arts and manufactures; while the land, not being wanted for charcoal
and firewood, as of old, could be cleared of wood, and thousands of
acres set free to grow corn. Population, which had been all but
standing still, without increasing, has now more than doubled, and
wealth inestimable has come to this generation, of which our
forefathers never dreamed.
Now what have we to boast of in that? What, save to confess
ourselves a very stupid race, who for twelve hundred years could not
discover, or at least use the boundless wealth which God had given
us, because we had not wit enough to invent so simple a thing as a
steam-engine.
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