Art and Labour convince you that there
is
53
a great deal of art in the
management
of such an apparently simple implement. One has often been struck with the
splendid action and admirable precision with which two men will alternately hammer at an iron wedge, when old pavement is being taken up in our
The hammer is swung at the full sweep of the arms and brought down with the utmost economy of concentrated force upon
streets.
This
the head of the wedge.
is
the art of manual labour.
When
not found so simple a matter the dockers and gasmen " to fill their places (apart from the question of blacklegs "), and amateurs in manual labour are soon found to be very different strike
it
is
from the professional artists of labour. The lifter and carrier of weights, the hewer of wood, and the drawer of water have a of things (under constantly practical acquaintance with the nature varying secondary conditions) far
—of
poise and pressure
more immediately valuable than any general
—which
is
theoretic acquaint-
ance with the laws of nature. In attempting any unwonted piece of work, say, in sawing a In all force. piece of wood, the inexperienced always wastes
labour this
it
is
the economy of force which
must be the
result of experience.
manual labourers work
William
Morris's
Hungary, who
is
story
his
set
fixed
makes
Even
courtiers thirty
worked
it
courtiers
Matthias
the rate at which
to
Corvinus,
work
to
way
was found that for the
forty-five
and
by general experience. of
dressers, puts this fact in a very picturesque
of the experiment
force effective,
help ;
first
and
King the
of
vine-
as a result
half-hour the
minutes, the second half-hour just
minutes, the third half-hour fifteen minutes, and in the