CONSERVATIVE  SOCIALISTS.

95

it  was  necessary,  he  thinks,  that  the  forced  labour  of  the  greater
number  should  afford  leisure  to  the  free  men.  At  that  period
the  quantity  of  produce  was  always  in  proportion  to  the  means
of  production,  as  this  consisted  solely  of  the  hands  of  the
slaves.  If  the  number  of  these  was  increased,  consumption
increased  in  proportion,  and  thus  the  surplus  which  maintained
leisure  remained  at  a  minimum.  To-day  work  is  done  by  iron
workmen,  consuming  coal  and  not  wheat  ;  their  power  is
unlimited,  and  they  will  never  call  upon  the  rights  of  man  to
demand  their  enfranchisement.
When  the  water-wheel,  coming  from  the  East,  was  introduced
for  the  first  time  into  the  Western  world,  towards  the  end  of
the  Roman  Republic,  a  Greek  poet,  named  Antiparos,  composed ­
  some  verses  which  the  Anthology  has  preserved  for  us,
and  which  recount,  in  a  most  charming  manner,  the  cause  of
the  economic  progress  accomplished  in  the  last  two  thousand  \
years  :  “  Slaves  who  turn  the  millstone,  spare  your  hands  and
sleep  in  peace.  In  vain  the  shrill  voice  of  the  cock  shall
announce  the  daylight  ;  sleep  on.  By  order  of  Demeter,  the
labour  of  young  girls  is  performed  by  the  Naiads,  and  now  they  |
leap,  shining  and  light,  upon  the  wheel  as  it  revolves.  They  i
drag  around  the  axle  with  its  spokes,  and  put  in  motion  the  !
great  stone  which  turns  round  and  round.  Let  us  live  the
happy  life  of  our  fathers,  and  enjoy,  without  labour,  the  blessings ­
  the  goddess  showers  upon  us.”  Thus  machinery  creates
leisure;  but  who  shall  enjoy  it?  That  is  the  point  Three
cases  might  occur.  Either  this  leisure  will  liberate  from  all
work  a  larger  and  larger  number  of  persons,  the  working  day
of  those  who  continue  to  labour  remaining  the  same  •  or  no
one  will  have  increased  leisure,  as  the  idle  hours  will  be  employed ­
  in  making  objects  of  luxury  ;  or,  once  more,  as  Antiparos
fancied,  machinery  will  benefit  the  labourers  by  lessening  their
task,  and  an  increase  of  leisure  will  accrue  to  all,  even  to  the
workers.  In  the  interest,  not  of  the  increase  of  production,
but  of  the  progress  of  civilization,  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  this
latter  hypothesis  would  be  realized.  But  in  reality  it  is  usually
either  the  first  or  second  case  which  happens.
The  Conservative,  like  the  Catholic  Socialists,  develop