Such are the numerous and important advantages, in a commercial point of
view, which will result to society from the substitution of elementary
for physical power. But even these, great though they be, are of
trifling consideration when compared with the immense benefits which
will result from the substitution when brought into operation as an
economic principle.
_Substitution of Steam for Horse Power_.
[Mr. Gordon then refers to the conclusion of political economists "that
the grand source of all our evils is _redundancy_ of population; or in
other words, an increase of animated life _beyond_ the nourishment
adequate to support it."]
The substitution of inanimate for animate power, if not the panacea which
is to cure all the evils of our condition, is at least one that comes
recommended as a matter of fact--easy of operation, and effectual in its
result. If want of food, or, in other words, redundancy of population
be the bane of the country, it does not propose to meet that evil by a
visionary project, tending in its operation to unhinge society--tedious in
its process, and ending at length in bitter disappointment--but it meets
the evil directly, substantially, and effectually, by the substitution of
food.
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