BOOK IV - EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROGRESS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Summary

Hitherto, it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being—John Stuart Mill.

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,

Ere the sorrow comes with years?

They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,

And that cannot stop their tears.

The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;

The young birds are chirping in the nest,

The young fawns are playing with the shadows;

The young flowers are blowing towards the west—

But the young, young children, O, my brothers,

They are weeping bitterly!

They are weeping in the playtime of the others,

In the country of the free.

—Mrs. Browning.