text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/232

 220 definite. They cannot perform a more useful service to students of social philosophy than by calling attention to these books as products of social analysis proceeding from certain common postulates and pursuing certain common methods. It must be acknowledged that discovery of consensus in both these particulars will not be equivalent to the establishment of any new doctrine, which may be expressed or implied in the agreement of these writers. The coincidence that three authors working independently upon concentric problems have adopted methods which are essentially similar and decidedly unconventional is an important indication of the direction which social inquiries are sure to take in the immediate future.

The three books, which are placed above in the order of publication, are alike in the more or less formally avowed purpose to derive from examination of facts some general laws or clues to laws about the conditions of progress in the industrial section of societary activity. They are practically alike also in assuming that such clues may be found, and the order of sequence discovered within a comparatively restricted portion of time which may be called "the present." Thus Hobson has an introductory chapter of general prolegomena to a treatise on industry; a second chapter on "The Structure of Industry before Machinery," and the remaining twelve chapters deal with industrial processes, means and organizations since the introduction of machinery, i. e., with the industry of the present century.

Of the 350 pages of Von Halle's book, one half are devoted to appendices containing documents illustrating the text. The discussion proper plunges immediately after eight pages of introduction and eight pages on American conditions previous to the Civil War, into examination of the period after 1865. The remaining 140 pages treat therefore, of what may be called a still more restricted present. Dyer has an introductory chapter on the various kinds of law with which the sociologist is concerned; a second chapter on "Conditions of Development;" a third chapter on "Early Corporate and State Regulations of Industry," and the remaining eight chapters or 228 of the 303 pages are devoted to discussion of the conditions which are practically contemporary.

Again, the three authors are alike in treating very nearly the same subjects, though under dissimilar classifications. The tables of contents deserve to be carefully compared. Placed in parallel columns, the chapter titles at once suggest points of comparison and contrast."


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/234

 222 In one more formal particular these three writers resemble each other, viz., they each consider this outlook over contemporary conditions sufficient justification for certain generalizations of industrial cause and effect. It does not appear that they have formally criticised the logical relations of historical and contemporary data; but they have acted upon the assumption that analysis of contemporary status and movement yields data for generalization of statistical and dynamic principles—a supposition which is winning its way very rapidly as a working hypothesis.

The method upon which each of these three writers has attempted to work is indicated by Von Halle as follows: (Introduction, p. xv.) ". . . an analytic division into the several elements is necessary; and then by recombining the various parts of the problem, we may hope to put ourselves in a position to judge the phenomena as a whole. Let us ask then (1) what are the inherent tendencies of the general development? (2) What the product of a local and temporary situation? (3) What of accidental and individual influences? These questions must suggest the outlines of an analytical inquiry.

There are, accordingly, four preliminary matters to be considered.

"1. The general economic development, which growing out of the past, influences, and is influenced by the present, and furnishes the basis for the conditions of the future, themselves changing in their turn.

"2. The national character to which it is due that phenomena differ from place to place, although the general features of the development are similar.

"This largely conditions— "3. Legal relations, which determine the form of the new phenomena, unless they are strong enough to break them (legal relations) down and create new ones for themselves.

"4. Then there are, lastly, the purely 'subjective' influences, the chance concurrence of circumstances—the presence or absence of particular individuals, which give their color to events. These are usually put in the foreground, and are only too likely to have an undue influence upon our judgment by misleading us as to the relative importance of things."

An inspection of the three books upon which we are commenting will result in an arrangement of them on the basis of generality, in this order, viz., (1) Dyer, (2) Hobson, (3) Von Halle; i.e., Dyer tries "to estimate the value of the various factors in the industrial problem, and

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/236

 224 has been abundantly fulfilled. The disputes and struggles connected with labor, and the conditions of the poorest classes of the community, have directed the attention of many thoughtful men and women to the social and economic problems of the day, and in all parts of the world these are presenting themselves to educationists, social reformers, politicians and statesmen, as the matters which above all others are urgently demanding careful study and investigation. M. de Laveleye put the dominant thought into words when he said: 'The message of the eighteenth century to men was, 'Thou shalt cease to be the slave of nobles and despots who oppress thee: thou art free and sovereign.' But the problem of our times is, 'It is a grand thing to be free and sovereign, but how is it that the sovereign often starves? How is it that those who are held to be the source of power often cannot, even by hard work, provide themselves with the necessaries of life?'" (Contemporary Review, March, 1890.)

"From a survey of the chief conditions of industry which have been brought about by the great development of machinery, and of the application of science, it is evident that the present century is in a large sense a probationary epoch, an era of beginnings. Indeed it is not at all a question of whether the existing social order shall be changed, but of how the inevitable change shall be made. . . . It is long since Carlyle pointed out that 'this that they call organizing of labor is, if well understood, the problem of the whole future for all who will, in future pretend to govern men;' but it is only now that politicians are beginning to recognize that it is the most important piece of work which lies immediately before them. Like the Bishop of Durham, I believe 'that the unequal heritage which we enjoy, containing as it does, the common enjoyment of the highest forces for inspiring and disciplining a generous character, not only prepares us to face the problem of the organization of industry as a fellowship of service, but lays on us the obligation of doing so. The life of nations is a mission no less than the life of men, and unless the teaching of history misleads us, this is part of the mission of England. May the will answer to the call. Men upon the whole are what they can be—nations what they would.'"

"Hitze (Die Quintessenz der Socialen Fragen) has truly said that the problem of the day is, 'To find a social organization corresponding to the modern conditions of production, as the social organization of the Middle Ages corresponded with the simple conditions of


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/238

 226 be safe, because it is not a speculative progress, but one which is guided in its line of movement by precedent changes of environment.

Regarding, then, this conscious organized endeavor, enlightened and stimulated by a fuller understanding of industrial forces in their relation to human life, as a determinant of growing value in the industrial evolution of the future, it may properly belong to a scientific study of modern industry to seek to discover how the forces of conscious reform can reasonably work in relation to the economic forces whose operations have been already investigated.

"In other words, what are the chief lines of economic change required to bring about a readjustment between modern methods of production and social welfare? The answer to this question requires us to amplify our interpretation of the industrial evolution of the past century by producing into the future the same lines of development that they may be justified by the appearance of consisting with some rational social end. The most convenient, and perhaps the safest way to meet this demand is to indicate, with that modesty which rightly belongs to prophecy, some of the main reforms which seem to lie upon the road of industrial progress, rendered subordinate to larger human social ends."

The proposition made above with reference to Hobson's idealism is equally true of Von Halle (vide p. 141.). "No definite judgment about the trust question is possible as yet. It is too recent, and its phases undergo rapid and constant changes. But one thing is certain, the mere form of organization is irrelevant—possibly effect, surely not cause. Armour, or Chicago gas companies, or sugar trust; Carnegie, or the separated Standard Oil Conipanies under uniform management, or the American Cotton Oil Company—the form of ownership is of a secondary importance economically. The issue proper is, and will be for the near future, shall it be small or large undertakings, or to what extent shall there be compromises between them?

In the United States, public opinion has to decide finally about the meaning and nature of things. It will not be able, in the long run, to lean upon mere theories and maxims; it will be forced by the actual development to undergo changes, to reform and to remodel itself in correspondence with the great laws of historical progress. The old ideas about the infallibility and exclusive desirability of individual and unrestricted activity have begun to fade. The masses still adhere to them, and are supported therein by the newspapers and politicians


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/242

 230 of Labor, and that 29.71 per cent, of the 4,700,000 engaged in mechanical and manufacturing industries are in labor organizations. The percentage is nearer ten. Sidney Webb, after exhaustive investigation, holds that the far better organized workers of Great Britain, the trade unionists number only about 20 per cent, of even the adult male manual working class. These few errors, however, do not materially lessen the value of the book, which deserves a wide reading. We need more writers of the liberal views, generous sympathies and wide research of Carroll D. Wright.

Aspects of the Social Problem. Edited by Author:Bernard Bosanquet. Macmillan & Co., 1895. viii + 332 pp. $1.00. " the public mind is full of the problems of social reform, it is remarkable how little literature, combining trained observation in the social field with reasonable theory, is available for the general reader. The present volume of studies has been brought together with the view of helping to fill this gap, and of indicating, however imperfectly, the sort of work by which it should further be filled. The contributors may claim that they have all attempted to qualify as social students in two definite ways. They all possess prolonged and systematic experience in practical efforts to improve the condition of the poor, and they have all paid careful attention to the methods and principles of social reform. Their studies, written on different occasions, with different purposes, and drawn from different fields of observation, appear, when compared together, to have a single principle at their root. The writers have seen and felt as well as reflected that the individual member of society is above all things a character and a will, and that society as a whole is a structure in which will and character 'are the blocks with which we build.'" The writers, realize the aim thus expressed in the preface. The volume is fragmentary, but well executed, and will interest the general public. About half the papers bear on the theory and method of social reform, and the remainder are a record of social fact as observed especially in London and among the poor.


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/235

 Rh to coordinate or integrate their effective components so as to be able to form some idea of the resulting organization. . . . The object kept in view has been to show that the various parts of the labor movement have common components, and that they are developing an organization of industry which will meet the conditions necessary for efficiency and for the welfare of the community. . . . The book will have served its purpose ... if it has indicated the manner in which social problems should be studied before changes in administration and legislation are attempted. . . . At the same time it must be remembered that the organization of labor is only one element, although no doubt a very important one, in the more general problem of the organization of society, which I shall consider in another volume." (Preface, pp. x-xi.)

Hobson's more restricted problem is stated by him as follows: "The method here adopted is to take for our intellectual objective one important factor in modern industrial movements, to study the laws of its development and activity, and by observing the relations which subsist between it and other leading factors or forces in industry to obtain some clearer appreciation and understanding of the structure of industry as a whole, and its relation to the evolution of human society. This central factor is indicated by the descriptive title peculiarly applied to modern industry, 'Capitalism.'" (P. 4).

Von Halle, as his title definitely indicates, confines his inquiry to a still more specific problem, viz., those combinations of capitalistic industry in the United States, which are known as "Trusts." (Introd. p. xiii.)

Taken together, these three volumes may be of great present service not merely as guides to the study of particular contemporary conditions, but as aids to the development, tentatively at least, of statical and dynamic portions of social philosophy. Mr. Dyer is not afraid of being written down as unscientific for reflecting upon a future or ideal social order, indicated in certain traits at least, in discoverable social potencies. This is the more gratifying from the fact that his training as a civil engineer cannot be charged with tendency to create a bias toward impractical abstract speculation. Mr. Dyer begins his preface as follows:

"Goethe prophesied that the great problems at the end of the nineteenth century would be the organization of mechanical industry, and the social and economic questions connected therewith. This prophecy


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/237

 Rh then existing both in town and country; and it is this problem in its industrial aspects of which I have attempted to indicate what I believe to be the nature of the solution. Both history and science show us that social and economic changes, to be permanent, must be gradual, and fitted to the mental and moral conditions of the people. I believe, therefore, that the solution of the problem I have mentioned will not be brought about by a revolution, or a brand-new organization, but by the evolution of movements at present going on, and by the development of intellectual and moral training.'"

Mr. Dyer's conception of scientific idealism appears more in detail in his first chapter, which contains important suggestions in methodology.

Hobson's idealism is less apparent, but it is implied in the whole tenor of his investigation, and it has the same scientific sanctions which Mr. Dyer claims.

Thus (pp. 351 sq.): "Modern industrial societies have hitherto secured to a very inadequate extent the services which modern machinery and methods of production are capable of rendering. The actual growth of material wealth, however great, has been by no means commensurate with the enormously increased powers of producing material commodities afforded by the discoveries of modern science, and the partial utilization of these discoveries has been attended by a very unequal distribution of the advantages of this increase in the stock of common knowledge and control of nature. Moreover, as an offset against the growth of material wealth, machinery has been a direct agent in producing certain material and moral maladies which impair the health of modern industrial communities.

"The unprecedented rapidity and irregularity of the discovery and adoption of the new methods make it impossible for the structure of industrial society to adjust itself at once to the conditions of the new environment. The maladies and defects which we detect in modern industry are but the measure of a present maladjustment.

"The progessive adjustment of a structure to environment in the unconscious or low conscious world is necessarily slow. But where the conscious will of man, either as an individual or as a society, can be utilized for an adjusting force, the pace of progress may be indefinitely quickened. . . . A society which should bring its conscious will to bear upon the work of constructing new industrial forms to fit the new economic conditions, may make a progress which, while rapid, may yet


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/239

 Rh who prefer popularity to thoroughness and thought, and by the cheap economics of old-fashioned every-day economists, who are not able to perceive that, since the time of their youth, there has been any change or progress in practical life as well as in the scientific interpretation of it. But whosoever tries to understand the times, at once perceives the different character of modern problems and the necessity of new standards of judgment."

Our limitations permit, finally, brief reference to the conclusions proposed as a result of these parallel applications of an economic method. The title of Dyer's final chapter—"Industrial Integration"—may be understood as his term for what actually is in progress, in which he sees certain amelioration of industrial conditions, and in the conscious guidance of which he predicts the largest practical social gains. (Vide pp. 255 sq., esp. pp. 294 sq.)

Hobson takes an equally optimistic view of social possibilities, but pins his faith to somewhat different factors. Thus (pp. 352 sq.) "The complete breakdown of all barriers which impede the free flow of commerce and the migration of capital and labor, the fullest and widest dissemination of industrial information, are necessary to the attainment of the individualistic ideal of free trade. Perfect transparency of industrial operations, perfect fluidity of labor and of wealth, would effect incalculably great economies in the production of commercial wealth."

But, continues Mr. Hobson, "We shall secure such progress as shall abate the evils of our present condition, and secure for humanity the uses of machinery only by gains in two directions: (1) an adequate social control over machinery, (2) an education in the arts of consumption such as may assign proper limits to the sphere of machine production" (p. 355.). Mr. Hobson's development of the latter proposition is very much in the spirit of Ruskin; thus the author of Unto This Last might have written the paragraphs upon the themes: "It is to improved quality and character of consumption that we can alone look for a guarantee of social progress" (p. 368); and "It is hardly too much to say that the whole of social progress depends upon the substitution of qualitative for quantitative methods of consumption" (p. 373 sq.)

Von Halle is less explicit, except when he concludes that "the repeal of the present anti-trust legislation seems desirable" (p. 147.). He is apparently quite as confident however, that we are surely


text:
Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/241

 Rh by our author with illustrations of how much invention, as in electricity and rubber manufacture, increases the demand for labor, and with statistics showing that while the population increased 62.41 per cent, from 1870 to 1890, the number of persons in all occupations increased 81.8 per cent.

May it not be, however, that our immigration has brought us an unnatural enlargement of adults of working age and that this, together with the increase of women, and in some states children wage-workers, accounts for the different ratios of increase? Anyway, a study of the relative increase of native adult workers as compared with the total native population would be most interesting in this connection.

The well-known claim of Bastiat and Atkinson that the wage-worker gets an increasing share of an increasing product is disproved by the census figures, in so far as these are reliable. As Colonel Wright says, these figures show that in 1850, 51 percent, of the net value of our manufacturing product went to wages, and in 1890 45 per cent. This is partly accounted for by the fact that though interest rates are falling, the average amount of capital required for $100 of product increased from $52.32 in 1850 to $69.62 in 1890, or 33 per cent. This is a remarkable confirmation of the theory of Professor John B. Clark, that with private ownership of capital, the chief way in which labor can get an increasing absolute wage is through increase of capital, which will mean a decreasing relative share for the wage-worker. Colonel Wright's chapters, which are well illustrated by cuts of industrial processes, close with a brief but good account of some salient features in the history of American labor organizations and strikes, including the Chicago strike of 1 894, and of Massachusetts factory legislation. The latter is not fully brought up to date.

The Knights of Labor is reported as now having 150,000 members. It is doubtful if there are one-fourth of this number who are keeping up their dues or are in any substantial way assisting the order. The American Railway Union is spoken of as having an alleged membership of 150,000 both before and since the strike. In June 1894, only 24,868 were reported by the officers as having paid their dues, though more were recognized as members and were expected soon to pay. The entire number could hardly have exceeded 100,000 at any time, much less now.

Colonel Wright also errs in supposing that the railway brotherhoods and some other unions quoted are members of the American


text:
Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/25

F shapes transformde to bodies straunge, I purpose to entreate, Ye gods vouchsafe (for you are they ywrought this wondrous feate) To further this mine enterprise. And from the world begunne, Graunt that my verse may to my time, his course directly runne. Before the Sea and Lande were made, and Heaven that all doth hide, In all the worlde one onely face of nature did abide, Which Chaos hight, a huge rude heape, and nothing else but even A heavie lump and clottred clod of seedes togither driven, Of things at strife among themselves, for want of order due. No sunne as yet with lightsome beames the shapelesse world did vew. No Moone in growing did repayre hir hornes with borowed light. Nor yet the earth amiddes the ayre did hang by wondrous slight Just peysed by hir proper weight. Nor winding in and out Did Amphitrytee with hir armes embrace the earth about. For where was earth, was sea and ayre, so was the earth unstable. The ayre all darke, the sea likewise to beare a ship unable. No kinde of thing had proper shape, but ech confounded other. For in one selfesame bodie strove the hote and colde togither, The moist with drie, the soft with hard, the light with things of weight. This strife did God and Nature breake, and set in order streight. The earth from heaven, the sea from earth, he parted orderly, And from the thicke and foggie ayre, he tooke the lightsome skie. Which when he once unfolded had, and severed from the blinde And clodded heape, he setting eche from other did them binde In endlesse friendship to agree. The fire most pure and bright, The substance of the heaven it selfe, bicause it was so light Did mount aloft, and set it selfe in highest place of all. The second roume of right to ayre, for lightnesse did befall. The earth more grosse drew down with it eche weighty kinde of matter, And set it selfe in lowest place. Againe, the waving water Did lastly chalenge for his place, the utmost coast and bound, Of all the compasse of the earth, to close the stedfast ground. Now when he in this foresaid wise (what God so ere he was)

title: Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/25


text:
Page:South Carolina Declaration and Ordinance of Secession.djvu/6

 and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments—Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defence, they united their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first article, "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."

Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on, and on the 3d September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definitive Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the Independence of the Colonies in the following terms:


text:
Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/26

Rh Had broke and into members put this rude confused masse, Then first bicause in every part, the earth should equall bee, He made it like a mighty ball, in compasse as we see. And here and there he cast in seas, to whome he gave a lawe: To swell with every blast of winde, and every stormie flawe. And with their waves continually to beate upon the shore, Of all the earth within their boundes enclosde by them afore. Moreover, Springs and mighty Meeres and Lakes he did augment, And flowing streames of crooked brookes in winding bankes he pent. Of which the earth doth drinke up some, and some with restlesse race Do seeke the sea: where finding scope of larger roume and space, In steade of bankes, they beate on shores. He did commaund the plaine And champion groundes to stretch out wide: and valleys to remaine Aye underneath: and eke the woods to hide them decently With tender leaves: and stonie hilles to lift themselves on hie. And as two Zones doe cut the Heaven upon the righter side, And other twaine upon the left likewise the same devide, The middle in outragious heat exceeding all the rest: Even so likewise through great foresight to God it seemed best, The earth encluded in the same should so devided bee, As with the number of the Heaven, hir Zones might full agree. Of which the middle Zone in heate, the utmost twaine in colde Exceede so farre, that there to dwell no creature dare be bolde. Betweene these two so great extremes, two other Zones are fixt, Where temprature of heate and colde indifferently is mixt. Now over this doth hang the Ayre, which as it is more fleightie Than earth or water: so againe than fire it is more weightie. There hath he placed mist and cloudes, and for to feare mens mindes, The thunder and the lightning eke, with colde and blustring windes. But yet the maker of the worlde permitteth not alway The windes to use the ayre at will. For at this present day, Though ech from other placed be in sundry coasts aside, The violence of their boystrous blasts, things scarsly can abide. They so turmoyle as though they would the world in pieces rende, So cruell is those brothers wrath when that they doe contende. And therefore to the morning graye, the Realme of Nabathie, To Persis and to other lands and countries that doe lie

title: Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/26


text:
Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/27

Rh Farre underneath the Morning starre, did Eurus take his flight. Likewise the setting of the Sunne, and shutting in of night Belong to Zephyr. And the blasts of blustring Boreas raigne, in Scythia and in other landes set under Charles his waine. And unto Auster doth belong the coast of all the South, Who beareth shoures and rotten mistes, continuall in his mouth. Above all these he set aloft the cleare and lightsome skie, Without all dregs of earthly filth or grossenesse utterlie. The boundes of things were scarsly yet by him thus pointed out, But that appeared in the heaven, starres glistring all about, Which in the said confused heape had hidden bene before, And to th'intent with lively things eche Region for to store, The heavenly soyle, to Gods and Starres and Planets first he gave. The waters next both fresh and salt he let the fishes have. The suttle ayre to flickring fowles and birdes he hath assignde. The earth to beasts both wilde and tame of sundrie sort and kinde. Howbeit yet of all this while, the creature wanting was, Farre more devine, of nobler minde, which should the residue passe In depth of knowledge, reason, wit, and high capacitie, And which of all the residue should the Lord and ruler bee. Then eyther he that made the worlde, and things in order set, Of heavenly seede engendred Man: or else the earth as yet Yong, lustie, fresh, and in hir floures, and parted from the skie, But late before, the seede thereof as yet held inwardlie. The which Prometheus tempring straight with water of the spring, Did make in likenesse to the Gods that governe everie thing. And where all other beasts behold the ground with groveling eie, He gave to Man a stately looke replete with majestie. And willde him to behold the Heaven wyth countnance cast on hie, To marke and understand what things were in the starrie skie. And thus the earth which late before had neyther shape nor hew, Did take the noble shape of man, and was transformed new. Then sprang up first the golden age, which of it selfe maintainde The truth and right of every thing unforct and unconstrainde. There was no feare of punishment, there was no threatning lawe In brazen tables nayled up, to keepe the folke in awe. There was no man would crouch or creepe to Judge with cap in hand,

title: Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/27


text:
Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/28

Rh

They lived safe without a Judge, in everie Realme and lande. The loftie Pynetree was not hewen from mountaines where it stood, In seeking straunge and forren landes, to rove upon the flood. Men knew none other countries yet, than where themselves did keepe: There was no towne enclosed yet, with walles and diches deepe. No horne nor trumpet was in use, no sword nor helmet worne, The worlde was such, that souldiers helpe might easly be forborne. The fertile earth as yet was free, untoucht of spade or plough, And yet it yeelded of it selfe of every things inough. And men themselves contented well with plaine and simple foode, That on the earth of natures gift without their travail stoode, Did live by Raspis, heppes and hawes, by cornelles, plummes and cherries, By sloes and apples, nuttes and peares, and lothsome bramble berries, And by the acornes dropt on ground, from Joves brode tree in fielde. The Springtime lasted all the yeare, and Zephyr with his milde And gentle blast did cherish things that grew of owne accorde, The ground untilde, all kinde of fruits did plenteously afforde. No mucke nor tillage was bestowde on leane and barren land, To make the corne of better head, and ranker for to stand. Then streames ran milke, then streames ran wine, and yellow honny flowde From ech greene tree whereon the rayes of firie Phebus glowde. But when that into Lymbo once Saturnus being thrust, The rule and charge of all the worlde was under Ioue unjust, And that the silver age came in, more somewhat base than golde, More precious yet than freckled brasse, immediatly the olde And auncient Spring did Jove abridge, and made therof anon, Foure seasons: Winter, Sommer, Spring, and Autumne off and on: Then first of all began the ayre with fervent heate to swelt. Then Isycles hung roping downe: then for the colde was felt Men gan to shroud themselves in house. Their houses were the thickes, And bushie queaches, hollow caves, or hardels made of stickes. Then first of all were furrowes drawne, and corne was cast in ground. The simple Oxe with sorie sighes, to heavie yoke was bound. Next after this succeded streight, the third and brazen age: More hard of nature, somewhat bent to cruell warres and rage. But yet not wholy past all grace. Of yron is the last In no part good and tractable as former ages past.

title: Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/28