1G THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

obliged to attempt it, will scarce, I am assured, be able tomake above two or three hundred nails in a day, and thosetoo very bad ones. A smith who has been accustomed tomake nails, but whose sole or principal business has not beenthat of a nailer, can seldom with his utmost diligence makemore than eight hundred or a thousand nails in a day. I haveseen several boys under twenty years of age who had neverexercised any other trade but that of making nails, and who,when they exerted themselves, could make, each of them, up-wards of two thousand three hundred nails in a day. Themaking of a nail, however, is by no means one of the simplestoperations. The same person blows the bellows, stirs ormends the fire as there is occasion, heats the iron, and forgesevery part of the nail: in forging the head too he is obligedto change his tools. The different operations into which themaking of a pin, or of a metal button, is subdivided, are allof them much more simple, and the dexterity of the person,of whose life it has been the sole business to perform them, isusually much greater. The rapidity with which some of theoperations of those manufactures are performed exceeds whatthe human hand could, by those who had never seen them, besupposed capable of acquiring.

Secondly, the advantage which is gained by saving the timecommonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another,is much greater than we should at first view be apt to ima-gine it. It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kindof work to another, that is carried on in a different place,and with quite different tools. A country weaver, who cul-tivates a small farm, must lose a good deal of time in passingfrom his loom to the field, and from the field, to his loom.When the two trades can be carried on in the same work-nouse, the loss of time is no doubt much less. It is even in.this case, however, very considerable. A man commonlysaunters a little in turning his hand from one sort of employ-ment to another. When he first begins the new work he isseldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, doesnot go to it, and for some time he rather trifles than appliesto good purpose. The habit of sauntering and of indolentcareless application, which is naturally, or rather necessarily,acquired by every country workman who is obliged to changehis work and his tools every half hour, and to apply his handin twenty different ways almost every day of his life, rendershim almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable of any