162 ON THE DIVISION OF MENTAL LABOUR.

If now only those divisions struck or pointed at bythe clock C be attended to and written down, it willbe found that they produce the series of the squaresof the natural numbers. Such a series could, ofcourse, be carried by this mechanism only so far asthe three first figures ; but this may be sufficient togive some idea of the construction, and was, in fact,the point to which the first model of the calculating-engine, now in progress, extended.

(192.) We have seen, then, that the effect of thedivision of labour, both in mechanical and in mentalprocesses, is, that it enables us to purchase and applyto each process precisely that quantity of skill andknowledge which is required for it: we avoid em-ploying any part of the time of a man who can geteight or ten shillings a day by his skill in temperingneedles, in turning a wheel, which can be done forsixpence a day; and we equally avoid the lossarising from the-employment of an accomplishedmathematician in^performing ihe lowest processes ofarithmetic.

(193.) The division of labour cannot be success-fully practised unless there exists a great demandfor its produce ; and it requires larger capital to beemployed in those arts in which it is used. Inwatchmaking it has been carried, perhaps, to thecrreatest extent. In an examination before a com-mittee of the House of Commons , it was statedthat there are a hundred and two distinct branchesof this art, to each of which a boy may be putapprentice; and that he only learns his master’sdepartment, and is unable, after his apprenticeshiphas expired, without subsequent instruction, to work