CHAPTER IV.
JOHN LOMBE: INTRODUCER OF THE SILK INDUSTRY INTO ENGLAND.
"By Commerce are acquired the two things which wise men accompt of all others the most necessary to the well-being of a Commonwealth: That is to say, a general Industry of Mind and Hardiness of Body, which never fail to be accompanyed with Honour and Plenty.

So that, questionless, when Commerce does not flourish, as well as other Professions, and when Particular Persons out of a habit of Laziness neglect at once the noblest way of employing their time and the fairest occasion for advancing their fortunes, that Kingdom, though otherwise never so glorious, wants something of being compleatly happy."-- A Treatise touching the East India Trade (1695).
Industry puts an entirely new face upon the productions of nature.

By labour man has subjugated the world, reduced it to his dominion, and clothed the earth with a new garment.

The first rude plough that man thrust into the soil, the first rude axe of stone with which he felled the pine, the first rude canoe scooped by him from its trunk to cross the river and reach the greener fields beyond, were each the outcome of a human faculty which brought within his reach some physical comfort he had never enjoyed before.
Material things became subject to the influence of labour.

From the clay of the ground, man manufactured the vessels which were to contain his food.