It finds them like wheels which are driven by an eternal stream, and which must turn and turn for ever, until they fall to pieces.

To inquire, then, what would happen if labour ceased to exert itself is like inquiring what would happen if the earth were to retard its diurnal motion, or if some natural force--for example, that of gravitation--were to strike work for the sake of intimidating the cause of all things.

Such suppositions are for practical purposes meaningless.

But with the directive ability of the few, as opposed to the directed labour of the many, the case is dramatically different.

For while there never can be any question of the directive faculties of the few being left alone in a world where there is no labour--for in the case of the majority, nature, the eternal taskmaster, will always make labour compulsory, so long as stomachs want food and naked backs want clothing--there constantly has been, and there may be again, a question of whether this mass of ordinary human labour shall find any exceptional ability so developed and so organised as to direct it.