Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/643

CHAPTER XXXVII THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION I. THE NEW AGE OF MACHINERY 866. A Revolution that changed the Life of Everyone. In the preceding chapters we have reviewed the startling changes and reforms introduced by the leaders of the French Revolution and by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the reconstruction of Europe at the Congress of Vienna. These were mainly the work of states- men, warriors, and diplomats. But a still more fundamental revo- lution than that which has been described had begun in England before the meeting of the Estates General. In studying the past we sometimes make the mistake of think- ing that the great mass of the people were taking part in the vari- ous wars and congresses. We need only recollect, however, that even during the recent World War the everyday life of the great majority of people in the United States who did not participate directly or indirectly in the conflict went on much as usual. So it must have been in the past. While statesmen discussed the distribution of territories and thrones almost everyone went about his work almost unconscious of the changes that were taking place. Whether Polish territory went to Prussia or Russia, or a Bourbon king sat on the throne of France or not, the labo- rious life of the farmer and workman remained much the same. We shall now turn our attention to a revolution which did alter the life of everyone. This revolution was the work of scientific men and patient inventors who set about to improve man's ways of living. These men never stirred an assembly by their fiery denunciation of evils, or led an army to victory, or conducted a clever diplomatic negotiation. On the contrary, their 487