Macaulay On Labor
Story★★★★Lord Macaulay said m one of his Parliamentary speeches, “That (\a\ is not lost while industry is suspended, while the plough lies in the furrow, while the Exchange is silent, while no smokeascends from the factory; a pnncss is going on quite as important to the wealth of nations as any process which is performed on more busy days. Man, the machine ot machines, the machine compared with which all the contrivances of the Watts and the Arkwrights are worthless, is repairing and winding up, so that he returns to his labours on the Monday with clearer intellect, with livelier spirits, with renewed corporeal vigour. Therefore it is that we are not poorer, but richer, because we have through many ages rested from our labour one day in seven.”
The point
Lord Macaulay argued in Parliament that rest one day in week makes nations richer, not poorer, because it allows human renewal—the mind and body repair themselves for more productive labor.