Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/50

 healthy one enough. The projected railway may, for all that we know to the contrary, be a necessary undertaking. It may be designed to facilitate the transport of minerals and to bring a working population within reach of mines. In that case, to oppose the railway because the steam-whistle frightens the wild birds, disturbs the poet as he hunts for that difficult rhyme in the seventh line of his sonnet, or makes the artist drop his brush, would be to protect sentiment at the cost of the material prosperity of individuals, and the material prosperity of the country. Now, though the moralist may deny that material prosperity should be allowed to outweigh finer considerations, and though the artist may repine, there can be little doubt that in most cases the ordinary laws of economy must have their way. Suppose that there is a mine of pencil lead, for example, in the Valley of Ambleside, and suppose that this material is becoming rapidly exhausted, and perhaps even Mr. Ruskin would allow that a commodity so indispensable would have to be got at, even at the cost of a railway along the shores of Grasmere. Now, the country thinks that other minerals are at least as desirable as lead for drawing-pencils, and is determined to have them. It would scarcely be possible to oppose a railway constructed for the purposes indicated, and yet the results would be such as every lover of nature must regret. The streams of the Lake district are already black as ink, even near