Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/365

Rh 8. Author's self-consciousness.

9. Intrusive smartness—another form of self-consciousness.

How labour can be a proposition, and how a proposition can be payable it is not easy to say. The sentence seems to mean: 'to introduce...labour on a large scale and make it pay'. This is what comes of a fondness for abstracts.

This perhaps means: 'They have not yet discovered how our unrivalled resources may be made to ensure our safety'.