VIII
“Sans nul doute, l’avenir est a la bête de métal.” People regret the age of the machine: I cannot do so. A well-made machine, in which are struck into life the dreams of its designer, is a vital, individual creation.
A flying machine designed by a man with a sense of flight is more faithful and far more intelligent than a horse or a dog. Thoughts are reflected in it, the careful skill of the executant is expressed in its every component. It is sensitive and quick to feel roughness or gentleness in the hand of him who controls it. Its moods are without number, and it can surprise, please, and irritate. It is susceptible to being coaxed, and it enjoys obeying one whose orders are firmly given. But it can be treacherous to the weak or to one who does not try to understand it or who is persistently cruel to it.
At present there is a tendency to knock the life out of the machine, to subdue it to the level of tooth paste and tin cans. If that tendency makes headway, the flying-machine of the future must lose its individuality, and the age of the machine may eventually prove to be a dark age.