Page 328 - women-in-love

earth. His mind was obedient to serve his will. Man’s will
was the absolute, the only absolute.
And it was his will to subjugate Matter to his own ends.
The subjugation itself was the point, the fight was the be-all,
the fruits of victory were mere results. It was not for the sake
of money that Gerald took over the mines. He did not care
about money, fundamentally. He was neither ostentatious
nor luxurious, neither did he care about social position, not
finally. What he wanted was the pure fulfilment of his own
will in the struggle with the natural conditions. His will was
now, to take the coal out of the earth, profitably. The profit
was merely the condition of victory, but the victory itself
lay in the feat achieved. He vibrated with zest before the
challenge. Every day he was in the mines, examining, test-
ing, he consulted experts, he gradually gathered the whole
situation into his mind, as a general grasps the plan of his
campaign.
Then there was need for a complete break. The mines
were run on an old system, an obsolete idea. The initial
idea had been, to obtain as much money from the earth as
would make the owners comfortably rich, would allow the
workmen sufficient wages and good conditions, and would
increase the wealth of the country altogether. Gerald’s fa-
ther, following in the second generation, having a sufficient
fortune, had thought only of the men. The mines, for him,
were primarily great fields to produce bread and plenty for
all the hundreds of human beings gathered about them.
He had lived and striven with his fellow owners to bene-
fit the men every time. And the men had been benefited in

328 Women in Love