,illustration3 ,,coniston ,,from ,a ,,photograph ,library ,edition ,,the ,,complete ,,works ,,of ,,john ,,ruskin ,,crown ,,of ,,wild ,,olive ,,time ,,and ,,tide ,,queen ,,of ,,the ,,air ,,lectures ,,on ,,art ,,and ,,landscape ,,aratra ,,pentelici ,,national ,,library ,,association ,,new ,,york ,,chicago ,,time ,,and ,,tide ,,by ,,weare ,,and ,,tyne ,,twenty-,,five ,,letters ,,to ,a ,,working ,,man ,,of ,,sunderland ,,on ,,the ,,laws ,,of ,,work4 ,,contents4 ,,page ,,preface ix ,,letter ,i4 ,,co-,,operation #a ,the two kinds of ,co-operation4--,in its highest sense it is not yet thought of4 ,,ii4 ,,contentment #d ,co-operation1 as hitherto understood1 is perhaps not expedient4 ,,iii4 ,,legislation #g ,of ,true ,legislation4--,that every ,man may be a ,law to himself4 ,,iv4 ,,expenditure #aa ,the ,expenses for ,art and for ,war4 ,v4 ,,entertainment #ac ,the ,corruption of ,modern ,pleasure4--7,covent ,garden ,pantomime47 ,,vi4 ,,dexterity #ah ,the ,corruption of ,modern ,pleasure4--7,the ,japanese ,jugglers47 ,,vii4 ,,festivity #bj ,of the ,various ,expressions of ,national ,festivity4 ,,viii4 ,,things ,,written #bb ,the ,four ,possible ,theories respecting the ,authority of the ,bible4 ,,ix4 ,,thanksgiving #bg ,the ,use of ,music and ,dancing under the ,jewish ,theocracy1 compared with their ,use by the ,modern ,french4 ,x4 ,,wheat-,,sifting #cb ,the ,meaning1 and ,actual ,operation1 of ,satanic or ,demoniacal ,influence4 ,,xi4 ,,the ,,golden ,,bough #ch ,the ,satanic ,power is mainly ,twofold3 the ,power of causing ,falsehood and the ,power of causing ,pain4 ,the ,resistance is by ,law of ,honor and ,law of ,delight4 ,,xii4 ,,dictatorship #da ,the ,necessity of ,imperative ,law to the ,prosperity of ,states4 ,,xiii4 ,,episcopacy ,,and ,,dukedom #de ,the ,proper ,offices of the ,bishop and ,duke2 or1 ,overseer and ,leader4 ,,xiv4 ,,trade-,,warrant #ea ,the ,first ,group of ,essential ,laws4--,against ,theft by ,false ,work1 and by ,bankruptcy4--,necessary ,publicity of ,accounts4 ,,xv4 ,,per-,,centage #ed ,the ,nature of ,theft by ,unjust ,profits4--,crime can finally be arrested only by ,education4 ,,xvi4 ,,education #ei ,of ,public ,education irrespective of ,class distinction4 ,it consists essentially in giving ,habits of ,mercy1 and ,habits of ,truth4 7,gentleness and ,justice47 ,,xvii4 ,,difficulties #ff ,the ,relations of ,education to ,position in ,life4 ,,xviii4 ,,humility #fh ,the harmful ,effects of ,servile ,employments4 ,the possible ,practice and ,exhibition of sincere ,humility by ,religious ,persons4 ,,xix4 ,,broken ,,reeds #gc ,the ,general ,pressure of ,excessive and ,improper ,work1 in ,english ,life4 ,,xx4 ,,rose-,,gardens #gh ,of ,improvidence in ,marriage in the ,middle ,classes2 and of the advisable ,restrictions of it4 ,,xxi4 ,,gentillesse #hc ,of the ,dignity of the ,four ,fine ,arts2 and of the ,proper ,system of ,retail ,trade4 ,,xxii4 ,,the ,,master #hh ,of the ,normal ,position and ,duties of the ,upper ,classes4 ,general ,statement of the ,land ,question4 ,,xxiii4 ,,landmarks #ic ,of the ,just ,tenure of ,lands2 and the ,proper ,functions of high ,public ,officers4 ,,xxiv4 ,,the ,,rod ,,and ,,honeycomb #aja ,the ,office of the ,soldier4 ,,xxv4 ,,hyssop #ajh ,of inevitable ,distinction of ,rank1 and necessary ,submission to ,authority4 ,the ,meaning of ,pure-,heartedness4 ,conclusion4 ,,appendices4 ,,appendix ,,page ,i4 ,expenditure on ,science and ,art #aai ,,ii4 ,legislation of ,frederick the ,great #abj ,,iii4 ,effect of ,modern ,entertainments on the ,mind of ,youth #abd ,,iv4 ,drunkenness as the ,cause of ,crime #abd ,v4 ,abuse of ,food #abf ,,vi4 ,regulations of ,trade #abh ,,vii4 ,letter to the ,editor of the ,pall ,mall ,gazette #acj ,,preface4 ,the following ,letters were written to ,mr4 ,thomas ,dixon1 a working cork-cutter of ,sunderland1 during the agitation for ,reform in the spring of the present year4 ,they contain1 in the plainest terms ,i could use1 the substance of what ,i then desired to say to our ,english workmen1 which was briefly this3--,the reform you desire may give you more influence in ,parliament2 but your influence there will of course be useless to you1--perhaps worse than useless1 until you have wisely made up your minds what you wish ,parliament to do for you2 and when you have made up your minds about that1 you will find1 not only that you can do it for yourselves1 without the intervention of ,parliament2 but that eventually nobody but yourselves can do it4 ,and to help you1 as far as one of your old friends may1 in so making up your minds1 such and such things are what it seems to me you should ask for1 and1 moreover1 strive for with your heart and might4 ,the letters now published relate only to one division of the laws which ,i desired to recommend to the consideration of our operatives1--those1 namely1 bearing upon honesty of work1 and honesty of exchange4 ,i hope in the course of next year that ,i may be able to complete the second part of the series1 ,i could not2 but ',fors ,clavigera' is now 7#ahgb7 answering the same end3 which will relate to the possible comforts and wholesome laws1 of familiar household life1 and the share which a laboring nation may attain in the skill1 and the treasures1 of the higher arts4 ,the letters are republished as they were written1 with1 here and there1 correction of a phrase1 and omission of one or two passages of merely personal or temporary interest2 the headings only are added1 in order to give the reader some clue to the general aim of necessarily desultory discussion2 and the portions of ,mr4 ,dixon's letters in reply1 referred to in the text1 are added in the ,appendix1 and will be found well deserving of attention4 ,,denmark ,,hill1 ,december #ad1 #ahfg4 ,,time ,,and ,,tide1 ,,by ,,weare ,,and ,,tyne4 ,,letter ,i4 ,,the ,,two ,,kinds ,,of ,,co-,,operation4--,,in ,,its ,,highest ,,sense ,,it ,,is ,,not ,,yet ,,thought ,,of4 ,,denmark ,,hill1 ,february #d1 #ahfg4 ,,my ,,dear ,,friend1 #a4 ,you have now everything ,i have yet published on political economy2 but there are several points in these books of mine which ,i intended to add notes to1 and it seems little likely ,i shall get that soon done4 ,so ,i think the best way of making up for the want of these is to write you a few simple letters1 which you can read to other people1 or send to be printed1 if you like1 in any of your journals where you think they may be useful4 ,i especially want you1 for one thing1 to understand the sense in which the word co-operation is used in my books4 ,you will find ,i am always pleading for it2 and yet ,i don't at all mean the co-operation of partnership 7as opposed to the system of wages7 which is now so gradually extending itself among our great firms4 ,i am glad to see it doing so1 yet not altogether glad3 for none of you who are engaged in the immediate struggle between the system of co-operation and the system of mastership know how much the dispute involves2 and none of us know the results to which it may finally lead4 ,for the alternative is not1 in reality1 only between two modes of conducting business--it is between two different states of society4 ,it is not the question whether an amount of wages1 no greater in the end than that at present received by the men1 may be paid to them in a way which shall give them share in the risks and interest in the prosperity of the business4 ,the question is1 really1 whether the profits which are at present taken1 as his own right1 by the person whose capital1 or energy1 or ingenuity1 has made him head of the firm1 are not in some proportion to be divided among the subordinates of it4 #b4 ,i do not wish1 for the moment1 to enter into any inquiry as to the just claims of capital1 or as to the proportions in which profits ought to be1 or are in actually existing firms1 divided4 ,i merely take the one assured and essential condition1 that a somewhat larger income will be in co-operative firms secured to the subordinates1 by the diminution of the income of the chief4 ,and the general tendency of such a system is to increase the facilities of advancement among the subordinates2 to stimulate their ambition2 to enable them to lay by1 if they are provident1 more ample and more early provision for declining years2 and to form in the end a vast class of persons wholly different from the existing operative3--members of society1 possessing each a moderate competence2 able to procure1 therefore1 not indeed many of the luxuries1 but all the comforts of life2 and to devote some leisure to the attainments of liberal education1 and to the other objects of free life4 ,on the other hand1 by the exact sum which is divided among them1 more than their present wages1 the fortune of the man who1 under the present system1 takes all the profits of the business1 will be diminished2 and the acquirement of large private fortune by regular means1 and all the conditions of life belonging to such fortune1 will be rendered impossible in the mercantile community4 #c4 ,now1 the magnitude of the social change hereby involved1 and the consequent differences in the moral relations between individuals1 have not as yet been thought of1--much less estimated1--by any of your writers on commercial subjects2 and it is because ,i do not yet feel able to grapple with them that ,i have left untouched1 in the books ,i send you1 the question of co-operative labor4 ,when ,i use the word co-operation1 it is not meant to refer to these new constitutions of firms at all4 ,i use the word in a far wider sense1 as opposed1 not to masterhood1 but to competition4 ,i do not mean1 for instance1 by co-operation1 that all the master bakers in a town are to give a share of their profits to the men who go out with the bread2 but that the masters are not to try to undersell each other1 nor seek each to get the other's business1 but are all to form one society1 selling to the public under a common law of severe penalty for unjust dealing1 and at an established price4 ,i do not mean that all bankers' clerks should be partners in the bank2 but ,i do mean that all bankers should be members of a great national body1 answerable as a society for all deposits2 and that the private business of speculating with other people's money should take another name than that of banking4 ,and1 for final instance1 ,i mean by co-operation not only fellowships between trading firms1 but between trading nations2 so that it shall no more be thought 7as it is now1 with ludicrous and vain selfishness7 an advantage for one nation to undersell another2 and take its occupation away from it2 but that the primal and eternal law of vital commerce shall be of all men understood--namely1 that every nation is fitted by its character1 and the nature of its territories1 for some particular employments or manufactures2 and that it is the true interest of every other nation to encourage it in such speciality1 and by no means to interfere with1 but in all ways forward and protect1 its efforts1 ceasing all rivalship with it1 so soon as it is strong enough to occupy its proper place4 ,you see1 therefore1 that the idea of co-operation1 in the sense in which ,i employ it1 has hardly yet entered into the minds of political inquirers2 and ,i will not pursue it at present2 but return to that system which is beginning to obtain credence and practice among us4 ,this1 however1 must be in a following letter4 ,,letter ,,ii4 ,,co-,,operation1 ,,as ,,hitherto ,,understood1 ,,is ,,perhaps ,,not ,,expedient4 ,february #d1 #ahfg4 #d4 ,limiting the inquiry1 then1 for the present1 as proposed in the close of my last letter1 to the form of co-operation which is now upon its trial in practice1 ,i would beg of you to observe that the points at issue1 in the comparison of this system with that of mastership1 are by no means hitherto frankly stated2 still less can they as yet be fairly brought to test4 ,for all mastership is not alike in principle2 there are just and unjust masterships2 and while1 on the one hand1 there can be no question but that co-operation is better than unjust and tyrannous mastership1 there is very great room for doubt whether it be better than a just and benignant mastership4 #e4 ,at present you--every one of you--speak1 and act1 as if there were only one alternative2 namely1 between a system in which profits shall be divided in due proportion among all2 and the present one1 in which the workman is paid the least wages he will take1 under the pressure of competition in the labor-market4 ,but an intermediate method is conceivable2 a method which appears to me more prudent1 and in its ultimate results more just1 than the co-operative one4 ,an arrangement may be supposed1 and ,i have good hope also may one day be effected1 by which every subordinate shall be paid sufficient and regular wages1 according to his rank2 by which due provision shall be made out of the profits of the business for sick and superannuated workers2 and by which the master1 being held responsible1 as a minor king or governor1 for the conduct as well as the comfort of all those under his rule1 shall1 on that condition1 be permitted to retain to his own use the surplus profits of the business which the fact of his being its master may be assumed to prove that he has organized by superior intellect and energy4 ,and ,i think this principle of regular wage-paying1 whether it be in the abstract more just1 or not1 is at all events the more prudent2 for this reason mainly1 that in spite of all the cant which is continually talked by cruel1 foolish1 or designing persons about the duty of remaining content in the position in which ,providence has placed you1 there is a root of the very deepest and holiest truth in the saying1 which gives to it such power as it still retains1 even uttered by unkind and unwise lips1 and received into doubtful and embittered hearts4 #f4 ,if1 indeed1 no effort be made to discover1 in the course of their early training1 for what services the youths of a nation are individually qualified2 nor any care taken to place those who have unquestionably proved their fitness for certain functions1 in the offices they could best fulfil1--then1 to call the confused wreck of social order and life brought about by malicious collision and competition1 an arrangement of ,providence1 is quite one of the most insolent and wicked ways in which it is possible to take the name of ,god in vain4 ,but if1 at the proper time1 some earnest effort be made to place youths1 according to their capacities1 in the occupations for which they are fitted1 ,i think the system of organization will be finally found the best1 which gives the least encouragement to thoughts of any great future advance in social life4 #g4 ,the healthy sense of progress1 which is necessary to the strength and happiness of men1 does not consist in the anxiety of a struggle to attain higher place1 or rank1 but in gradually perfecting the manner1 and accomplishing the ends1 of the life which we have chosen1 or which circumstances have determined for us4 ,thus1 ,i think the object of a workman's ambition should not be to become a master2 but to attain daily more subtle and exemplary skill in his own craft1 to save from his wages enough to enrich and complete his home gradually with more delicate and substantial comforts2 and to lay by such store as shall be sufficient for the happy maintenance of his old age 7rendering him independent of the help provided for the sick and indigent by the arrangement pre-supposed71 and sufficient also for the starting of his children in a rank of life equal to his own4 ,if his wages are not enough to enable him to do this1 they are unjustly low2 if they are once raised to this adequate standard1 ,i do not think that by the possible increase of his gains under contingencies of trade1 or by divisions of profits with his master1 he should be enticed into feverish hope of an entire change of condition2 and as an almost necessary consequence1 pass his days in an anxious discontent with immediate circumstances1 and a comfortless scorn of his daily life1 for which no subsequent success could indemnify him4 ,and ,i am the more confident in this belief1 because1 even supposing a gradual rise in social rank possible for all well-conducted persons1 my experience does not lead me to think the elevation itself1 when attained1 would be conducive to their happiness4 #h4 ,the grounds of this opinion ,i will give you in a future letter2 in the present one1 ,i must pass to a more important point--namely1 that if this stability of condition be indeed desirable for those in whom existing circumstances might seem to justify discontent1 much more must it be good and desirable for those who already possess everything which can be conceived necessary to happiness4 ,it is the merest insolence of selfishness to preach contentment to a laborer who gets thirty shillings a week1 while we suppose an active and plotting covetousness to be meritorious in a man who has three thousand a year4 ,in this1 as in all other points of mental discipline1 it is the duty of the upper classes to set an example to the lower2 and to recommend and justify the restraint of the ambition of their inferiors1 chiefly by severe and timely limitation of their own4 ,and1 without at present inquiring into the greater or less convenience of the possible methods of accomplishing such an object1 7every detail in suggestions of this kind necessarily furnishing separate matter of dispute17 ,i will merely state my long-fixed conviction1 that one of the most important conditions of a healthful system of social economy1 would be the restraint of the properties and incomes of the upper classes within certain fixed limits4 ,the temptation to use every energy in the accumulation of wealth being thus removed1 another1 and a higher ideal of the duties of advanced life would be necessarily created in the national mind2 by withdrawal of those who had attained the prescribed limits of wealth from commercial competition1 earlier worldly success1 and earlier marriage1 with all its beneficent moral results1 would become possible to the young2 while the older men of active intellect1 whose sagacity is now lost or warped in the furtherance of their own meanest interests1 would be induced unselfishly to occupy themselves in the superintendence of public institutions1 or furtherance of public advantage4 ,and out of this class it would be found natural and prudent always to choose the members of the legislative body of the ,commons2 and to attach to the order also some peculiar honors1 in the possession of which such complacency would be felt as would more than replace the unworthy satisfaction of being supposed richer than others1 which to many men is the principal charm of their wealth4 ,and although no law of this purport would ever be imposed on themselves by the actual upper classes1 there is no hindrance to its being gradually brought into force from beneath1 without any violent or impatient proceedings2 and this ,i will endeavor to show you in my next letter4 ,,letter ,,iii4 ,,of ,,true ,,legislation4 ,,that ,,every ,,man ,,may ,,be ,a ,,law ,,to ,,himself4 ,february #ag1 #ahfg4 #i4 ,no1 ,i have not been much worse in health2 but ,i was asked by a friend to look over some work in which you will all be deeply interested one day1 so that ,i could not write again till now4 ,i was the more sorry1 because there were several things ,i wished to note in your last letter2 one especially leads me directly to what ,i in any case was desirous of urging upon you4 ,you say1 ,in vol4 #fth of ',frederick the ,great' ,i find a great deal that ,i feel quite certain1 if our ,queen or ,government could make law1 thousands of our ,english workmen would hail with a shout of joy and gladness4 ,i do not remember to what you especially allude1 but whatever the rules you speak of may be1 unless there be anything in them contrary to the rights of present ,english property1 why should you care whether the ,government makes them law or not8 ,can you not1 you thousands of ,english workmen1 simply make them a law to yourselves1 by practising them8 ,it is now some five or six years since ,i first had occasion to speak to the members of the ,london ,working ,men's ,college on the subject of ,reform1 and the substance of what ,i said to them was this3 ,you are all agape1 my friends1 for this mighty privilege of having your opinions represented in ,parliament4 ,the concession might be desirable1--at all events courteous1--if only it were quite certain you had got any opinions to represent4 ,but have you8 ,are you agreed on any single thing you systematically want8 ,less work and more wages1 of course2 but how much lessening of work do you suppose is possible8 ,do you think the time will ever come for everybody to have no work and all wages8 ,or have you yet taken the trouble so much as to think out the nature of the true connection between wages and work1 and to determine1 even approximately1 the real quantity of the one1 that can1 according to the laws of ,god and nature1 be given for the other2 for1 rely on it1 make what laws you like1 that quantity only can you at last get4 #aj4 ,do you know how many mouths can be fed on an acre of land1 or how fast those mouths multiply8 and have you considered what is to be done finally with unfeedable mouths8 ',send them to be fed elsewhere1' do you say8 ,have you1 then1 formed any opinion as to the time at which emigration should begin1 or the countries to which it should preferably take place1 or the kind of population which should be left at home8 ,have you planned the permanent state which you would wish ,england to hold1 emigrating over her edges1 like a full well1 constantly8 ,how full would you have her be of people1 first8 and of what sort of people8 ,do you want her to be nothing but a large workshop and forge1 so that the name of ',englishman' shall be synonymous with 'ironmonger1' all over the world8 or would you like to keep some of your lords and landed gentry still1 and a few green fields and trees8 #aa4 ,you know well enough that there is not one of these questions1 ,i do not say which you can answer1 but which you have ever thought of answering2 and yet you want to have voices in ,parliament6 ,your voices are not worth a rat's squeak1 either in ,parliament or out of it1 till you have some ideas to utter with them2 and when you have the thoughts1 you will not want to utter them1 for you will see that your way to the fulfilling of them does not lie through speech4 ,you think such matters need debating about8 ,by all means debate about them2 but debate among yourselves1 and with such honest helpers of your thoughts as you can find2 if by that way you cannot get at the truth1 do you suppose you could get at it sooner in the ,house of ,commons1 where the only aim of many of the members would be to refute every word uttered in your favor2 and where the settlement of any question whatever depends merely on the perturbations of the balance of conflicting interests8 #ab4 ,that was1 in main particulars1 what ,i then said to the men of the ,working ,men's ,college2 and in this recurrent agitation about ,reform1 that is what ,i would steadfastly say again4 ,do you think it is only under the lacquered splendors of ,westminster1--you working men of ,england1--that your affairs can be rationally talked over8 ,you have perfect liberty and power to talk over1 and establish for yourselves1 whatever laws you please2 so long as you do not interfere with other people's liberties or properties4 ,elect a parliament of your own4 ,choose the best men among you1 the best at least you can find1 by whatever system of election you think likeliest to secure such desirable result4 ,invite trustworthy persons of other classes to join your council2 appoint time and place for its stated sittings1 and let this parliament1 chosen after your own hearts1 deliberate upon the possible modes of the regulation of industry1 and advisablest schemes for helpful discipline of life2 and so lay before you the best laws they can devise1 which such of you as were wise might submit to1 and teach their children to obey4 ,and if any of the laws thus determined appear to be inconsistent with the present circumstances or customs of trade1 do not make a noise about them1 nor try to enforce them suddenly on others1 nor embroider them on flags1 nor call meetings in parks about them1 in spite of railings and police2 but keep them in your thoughts and sight1 as objects of patient purpose and future achievement by peaceful strength4 #ac4 ,for you need not think that even if you obtained a majority of representatives in the existing parliament1 you could immediately compel any system of business1 broadly contrary to that now established by custom4 ,if you could pass laws to-morrow1 wholly favorable to yourselves1 as you might think1 because unfavorable to your masters1 and to the upper classes of society1--the only result would be that the riches of the country would at once leave it1 and you would perish in riot and famine4 ,be assured that no great change for the better can ever be easily accomplished1 or quickly2 nor by impulsive1 ill-regulated effort1 nor by bad men2 nor even by good men1 without much suffering4 ,the suffering must1 indeed1 come1 one way or another1 in all greatly critical periods2 the only question1 for us1 is whether we will reach our ends 7if we ever reach them7 through a chain of involuntary miseries1 many of them useless1 and all ignoble2 or whether we will know the worst at once1 and deal with it by the wisely sharp methods of ,godsped courage4 #ad4 ,this1 ,i repeat to you1 it is wholly in your own power to do1 but it is in your power on one condition only1 that of steadfast truth to yourselves1 and to all men4 ,if there is not1 in the sum of it1 honesty enough among you to teach you to frame1 and strengthen you to obey1 just laws of trade1 there is no hope left for you4 ,no political constitution can ennoble knaves2 no privileges can assist them2 no possessions enrich them4 ,their gains are occult curses2 comfortless loss their truest blessing2 failure and pain ,nature's only mercy to them4 ,look to it1 therefore1 first that you get some wholesome honesty for the foundation of all things4 ,without the resolution in your hearts to do good work1 so long as your right hands have motion in them2 and to do it whether the issue be that you die or live1 no life worthy the name will ever be possible to you1 while1 in once forming the resolution that your work is to be well done1 life is really won1 here and for ever4 ,and to make your children capable of such resolution1 is the beginning of all true education1 of which ,i have more to say in a future letter4 ,,letter ,,iv4 ,,the ,,expenses ,,for ,,art ,,and ,,for ,,war4 ,february #ai1 #ahfg4 #ae4 ,in the ',pall ,mall ,gazette' of yesterday1 second column of second page1 you will find1 close to each other1 two sentences which bear closely on matters in hand4 ,the first of these is the statement1 that in the debate on the grant for the ,blacas collection1 ,mr4 ,bernal ,osborne got an assenting cheer1 when he said that 'whenever science and art were mentioned it was a sign to look after the national pockets4' ,i want you to notice this fact1 i4 e41 7the debate in question being on a total grant of #afd1jjjl41 of which #dh1jjjl4 only were truly for art's sake1 and the rest for shop's sake17 in illustration of a passage in my ',sesame and ,lilies' 7pp4 #fi1 #gj of the small edition1 and pp4 #df1 #dg of ,vol4 ,i4 of the ,revised ,series of the ,entire ,works71,a to which ,i shall have again to refer you1 with some further comments1 in the sequel of these letters4 ,the second passage is to the effect that ,the ,trades' ,union ,bill was read a second time1 after a claim from ,mr4 ,hadfield1 ,mr4 ,osborne1 and ,mr4 ,samuelson1 to admit working men into the commission2 to which ,mr4 ,watkin answered 'that the working men's friend was too conspicuous in the body2' and ,mr4 ,roebuck1 'that when a butcher was tried for murder it was not necessary to have butchers on the jury4' ,a ,appendix ,i4 #af4 ,note this second passage with respect to what ,i said in my last letter1 as to the impossibility of the laws of work being investigated in the ,house of ,commons4 ,what admixture of elements1 think you1 would avail to obtain so much as decent hearing 7how should we then speak of impartial judgment87 of the cause of working men1 in an assembly which permits to one of its principal members this insolent discourtesy of language1 in dealing with a preliminary question of the highest importance2 and permits it as so far expressive of the whole color and tone of its own thoughts1 that the sentence is quoted by one of the most temperate and accurate of our daily journals1 as representing the total answer of the opposite side in the debate8 ,no6 be assured you can do nothing yet at ,westminster4 ,you must have your own parliament1 and if you cannot detect enough honesty among you to constitute a justly minded one1 for the present matters must take their course1 and that will be1 yet awhile1 to the worse4 #ag4 ,i meant to have continued this subject1 but ,i see two other statements in the ',pall ,mall ,gazette' of to-day1 with which1 and a single remark upon them1 ,i think it will be well to close my present letter4 7#a7 ,the total sum asked for in the army estimates1 published this morning1 is #ad1geb1bjjl41 being an increase of #dab1jjjl4 over the previous year4 7#b7 ,yesterday the annual account of the navy receipts and expenditure for the year ending #cast ,march1 #ahff1 was issued from the ,admiralty4 ,the expenditure was #aj1bfh1aael4 #gs4 ,omitting the seven shillings1 and even the odd hundred-thousands of pounds1 the net annual expenditure for army and navy appears to be twenty-four millions4 ,the grant in science and art1 two-thirds of which was not in reality for either1 but for amusement and shop interests in the ,paris ,exhibition--the grant which the ,house of ,commons feels to be indicative of general danger to the national pockets--is1 as above stated1 #afd1jjjl4 ,now1 ,i believe the three additional ciphers which turn thousands into millions produce on the intelligent ,english mind usually the effect of--three ciphers4 ,but calculate the proportion of these two sums1 and then imagine to yourself the beautiful state of rationality of any private gentleman1 who1 having regretfully spent #afdl4 on pictures for his walls1 paid willingly #bd1jjjl4 annually to the policeman who looked after his shutters6 ,you practical ,english6--will you ever unbar the shutters of your brains1 and hang a picture or two in those state-chambers8 ,,letter ,v4 ,,the ,,corruption ,,of ,,modern ,,pleasure4--7,,covent ,,garden ,,pantomime47 ,february #be1 #ahfg4 #ah4 ,there is this great advantage in the writing real letters1 that the direct correspondence is a sufficient reason for saying1 in or out of order1 everything that the chances of the day bring into one's head1 in connection with the matter in hand2 and as such things very usually go out of one's head again1 after they get tired of their lodging1 they would otherwise never get said at all4 ,and thus to-day1 quite out of order1 but in very close connection with another part of our subject1 ,i am going to tell you what ,i was thinking on ,friday evening last1 in ,covent ,garden ,theater1 as ,i was looking1 and not laughing1 at the pantomime of ',ali ,baba and the ,forty ,thieves4' ,when you begin seriously to consider the question referred to in my second letter1 of the essential1 and in the outcome inviolable1 connection between quantity of wages1 and quantity of work1 you will see that wages in the full sense don't mean pay merely1 but the reward1 whatever it may be1 of pleasure as well as profit1 and of various other advantages1 which a man is meant by ,providence to get during life1 for work well done4 ,even limiting the idea to pay1 the question is not so much what quantity of coin you get1 as--what you can get for it when you have it4 ,whether a shilling a day be good pay or not1 depends wholly on what a shilling's worth is2 that is to say1 what quantity of the things you want may be had for a shilling4 ,and that again depends1 and a great deal more than that depends1 on what you do want4 ,if only drink1 and foul clothes1 such and such pay may be enough for you2 if you want good meat and good clothes1 you must have larger wage2 if clean rooms and fresh air1 larger still1 and so on4 ,you say1 perhaps1 every one wants these better things4 ,so far from that1 a wholesome taste for cleanliness and fresh air is one of the final attainments of humanity4 ,there are now not many ,european gentlemen1 even in the highest classes1 who have a pure and right love of fresh air4 ,they would put the filth of tobacco even into the first breeze of a ,may morning4 #ai4 ,but there are better things even than these1 which one may want4 ,grant that one has good food1 clothes1 lodging1 and breathing1 is that all the pay one ought to have for one's work8 ,wholesome means of existence and nothing more8 ,enough1 perhaps1 you think1 if everybody could get these4 ,it may be so2 ,i will not1 at this moment1 dispute it2 nevertheless1 ,i will boldly say that you should sometimes want more than these2 and for one of many things more1 you should want occasionally to be amused6 ,you know1 the upper classes1 most of them1 want to be amused all day long4 ,they think ,one moment unamused a misery ,not made for feeble men4 ,perhaps you have been in the habit of despising them for this2 and thinking how much worthier and nobler it was to work all day1 and care at night only for food and rest1 than to do no useful thing all day1 eat unearned food1 and spend the evening1 as the morning1 in change of follies and relays of joy4 ,no1 my good friend1 that is one of the fatalest deceptions4 ,it is not a noble thing1 in sum and issue of it1 not to care to be amused4 ,it is indeed a far higher moral state1 but is a much lower creature state1 than that of the upper classes4 #bj4 ,yonder poor horse1 calm slave in daily chains at the railroad siding1 who drags the detached rear of the train to the front again1 and slips aside so deftly as the buffers meet2 and1 within eighteen inches of death every ten minutes1 fulfils his changeless duty all day long1 content1 for eternal reward1 with his night's rest1 and his champed mouthful of hay2--anything more earnestly moral and beautiful one cannot image--,i never see the creature without a kind of worship4 ,and yonder musician1 who used the greatest power which 7in the art he knew7 the ,father of spirits ever yet breathed into the clay of this world2--who used it1 ,i say1 to follow and fit with perfect sound the words of the ',zauberflte' and of ',don ,giovanni'--foolishest and most monstrous of conceivable human words and subjects of thought--for the future amusement of his race6--,no such spectacle of unconscious 7and in that unconsciousness all the more fearful7 moral degradation of the highest faculty to the lowest purpose can be found in history4 ,but ,mozart is nevertheless a nobler creature than the horse at the siding2 nor would it be the least nearer the purpose of his ,maker that he1 and all his frivolous audiences1 should evade the degradation of the profitless piping1 only by living1 like horses1 in daily physical labor for daily bread4 #ba4 ,there are three things to which man is born,a--labor1 and sorrow1 and joy4 ,each of these three things has its baseness and its nobleness4 ,there is base labor1 and noble labor4 ,there is base sorrow1 and noble sorrow4 ,there is base joy1 and noble joy4 ,but you must not think to avoid the corruption of these things by doing without the things themselves4 ,nor can any life be right that has not all three4 ,labor without joy is base4 ,labor without sorrow is base4 ,sorrow without labor is base4 ,joy without labor is base4 ,a ,i ask the reader's thoughtful attention to this paragraph1 on which much of what else ,i have to say depends4 #bb4 ,i dare say you think ,i am a long time in coming to the pantomime2 ,i am not ready to come to it yet in due course1 for we ought to go and see the ,japanese jugglers first1 in order to let me fully explain to you what ,i mean4 ,but ,i can't write much more to-day2 so ,i shall merely tell you what part of the play set me thinking of all this1 and leave you to consider of it yourself1 till ,i can send you another letter4 ,the pantomime was1 as ,i said1 ',ali ,baba and the ,forty ,thieves4' ,the forty thieves were girls4 ,the forty thieves had forty companions1 who were girls4 ,the forty thieves and their forty companions were in some way mixed up with about four hundred and forty fairies1 who were girls4 ,there was an ,oxford and ,cambridge boat-race1 in which the ,oxford and ,cambridge men were girls4 ,there was a transformation scene1 with a forest1 in which the flowers were girls1 and a chandelier1 in which the lamps were girls1 and a great rainbow which was all of girls4 #bc4 ,mingled incongruously with these seraphic1 and1 as far as my boyish experience extends1 novel1 elements of pantomime1 there were yet some of its old and fast-expiring elements4 ,there were1 in speciality1 two thoroughly good pantomime actors--,mr4 ,w4 ,h4 ,payne and ,mr4 ,frederick ,payne4 ,all that these two did1 was done admirably4 ,there were two subordinate actors1 who played1 subordinately well1 the fore and hind legs of a donkey4 ,and there was a little actress of whom ,i have chiefly to speak1 who played exquisitely the little part she had to play4 ,the scene in which she appeared was the only one in the whole pantomime in which there was any dramatic effort1 or1 with a few rare exceptions1 any dramatic possibility4 ,it was the home scene1 in which ,ali ,baba's wife1 on washing day1 is called upon by butcher1 baker1 and milkman1 with unpaid bills2 and in the extremity of her distress hears her husband's knock at the door1 and opens it for him to drive in his donkey1 laden with gold4 ,the children who have been beaten instead of getting breakfast1 presently share in the raptures of their father and mother2 and the little lady ,i spoke of1 eight or nine years old1--dances a pas-de-deux with the donkey4 #bd4 ,she did it beautifully and simply1 as a child ought to dance4 ,she was not an infant prodigy2 there was no evidence1 in the finish or strength of her motion1 that she had been put to continual torture through half her eight or nine years4 ,she did nothing more than any child well taught1 but painlessly1 might easily do4 ,she caricatured no older person1--attempted no curious or fantastic skill4 ,she was dressed decently1--she moved decently1--she looked and behaved innocently1--and she danced her joyful dance with perfect grace1 spirit1 sweetness1 and self-forgetfulness4 ,and through all the vast theater1 full of ,english fathers and mothers and children1 there was not one hand lifted to give her sign of praise but mine4 ,presently after this1 came on the forty thieves1 who1 as ,i told you1 were girls2 and1 there being no thieving to be presently done1 and time hanging heavy on their hands1 arms1 and legs1 the forty thief-girls proceeded to light forty cigars4 ,whereupon the ,british public gave them a round of applause4 ,whereupon ,i fell a thinking2 and saw little more of the piece1 except as an ugly and disturbing dream4 ,,letter ,,vi4 ,,the ,,corruption ,,of ,,modern ,,pleasure4--7,,the ,,japanese ,,jugglers47 ,february #bh1 #ahfg4 #be4 ,i have your pleasant letter with references to ,frederick4 ,i will look at them carefully4,a ,mr4 ,carlyle himself will be pleased to hear this letter when he comes home4 ,i heard from him last week at ,mentone4 ,he is well1 and glad of the light and calm of ,italy4 ,i must get back to the evil light and uncalm1 of the places ,i was taking you through4 ,a ,appendix #b4 7,parenthetically1 did you see the article in the ',times' of yesterday on bribery1 and the conclusion of the commission--,no one sold any opinions1 for no one had any opinions to sell87 ,both on ,thursday and ,friday last ,i had been tormented by many things1 and wanted to disturb my course of thought any way ,i could4 ,i have told you what entertainment ,i got on ,friday1 first1 for it was then that ,i began meditating over these letters2 let me tell you now what entertainment ,i found on ,thursday4 #bf4 ,you may have heard that a company of ,japanese jugglers has come over to exhibit in ,london4 ,there has long been an increasing interest in ,japanese art1 which has been very harmful to many of our own painters1 and ,i greatly desired to see what these people were1 and what they did4 ,well1 ,i have seen ,blondin1 and various ,english and ,french circus work1 but never yet anything that surprised me so much as one of these men's exercises on a suspended pole4 ,its special character was a close approximation to the action and power of the monkey2 even to the prehensile power in the foot2 so that ,i asked a sculptor-friend who sat in front of me1 whether he thought such a grasp could be acquired by practice1 or indicated difference in race4 ,he said he thought it might be got by practice4 ,there was also much inconceivably dexterous work in spinning of tops1--making them pass in balanced motion along the edge of a sword1 and along a level string1 and the like2--the father performing in the presence of his two children1 who encouraged him continually with short1 sharp cries1 like those of animals4 ,then there was some fairly good sleight-of-hand juggling of little interest2 ending with a dance by the juggler1 first as an animal1 and then as a goblin1 ,now1 there was this great difference between the ,japanese masks used in this dance and our common pantomime masks for beasts and demons1--that our ,english masks are only stupidly and loathsomely ugly1 by exaggeration of feature1 or of defect of feature4 ,but the ,japanese masks 7like the frequent monsters of ,japanese art7 were inventively frightful1 like fearful dreams2 and whatever power it is that acts on human minds1 enabling them to invent such1 appears to me not only to deserve the term demoniacal1 as the only word expressive of its character2 but to be logically capable of no other definition4 #bg4 ,the impression1 therefore1 produced upon me by the whole scene1 was that of being in the presence of human creatures of a partially inferior race1 but not without great human gentleness1 domestic affection1 and ingenious intellect2 who were1 nevertheless1 as a nation1 afflicted by an evil spirit1 and driven by it to recreate themselves in achieving1 or beholding the achievement1 through years of patience1 of a certain correspondence with the nature of the lower animals4 #bh4 ,these1 then1 were the two forms of diversion or recreation of my mind possible to me1 in two days1 when ,i needed such help1 in this metropolis of ,england4 ,i might1 as a rich man1 have had better music1 if ,i had so chosen1 though1 even so1 not rational or helpful2 but a poor man could only have these1 or worse than these1 if he cared for any manner of spectacle4 7,i am not at present1 observe1 speaking of pure acting1 which is a study1 and recreative only as a noble book is2 but of means of mere amusement47 ,now1 lastly1 in illustration of the effect of these and other such amusements1 and of the desire to obtain them1 on the minds of our youth1 read the ',times' correspondent's letter from ,paris1 in the tenth page of the paper1 to-day2,a and that will be quite enough for you to read1 for the present1 ,i believe4 ,a ,appendix #c4 ,,letter ,,vii4 ,,of ,,the ,,various ,,expressions ,,of ,,national ,,festivity4 ,march #d1 #ahfg4 #bi4 ,the subject which ,i want to bring before you is now branched1 and worse than branched1 reticulated1 in so many directions1 that ,i hardly know which shoot of it to trace1 or which knot to lay hold of first4 ,i had intended to return to those ,japanese jugglers1 after a visit to a theater in ,paris2 but ,i had better1 perhaps1 at once tell you the piece of the performance which1 in connection with the scene in the ,english pantomime1 bears most on matters in hand4 ,it was also a dance by a little girl--though one older than ,ali ,baba's daughter1 7,i suppose a girl of twelve or fourteen74 ,a dance1 so called1 which consisted only in a series of short1 sharp contractions and jerks of the body and limbs1 resulting in attitudes of distorted and quaint ugliness1 such as might be produced in a puppet by sharp twitching of strings at its joints3 these movements being made to the sound of two instruments1 which between them accomplished only a quick vibratory beating and strumming1 in nearly the time of a hearth-cricket's song1 but much harsher1 and of course louder1 and without any sweetness2 only in the monotony and unintended aimless construction of it1 reminding one of various other insect and reptile cries or warnings3 partly of the cicala's hiss2 partly of the little melancholy ,german frog which says ,mu1 mu1 mu1 all summer-day long1 with its nose out of the pools by ,dresden and ,leipsic2 and partly of the deadened quivering and intense continuousness of the alarm of the rattlesnake4 ,while this was going on1 there was a ,bible text repeating itself over and over again in my head1 whether ,i would or no3--,and ,miriam the prophetess1 the sister of ,aaron1 took a timbrel in her hand1 and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances4 ,to which text and some others1 ,i shall ask your attention presently2 but ,i must go to ,paris first4 #cj4 ,not at once1 however1 to the theater1 but to a bookseller's shop1 ,no4 #d1 ,rue ,voltaire1 where1 in the year #aheh1 was published the fifth edition of ,balzac's ',contes ,drlatiques1' illustrated by #dbe designs by ,gustave ,dor4 ,both text and illustrations are as powerful as it is ever in the nature of evil things to be 7there is no final strength but in rightness74 ,nothing more witty1 nor more inventively horrible1 has yet been produced in the evil literature1 or by the evil art1 of man3 nor can ,i conceive it possible to go beyond either in their specialities of corruption4 ,the text is full of blasphemies1 subtle1 tremendous1 hideous in shamelessness1 some put into the mouths of priests2 the illustrations are1 in a word1 one continuous revelry in the most loathsome and monstrous aspects of death and sin1 enlarged into fantastic ghastliness of caricature1 as if seen through the distortion and trembling of the hot smoke of the mouth of hell4 ,take this following for a general type of what they seek in death3 one of the most labored designs is of a man cut in two1 downwards1 by the sweep of a sword--one half of him falls toward the spectator2 the other half is elaborately drawn in its section--giving the profile of the divided nose and lips2 cleft jaw--breast--and entrails2 and this is done with farther pollution and horror of intent in the circumstances1 which ,i do not choose to describe--still less some other of the designs which seek for fantastic extreme of sin1 as this for the utmost horror of death4 ,but of all the #dbe1 there is not one1 which does not violate every instinct of decency and law of virtue or life1 written in the human soul4 #ca4 ,now1 my friend1 among the many ,signs of the ,times the production of a book like this is a significant one3 but it becomes more significant still when connected with the farther fact1 that ,m4 ,gustave ,dor1 the designer of this series of plates1 has just been received with loud acclaim by the ,british ,evangelical ,public1 as the fittest and most able person whom they could at present find to illustrate1 to their minds1 and recommend with grace of sacred art1 their hitherto unadorned ,bible for them4 ,of which ,bible1 and of the use we at present make of it in ,england1 having a grave word or two to say in my next letter 7preparatory to the examination of that verse which haunted me through the ,japanese juggling1 and of some others also71 ,i leave you first this sign of the public esteem of it to consider at your leisure4 ,,letter ,,viii4 ,,the ,,four ,,possible ,,theories ,,respecting ,,the ,,authority ,,of ,,the ,,bible4 ,march #g1 #ahfg4 #cb4 ,i have your yesterday's letter1 but must not allow myself to be diverted from the business in hand for this once1 for it is the most important of which ,i have to write to you4 ,you must have seen long ago that the essential difference between the political economy ,i am trying to teach1 and the popular science1 is1 that mine is based on presumably attainable honesty in men1 and conceivable respect in them for the interests of others1 while the popular science founds itself wholly on their supposed constant regard for their own1 and on their honesty only so far as thereby likely to be secured4 ,it becomes1 therefore1 for me1 and for all who believe anything ,i say1 a great primal question on what this presumably attainable honesty is to be based4 #cc4 ,is it to be based on religion8 you may ask4 ,are we to be honest for fear of losing heaven if we are dishonest1 or 7to put it as generously as we may7 for fear of displeasing ,god8 ,or1 are we to be honest on speculation1 because honesty is the best policy2 and to invest in virtue as in an undepreciable stock8 ,and my answer is--not in any hesitating or diffident way 7and you know1 my friend1 that whatever people may say of me1 ,i often do speak diffidently2 though1 when ,i am diffident of things1 ,i like to avoid speaking of them1 if it may be2 but here ,i say with no shadow of doubt7--your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy4 ,both your religion and policy must be based on it4 ,your honesty must be based1 as the sun is1 in vacant heaven2 poised1 as the lights in the firmament1 which have rule over the day and over the night4 ,if you ask why you are to be honest--you are1 in the question itself1 dishonored4 ,because you are a man1 is the only answer2 and therefore ,i said in a former letter that to make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education4 ,make them men first1 and religious men afterwards1 and all will be sound2 but a knave's religion is always the rottenest thing about him4 #cd4 ,it is not1 therefore1 because ,i am endeavoring to lay down a foundation of religious concrete1 on which to build piers of policy1 that you so often find me quoting ,bible texts in defense of this or that principle or assertion4 ,but the fact that such references are an offense1 as ,i know them to be1 to many of the readers of these political essays1 is one among many others1 which ,i would desire you to reflect upon 7whether you are yourself one of the offended or not71 as expressive of the singular position which the mind of the ,british public has at present taken with respect to its worshiped ,book4 ,the positions1 honestly tenable1 before ,i use any more of its texts1 ,i must try to define for you4 #ce4 ,all the theories possible to theological disputants respecting the ,bible are resolvable into four1 and four only4 7#a47 ,the first is that of the illiterate modern religious world1 that every word of the book known to them as ,the ,bible was dictated by the ,supreme ,being1 and is in every syllable of it ,his ,word4 ,this theory is of course tenable by no ordinarily well-educated person4 7#b47 ,the second theory is1 that1 although admitting verbal error1 the substance of the whole collection of books called the ,bible is absolutely true1 and furnished to man by ,divine inspiration of the speakers and writers of it2 and that every one who honestly and prayerfully seeks for such truth in it as is necessary for his salvation1 will infallibly find it there4 ,this theory is that held by most of our good and upright clergymen1 and the better class of the professedly religious laity4 7#c47 ,the third theory is that the group of books which we call the ,bible were neither written nor collected under any ,divine guidance1 securing them from substantial error2 and that they contain1 like all other human writings1 false statements mixed with true1 and erring thoughts mixed with just thoughts2 but that they nevertheless relate1 on the whole1 faithfully1 the dealings of the one ,god with the first races of man1 and ,his dealings with them in aftertime through ,christ3 that they record true miracles1 and bear true witness to the resurrection of the dead1 and the life of the world to come4 ,this is a theory held by many of the active leaders of modern thought4 7#d47 ,the fourth1 and last possible1 theory is that the mass of religious ,scripture contains merely the best efforts which we hitherto know to have been made by any of the races of men towards the discovery of some relations with the spiritual world2 that they are only trustworthy as expressions of the enthusiastic visions or beliefs of earnest men oppressed by the world's darkness1 and have no more authoritative claim on our faith than the religious speculations and histories of the ,egyptians1 ,greeks1 ,persians1 and ,indians2 but are1 in common with all these1 to be reverently studied1 as containing a portion1 divinely appointed1 of the best wisdom which human intellect1 earnestly seeking for help from ,god1 has hitherto been able to gather between birth and death4 ,this has been1 for the last half-century1 the theory of the soundest scholars and thinkers of ,europe4 #cf4 ,there is yet indeed one farther condition of incredulity attainable1 and sorrowfully attained1 by many men of powerful intellect--the incredulity1 namely1 of inspiration in any sense1 or of help given by any ,divine power to the thoughts of men4 ,but this form of infidelity merely indicates a natural incapacity for receiving certain emotions2 though many honest and good men belong to this insentient class4 #cg4 ,the educated men1 therefore1 who may be seriously appealed to1 in these days1 on questions of moral responsibility1 as modified by ,scripture1 are broadly divisible into three classes1 severally holding the last three theories above stated4 ,now1 whatever power a passage from the statedly authoritative portions of the ,bible may have over the mind of a person holding the fourth theory1 it will have a proportionately greater over that of persons holding the third or the second4 ,i1 therefore1 always imagine myself speaking to the fourth class of theorists4 ,if ,i can persuade or influence them1 ,i am logically sure of the others4 ,i say logically1 for the actual fact1 strange as it may seem1 is that no persons are so little likely to submit to a passage of ,scripture not to their fancy1 as those who are most positive on the subject of its general inspiration4 #ch4 ,addressing1 then1 this fourth class of thinkers1 ,i would say to them1 when asking them to enter on any subject of importance to national morals1 or conduct1 ,this book1 which has been the accepted guide of the moral intelligence of ,europe for some fifteen hundred years1 enforces certain simple laws of human conduct which you know have also been agreed upon1 in every main point1 by all the religious1 and by all the greatest profane writers1 of every age and country4 ,this book primarily forbids pride1 lasciviousness1 and covetousness2 and you know that all great thinkers1 in every nation of mankind1 have similarly forbidden these mortal vices4 ,this book enjoins truth1 temperance1 charity1 and equity2 and you know that every great ,egyptian1 ,greek1 and ,indian1 enjoins these also4 ,you know besides1 that through all the mysteries of human fate and history1 this one great law of fate is written on the walls of cities1 or in their dust2 written in letters of light1 and letters of blood1--that where truth1 temperance1 and equity have been preserved1 all strength1 and peace1 and joy have been preserved also2--that where lying1 lasciviousness1 and covetousness have been practised1 there has followed an infallible1 and1 for centuries1 irrecoverable ruin4 ,and you know1 lastly1 that the observance of this common law of righteousness1 commending itself to all the pure instincts of men1 and fruitful in their temporal good1 is by the religious writers of every nation1 and chiefly in this venerated ,scripture of ours1 connected with some distinct hope of better life1 and righteousness1 to come4 #ci4 ,let it not then offend you if1 deducing principles of action first from the laws and facts of nature1 ,i nevertheless fortify them also by appliance of the precepts1 or suggestive and probable teachings of this ,book1 of which the authority is over many around you1 more distinctly than over you1 and which1 confessing to be divine1 they1 at least1 can only disobey at their moral peril4 ,on these grounds1 and in this temper1 ,i am in the habit of appealing to passages of ,scripture in my writings on political economy2 and in this temper ,i will ask you to consider with me some conclusions which appear to me derivable from that text about ,miriam1 which haunted me through the jugglery2 and from certain others4 ,,letter ,,ix4 ,,the ,,use ,,of ,,music ,,and ,,dancing ,,under ,,the ,,jewish ,,theocracy1 ,,compared ,,with ,,their ,,use ,,by ,,the ,,modern ,,french4 ,march #aj1 #ahfg4 #dj4 ,having1 ,i hope1 made you now clearly understand with what feeling ,i would use the authority of the book which the ,british public1 professing to consider sacred1 have lately adorned for themselves with the work of the boldest violator of the instincts of human honor and decency known yet in art-history1 ,i will pursue by the help of that verse about ,miriam1 and some others1 the subject which occupied my mind at both theaters1 and to which1 though in so apparently desultory manner1 ,i have been nevertheless very earnestly endeavoring to lead you4 #da4 ,the going forth of the women of ,israel after ,miriam with timbrels and with dances1 was1 as you doubtless remember1 their expression of passionate triumph and thankfulness1 after the full accomplishment of their deliverance from the ,egyptians4 ,that deliverance had been by the utter death of their enemies1 and accompanied by stupendous miracle2 no human creatures could in an hour of triumph be surrounded by circumstances more solemn4 ,i am not going to try to excite your feelings about them4 ,consider only for yourself what that seeing of the ,egyptians dead upon the sea-shore meant to every soul that saw it4 ,and then reflect that these intense emotions of mingled horror1 triumph1 and gratitude were expressed1 in the visible presence of the ,deity1 by music and dancing4 ,if you answer that you do not believe the ,egyptians so perished1 or that ,god ever appeared in a pillar of cloud1 ,i reply1 ,be it so--believe or disbelieve1 as you choose2--,this is yet assuredly the fact1 that the author of the poem or fable of the ,exodus supposed that1 under such circumstances of ,divine interposition as he had invented1 the triumph of the ,israelitish women would have been1 and ought to have been1 under the direction of a prophetess1 expressed by music and dancing4 #db4 ,nor was it possible that he should think otherwise1 at whatever period he wrote2 both music and dancing being1 among all great ancient nations1 an appointed and very principal part of the worship of the gods4 ,and that very theatrical entertainment at which ,i sate thinking over these things for you--that pantomime1 which depended throughout for its success on an appeal to the vices of the lower ,london populace1 was1 in itself1 nothing but a corrupt remnant of the religious ceremonies which guided the most serious faiths of the ,greek mind1 and laid the foundation of their gravest moral and didactic--more forcibly so because at the same time dramatic--literature4 #dc4 ,returning to the ,jewish history1 you find soon afterwards this enthusiastic religious dance and song employed1 in their more common and habitual manner1 in the idolatries under ,sinai2 but beautifully again and tenderly1 after the triumph of ,jephthah1 ,and behold his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances4 ,again1 still more notably1 at the triumph of ,david with ,saul1 the women came out of all the cities of ,israel singing and dancing to meet ,king ,saul with tabrets1 with joy1 and with instruments of music4 ,and you have this joyful song and dance of the virgins of ,israel not only incidentally alluded to in the most solemn passages of ,hebrew religious poetry 7as in ,psalm lxviii4 #bd1 #be1 and ,psalm cxlix4 #b1 #c71 but approved1 and the restoration of it promised as a sign of ,god's perfect blessing1 most earnestly by the saddest of the ,hebrew prophets1 and in one of the most beautiful of all his sayings4 ,the ,lord hath appeared of old unto me1 saying1 ',yea1 ,i have loved thee with an everlasting love4 ,therefore1 with loving-kindness have ,i drawn thee4--,i will build thee1 and thou shalt be built1 ,o ,virgin of ,israel2 thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets1 and thou shalt go forth in dances with them that make merry1' 7,jer4 xxxi4 #c1 #d2 and compare v4 #ac74 ,and finally1 you have in two of quite the most important passages in the whole series of ,scripture 7one in the ,old ,testament1 one in the ,new71 the rejoicing in the repentance from1 and remission of1 sins1 expressed by means of music and dancing1 namely1 in the rapturous dancing of ,david before the returning ark2 and in the joy of the father's household at the repentance of the prodigal son4 #dd4 ,i could put all this much better1 and more convincingly1 before you1 if ,i were able to take any pains in writing at present2 but ,i am not1 as ,i told you2 being weary and ill2 neither do ,i much care now to use what1 in the very truth1 are but tricks of literary art1 in dealing with this so grave subject4 ,you see ,i write you my letter straightforward1 and let you see all my scratchings out and puttings in2 and if the way ,i say things shocks you1 or any other reader of these letters1 ,i cannot help it2 this only ,i know1 that what ,i tell you is true1 and written more earnestly than anything ,i ever wrote with my best literary care2 and that you will find it useful to think upon1 however it be said4 ,now1 therefore1 to draw towards our conclusion4 ,supposing the ,bible inspired1 in any of the senses above defined1 you have in these passages a positively ,divine authority for the use of song and dance1 as a means of religious service1 and expression of national thanksgiving4 ,supposing it not inspired1 you have 7taking the passages for as slightly authoritative as you choose7 record in them1 nevertheless1 of a state of mind in a great nation1 producing the most beautiful religious poetry and perfect moral law hitherto known to us1 yet only expressible by them1 to the fulfilment of their joyful passion1 by means of professional dance and choral song4 #de4 ,now ,i want you to contrast this state of religious rapture with some of our modern phases of mind in parallel circumstances4 ,you see that the promise of ,jeremiah's1 ,thou shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry1 is immediately followed by this1 ,thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of ,samaria4 ,and again1 at the yearly feast to the ,lord in ,shiloh1 the dancing of the virgins was in the midst of the vineyards 7,judges xxi4 #ba71 the feast of the vintage being in the south1 as our harvest home in the north1 a peculiar occasion of joy and thanksgiving4 ,i happened to pass the autumn of #ahfc in one of the great vine districts of ,switzerland1 under the slopes of the outlying branch of the ,jura which limits the arable plain of the ,canton ,zurich1 some fifteen miles north of ,zurich itself4 ,that city has always been a renowned1 stronghold of ,swiss ,protestantism1 next in importance only to ,geneva2 and its evangelical zeal for the conversion of the ,catholics of ,uri1 and endeavors to bring about that spiritual result by stopping the supplies of salt they needed to make their cheeses with1 brought on 7the ,uri men reading their ,matt4 v4 #ac1 in a different sense7 the battle of ,keppel1 and the death of the reformer ,zwinglius4 ,the town itself shows the most gratifying signs of progress in all the modern arts and sciences of life4 ,it is nearly as black as ,newcastle--has a railroad station larger than the ,london terminus of the ,chatham and ,dover--fouls the stream of the ,limmat as soon as it issues from the lake1 so that you might even venture to compare the formerly simple and innocent ,swiss river 7,i remember it thirty years ago--a current of pale green crystal7 with the highly educated ,english streams of ,weare or ,tyne2 and1 finally1 has as many ,french prints of dissolute tendency in its principal shop windows as if they had the privilege of opening on the ,parisian ,boulevards4 #df4 ,i was somewhat anxious to see what species of thanksgiving or exultation would be expressed at their vintage1 by the peasantry in the neighborhood of this much enlightened1 evangelical1 and commercial society4 ,it consisted in two ceremonies only4 ,during the day1 the servants of the farms where the grapes had been gathered1 collected in knots about the vineyards1 and slowly fired horse-pistols1 from morning to evening4 ,at night they got drunk1 and staggered up and down the hill paths1 uttering1 at short intervals1 yells and shrieks1 differing only from the howling of wild animals by a certain intended and insolent discordance1 only attainable by the malignity of debased human creatures4 #dg4 ,i must not do the injustice to the ,zurich peasantry of implying that this manner of festivity is peculiar to them4 ,a year before1 in #ahfb1 ,i had formed the intention of living some years in the neighborhood of ,geneva1 and had established myself experimentally on the eastern slope of the ,mont ,salve2 but ,i was forced to abandon my purpose at last1 because ,i could not endure the rabid howling1 on ,sunday evenings1 of the holiday-makers who came out from ,geneva to get drunk in the mountain village4 ,by the way1 your last letter1 with its extracts about our traffic in gin1 is very valuable4 ,i will come to that part of the business in a little while4 ,meantime1 my friend1 note this1 respecting what ,i have told you1 that in the very center of ,europe1 in a country which is visited for their chief pleasure by the most refined and thoughtful persons among all ,christian nations--a country made by ,god's hand the most beautiful in the temperate regions of the earth1 and inhabited by a race once capable of the sternest patriotism and simplest purity of life1 your modern religion1 in the very stronghold of it1 has reduced the song and dance of ancient virginal thanksgiving to the howlings and staggerings of men betraying1 in intoxication1 a nature sunk more than half-way towards the beasts2 and you will begin to understand why the ,bible should have been illustrated by ,gustave ,dor4 #dh4 ,one word more is needful1 though this letter is long already4 ,the peculiar ghastliness of this ,swiss mode of festivity is in its utter failure of joy2 the paralysis and helplessness of a vice in which there is neither pleasure1 nor art4 ,but we are not1 throughout ,europe1 wholly thus4 ,there is such a thing1 yet1 as rapturous song and dance among us1 though not indicative1 by any means1 of joy over repentant sinners4 ,you must come back to ,paris with me again4 ,i had an evening to spare there1 last summer1 for investigation of theaters2 and as there was nothing at any of them that ,i cared much about seeing1 ,i asked a valet-de-place at ,meurice's what people were generally going to4 ,he said1 ,all the ,english went to see the ,lanterne ,magique4 ,i do not care to tell you what general entertainment ,i received in following1 for once1 the lead of my countrymen2 but it closed with the representation of the characteristic dancing of all ages of the world2 and the dance given as characteristic of modern time was the ,cancan1 which you will see alluded to in the extract given in the note at page #hj of ',sesame and ,lilies' 7the small edition2 and page #ed of ,vol4 ,i4 of the ,revised ,series of the ,entire ,works74 ,the ball terminated with a ,devilish ,chain and a ,cancan of ,hell1 at seven in the morning4 ,it was led by four principal dancers 7who have since appeared in ,london in the ,huguenot ,captain71 and it is many years since ,i have seen such perfect dancing1 as far as finish and accuracy of art and fulness of animal power and fire are concerned4 ,nothing could be better done1 in its own evil way1 the object of the dance throughout being to express1 in every gesture1 the wildest fury of insolence and vicious passions possible to human creatures4 ,so that you see1 though1 for the present1 we find ourselves utterly incapable of a rapture of gladness or thanksgiving1 the dance which is presented as characteristic of modern civilization is still rapturous enough--but it is with rapture of blasphemy4 ,,letter ,x4 ,,the ,,meaning ,,and ,,actual ,,operation ,,of ,,satanic ,,or ,,demoniacal ,,influence4 ,march #af1 #ahfg4 #di4 ,you may gather from the facts given you in my last letter that1 as the expression of true and holy gladness was in old time statedly offered up by men for a part of worship to ,god their ,father1 so the expression of false and unholy gladness is in modern times1 with as much distinctness and plainness1 asserted by them openly to be offered to another spirit3 ,chain of the ,devil1 and ,cancan of ,hell being the names assigned to these modern forms of joyous procession4 ,now1 you know that1 among the best and wisest of our present religious teachers1 there is a gradual tendency to disbelieve1 and to preach their disbelief1 in the commonly received ideas of the ,devil1 and of his place1 and his work4 ,while1 among some of our equally well-meaning1 but far less wise1 religious teachers1 there is1 in consequence1 a panic spreading in anticipation of the moral dangers which must follow on the loss of the help of the ,devil4 ,one of the last appearances in public of the author of the ',christian ,year' was at a conclave of clergymen assembled in defense of faith in damnation4,a ,the sense of the meeting generally was1 that there must be such a place as hell1 because no one would ever behave decently upon earth unless they were kept in wholesome fear of the fires beneath it3 and ,mr4 ,keble1 especially insisting on this view1 related a story of an old woman who had a wicked son1 and who1 having lately heard with horror of the teaching of ,mr4 ,maurice and others1 exclaimed pathetically1 ,my son is bad enough as it is1 and if he were not afraid of hell1 what would become of him6 7,i write from memory1 and cannot answer for the words1 but ,i can for their purport47 ,a ,physical damnation1 ,i should have said4 ,it is strange how seldom pain of heart is spoken of as a possible element of future1 or as the worst of present pain4 #ej4 ,now1 my friend1 ,i am afraid that ,i must incur the charge of such presumption as may be involved in variance from both these systems of teaching4 ,i do not merely believe there is such a place as hell4 ,i know there is such a place2 and ,i know also that when men have got to the point of believing virtue impossible but through dread of it1 they have got into it4 ,i mean1 that according to the distinctness with which they hold such a creed1 the stain of nether fire has passed upon them4 ,in the depth of his heart ,mr4 ,keble could not have entertained the thought for an instant2 and ,i believe it was only as a conspicuous sign to the religious world of the state into which they were sinking1 that this creed1 possible in its sincerity only to the basest of them1 was nevertheless appointed to be uttered by the lips of the most tender1 gracious1 and beloved of their teachers4 #ea4 ,virtue impossible but for fear of hell--a lofty creed for your ,english youth--and a holy one6 ,and yet1 my friend1 there was something of right in the terrors of this clerical conclave4 ,for1 though you should assuredly be able to hold your own in the straight ways of ,god1 without always believing that the ,devil is at your side1 it is a state of mind much to be dreaded1 that you should not know the ,devil when you see him there4 ,for the probability is that when you do see him1 the way you are walking in is not one of ,god's ways at all1 but is leading you quite into other neighborhoods than ,his4 ,on ,his way1 indeed1 you may often1 like ,albert ,drer's ,knight1 see the ,fiend behind you1 but you will find that he drops always farther and farther behind2 whereas1 if he jogs with you at your side1 it is probably one of his own bypaths you are got on4 ,and1 in any case1 it is a highly desirable matter that you should know him when you set eyes on him1 which we are very far from doing in these days1 having convinced ourselves that the graminivorous form of him1 with horn and tail1 is extant no longer4 ,but in fearful truth1 the ,presence and ,power of ,him is here2 in the world1 with us1 and within us1 mock as you may2 and the fight with him1 for the time1 sore1 and widely unprosperous4 ,do not think ,i am speaking metaphorically or rhetorically1 or with any other than literal and earnest meaning of words4 ,hear me1 ,i pray you1 therefore1 for a little while1 as earnestly as ,i speak4 #eb4 ,every faculty of man's soul1 and every instinct of it by which he is meant to live1 is exposed to its own special form of corruption3 and whether within ,man1 or in the external world1 there is a power or condition of temptation which is perpetually endeavoring to reduce every glory of his soul1 and every power of his life1 to such corruption as is possible to them4 ,and the more beautiful they are1 the more fearful is the death which is attached as a penalty to their degradation4 #ec4 ,take1 for instance1 that which1 in its purity1 is the source of the highest and purest mortal happiness--,love4 ,think of it first at its highest--as it may exist in the disciplined spirit of a perfect human creature2 as it has so existed again and again1 and does always1 wherever it truly exists at all1 as the purifying passion of the soul4 ,i will not speak of the transcendental and imaginative intensity in which it may reign in noble hearts1 as when it inspired the greatest religious poem yet given to men2 but take it in its true and quiet purity in any simple lover's heart1--as you have it expressed1 for instance1 thus1 exquisitely1 in the ',angel in the ,house'3-- ,and there1 with many a blissful tear1 ,i vowed to love and prayed to wed ,the maiden who had grown so dear2-- ,thanked ,god1 who had set her in my path2 ,and promised1 as ,i hoped to win1 ,i never would sully my faith ,by the least selfishness or sin2 ,whatever in her sight ,i'd seem ,i'd really be2 ,i ne'er would blend1 ,with my delight in her1 a dream ',twould change her cheek to comprehend2 ,and1 if she wished it1 would prefer ,another's to my own success2 ,and always seek the best for her ,with unofficious tenderness4 ,take this for the pure type of it in its simplicity2 and then think of what corruption this passion is capable4 ,i will give you a type of that also1 and at your very doors4 ,i cannot refer you to the time when the crime happened2 but it was some four or five years ago1 near ,newcastle1 and it has remained always as a ghastly landmark in my mind1 owing to the horror of the external circumstances4 ,the body of the murdered woman was found naked1 rolled into a heap of ashes1 at the mouth of one of your pits4 #ed4 ,you have thus two limiting examples1 of the ,pure ,passion1 and of its corruption4 ,now1 whatever influence it is1 without or within us1 which has a tendency to degrade the one towards the other1 is literally and accurately ,satanic4 ,and this treacherous or deceiving spirit is perpetually at work1 so that all the worst evil among us is a betrayed or corrupted good4 ,take religion itself3 the desire of finding out ,god1 and placing one's self in some true son's or servant's relation to ,him4 ,the ,devil1 that is to say1 the deceiving spirit within us1 or outside of us1 mixes up our own vanity with this desire2 makes us think that in our love to ,god we have established some connection with ,him which separates us from our fellow-men1 and renders us superior to them4 ,then it takes but one wave of the ,devil's hand2 and we are burning them alive for taking the liberty of contradicting us4 #ee4 ,take the desire of teaching--the entirely unselfish and noble instinct for telling to those who are ignorant1 the truth we know1 and guarding them from the errors we see them in danger of2--there is no nobler1 no more constant instinct in honorable breasts2 but let the ,devil formalize it1 and mix the pride of a profession with it--get foolish people entrusted with the business of instruction1 and make their giddy heads giddier by putting them up in pulpits above a submissive crowd--and you have it instantly corrupted into its own reverse2 you have an alliance against the light1 shrieking at the sun1 and the moon1 and stars1 as profane spectra3--a company of the blind1 beseeching those they lead to remain blind also4 ,the heavens and the lights that rule them are untrue2 the laws of creation are treacherous2 the poles of the earth are out of poise4 ,but we are true4 ,light is in us only4 ,shut your eyes close and fast1 and we will lead you4 #ef4 ,take the desire and faith of mutual help2 the virtue of vowed brotherhood for the accomplishment of common purpose1 7without which nothing great can be wrought by multitudinous bands of men72 let the ,devil put pride of caste into it1 and you have a military organization applied for a thousand years to maintain that higher caste in idleness by robbing the laboring poor2 let the ,devil put a few small personal interests into it1 and you have all faithful deliberation on national law rendered impossible in the parliaments of ,europe1 by the antagonism of parties4 #eg4 ,take the instinct for justice1 and the natural sense of indignation against crime2 let the ,devil color it with personal passion1 and you have a mighty race of true and tender-hearted men living for centuries in such bloody feud that every note and word of their national songs is a dirge1 and every rock of their hills is a gravestone4 ,take the love of beauty1 and power of imagination1 which are the source of every true achievement in art2 let the ,devil touch them with sensuality1 and they are stronger than the sword or the flame to blast the cities where they were born1 into ruin without hope4 ,take the instinct of industry and ardor of commerce1 which are meant to be the support and mutual maintenance of man2 let the ,devil touch them with avarice1 and you shall see the avenues of the exchange choked with corpses that have died of famine4 #eh4 ,now observe--,i leave you to call this deceiving spirit what you like--or to theorize about it as you like4 ,all that ,i desire you to recognize is the fact of its being here1 and the need of its being fought with4 ,if you take the ,bible's account of it1 or ,dante's1 or ,milton's1 you will receive the image of it as a mighty spiritual creature1 commanding others1 and resisted by others3 if you take schylus's or ,hesiod's account of it1 you will hold it for a partly elementary and unconscious adversity of fate1 and partly for a group of monstrous spiritual agencies connected with death1 and begotten out of the dust2 if you take a modern rationalist's1 you will accept it for a mere treachery and want of vitality in our own moral nature exposing it to loathsomeness or moral disease1 as the body is capable of mortification or leprosy4 ,i do not care what you call it1--whose history you believe of it1--nor what you yourself can imagine about it2 the origin1 or nature1 or name may be as you will1 but the deadly reality of the thing is with us1 and warring against us1 and on our true war with it depends whatever life we can win4 ,deadly reality1 ,i say4 ,the puff-adder or horned asp is not more real4 ,unbelievable1--those1--unless you had seen them2 no fable could have been coined out of any human brain so dreadful1 within its own poor material sphere1 as that blue-lipped serpent--working its way sidelong in the sand4 ,as real1 but with sting of eternal death--this worm that dies not1 and fire that is not quenched1 within our souls or around them4 ,eternal death1 ,i say--sure1 that1 whatever creed you hold2--if the old ,scriptural one1 ,death of perpetual banishment from before ,god's face2 if the modern rationalist one1 ,death ,eternal for us1 instant and unredeemable ending of lives wasted in misery4 ,this is what this unquestionably present--this1 according to his power1 omni-present--fiend1 brings us towards1 daily4 ,he is the person to be voted against1 my working friend2 it is worth something1 having a vote against him1 if you can get it6 ,which you can1 indeed2 but not by gift from ,cabinet ,ministers2 you must work warily with your own hands1 and drop sweat of heart's blood1 before you can record that vote effectually4 ,of which more in next letter4 ,,letter ,,xi4 ,,the ,,satanic ,,power ,,is ,,mainly ,,twofold3 ,,the ,,power ,,of ,,causing ,,falsehood ,,and ,,the ,,power ,,of ,,causing ,,pain4 ,,the ,,resistance ,,is ,,by ,,law ,,of ,,honor ,,and ,,law ,,of ,,delight4 ,march #ai1 #aheg4 #ei4 ,you may perhaps have thought my last three or four letters mere rhapsodies4 ,they are nothing of the kind2 they are accurate accounts of literal facts1 which we have to deal with daily4 ,this thing1 or power1 opposed to ,god's power1 and specifically called ,mammon in the ,sermon on the ,mount1 is1 in deed and in truth1 a continually present and active enemy1 properly called ,arch-enemy1 that is to say1 ,beginning and ,prince of ,enemies1 and daily we have to record our vote for1 or against him4 ,of the manner of which record we were next to consider4 #fj4 ,this enemy is always recognizable1 briefly in two functions4 ,he is pre-eminently the ,lord of ,lies and the ,lord of ,pain4 ,wherever ,lies are1 he is2 wherever ,pain is1 he has been--so that of the ,spirit of ,wisdom 7who is called ,god's ,helper1 as ,satan ,his ,adversary7 it is written1 not only that by her ,kings reign1 and ,princes decree justice1 but also that her ways are ways of ,pleasantness1 and all her paths ,peace4 ,therefore1 you will succeed1 you working men1 in recording your votes against this arch-enemy1 precisely in the degree in which you can do away with falsehood and pain in your work and lives2 and bring truth into the one1 and pleasure into the other2 all education being directed to make yourselves and your children capable of ,honesty and capable of ,delight2 and to rescue yourselves from iniquity and agony4 ,and this is what ,i meant by saying in the preface to ',unto this ,last' that the central requirement of education consisted in giving habits of gentleness and justice2 gentleness 7as ,i will show you presently7 being the best single word ,i could have used to express the capacity for giving and receiving true pleasure2 and justice being similarly the most comprehensive word for all kind of honest dealing4 #fa4 ,now1 ,i began these letters with the purpose of explaining the nature of the requirements of justice first1 and then those of gentleness1 but ,i allowed myself to be led into that talk about the theaters1 not only because the thoughts could be more easily written as they came1 but also because ,i was able thus to illustrate for you more directly the nature of the enemy we have to deal with4 ,you do not perhaps know1 though ,i say this diffidently 7for ,i often find working men know many things which one would have thought were out of their way71 that music was1 among the ,greeks1 quite the first means of education2 and that it was so connected with their system of ethics and of intellectual training1 that the ,god of ,music is with them also the ,god of ,righteousness2--the ,god who purges and avenges iniquity1 and contends with their ,satan as represented under the form of ,python1 the corrupter4 ,and the ,greeks were incontrovertibly right in this4 ,music is the nearest at hand1 the most orderly1 the most delicate1 and the most perfect1 of all bodily pleasures2 it is also the only one which is equally helpful to all the ages of man1--helpful from the nurse's song to her infant1 to the music1 unheard of others1 which so often haunts the deathbed of pure and innocent spirits4 ,and the action of the deceiving or devilish power is in nothing shown quite so distinctly among us at this day1--not even in our commercial dishonesties1 nor in our social cruelties1--as in its having been able to take away music1 as an instrument of education1 altogether2 and to enlist it almost wholly in the service of superstition on the one hand1 and of sensuality on the other4 #fb4 ,this power of the ,muses1 then1 and its proper influence over you workmen1 ,i shall eventually have much to insist upon with you2 and in doing so ,i shall take that beautiful parable of the ,prodigal ,son 7which ,i have already referred to71 and explain1 as far as ,i know1 the significance of it1 and then ,i will take the three means of festivity1 or wholesome human joy1 therein stated1--fine dress1 rich food1 and music2--7bring forth the fairest robe for him1--bring forth the fatted calf1 and kill it2 as he drew nigh1 he heard music and dancing72 and ,i will show you how all these three things1 fine dress1 rich food1 and music 7including ultimately all the other arts7 are meant to be sources of life1 and means of moral discipline1 to all men2 and how they have all three been made1 by the ,devil1 the means of guilt1 dissoluteness1 and death4,a ,but first ,i must return to my original plan of these letters1 and endeavor to set down for you some of the laws which1 in a true ,working ,men's ,parliament1 must be ordained in defense of ,honesty4 ,a ,see ',fors ,clavigera1' ,letter ,,xxiv4 ,of which laws 7preliminary to all others1 and necessary above all others71 having now somewhat got my raveled threads together again1 ,i will begin talk in my next letter4 ,,letter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,necessity ,,of ,,imperative ,,law ,,to ,,the ,,prosperity ,,of ,,states4 ,march #bj1 #ahfg4 #fc4 ,i have your most interesting letter1,a which ,i keep for reference1 when ,i come to the consideration of its subject in its proper place1 under the head of the abuse of ,food4 ,i do not wonder that your life should be rendered unhappy by the scenes of drunkenness which you are so often compelled to witness2 nor that this so gigantic and infectious evil should seem to you the root of the greater part of the misery of our lower orders4 ,i do not wonder that ,george ,cruikshank has warped the entire current of his thoughts and life1 at once to my admiration and my sorrow1 from their natural field of work1 that he might spend them1 in struggle with this fiend1 for the poor lowest people whom he knows so well4 ,i wholly sympathize with you in indignation at the methods of temptation employed1 and at the use of the fortunes made by the vendors of death2 and whatever immediately applicable legal means there might be of restricting the causes of drunkenness1 ,i should without hesitation desire to bring into operation4 ,but all such appliance ,i consider temporary and provisionary2 nor1 while there is record of the miracle at ,cana 7not to speak of the sacrament7 can ,i conceive it possible1 without 7logically7 the denial of the entire truth of the ,new ,testament1 to reprobate the use of wine as a stimulus to the powers of life4 ,supposing we did deny the words and deeds of the ,founder of ,christianity1 the authority of the wisest heathens1 especially that of ,plato in the ',laws1' is wholly against abstinence from wine2 and much as ,i can believe1 and as ,i have been endeavoring to make you believe also1 of the subtlety of the ,devil1 ,i do not suppose the vine to have been one of his inventions4 ,of this1 however1 more in another place4 ,by the way1 was it not curious that in the ',manchester ,examiner1' in which that letter of mine on the abuse of dancing appeared1 there chanced to be1 in the next column1 a paragraph giving an account of a girl stabbing her betrayer in a ball-room2 and another paragraph describing a ,parisian character1 which gives exactly the extreme type ,i wanted1 for example of the abuse of ,food8,b ,a ,appendix #d4 ,b ,appendix #e4 #fd4 ,i return1 however1 now to the examination of possible means for the enforcement of justice1 in temper and in act1 as the first of political requirements4 ,and as1 in stating my conviction of the necessity of certain stringent laws on this matter1 ,i shall be in direct opposition to ,mr4 ,stuart ,mill2 and1 more or less1 in opposition to other professors of modern political economy1 as well as to many honest and active promoters of the privileges of working men 7as if privilege only were wanted and never restraint671 ,i will give you1 as briefly as ,i can1 the grounds on which ,i am prepared to justify such opposition4 #fe4 ,when the crew of a wrecked ship escape in an open boat1 and the boat is crowded1 the provisions scanty1 and the prospect of making land distant1 laws are instantly established and enforced which no one thinks of disobeying4 ,an entire equality of claim to the provisions is acknowledged without dispute2 and an equal liability to necessary labor4 ,no man who can row is allowed to refuse his oar2 no man1 however much money he may have saved in his pocket1 is allowed so much as half a biscuit beyond his proper ration4 ,any riotous person who endangered the safety of the rest would be bound1 and laid in the bottom of the boat1 without the smallest compunction1 for such violation of the principles of individual liberty2 and1 on the other hand1 any child1 or woman1 or aged person1 who was helpless1 and exposed to great danger and suffering by their weakness1 would receive more than ordinary care and indulgence1 not unaccompanied with unanimous self-sacrifice on the part of the laboring crew4 ,there is never any question under circumstances like these1 of what is right and wrong1 worthy and unworthy1 wise or foolish4 ,if there be any question1 there is little hope for boat or crew4 ,the right man is put at the helm2 every available hand is set to the oars2 the sick are tended1 and the vicious restrained1 at once1 and decisively2 or if not1 the end is near4 #ff4 ,now1 the circumstances of every associated group of human society1 contending bravely for national honors and felicity of life1 differ only from those thus supposed1 in the greater1 instead of less1 necessity for the establishment of restraining law4 ,there is no point of difference in the difficulties to be met1 nor in the rights reciprocally to be exercised4 ,vice and indolence are not less1 but more1 injurious in a nation than in a boat's company2 the modes in which they affect the interests of worthy persons being far more complex1 and more easily concealed4 ,the right of restraint1 vested in those who labor1 over those who would impede their labor1 is as absolute in the large as in the small society2 the equal claim to share in whatever is necessary to the common life 7or commonwealth7 is as indefeasible2 the claim of the sick and helpless to be cared for by the strong with earnest self-sacrifice1 is as pitiful and as imperative2 the necessity that the governing authority should be in the hands of a true and trained pilot is as clear and as constant4 ,in none of these conditions is there any difference between a nation and a boat's company4 ,the only difference is in this1 that the impossibility of discerning the effects of individual error and crime1 or of counteracting them by individual effort1 in the affairs of a great nation renders it tenfold more necessary than in a small society that direction by law should be sternly established4 ,assume that your boat's crew is disorderly and licentious1 and will1 by agreement1 submit to no order2--the most troublesome of them will yet be easily discerned2 and the chance is that the best man among them knocks him down4 ,common instinct of self-preservation will make the rioters put a good sailor at the helm1 and impulsive pity and occasional help will be1 by heart and hand1 here and there given to visible distress4 ,not so in the ship of the realm4 ,the most troublesome persons in it are usually the least recognized for such1 and the most active in its management2 the best men mind their own business patiently1 and are never thought of2 the good helmsman never touches the tiller but in the last extremity2 and the worst forms of misery are hidden1 not only from every eye1 but from every thought4 ,on the deck1 the aspect is of ,cleopatra's galley--under hatches there is a slave hospital2 while1 finally 7and this is the most fatal difference of all71 even the few persons who care to interfere energetically1 with purpose of doing good1 can1 in a large society1 discern so little of the real state of evil to be dealt with1 and judge so little of the best means of dealing with it1 that half of their best efforts will be misdirected1 and some may even do more harm than good4 ,whereas it is the sorrowful law of this universe1 that evil1 even unconscious and unintended1 never fails of its effect2 and in a state where the evil and the good1 under conditions of individual liberty1 are allowed to contend together1 not only every stroke on the ,devil's side tells--but every slip1 7the mistakes of wicked men being as mischievous as their successes72 while on the side of right1 there will be much direct and fatal defeat1 and1 even of its measure of victory1 half will be fruitless4 #fg4 ,it is true1 of course1 that1 in the end of ends1 nothing but the right conquers2 the prevalent thorns of wrong1 at last1 crackle away in indiscriminate flame3 and of the good seed sown1 one grain in a thousand some day comes up--and somebody lives by it2 but most of our great teachers1 not excepting ,carlyle and ,emerson themselves1 are a little too encouraging in their proclamation of this comfort1 not1 to my mind1 very sufficient1 when for the present our fields are full of nothing but darnel instead of wheat1 and cockle instead of barley2 and none of them seem to me yet to have enough insisted on the inevitable power and infectiousness of all evil1 and the easy and utter extinguishableness of good4 ,medicine often fails of its effect--but poison never3 and while1 in summing the observation of past life1 not unwatchfully spent1 ,i can truly say that ,i have a thousand times seen patience disappointed of her hope1 and wisdom of her aim1 ,i have never yet seen folly fruitless of mischief1 nor vice conclude but in calamity4 #fh4 ,there is1 however1 one important condition in national economy1 in which the analogy of that of a ship's company is incomplete3 namely1 that while labor at oar or sail is necessarily united1 and can attain no independent good1 or personal profit1 the labor properly undertaken by the several members of a political community is necessarily1 and justly1 within certain limits1 independent2 and obtains for them independent advantage1 of which1 if you will glance at the last paragraph of the first chapter of ',munera ,pulveris1' you will see ,i should be the last person to propose depriving them4 ,this great difference in final condition involves necessarily much complexity in the system and application of general laws2 but it in no wise abrogates1--on the contrary1 it renders yet more imperative1--the necessity for the firm ordinance of such laws1 which1 marking the due limits of independent agency1 may enable it to exist in full energy1 not only without becoming injurious1 but so as more variously and perfectly to promote the entire interests of the commonwealth4 ,i will address myself therefore in my next letter to the statement of some of these necessary laws4 ,,letter ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,proper ,,offices ,,of ,,the ,,bishop ,,and ,,duke2 ,,or1 ,,overseer ,,and ,,leader4 ,march #ba1 #ahfg4 #fi4 ,i see1 by your last letter1 for which ,i heartily thank you1 that you would not sympathize with me in my sorrow for the desertion of his own work by ,george ,cruikshank1 that he may fight in the front of the temperance ranks4 ,but you do not know what work he has left undone1 nor how much richer inheritance you might have received from his hand4 ,it was no more his business to etch diagrams of drunkenness than it is mine at this moment to be writing these letters against anarchy4 ,it is the first mild day of ,march 7high time1 ,i think1 that it should be671 and by rights ,i ought to be out among the budding banks and hedges1 outlining sprays of hawthorn and clusters of primrose4 ,that is my right work2 and it is not1 in the inner gist and truth of it1 right nor good1 for you1 or for anybody else1 that ,cruikshank with his great gift1 and ,i with my weak1 but yet thoroughly clear and definite one1 should both of us be tormented by agony of indignation and compassion1 till we are forced to give up our peace1 and pleasure1 and power2 and rush down into the streets and lanes of the city1 to do the little that is in the strength of our single hands against their uncleanliness and iniquity4 ,but1 as in a sorely besieged town1 every man must to the ramparts1 whatsoever business he leaves1 so neither he nor ,i have had any choice but to leave our household stuff1 and go on crusade1 such as we are called to2 not that ,i mean1 if ,fate may be anywise resisted1 to give up the strength of my life1 as he has given his2 for ,i think he was wrong in doing so2 and that he should only have carried the fiery cross his appointed leagues1 and then given it to another hand2 and1 for my own part1 ,i mean these very letters to close my political work for many a day2 and ,i write them1 not in any hope of their being at present listened to1 but to disburthen my heart of the witness ,i have to bear1 that ,i may be free to go back to my garden lawns1 and paint birds and flowers there4 #gj4 ,for these same statutes which we are to consider to-day1 have indeed been in my mind now these fourteen years1 ever since ,i wrote the last volume of the ',stones of ,venice1' in which you will find1 in the long note on ,modern ,education1 most of what ,i have been now in detail writing to you1 hinted in abstract2 and1 at the close of it1 this sentence1 of which ,i solemnly now avouch 7in thankfulness that ,i was permitted to write it71 every word3 ,finally1 ,i hold it for indisputable1 that the first duty of a ,state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed1 clothed1 fed1 and educated1 till it attain years of discretion4 ,but in order to the effecting this the ,government must have an authority over the people of which we now do not so much as dream4 ,that authority ,i did not then endeavor to define1 for ,i knew all such assertions would be useless1 and that the necessarily resultant outcry would merely diminish my influence in other directions4 ,but now ,i do not care about influence any more1 it being only my concern to say truly that which ,i know1 and1 if it may be1 get some quiet life1 yet1 among the fields in the evening shadow4 #ga4 ,there is1 ,i suppose1 no word which men are prouder of the right to attach to their names1 or more envious of others who bear it1 when they themselves may not1 than the word noble4 ,do you know what it originally meant1 and always1 in the right use of it1 means8 ,it means a known person2 one who has risen far enough above others to draw men's eyes to him1 and to be known 7honorably7 for such and such an one4 ,ignoble1 on the other hand1 is derived from the same root as the word ignorance4 ,it means an unknown1 inglorious person4 ,and no more singular follies have been committed by weak human creatures than those which have been caused by the instinct1 pure and simple1 of escaping from this obscurity4 ,instinct1 which1 corrupted1 will hesitate at no means1 good or evil1 of satisfying itself with notoriety--instinct1 nevertheless1 which1 like all other natural ones1 has a true and pure purpose1 and ought always in a worthy way to be satisfied4 ,all men ought to be in this sense noble2 known of each other1 and desiring to be known4 ,and the first law which a nation1 desiring to conquer all the devices of the ,father of ,lies1 should establish among its people1 is that they shall be so known4 #gb4 ,will you please now read #bb of ',sesame and ,lilies'8 ,the reviewers in the ecclesiastical journals laughed at it1 as a rhapsody1 when the book came out2 none having the slightest notion of what ,i meant3 7nor1 indeed1 do ,i well see how it could be otherwise674 ,nevertheless1 ,i meant precisely and literally what is there said1 namely1 that a bishop's duty being to watch over the souls of his people1 and give account of every one of them1 it becomes practically necessary for him first to get some account of their bodies4 ,which he was wont to do in the early days of ,christianity by help of a person called deacon or ministering servant1 whose name is still retained among preliminary ecclesiastical dignities1 vainly enough6 ,putting1 however1 all questions of forms and names aside1 the thing actually needing to be done is this--that over every hundred 7more or less7 of the families composing a ,christian ,state1 there should be appointed an overseer1 or bishop1 to render account1 to the ,state1 of the life of every individual in those families2 and to have care both of their interest and conduct to such an extent as they may be willing to admit1 or as their faults may justify3 so that it may be impossible for any person1 however humble1 to suffer from unknown want1 or live in unrecognized crime2--such help and observance being rendered without officiousness either of interference or inquisition 7the limits of both being determined by national law71 but with the patient and gentle watchfulness which true ,christian pastors now exercise over their flocks2 only with a higher legal authority presently to be defined1 of interference on due occasion4 ,and with this farther function1 that such overseers shall be not only the pastors1 but the biographers1 of their people2 a written statement of the principal events in the life of each family being annually required to be rendered by them to a superior ,state ,officer4 ,these records1 laid up in public offices1 would soon furnish indications of the families whom it would be advantageous to the nation to advance in position1 or distinguish with honor1 and aid by such reward as it should be the object of every ,government to distribute no less punctually1 and far more frankly1 than it distributes punishment3 7compare ',munera ,pulveris1' ,essay ,,iv41 in paragraph on ,critic ,law71 while the mere fact of permanent record being kept of every event of importance1 whether disgraceful or worthy of praise1 in each family1 would of itself be a deterrent from crime1 and a stimulant to well-deserving conduct1 far beyond mere punishment or reward4 #gc4 ,nor need you think that there would be anything in such a system un-,english1 or tending to espionage4 ,no uninvited visits should ever be made in any house1 unless law had been violated2 nothing recorded1 against its will1 of any family1 but what was inevitably known of its publicly visible conduct1 and the results of that conduct4 ,what else was written should be only by the desire1 and from the communications1 of its head4 ,and in a little while it would come to be felt that the true history of a nation was indeed not of its wars1 but of its households2 and the desire of men would rather be to obtain some conspicuous place in these honorable annals1 than to shrink behind closed shutters from public sight4 ,until at last1 ,george ,herbert's grand word of command would hold not only on the conscience1 but the actual system and outer economy of life1 ,think the ,king sees thee still1 for his ,king does4 #gd4 ,secondly1 above these bishops or pastors1 who are only to be occupied in offices of familiar supervision and help1 should be appointed higher officers of ,state1 having executive authority over as large districts as might be conveniently 7according to the number and circumstances of their inhabitants7 committed to their care2 officers who1 according to the reports of the pastors1 should enforce or mitigate the operation of too rigid general law1 and determine measures exceptionally necessary for public advantage4 ,for instance1 the general law being that all children of the operative classes1 at a certain age1 should be sent to public schools1 these superior officers should have power1 on the report of the pastors1 to dispense with the attendance of children who had sick parents to take charge of1 or whose home-life seemed to be one of better advantage for them than that of the common schools2 or who1 for any other like cause1 might justifiably claim remission4 ,and it being the general law that the entire body of the public should contribute to the cost1 and divide the profits1 of all necessary public works and undertakings1 as roads1 mines1 harbor protections1 and the like1 and that nothing of this kind should be permitted to be in the hands of private speculators1 it should be the duty of the district officer to collect whatever information was accessible respecting such sources of public profit2 and to represent the circumstances in ,parliament3 and then1 with ,parliamentary authority1 but on his own sole personal responsibility1 to see that such enterprises were conducted honestly and with due energy and order4 ,the appointment to both these offices should be by election1 and for life2 by what forms of election shall be matter of inquiry1 after we have determined some others of the necessary constitutional laws4 #ge4 ,i do not doubt but that you are already beginning to think it was with good reason ,i held my peace these fourteen years1--and that1 for any good likely to be done by speaking1 ,i might as well have held it altogether6 ,it may be so3 but merely to complete and explain my own work1 it is necessary that ,i should say these things finally2 and ,i believe that the imminent danger to which we are now in ,england exposed by the gradually accelerated fall of our aristocracy 7wholly their own fault71 and the substitution of money-power for their martial one2 and by the correspondingly imminent prevalence of mob violence here1 as in ,america2 together with the continually increasing chances of insane war1 founded on popular passion1 whether of pride1 fear1 or acquisitiveness1--all these dangers being further darkened and degraded by the monstrous forms of vice and selfishness which the appliances of recent wealth1 and of vulgar mechanical art1 make possible to the million1--will soon bring us into a condition in which men will be glad to listen to almost any words but those of a demagogue1 and to seek any means of safety rather than those in which they have lately trusted4 ,so1 with your good leave1 ,i will say my say to the end1 mock at it who may4 ,p4,s4--,i take due note of the regulations of trade proposed in your letter just received,a--all excellent4 ,i shall come to them presently1 ,cash payment above all4 ,you may write that on your trade-banners in letters of gold1 wherever you would have them raised victoriously4 ,a ,appendix #f4 ,,letter ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,first ,,group ,,of ,,essential ,,laws--,,against ,,theft ,,by ,,false ,,work1 ,,and ,,by ,,bankruptcy4--,,necessary ,,publicity ,,of ,,accounts4 ,march #bf1 #ahfg4 #gf4 ,i feel much inclined to pause at this point1 to answer the kind of questions and objections which ,i know must be rising in your mind1 respecting the authority supposed to be lodged in the persons of the officers just specified4 ,but ,i can neither define1 nor justify to you1 the powers ,i would desire to see given to them1 till ,i state to you the kind of laws they would have to enforce3 of which the first group should be directed to the prevention of all kinds of thieving2 but chiefly of the occult and polite methods of it2 and1 of all occult methods1 chiefly1 the making and selling of bad goods4 ,no form of theft is so criminal as this--none so deadly to the ,state4 ,if you break into a man's house and steal a hundred pounds' worth of plate1 he knows his loss1 and there is an end 7besides that you take your risk of punishment for your gain1 like a man74 ,and if you do it bravely and openly1 and habitually live by such inroad1 you may retain nearly every moral and manly virtue1 and become a heroic rider and reiver1 and hero of song4 ,but if you swindle me out of twenty shillings' worth of quality on each of a hundred bargains1 ,i lose my hundred pounds all the same1 and ,i get a hundred untrustworthy articles besides1 which will fail me and injure me in all manner of ways1 when ,i least expect it2 and you1 having done your thieving basely1 are corrupted by the guilt of it to the very heart's core4 #gg4 ,this is the first thing1 therefore1 which your general laws must be set to punish1 fiercely1 immitigably1 to the utter prevention and extinction of it1 or there is no hope for you4 ,no religion that ever was preached on this earth of ,god's rounding ever proclaimed any salvation to sellers of bad goods4 ,if the ,ghost that is in you1 whatever the essence of it1 leaves your hand a juggler's1 and your heart a cheat's1 it is not a ,holy ,ghost1 be assured of that4 ,and for the rest1 all political economy1 as well as all higher virtue1 depends first on sound work4 ,let your laws1 then1 ,i say1 in the beginning1 be set to secure this4 ,you cannot make punishment too stern for subtle knavery4 ,keep no truce with this enemy1 whatever pardon you extend to more generous ones4 ,for light weights and false measures1 or for proved adulteration or dishonest manufacture of article1 the penalty should be simply confiscation of goods and sending out of the country4 ,the kind of person who desires prosperity by such practices could not be made to emigrate too speedily4 ,what to do with him in the place you appoint to be blessed by his presence1 we will in time consider4 #gh4 ,under such penalty1 however1 and yet more under the pressure of such a right public opinion as could pronounce and enforce such penalty1 ,i imagine that sham articles would become speedily as rare as sound ones are now4 ,the chief difficulty in the matter would be to fix your standard4 ,this would have to be done by the guild of every trade in its own manner1 and within certain easily recognizable limits1 and this fixing of standard would necessitate much simplicity in the forms and kinds of articles sold4 ,you could only warrant a certain kind of glazing or painting in china1 a certain quality of leather or cloth1 bricks of a certain clay1 loaves of a defined mixture of meal4 ,advisable improvements or varieties in manufacture would have to be examined and accepted by the trade guild3 when so accepted1 they would be announced in public reports2 and all puffery and self-proclamation1 on the part of tradesmen1 absolutely forbidden1 as much as the making of any other kind of noise or disturbance4 #gi4 ,but observe1 this law is only to have force over tradesmen whom ,i suppose to have joined voluntarily in carrying out a better system of commerce4 ,outside of their guild1 they would have to leave the rogue to puff and cheat as he chose1 and the public to be gulled as they chose4 ,all that is necessary is that the said public should clearly know the shops in which they could get warranted articles2 and1 as clearly1 those in which they bought at their own risk4 ,and the above-named penalty of confiscation of goods should of course be enforced only against dishonest members of the trade guild4 ,if people chose to buy of those who had openly refused to join an honest society1 they should be permitted to do so1 at their pleasure1 and peril3 and this for two reasons1--the first1 that it is always necessary1 in enacting strict law1 to leave some safety valve for outlet of irrepressible vice 7nearly all the stern lawgivers of old time erred by oversight in this2 so that the morbid elements of the ,state1 which it should be allowed to get rid of in a cutaneous and openly curable manner1 were thrown inwards1 and corrupted its constitution1 and broke all down72--the second1 that operations of trade and manufacture conducted under1 and guarded by1 severe law1 ought always to be subject to the stimulus of such erratic external ingenuity as cannot be tested by law1 or would be hindered from its full exercise by the dread of it2 not to speak of the farther need of extending all possible indulgence to foreign traders who might wish to exercise their industries here without liability to the surveillance of our trade guilds4 #hj4 ,farther1 while for all articles warranted by the guild 7as above supposed7 the prices should be annually fixed for the trade throughout the kingdom2 and the producing workman's wages fixed1 so as to define the master's profits within limits admitting only such variation as the nature of the given article of sale rendered inevitable2--yet1 in the production of other classes of articles1 whether by skill of applied handicraft1 or fineness of material above the standard of the guild1 attaining1 necessarily1 values above its assigned prices1 every firm should be left free to make its own independent efforts and arrangements with its workmen1 subject always to the same penalty1 if it could be proved to have consistently described1 or offered1 anything to the public for what it was not3 and finally1 the state of the affairs of every firm should be annually reported to the guild1 and its books laid open to inspection1 for guidance in the regulation of prices in the subsequent year2 and any firm whose liabilities exceeded its assets by a hundred pounds should be forthwith declared bankrupt4 ,and ,i will anticipate what ,i have to say in succeeding letters so far as to tell you that ,i would have this condition extend to every firm in the country1 large or small1 and of whatever rank in business4 ,and thus you perceive1 my friend1 ,i shall not have to trouble you or myself much with deliberations respecting commercial panics1 nor to propose legislative cures for them1 by any laxatives or purgatives of paper currency1 or any other change of pecuniary diet4 ,,letter ,,xv4 ,,the ,,nature ,,of ,,theft ,,by ,,unjust ,,profits4--,,crime ,,can ,,finally ,,be ,,arrested ,,only ,,by ,,education4 #bith ,march4 #ha4 ,the first methods of polite robbery1 by dishonest manufacture and by debt1 of which we have been hitherto speaking1 are easily enough to be dealt with and ended1 when once men have a mind to end them4 ,but the third method of polite robbery1 by dishonest acquisition1 has many branches1 and is involved among honest arts of acquisition1 so that it is difficult to repress the one without restraining the other4 ,observe1 first1 large fortunes cannot honestly be made by the work of any one man's hands1 or head4 ,if his work benefits multitudes1 and involves position of high trust1 it may be 7,i do not say that it is7 expedient to reward him with great wealth or estate2 but fortune of this kind is freely given in gratitude for benefit1 not as repayment for labor4 ,also1 men of peculiar genius in any art1 if the public can enjoy the product of their genius1 may set it at almost any price they choose2 but this1 ,i will show you when ,i come to speak of art1 is unlawful on their part and ruinous to their own powers4 ,genius must not be sold2 the sale of it involves1 in a transcendental1 but perfectly true1 sense1 the guilt both of simony and prostitution4 ,your labor only may be sold2 your soul must not4 #hb4 ,now1 by fair pay for fair labor1 according to the rank of it1 a man can obtain means of comfortable1 or if he needs it1 refined life4 ,but he cannot obtain large fortune4 ,such fortunes as are now the prizes of commerce can be made only in one of three ways3-- 7#a47 ,by obtaining command over the labor of multitudes of other men and taxing it for our own profit4 7#b47 ,by treasure-trove1--as of mines1 useful vegetable products1 and the like1--in circumstances putting them under our own exclusive control4 7#c47 ,by speculation1 7commercial gambling74 ,the first two of these means of obtaining riches are1 in some forms and within certain limits1 lawful1 and advantageous to the ,state4 ,the third is entirely detrimental to it2 for in all cases of profit derived from speculation1 at best1 what one man gains another loses2 and the net results to the ,state is zero1 7pecuniarily17 with the loss of the time and ingenuity spent in the transaction2 besides the disadvantage involved in the discouragement of the losing party1 and the corrupted moral natures of both4 ,this is the result of speculation at its best4 ,at its worst1 not only ,b loses what ,a gains 7having taken his fair risk of such loss for his fair chance of gain71 but ,c and ,d1 who never had any chance at all1 are drawn in by ,b's fall1 and the final result is that ,a sets up his carriage on the collected sum which was once the means of living to a dozen families4 #hc4 ,nor is this all4 ,for while real commerce is founded on real necessities or uses1 and limited by these1 speculation1 of which the object is merely gain1 seeks to excite imaginary necessities and popular desires1 in order to gather its temporary profit from the supply of them4 ,so that not only the persons who lend their money to it will be finally robbed1 but the work done with their money will be1 for the most part1 useless1 and thus the entire body of the public injured as well as the persons concerned in the transaction4 ,take1 for instance1 the architectural decorations of railways throughout the kingdom1--representing many millions of money for which no farthing of dividend can ever be forthcoming4 ,the public will not be induced to pay the smallest fraction of higher fare to ,rochester or ,dover because the ironwork of the bridge which carries them over the ,thames is covered with floral cockades1 and the piers of it edged with ornamental cornices4 ,all that work is simply put there by the builders that they may put the percentage upon it into their own pockets2 and1 the rest of the money being thrown into that floral form1 there is an end of it1 as far as the shareholders are concerned4 ,millions upon millions have thus been spent1 within the last twenty years1 on ornamental arrangements of zigzag bricks1 black and blue tiles1 cast-iron foliage1 and the like2 of which millions1 as ,i said1 not a penny can ever return into the shareholders' pockets1 nor contribute to public speed or safety on the line4 ,it is all sunk forever in ornamental architecture1 and 7trust me for this67 all that architecture is bad4 ,as such1 it had incomparably better not have been built4 ,its only result will be to corrupt what capacity of taste or right pleasure in such work we have yet left to us6 ,and consider a little1 what other kind of result than that might have been attained if all those millions had been spent usefully3 say1 in buying land for the people1 or building good houses for them1 or 7if it had been imperatively required to be spent decoratively7 in laying out gardens and parks for them1--or buying noble works of art for their permanent possession1--or1 best of all1 establishing frequent public schools and libraries4 ,count what those lost millions would have so accomplished for you6 ,but you left the affair to supply and demand1 and the ,british public had not brains enough to demand land1 or lodging1 or books4 ,it demanded cast-iron cockades and zigzag cornices1 and is supplied with them1 to its beatitude for evermore4 #hd4 ,now1 the theft we first spoke of1 by falsity of workmanship or material1 is1 indeed1 so far worse than these thefts by dishonest acquisition1 that there is no possible excuse for it on the ground of self-deception2 while many speculative thefts are committed by persons who really mean to do no harm1 but think the system on the whole a fair one1 and do the best they can in it for themselves4 ,but in the real fact of the crime1 when consciously committed1 in the numbers reached by its injury1 in the degree of suffering it causes to those whom it ruins1 in the baseness of its calculated betrayal of implicit trust1 in the yet more perfect vileness of the obtaining such trust by misrepresentation1 only that it may be betrayed1 and in the impossibility that the crime should be at all committed1 except by persons of good position and large knowledge of the world--what manner of theft is so wholly unpardonable1 so inhuman1 so contrary to every law and instinct which binds or animates society8 ,and then consider farther1 how many of the carriages that glitter in our streets are driven1 and how many of the stately houses that gleam among our ,english fields are inhabited1 by this kind of thief6 #he4 ,i happened to be reading this morning 7#bith ,march7 some portions of the ,lent services1 and ,i came to a pause over the familiar words1 ,and with ,him they crucified two thieves4 ,have you ever considered 7,i speak to you now as a professing ,christian71 why1 in the accomplishment of the numbering among transgressors1 the transgressors chosen should have been especially thieves--not murderers1 nor1 as far as we know1 sinners by any gross violence8 ,do you observe how the sin of theft is again and again indicated as the chiefly antagonistic one to the law of ,christ8 ,this he said1 not that he cared for the poor1 but because he was a thief1 and had the bag 7of ,judas74 ,and again1 though ,barabbas was a leader of sedition1 and a murderer besides1--7that the popular election might be in all respects perfect7--yet ,st4 ,john1 in curt and conclusive account of him1 fastens again on the theft4 ,then cried they all again saying1 ,not this man1 but ,barabbas4 ,now ,barabbas was a robber4 ,i believe myself the reason to be that theft is indeed1 in its subtle forms1 the most complete and excuseless of human crimes4 ,sins of violence usually are committed under sudden or oppressive temptation3 they may be the madness of moments2 or they may be apparently the only means of extrication from calamity4 ,in other cases1 they are the diseased acts or habits of lower and brutified natures4,a ,but theft involving deliberative intellect1 and absence of passion1 is the purest type of wilful iniquity1 in persons capable of doing right4 ,which being so1 it seems to be fast becoming the practice of modern society to crucify its ,christ indeed1 as willingly as ever1 in the persons of ,his poor2 but by no means now to crucify its thieves beside ,him6 ,it elevates its thieves after another fashion2 sets them upon a hill1 that their light may shine before men and that all may see their good works1 and glorify their ,father1 in--the ,opposite of ,heaven4 ,a ,see the analysis of the moral system of ,dante1 respecting punishment1 given in ',fors ,clavigera1' ,letter ,,xxiii4 #hf4 ,i think your trade parliament will have to put an end to this kind of business somehow6 ,but it cannot be done by laws merely1 where the interests and circumstances are so extended and complex4 ,nay1 even as regards lower and more defined crimes1 the assigned punishment is not to be thought of as a preventive means2 but only as the seal of opinion set by society on the fact4 ,crime cannot be hindered by punishment2 it will always find some shape and outlet1 unpunishable or unclosed4 ,crime can only be truly hindered by letting no man grow up a criminal--by taking away the will to commit sin2 not by mere punishment of its commission4 ,crime1 small and great1 can only be truly stayed by education--not the education of the intellect only1 which is1 on some men1 wasted1 and for others mischievous2 but education of the heart1 which is alike good and necessary for all4 ,so1 on this matter1 ,i will try in my next letter to say one or two things of which the silence has kept my own heart heavy this many a day4 ,,letter ,,xvi4 ,,of ,,public ,,education ,,irrespective ,,of ,,class-,,distinction4 ,,it ,,consists ,,essentially ,,in ,,giving ,,habits ,,of ,,mercy1 ,,and ,,habits ,,of ,,truth4 7,,gentleness,a ,,and ,,justice47 ,march #cjth1 #ahfg4 #hg4 ,thank you for sending me the pamphlet containing the account of the meeting of clergy and workmen1 and of the reasonings which there took place4 ,i cannot promise you that ,i shall read much of them1 for the question to my mind most requiring discussion and explanation is not1 why workmen don't go to church1 but--why other people do4 ,however1 this ,i know1 that if among our many spiritual teachers1 there are indeed any who heartily and literally believe that the wisdom they have to teach is more precious than rubies1 and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her1 and if1 so believing1 they will further dare to affront their congregations by the assertion2 and plainly tell them they are not to hunt for rubies or gold any more1 at their peril1 till they have gained that which cannot be gotten for gold1 nor silver weighed for the price thereof1--such believers1 so preaching1 and refusing to preach otherwise till they are in that attended to1 will never want congregations1 both of working men1 and every other kind of men4 ,a ,mercy1 in its full sense1 means delight in perceiving nobleness1 or in doing kindness4 ,compare #ej4 #hh4 ,did you ever hear of anything else so ill-named as the phantom called the ,philosopher's ,stone8 ,a talisman that shall turn base metal into precious metal1 nature acknowledges not2 nor would any but fools seek after it4 ,but a talisman to turn base souls into noble souls1 nature has given us6 and that is a ,philosopher's ,stone indeed1 but it is a stone which the builders refuse4 #hi4 ,if there were two valleys in ,california or ,australia1 with two different kinds of gravel in the bottom of them2 and in the one stream bed you could dig up1 occasionally and by good fortune1 nuggets of gold2 and in the other stream bed1 certainly and without hazard1 you could dig up little caskets1 containing talismans which gave length of days and peace2 and alabaster vases of precious balms1 which were better than the ,arabian ,dervish's ointment1 and made not only the eyes to see1 but the mind to know1 whatever it would--,i wonder in which of the stream beds there would be most diggers8 #ij4 ,time is money--so say your practised merchants and economists4 ,none of them1 however1 ,i fancy1 as they draw towards death1 find that the reverse is true1 and that money is time8 ,perhaps it might be better for them1 in the end1 if they did not turn so much of their time into money1 lest1 perchance1 they also turn ,eternity into it6 ,there are other things1 however1 which in the same sense are money1 or can be changed into it1 as well as time4 ,health is money1 wit is money1 knowledge is money2 and all your health1 and wit1 and knowledge may be changed for gold2 and the happy goal so reached1 of a sick1 insane1 and blind1 auriferous old age2 but the gold cannot be changed in its turn back into health and wit4 #ia4 ,time is money2 the words tingle in my ears so that ,i can't go on writing4 ,is it nothing better1 then8 ,if we could thoroughly understand that time was--itself1--would it not be more to the purpose8 ,a thing of which loss or gain was absolute loss1 and perfect gain4 ,and that it was expedient also to buy health and knowledge with money1 if so purchasable2 but not to buy money with them8 ,and purchasable they are at the beginning of life1 though not at its close4 ,purchasable1 always1 for others1 if not for ourselves4 ,you can buy1 and cheaply1 life1 endless life1 according to your ,christian's creed--7there's a bargain for you67 but--long years of knowledge1 and peace1 and power1 and happiness of love--these assuredly and irrespectively of any creed or question1--for all those desolate and haggard children about your streets4 #ib4 ,that is not political economy1 however4 ,pardon me2 the all-comfortable saying1 ,what he layeth out1 it shall be paid him again1 is quite literally true in matters of education2 no money seed can be sown with so sure and large return at harvest-time as that2 only of this money-seed1 more than of flesh-seed1 it is utterly true1 ,that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die4 ,you must forget your money1 and every other material interest1 and educate for education's sake only6 or the very good you try to bestow will become venomous1 and that and your money will be lost together4 #ic4 ,and this has been the real cause of failure in our efforts for education hitherto--whether from above or below4 ,there is no honest desire for the thing itself4 ,the cry for it among the lower orders is because they think that1 when once they have got it1 they must become upper orders4 ,there is a strange notion in the mob's mind now-a-days 7including all our popular economists and educators1 as we most justly may1 under that brief term mob71 that everybody can be uppermost2 or at least1 that a state of general scramble1 in which everybody in his turn should come to the top1 is a proper ,utopian constitution2 and that1 once give every lad a good education1 and he cannot but come to ride in his carriage 7the methods of supply of coachmen and footmen not being contemplated74 ,and very sternly ,i say to you--and say from sure knowledge--that a man had better not know how to read and write1 than receive education on such terms4 #id4 ,the first condition under which it can be given usefully is1 that it should be clearly understood to be no means of getting on in the world1 but a means of staying pleasantly in your place there4 ,and the first elements of ,state education should be calculated equally for the advantage of every order of person composing the ,state4 ,from the lowest to the highest class1 every child born in this island should be required by law to receive these general elements of human discipline1 and to be baptized--not with a drop of water on its forehead--but in the cloud and sea of heavenly wisdom and of earthly power4 ,and the elements of this general ,state education should be briefly these3 #ie4 ,first--,the body must be made as beautiful and perfect in its youth as it can be1 wholly irrespective of ulterior purpose4 ,if you mean afterwards to set the creature to business which will degrade its body and shorten its life1 first1 ,i should say1 simply1--you had better let such business alone2--but if you must have it done1 somehow1 yet let the living creature1 whom you mean to kill1 get the full strength of its body first1 and taste the joy1 and bear the beauty of youth4 ,after that1 poison it1 if you will4 ,economically1 the arrangement is a wiser one1 for it will take longer in the killing than if you began with it younger2 and you will get an excess of work out of it which will more than pay for its training4 ,therefore1 first teach--as ,i have said in the preface to ',unto this ,last'--,the ,laws of ,health1 and exercises enjoined by them2 and1 to this end1 your schools must be in fresh country1 and amidst fresh air1 and have great extents of land attached to them in permanent estate4 ,riding1 running1 all the honest1 personal exercises of offense and defense1 and music1 should be the primal heads of this bodily education4 #if4 ,next to these bodily accomplishments1 the two great mental graces should be taught1 ,reverence and ,compassion3 not that these are in a literal sense to be taught1 for they are innate in every well-born human creature1 but they have to be developed exactly as the strength of the body must be1 by deliberate and constant exercise4 ,i never understood why ,goethe 7in the plan of education in ',wilhelm ,meister'7 says that reverence is not innate1 but must be taught from without2 it seems to me so fixedly a function of the human spirit1 that if men can get nothing else to reverence they will worship a fool1 or a stone1 or a vegetable4,a ,but to teach reverence rightly is to attach it to the right persons and things2 first1 by setting over your youth masters whom they cannot but love and respect2 next1 by gathering for them1 out of past history1 whatever has been most worthy in human deeds and human passion2 and leading them continually to dwell upon such instances1 making this the principal element of emotional excitement to them2 and1 lastly1 by letting them justly feel1 as far as may be1 the smallness of their own powers and knowledge1 as compared with the attainments of others4 ,a ,by steady preaching against it1 one may quench reverence1 and bring insolence to its height2 but the instinct cannot be wholly uprooted4 #ig4 ,compassion1 on the other hand1 is to be taught chiefly by making it a point of honor1 collaterally with courage1 and in the same rank 7as indeed the complement and evidence of courage71 so that1 in the code of unwritten school law1 it shall be held as shameful to have done a cruel thing as a cowardly one4 ,all infliction of pain on weaker creatures is to be stigmatized as unmanly crime2 and every possible opportunity taken to exercise the youths in offices of some practical help1 and to acquaint them with the realities of the distress which1 in the joyfulness of entering into life1 it is so difficult1 for those who have not seen home suffering1 to conceive4 #ih4 ,reverence1 then1 and compassion1 we are to teach primarily1 and with these1 as the bond and guardian of them1 truth of spirit and word1 of thought and sight4 ,truth1 earnest and passionate1 sought for like a treasure1 and kept like a crown4 ,this teaching of truth as a habit will be the chief work the master has to do2 and it will enter into all parts of education4 ,first1 you must accustom the children to close accuracy of statement2 this both as a principle of honor1 and as an accomplishment of language1 making them try always who shall speak truest1 both as regards the fact he has to relate or express 7not concealing or exaggerating71 and as regards the precision of the words he expresses it in1 thus making truth 7which1 indeed1 it is7 the test of perfect language1 and giving the intensity of a moral purpose to the study and art of words3 then carrying this accuracy into all habits of thought and observation also1 so as always to think of things as they truly are1 and to see them as they truly are1 as far as in us rests4 ,and it does rest much in our power1 for all false thoughts and seeings come mainly of our thinking of what we have no business with1 and looking for things we want to see1 instead of things that ought to be seen4 #ii4 ,do not talk but of what you know2 do not think but of what you have materials to think justly upon2 and do not look for things only that you like1 when there are others to be seen--this is the lesson to be taught to our youth1 and inbred in them2 and that mainly by our own example and continence4 ,never teach a child anything of which you are not yourself sure2 and1 above all1 if you feel anxious to force anything into its mind in tender years1 that the virtue of youth and early association may fasten it there1 be sure it is no lie which you thus sanctify4 ,there is always more to be taught of absolute1 incontrovertible knowledge1 open to its capacity1 than any child can learn2 there is no need to teach it anything doubtful4 ,better that it should be ignorant of a thousand truths1 than have consecrated in its heart a single lie4 #ajj4 ,and for this1 as well as for many other reasons1 the principal subjects of education1 after history1 ought to be natural science and mathematics2 but with respect to these studies1 your schools will require to be divided into three groups3 one for children who will probably have to live in cities1 one for those who will live in the country1 and one for those who will live at sea2 the schools for these last1 of course1 being always placed on the coast4 ,and for children whose life is to be in cities1 the subjects of study should be1 as far as their disposition will allow of it1 mathematics and the arts2 for children who are to live in the country1 natural history of birds1 insects1 and plants1 together with agriculture taught practically2 and for children who are to be seamen1 physical geography1 astronomy1 and the natural history of sea-fish and sea-birds4 #aja4 ,this1 then1 being the general course and material of education for all children1 observe farther1 that in the preface to ',unto this ,last' ,i said that every child1 besides passing through this course1 was at school to learn the calling by which it was to live4 ,and it may perhaps appear to you that after1 or even in the early stages of education such as this above described1 there are many callings which1 however much called to them1 the children might not willingly determine to learn or live by4 ,probably1 you may say1 after they have learned to ride1 and fence1 and sing1 and know birds and flowers1 it will be little to their liking to make themselves into tailors1 carpenters1 shoemakers1 blacksmiths1 and the like4 ,and ,i cannot but agree with you as to the exceeding probability of some such reluctance on their part1 which will be a very awkward state of things indeed1 7since we can by no means get on without tailoring and shoemaking17 and one to be meditated upon very seriously in next letter4 #ajb4 ,p4,s4--,thank you for sending me your friend's letter about ,gustave ,dor2 he is wrong1 however1 in thinking there is any good in those illustrations of ',elaine4' ,i had intended to speak of them afterwards1 for it is to my mind quite as significant--almost as awful--a sign of what is going on in the midst of us1 that our great ,english poet should have suffered his work to be thus contaminated1 as that the lower ,evangelicals1 never notable for sense in the arts1 should have got their ,bibles dishonored4 ,those ',elaine' illustrations are just as impure as anything else that ,dor has done2 but they are also vapid1 and without any one merit whatever in point of art4 ,the illustrations to the ',contes ,drlatiques' are full of power and invention2 but those to ',elaine' are merely and simply stupid2 theatrical btises1 with the taint of the charnel-house on them besides4 ,,letter ,,xvii4 ,,the ,,relations ,,of ,,education ,,to ,,position ,,in ,,life4 ,april #c1 #ahfg4 #ajc4 ,i am not quite sure that you will feel the awkwardness of the dilemma ,i got into at the end of last letter1 as much as ,i do myself4 ,you working men have been crowing and peacocking at such a rate lately2 and setting yourselves forth so confidently for the cream of society1 and the top of the world1 that perhaps you will not anticipate any of the difficulties which suggest themselves to a thoroughbred ,tory and ,conservative1 like me4 ,perhaps you will expect a youth properly educated--a good rider--musician--and well-grounded scholar in natural philosophy1 to think it a step of promotion when he has to go and be made a tailor of1 or a coalheaver8 ,if you do1 ,i should very willingly admit that you might be right1 and go on to the farther development of my notions without pausing at this stumbling-block1 were it not that1 unluckily1 all the wisest men whose sayings ,i ever heard or read1 agree in expressing 7one way or another7 just such contempt for those useful occupations1 as ,i dread on the part of my foolishly refined scholars4 ,shakespeare and ,chaucer1--,dante and ,virgil1--,horace and ,pindar1--,homer1 schylus1 and ,plato1--all the men of any age or country who seem to have had ,heaven's music on their lips1 agree in their scorn of mechanic life4 ,and ,i imagine that the feeling of prudent ,englishmen1 and sensible as well as sensitive ,englishwomen1 on reading my last letter1 would mostly be--,is the man mad1 or laughing at us1 to propose educating the working classes this way8 ,he could not1 if his wild scheme were possible1 find a better method of making them acutely wretched4 #ajd4 ,it may be so1 my sensible and polite friends2 and ,i am heartily willing1 as well as curious1 to hear you develop your own scheme of operative education1 so only that it be universal1 orderly1 and careful4 ,i do not say that ,i shall be prepared to advocate my athletics and philosophies instead4 ,only1 observe what you admit1 or imply1 in bringing forward your possibly wiser system4 ,you imply that a certain portion of mankind must be employed in degrading work2 and that1 to fit them for this work1 it is necessary to limit their knowledge1 their active powers1 and their enjoyments1 from childhood upwards1 so that they may not be able to conceive of any state better than the one they were born in1 nor possess any knowledge or acquirements inconsistent with the coarseness1 or disturbing the monotony1 of their vulgar occupation4 ,and by their labor in this contracted state of mind1 we superior beings are to be maintained2 and always to be curtseyed to by the properly ignorant little girls1 and capped by the properly ignorant little boys1 whenever we pass by4 #aje4 ,mind1 ,i do not say that this is not the right state of things4 ,only1 if it be1 you need not be so over-particular about the slave-trade1 it seems to me4 ,what is the use of arguing so pertinaciously that a black's skull will hold as much as a white's1 when you are declaring in the same breath that a white's skull must not hold as much as it can1 or it will be the worse for him8 ,it does not appear to me at all a profound state of slavery to be whipped into doing a piece of low work that ,i don't like2 but it is a very profound state of slavery to be kept1 myself1 low in the forehead1 that ,i may not dislike low work4 #ajf4 ,you see1 my friend1 the dilemma is really an awkward one1 whichever way you look at it4 ,but1 what is still worse1 ,i am not puzzled only1 at this part of my scheme1 about the boys ,i shall have to make workmen of2 ,i am just as much puzzled about the boys ,i shall have to make nothing of6 ,grant1 that by hook or crook1 by reason or rattan1 ,i persuade a certain number of the roughest ones into some serviceable business1 and get coats and shoes made for the rest1--what is the business of the rest to be8 ,naturally1 according to the existing state of things1 one supposes they are to belong to some of the gentlemanly professions2 to be soldiers1 lawyers1 doctors1 or clergymen4 ,but alas1 ,i shall not want any soldiers of special skill or pugnacity4 ,all my boys will be soldiers4 ,so far from wanting any lawyers1 of the kind that live by talking1 ,i shall have the strongest possible objection to their appearance in the country4 ,for doctors1 ,i shall always entertain a profound respect2 but when ,i get my athletic education fairly established1 of what help to them will my respect be8 ,they will all starve6 ,and for clergymen1 it is true1 ,i shall have a large number of episcopates--one over every hundred families--7and many positions of civil authority also1 for civil officers1 above them and below71 but all these places will involve much hard work1 and be anything but covetable2 while1 of clergymen's usual work1 admonition1 theological demonstration1 and the like1 ,i shall want very little done indeed1 and that little done for nothing6 for ,i will allow no man to admonish anybody1 until he has previously earned his own dinner by more productive work than admonition4 ,well1 ,i wish1 my friend1 you would write me a word or two in answer to this1 telling me your own ideas as to the proper issue out of these difficulties4 ,i should like to know what you think1 and what you suppose others will think1 before ,i tell you my own notions about the matter4 ,,letter ,,xviii4 ,,the ,,harmful ,,effects ,,of ,,servile ,,employments4 ,,the ,,possible ,,practice ,,and ,,exhibition ,,of ,,sincere ,,humility ,,by ,,religious ,,persons4 ,april #g1 #ahfg4 #ajg4 ,i have been waiting these three days to know what you would say to my last questions2 and now you send me two pamphlets of ,combe's to read6 ,i never read anything in spring-time 7except the ,ai1 ,ai1 on the sanguine flower inscribed with woe72 and1 besides1 if1 as ,i gather from your letter1 ,combe thinks that among well-educated boys there would be a percentage constitutionally inclined to be cobblers1 or looking forward with unction to establishment in the oil and tallow line1 or fretting themselves for a flunkey's uniform1 nothing that he could say would make me agree with him4 ,i know1 as well as he does1 the unconquerable differences in the clay of the human creature3 and ,i know that1 in the outset1 whatever system of education you adopted1 a large number of children could be made nothing of1 and would necessarily fall out of the ranks1 and supply candidates enough for degradation to common mechanical business3 but this enormous difference in bodily and mental capacity has been mainly brought about by difference in occupation1 and by direct maltreatment2 and in a few generations1 if the poor were cared for1 their marriages looked after1 and sanitary law enforced1 a beautiful type of face and form1 and a high intelligence1 would become all but universal1 in a climate like this of ,england4 ,even as it is1 the marvel is always to me1 how the race resists1 at least in its childhood1 influences of ill-regulated birth1 poisoned food1 poisoned air1 and soul neglect4 ,i often see faces of children1 as ,i walk through the black district of ,st4 ,giles's 7lying1 as it does1 just between my own house and the ,british ,museum71 which1 through all their pale and corrupt misery1 recall the old ,non ,angli1 and recall it1 not by their beauty1 but by their sweetness of expression1 even though signed already with trace and cloud of the coming life1--a life so bitter that it would make the curse of the #acgth ,psalm true upon our modern ,babylon1 though we were to read it thus1 ,happy shall thy children be1 if one taketh and dasheth them against the stones4 #ajh4 ,yes1 very solemnly ,i repeat to you that in those worst treated children of the ,english race1 ,i yet see the making of gentlemen and gentlewomen--not the making of dog-stealers and gin-drinkers1 such as their parents were2 and the child of the average ,english tradesman or peasant1 even at this day1 well schooled1 will show no innate disposition such as must fetter him forever to the clod or the counter4 ,you say that many a boy runs away1 or would run away if he could1 from good positions to go to sea4 ,of course he does4 ,i never said ,i should have any difficulty in finding sailors1 but ,i shall in finding fishmongers4 ,i am at no loss for gardeners either1 but what am ,i to do for greengrocers8 #aji4 ,the fact is1 a great number of quite necessary employments are1 in the accuratest sense1 ,servile2 that is1 they sink a man to the condition of a serf1 or unthinking worker1 the proper state of an animal1 but more or less unworthy of men2 nay1 unholy in some sense1 so that a day is made holy by the fact of its being commanded1 ,thou shalt do no servile work therein4 ,and yet1 if undertaken in a certain spirit1 such work might be the holiest of all4 ,if there were but a thread or two of sound fiber here and there left in our modern religion1 so that the stuff of it would bear a real strain1 one might address our two opposite groups of evangelicals and ritualists somewhat after this fashion3--,good friends1 these differences of opinion between you cannot but be painful to your ,christian charity1 and they are unseemly to us1 the profane2 and prevent us from learning from you what1 perhaps1 we ought4 ,but1 as we read your ,book1 we1 for our part1 gather from it that you might1 without danger to your own souls1 set an undivided example to us1 for the benefit of ours4 ,you1 both of you1 as far as we understand1 agree in the necessity of humility to the perfection of your character4 ,we often hear you1 of ,calvinistic persuasion1 speaking of yourselves as 'sinful dust and ashes1'--would it then be inconsistent with your feelings to make yourselves into 'serviceable' dust and ashes8 ,we observe that of late many of our roads have been hardened and mended with cinders2 now1 if1 in a higher sense1 you could allow us to mend the roads of the world with you a little1 it would be a great proof to us of your sincerity4 ,suppose1 only for a little while1 in the present difficulty and distress1 you were to make it a test of conversion that a man should regularly give ,zaccheus's portion1 half his goods1 to the poor1 and at once adopt some disagreeable and despised1 but thoroughly useful1 trade8 ,you cannot think that this would finally be to your disadvantage2 you doubtless believe the texts1 ',he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the ,lord1' and ',he that would be chief among you1 let him be your servant4' ,the more you parted with1 and the lower you stooped1 the greater would be your final reward1 and final exaltation4 ,you profess to despise human learning and worldly riches2 leave both of these to us2 undertake for us the illiterate and ill-paid employments which must deprive you of the privileges of society and the pleasures of luxury4 ,you cannot possibly preach your faith so forcibly to the world by any quantity of the finest words1 as by a few such simple and painful acts2 and over your counters1 in honest retail business1 you might preach a gospel that would sound in more ears than any that was ever proclaimed over pulpit cushions or tabernacle rails4 ,and1 whatever may be your gifts of utterance1 you cannot but feel 7studying ,st4 ,paul's ,epistles as carefully as you do7 that you might more easily and modestly emulate the practical teaching of the silent ,apostle of the ,gentiles than the speech or writing of his companion4 ,amidst the present discomforts of your brethren you may surely1 with greater prospect of good to them1 seek the title of ,sons of ,consolation1 than of ,sons of ,thunder1 and be satisfied with ,barnabas's confession of faith1 7if you can reach no farther17 who1 'having land1 sold it1 and brought the money and laid it at the ,apostles' feet4' #aaj4 ,to you1 on the other hand1 gentlemen of the embroidered robe1 who neither despise learning nor the arts1 we know that sacrifices such as these would be truly painful1 and might at first appear inexpedient4 ,but the doctrine of self-mortification is not a new one to you2 and we should be sorry to think--we would not1 indeed1 for a moment dishonor you by thinking--that these melodious chants1 and prismatic brightnesses of vitreous pictures1 and floral graces of deep-wrought stone1 were in any wise intended for your own poor pleasures1 whatever profane attraction they may exercise on more fleshly-minded persons4 ,and as you have certainly received no definite order for the painting1 carving1 or lighting up of churches1 while the temple of the body of so many poor living ,christians is so pale1 so mis-shapen1 and so ill-lighted2 but have1 on the contrary1 received very definite orders for the feeding and clothing of such sad humanity1 we may surely ask you1 not unreasonably1 to humiliate yourselves in the most complete way--not with a voluntary1 but a sternly involuntary humility--not with a show of wisdom in will-worship1 but with practical wisdom1 in all honor1 to the satisfying of the flesh2 and to associate yourselves in monasteries and convents for the better practice of useful and humble trades4 ,do not burn any more candles1 but mould some2 do not paint any more windows1 but mend a few where the wind comes in1 in winter time1 with substantial clear glass and putty4 ,do not vault any more high roofs1 but thatch some low ones2 and embroider rather on backs which are turned to the cold1 than only on those which are turned to congregations4 ,and you will have your reward afterwards1 and attain1 with all your flocks thus tended1 to a place where you may have as much gold1 and painted glass1 and singing1 as you like4 ,thus much1 it seems to me1 one might say with some hope of acceptance1 to any very earnest member of either of our two great religious parties1 if1 as ,i say1 their faith could stand a strain4 ,i have not1 however1 based any of my imaginary political arrangements on the probability of its doing so2 and ,i trust only to such general good nature and willingness to help each other1 as ,i presume may be found among men of the world2 to whom ,i should have to make quite another sort of speech1 which ,i will endeavor to set down the heads of1 for you1 in next letter4 ,,letter ,,xix4 ,,the ,,general ,,pressure ,,of ,,excessive ,,and ,,improper ,,work1 ,,in ,,english ,,life4 ,april #aj1 #ahfg4 #aaa4 ,i cannot go on to-day with the part of my subject ,i had proposed1 for ,i was disturbed by receiving a letter last night1 which ,i herewith enclose to you1 and of which ,i wish you to print1 here following1 the parts ,i have not underlined-- #a1 ,phene ,street1 ,chelsea1 ,april #h1 #ahfg4 ,,my ,,dear ,r----1-- ,it is long since you have heard of me1 and now ,i ask your patience with me for a little4 ,i have but just returned from the funeral of my dear1 dear friend ----1 the first artist friend ,i made in ,london--a loved and prized one4 ,for years past he had lived in the very humblest way1 fighting his battle of life against mean appreciation of his talents1 the wants of a rising family1 and frequent attacks of illness1 crippling him for months at a time1 the wolf at the door meanwhile4 ,but about two years since his prospects brightened 99 99 99 and he had but a few weeks since ventured on removal to a larger house4 ,his eldest boy of seventeen years1 a very intelligent youth1 so strongly desired to be a civil engineer that ,mr4 ----1 not being able to pay the large premium required for his apprenticeship1 had been made very glad by the consent of ,mr4 ,penn1 of ,millwall1 to receive him without a premium after the boy should have spent some time at ,king's ,college in the study of mechanics4 ,the rest is a sad story4 ,about a fortnight ago ,mr4 ---- was taken ill1 and died last week1 the doctors say1 of sheer physical exhaustion1 not thirty-nine years old1 leaving eight young children1 and his poor widow expecting her confinement1 and so weak and ill as to be incapable of effort4 ,this youth is the eldest1 and the other children range downwards to a babe of eighteen months4 ,there is not one who knew him1 ,i believe1 that will not give cheerfully1 to their ability1 for his widow and children2 but such aid will go but a little way in this painful case2 and it would be a real boon to this poor widow if some of her children could be got into an ,orphan ,asylum4 99 99 99 ,if you are able to do anything ,i would send particulars of the age and sex of the children4 ,i remain1 dear ,sir1 ever obediently yours1 ,,fred4 ,j4 ,,shields4 ,p4,s4--,i ought to say that poor ---- has been quite unable to save1 with his large family2 and that they would be utterly destitute now1 but for the kindness of some with whom he was professionally connected4 #aab4 ,now this case1 of which you see the entire authenticity1 is1 out of the many of which ,i hear continually1 a notably sad one only in so far as the artist in question has died of distress while he was catering for the public amusement4 ,hardly a week now passes without some such misery coming to my knowledge2 and the quantity of pain1 and anxiety of daily effort1 through the best part of life1 ending all at last in utter grief1 which the lower middle classes in ,england are now suffering1 is so great that ,i feel constantly as if ,i were living in one great churchyard1 with people all round me clinging feebly to the edges of the open graves1 and calling for help1 as they fall back into them1 out of sight4 #aac4 ,now ,i want you to observe here1 in a definite case1 the working of your beautiful modern political economy of supply and demand4 ,here is a man who could have supplied you with good and entertaining art1--say for fifty good years1--if you had paid him enough for his day's work to find him and his children peacefully in bread4 ,but you like having your prints as cheap as possible--you triumph in the little that your laugh costs--you take all you can get from the man1 give the least you can give to him1--and you accordingly kill him at thirty-nine2 and thereafter have his children to take care of1 or to kill also1 whichever you choose2 but1 now1 observe1 you must take care of them for nothing1 or not at all2 and what you might have had good value for1 if you had given it when it would have cheered the father's heart1 you now can have no return for at all1 to yourselves2 and what you give to the orphans1 if it does not degrade them1 at least afflicts1 coming1 not through their father's hand1 its honest earnings1 but from strangers4 ,observe1 farther1 whatever help the orphans may receive1 will not be from the public at all4 ,it will not be from those who profited by their father's labors2 it will be chiefly from his fellow-laborers2 or from persons whose money would have been beneficially spent in other directions1 from whence it is drawn away to this need1 which ought never to have occurred1--while those who waste their money without doing any service to the public will never contribute one farthing to this distress4 #aad4 ,now it is this double fault in the help--that it comes too late1 and that the burden of it falls wholly on those who ought least to be charged with it--which would be corrected by that institution of overseers of which ,i spoke to you in the twelfth of these letters1 saying1 you remember1 that they were to have farther legal powers1 which ,i did not then specify1 but which would belong to them chiefly in the capacity of public almoners1 or help-givers1 aided by their deacons1 the reception of such help1 in time of true need1 being not held disgraceful1 but honorable2 since the fact of its reception would be so entirely public that no impostor or idle person could ever obtain it surreptitiously4 #aae4 7#aath ,april47 ,i was interrupted yesterday1 and ,i am glad of it1 for here happens just an instance of the way in which the unjust distribution of the burden of charity is reflected on general interests2 ,i cannot help what taint of ungracefulness you or other readers of these letters may feel that ,i incur1 in speaking1 in this instance1 of myself4 ,if ,i could speak with the same accurate knowledge of any one else1 most gladly ,i would2 but ,i also think it right that1 whether people accuse me of boasting or not1 they should know that ,i practise what ,i preach4 ,i had not intended to say what ,i now shall1 but the coming of this letter last night just turns the balance of the decision with me4 ,i enclose it with the other2 you see it is one from my bookseller1 ,mr4 ,quaritch1 offering me ,fischer's work on the ,flora of ,java1 and ,latour's on ,indian ,orchidace1 bound together1 for twenty guineas4 ,now1 ,i am writing a book on botany just now1 for young people1 chiefly on wild flowers1 and ,i want these two books very much2 but ,i simply cannot afford to buy them1 because ,i sent my last spare twenty guineas to ,mr4 ,shields yesterday for this widow4 ,and though you may think it not the affair of the public that ,i have not this book on ,indian flowers1 it is their affair finally1 that what ,i write for them should be founded on as broad knowledge as possible2 whatever value my own book may or may not have1 it will just be in a given degree worth less to them1 because of my want of this knowledge4 #aaf4 ,so again--for having begun to speak of myself ,i will do so yet more frankly--,i suppose that when people see my name down for a hundred pounds to the ,cruikshank ,memorial1 and for another hundred to the ,eyre ,defense ,fund1 they think only that ,i have more money than ,i know what to do with4 ,well1 the giving of those subscriptions simply decides the question whether or no ,i shall be able to afford a journey to ,switzerland this year1 in the negative2 and ,i wanted to go1 not only for health's sake1 but to examine the junctions of the molasse sandstones and nagelfluh with the ,alpine limestone1 in order to complete some notes ,i meant to publish next spring on the geology of the great northern ,swiss valley2 notes which must now lie by me at least for another year2 and ,i believe this delay 7though ,i say it7 will be really something of a loss to the traveling public1 for the little essay was intended to explain to them1 in a familiar way1 the real wonderfulness of their favorite mountain1 the ,righi2 and to give them some amusement in trying to find out where the many-colored pebbles of it had come from4 ,but it is more important that ,i should1 with some stoutness1 assert my respect for the genius and earnest patriotism of ,cruikshank1 and my much more than disrespect for the ,jamaica ,committee1 than that ,i should see the ,alps this year1 or get my essay finished next spring2 but ,i tell you the fact1 because ,i want you to feel how1 in thus leaving their men of worth to be assisted or defended only by those who deeply care for them1 the public more or less cripple1 to their own ultimate disadvantage1 just the people who could serve them in other ways2 while the speculators and money-seekers1 who are only making their profit out of the said public1 of course take no part in the help of anybody4 ,and even if the willing bearers could sustain the burden anywise adequately1 none of us would complain2 but ,i am certain there is no man1 whatever his fortune1 who is now engaged in any earnest offices of kindness to these sufferers1 especially of the middle class1 among his acquaintance1 who will not bear me witness that for one we can relieve1 we must leave three to perish4 ,i have left three1 myself1 in the first three months of this year4 ,one was the artist ,paul ,gray1 for whom an appeal was made to me for funds to assist him in going abroad out of the bitter ,english winter4 ,i had not the means by me1 and he died a week afterwards4 ,another case was that of a widow whose husband had committed suicide1 for whom application was made to me at the same time2 and the third was a personal friend1 to whom ,i refused a sum which he said would have saved him from bankruptcy4 ,i believe six times as much would not have saved him2 however1 ,i refused1 and he is ruined4 #aag4 ,and observe1 also1 it is not the mere crippling of my means that ,i regret4 ,it is the crippling of my temper1 and waste of my time4 ,the knowledge of all this distress1 even when ,i can assist it1--much more when ,i cannot1--and the various thoughts of what ,i can and cannot1 or ought and ought not1 to do1 are a far greater burden to me than the mere loss of the money4 ,it is peremptorily not my business--it is not my gift1 bodily or mentally1 to look after other people's sorrow4 ,i have enough of my own2 and even if ,i had not1 the sight of pain is not good for me4 ,i don't want to be a bishop4 ,in a most literal and sincere sense1 nolo episcopari4 ,i don't want to be an almoner1 nor a counselor1 nor a ,member of ,parliament1 nor a voter for ,members of ,parliament4 7,what would ,mr4 ,holyoake say to me if he knew that ,i have never voted for anybody in my life1 and never mean to do so67 ,i am essentially a painter and a leaf dissector2 and my powers of thought are all purely mathematical1 seizing ultimate principles only--never accidents2 a line is always1 to me1 length without breadth2 it is not a cable or a crowbar2 and though ,i can almost infallibly reason out the final law of anything1 if within reach of my industry1 ,i neither care for1 nor can trace1 the minor exigencies of its daily appliance4 ,so1 in every way1 ,i like a quiet life2 and ,i don't like seeing people cry1 or die2 and should rejoice1 more than ,i can tell you1 in giving up the full half of my fortune for the poor1 provided ,i knew that the public would make ,lord ,overstone also give the half of his1 and other people who were independent give the half of theirs2 and then set men who were really fit for such office to administer the fund1 and answer to us for nobody's perishing innocently2 and so leave us all to do what we chose with the rest1 and with our days1 in peace4 ,thus far of the public's fault in the matter4 ,next1 ,i have a word or two to say of the sufferers' own fault--for much as ,i pity them1 ,i conceive that none of them do perish altogether innocently4 ,but this must be for next letter4 ,,letter ,,xx4 ,,of ,,improvidence ,,in ,,marriage ,,in ,,the ,,middle ,,classes2 ,,and ,,of ,,the ,,advisable ,,restrictions ,,of ,,it4 ,april #ab1 #ahfg4 #aah4 ,it is quite as well1 whatever irregularity it may introduce in the arrangement of the general subject1 that yonder sad letter warped me away from the broad inquiry1 to this speciality1 respecting the present distress of the middle classes4 ,for the immediate cause of that distress1 in their own imprudence1 of which ,i have to speak to you to-day1 is only to be finally vanquished by strict laws1 which1 though they have been many a year in my mind1 ,i was glad to have a quiet hour of sunshine for the thinking over again1 this morning4 ,sunshine which happily rose cloudless2 and allowed me to meditate my tyrannies before breakfast1 under the just opened blossoms of my orchard1 and assisted by much melodious advice from the birds2 who 7my gardener having positive orders never to trouble any of them in anything1 or object to their eating even my best peas if they like their flavor7 rather now get into my way1 than out of it1 when they see me about the walks2 and take me into most of their counsels in nest-building4 #aai4 ,the letter from ,mr4 ,shields1 which interrupted us1 reached me1 as you see1 on the evening of the #ith instant4 ,on the morning of the #ajth1 ,i received another1 which ,i herewith forward to you1 for verification4 ,it is--characteristically enough--dateless1 so you must take the time of its arrival on my word4 ,and substituting ,m4 ,n4 for the name of the boy referred to1 and withholding only the address and name of the writer1 you see that it may be printed word for word--as follows3-- ,,sir1-- ,may ,i beg for the favor of your presentation to ,christ's ,hospital for my youngest son1 ,m4 ,n48 ,i have nine children1 and no means to educate them4 ,i ventured to address you1 believing that my husband's name is not unknown to you as an artist4 ,believe me to remain faithfully yours1 99 99 99 #abj4 ,now this letter is only a typical example of the entire class of those which1 being a governor of ,christ's ,hospital1 ,i receive1 in common with all the other governors1 at the rate of about three a day1 for a month or six weeks from the date of our names appearing in the printed list of the governors who have presentations for the current year4 ,having been a governor now some twenty-five years1 ,i have documentary evidence enough to found some general statistics upon2 from which there have resulted two impressions on my mind1 which ,i wish here specially to note to you1 and ,i do not doubt but that all the other governors1 if you could ask them1 would at once confirm what ,i say4 ,my first impression is1 a heavy and sorrowful sense of the general feebleness of intellect of that portion of the ,british public which stands in need of presentations to ,christ's ,hospital4 ,this feebleness of intellect is mainly shown in the nearly total unconsciousness of the writers that anybody else may want a presentation1 besides themselves4 ,with the exception here and there of a soldier's or a sailor's widow1 hardly one of them seems to have perceived the existence of any distress in the world but their own3 none know what they are asking for1 or imagine1 unless as a remote contingency1 the possibility of its having been promised at a prior date4 ,the second most distinct impression on my mind1 is that the portion of the ,british public which is in need of presentations to ,christ's ,hospital considers it a merit to have large families1 with or without the means of supporting them6 #aba4 ,now it happened also 7and remember1 all this is strictly true1 nor in the slightest particular represented otherwise than as it chanced2 though the said chance brought thus together exactly the evidence ,i wanted for my letter to you7--it happened1 ,i say1 that on this same morning of the #ajth ,april1 ,i became accidentally acquainted with a case of quite a different kind3 that of a noble girl1 who1 engaged at sixteen1 and having received several advantageous offers since1 has remained for ten years faithful to her equally faithful lover2 while1 their circumstances rendering it1 as they rightly considered1 unjustifiable in them to think of marriage1 each of them simply and happily1 aided and cheered by the other's love1 discharged the duties of their own separate positions in life4 #abb4 ,in the nature of things1 instances of this kind of noble life remain more or less concealed1 7while imprudence and error proclaim themselves by misfortune17 but they are assuredly not unfrequent in our ,english homes4 ,let us next observe the political and national result of these arrangements4 ,you leave your marriages to be settled by supply and demand1 instead of wholesome law4 ,and thus1 among your youths and maidens1 the improvident1 incontinent1 selfish1 and foolish ones marry1 whether you will or not2 and beget families of children necessarily inheritors in a great degree of these parental dispositions2 and for whom1 supposing they had the best dispositions in the world1 you have thus provided1 by way of educators1 the foolishest fathers and mothers you could find2 7the only rational sentence in their letters1 usually1 is the invariable one1 in which they declare themselves incapable of providing for their children's education74 ,on the other hand1 whosoever is wise1 patient1 unselfish1 and pure among your youth1 you keep maid or bachelor2 wasting their best days of natural life in painful sacrifice1 forbidding them their best help and best reward1 and carefully excluding their prudence and tenderness from any offices of parental duty4 ,is not this a beatific and beautifully sagacious system for a ,celestial ,empire1 such as that of these ,british ,isles8 #abc4 ,i will not here enter into any statement of the physical laws which it is the province of our physicians to explain2 and which are indeed at last so far beginning to be understood1 that there is hope of the nation's giving some of the attention to the conditions affecting the race of man1 which it has hitherto bestowed only on those which may better its races of cattle4 ,it is enough1 ,i think1 to say here that the beginning of all sanitary and moral law is in the regulation of marriage1 and that1 ugly and fatal as is every form and agency of license1 no licentiousness is so mortal as licentiousness in marriage4 #abd4 ,briefly1 then1 and in main points1 subject in minor ones to such modifications in detail as local circumstances and characters would render expedient1 those following are laws such as a prudent nation would institute respecting its marriages4 ,permission to marry should be the reward held in sight of its youth during the entire latter part of the course of their education2 and it should be granted as the national attestation that the first portion of their lives had been rightly fulfilled4 ,it should not be attainable without earnest and consistent effort1 though put within the reach of all who were willing to make such effort2 and the granting of it should be a public testimony to the fact1 that the youth or maid to whom it was given had lived1 within their proper sphere1 a modest and virtuous life1 and had attained such skill in their proper handicraft1 and in arts of household economy1 as might give well-founded expectations of their being able honorably to maintain and teach their children4 #abe4 ,no girl should receive her permission to marry before her seventeenth birthday1 nor any youth before his twenty-first2 and it should be a point of somewhat distinguished honor with both sexes to gain their permission of marriage in the eighteenth and twenty-second years2 and a recognized disgrace not to have gained it at least before the close of their twenty-first and twenty-fourth4 ,i do not mean that they should in any wise hasten actual marriage2 but only that they should hold it a point of honor to have the right to marry4 ,in every year there should be two festivals1 one on the first of ,may1 and one at the feast of harvest home in each district1 at which festivals their permissions to marry should be given publicly to the maidens and youths who had won them in that half-year2 and they should be crowned1 the maids by the old ,french title of ,rosires1 and the youths1 perhaps by some name rightly derived from one supposed signification of the word bachelor1 laurel fruit1 and so led in joyful procession1 with music and singing1 through the city street or village lane1 and the day ended with feasting of the poor4 #abf4 ,and every bachelor and rosire should be entitled to claim1 if they needed it1 according to their position in life1 a fixed income from the ,state1 for seven years from the day of their marriage1 for the setting up of their homes2 and1 however rich they might be by inheritance1 their income should not be permitted to exceed a given sum1 proportioned to their rank1 for the seven years following that in which they had obtained their permission to marry1 but should accumulate in the trust of the ,state until that seventh year1 in which they should be put 7on certain conditions7 finally in possession of their property2 and the men1 thus necessarily not before their twenty-eighth1 nor usually later than their thirty-first year1 become eligible to offices of ,state4 ,so that the rich and poor should not be sharply separated in the beginning of the war of life2 but the one supported against the first stress of it long enough to enable them1 by proper forethought and economy1 to secure their footing2 and the other trained somewhat in the use of moderate means1 before they were permitted to have the command of abundant ones4 ,and of the sources from which these ,state incomes for the married poor should be supplied1 or of the treatment of those of our youth whose conduct rendered it advisable to refuse them permission to marry1 ,i defer what ,i have to say till we come to the general subjects of taxation and criminal discipline2 leaving the proposals made in this letter to bear1 for the present1 whatever aspect of mere romance and unrealizable vision they probably may1 and to most readers1 such as they assuredly will4 ,nor shall ,i make the slightest effort to redeem them from these imputations2 for though there is nothing in all their purport which would not be approved1 as in the deepest sense practical--by the ,spirit of ,paradise-- ,which gives to all the self-same bent1 ,whose lives are wise and innocent1 and though ,i know that national justice in conduct1 and peace in heart1 could by no other laws be so swiftly secured1 ,i confess with much dispeace of heart1 that both justice and happiness have at this day become1 in ,england1 romantic impossibilities4 ,,letter ,,xxi4 ,,of ,,the ,,dignity ,,of ,,the ,,four ,,fine ,,arts2 ,,and ,,of ,,the ,,proper ,,system ,,of ,,retail ,,trade4 ,april #ae1 #ahfg4 #abg4 ,i return now to the part of the subject at which ,i was interrupted--the inquiry as to the proper means of finding persons willing to maintain themselves and others by degrading occupations4 ,that1 on the whole1 simply manual occupations are degrading1 ,i suppose ,i may assume you to admit2 at all events1 the fact is so1 and ,i suppose few general readers will have any doubt of it4,a ,a ,many of my working readers have disputed this statement eagerly1 feeling the good effect of work in themselves2 but observe1 ,i only say1 simply or totally manual work2 and that1 alone1 is degrading1 though often in measure1 refreshing1 wholesome1 and necessary4 ,so it is highly necessary and wholesome to eat sometimes2 but degrading to eat all day1 as to labor with the hands all day4 ,but it is not degrading to think all day--if you can4 ,a highly-bred court lady1 rightly interested in politics and literature1 is a much finer type of the human creature than a servant of all work1 however clever and honest4 ,granting this1 it follows as a direct consequence that it is the duty of all persons in higher stations of life1 by every means in their power to diminish their demand for work of such kind1 and to live with as little aid from the lower trades1 as they can possibly contrive4 #abh4 ,i suppose you see that this conclusion is not a little at variance with received notions on political economy8 ,it is popularly supposed that it benefits a nation to invent a want4 ,but the fact is1 that the true benefit is in extinguishing a want--in living with as few wants as possible4 ,i cannot tell you the contempt ,i feel for the common writers on political economy1 in their stupefied missing of this first principle of all human economy--individual or political--to live1 namely1 with as few wants as possible1 and to waste nothing of what is given you to supply them4 #abi4 ,this ought to be the first lesson of every rich man's political code4 ,sir1 his tutor should early say to him1 you are so placed in society1--it may be for your misfortune1 it must be for your trial--that you are likely to be maintained all your life by the labor of other men4 ,you will have to make shoes for nobody1 but some one will have to make a great many for you4 ,you will have to dig ground for nobody1 but some one will have to dig through every summer's hot day for you4 ,you will build houses and make clothes for no one1 but many a rough hand must knead clay1 and many an elbow be crooked to the stitch1 to keep that body of yours warm and fine4 ,now remember1 whatever you and your work may be worth1 the less your keep costs1 the better4 ,it does not cost money only4 ,it costs degradation4 ,you do not merely employ these people4 ,you also tread upon them4 ,it cannot be helped2--you have your place1 and they have theirs2 but see that you tread as lightly as possible1 and on as few as possible4 ,what food1 and clothes1 and lodging1 you honestly need1 for your health and peace1 you may righteously take4 ,see that you take the plainest you can serve yourself with--that you waste or wear nothing vainly--and that you employ no man in furnishing you with any useless luxury4 #acj4 ,that is the first lesson of ,christian--or human--economy2 and depend upon it1 my friend1 it is a sound one1 and has every voice and vote of the spirits of ,heaven and earth to back it1 whatever views the ,manchester men1 or any other manner of men1 may take respecting demand and supply4 ,demand what you deserve1 and you shall be supplied with it1 for your good4 ,demand what you do not deserve1 and you shall be supplied with something which you have not demanded1 and which ,nature perceives that you deserve1 quite to the contrary of your good4 ,that is the law of your existence1 and if you do not make it the law of your resolved acts1 so much1 precisely1 the worse for you and all connected with you4 #aca4 ,yet observe1 though it is out of its proper place said here1 this law forbids no luxury which men are not degraded in providing4 ,you may have ,paul ,veronese to paint your ceiling1 if you like1 or ,benvenuto ,cellini to make cups for you4 ,but you must not employ a hundred divers to find beads to stitch over your sleeve4 7,did you see the account of the sales of the ,esterhazy jewels the other day87 ,and the degree in which you recognize the difference between these two kinds of services1 is precisely what makes the difference between your being a civilized person or a barbarian4 ,if you keep slaves to furnish forth your dress--to glut your stomach--sustain your indolence--or deck your pride1 you are a barbarian4 ,if you keep servants1 properly cared for1 to furnish you with what you verily want1 and no more than that--you are a civil person--a person capable of the qualities of citizenship4,a ,a ,compare ',the ,crown of ,wild ,olive1' #gi1 #aah1 and #abb4 #acb4 ,now1 farther1 observe that in a truly civilized and disciplined state1 no man would be allowed to meddle with any material who did not know how to make the best of it4 ,in other words1 the arts of working in wood1 clay1 stone1 and metal1 would all be fine arts 7working in iron for machinery becoming an entirely distinct business74 ,there would be no joiner's work1 no smith's1 no pottery nor stone-cutting1 so debased in character as to be entirely unconnected with the finer branches of the same art2 and to at least one of these finer branches 7generally in metal-work7 every painter and sculptor would be necessarily apprenticed during some years of his education4 ,there would be room1 in these four trades alone1 for nearly every grade of practical intelligence and productive imagination4 #acc4 ,but it should not be artists alone who are exercised early in these crafts4 ,it would be part of my scheme of physical education that every youth in the state--from the ,king's son downwards1--should learn to do something finely and thoroughly with his hand1 so as to let him know what touch meant2 and what stout craftsmanship meant2 and to inform him of many things besides1 which no man can learn but by some severely accurate discipline in doing4 ,let him once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank1 or draw a fine curve without faltering1 or lay a brick level in its mortar2 and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him4 ,he might choose his craft1 but whatever it was1 he should learn it to some sufficient degree of true dexterity3 and the result would be1 in after life1 that among the middle classes a good deal of their house furniture would be made1 and a good deal of rough work1 more or less clumsily1 but not ineffectively1 got through1 by the master himself and his sons1 with much furtherance of their general health and peace of mind1 and increase of innocent domestic pride and pleasure1 and to the extinction of a great deal of vulgar upholstery and other mean handicraft4 #acd4 ,farther4 ,a great deal of the vulgarity1 and nearly all the vice1 of retail commerce1 involving the degradation of persons occupied in it1 depends simply on the fact that their minds are always occupied by the vital 7or rather mortal7 question of profits4 ,i should at once put an end to this source of baseness by making all retail dealers merely salaried officers in the employ of the trade guilds2 the stewards1 that is to say1 of the salable properties of those guilds1 and purveyors of such and such articles to a given number of families4 ,a perfectly well-educated person might1 without the least degradation1 hold such an office as this1 however poorly paid2 and it would be precisely the fact of his being well educated which would enable him to fulfil his duties to the public without the stimulus of direct profit4 ,of course the current objection to such a system would be that no man1 for a regularly paid salary1 would take pains to please his customers2 and the answer to that objection is1 that if you can train a man to so much unselfishness as to offer himself fearlessly to the chance of being shot1 in the course of his daily duty1 you can most assuredly1 if you make it also a point of honor with him1 train him to the amount of self-denial involved in looking you out with care such a piece of cheese or bacon as you have asked for4 #ace4 ,you see that ,i have already much diminished the number of employments involving degradation2 and raised the character of many of those that are left4 ,there remain to be considered the necessarily painful or mechanical works of mining1 forging1 and the like3 the unclean1 noisome1 or paltry manufactures--the various kinds of transport--7by merchant shipping1 etc47 and the conditions of menial service4 ,it will facilitate the examination of these if we put them for the moment aside1 and pass to the other division of our dilemma1 the question1 namely1 what kind of lives our gentlemen and ladies are to live1 for whom all this hard work is to be done4 ,,letter ,,xxii4 ,,of ,,the ,,normal ,,position ,,and ,,duties ,,of ,,the ,,upper ,,classes4 ,,general ,,statement ,,of ,,the ,,land ,,question4 ,april #ag1 #ahfg4 #acf4 ,in passing now to the statement of conditions affecting the interests of the upper classes1 ,i would rather have addressed these closing letters to one of themselves than to you1 for it is with their own faults and needs that each class is primarily concerned4 ,as1 however1 unless ,i kept the letters private1 this change of their address would be but a matter of courtesy and form1 not of any true prudential use2 and as besides ,i am now no more inclined to reticence--prudent or otherwise2 but desire only to state the facts of our national economy as clearly and completely as may be1 ,i pursue the subject without respect of persons4 #acg4 ,before examining what the occupation and estate of the upper classes ought1 as far as may reasonably be conjectured1 finally to become1 it will be well to set down in brief terms what they actually have been in past ages3 for this1 in many respects1 they must also always be4 ,the upper classes1 broadly speaking1 are originally composed of the best-bred 7in the mere animal sense of the term71 the most energetic1 and most thoughtful1 of the population1 who either by strength of arm seize the land from the rest1 and make slaves of them1 or bring desert land into cultivation1 over which they have therefore1 within certain limits1 true personal right2 or1 by industry1 accumulate other property1 or by choice devote themselves to intellectual pursuits1 and1 though poor1 obtain an acknowledged superiority of position1 shown by benefits conferred in discovery1 or in teaching1 or in gifts of art4 ,this is all in the simple course of the law of nature2 and the proper offices of the upper classes1 thus distinguished from the rest1 become1 therefore1 in the main threefold3-- #ach4 7,a7 ,those who are strongest of arm have for their proper function the restraint and punishment of vice1 and the general maintenance of law and order2 releasing only from its original subjection to their power that which truly deserves to be emancipated4 7,b7 ,those who are superior by forethought and industry1 have for their function to be the providences of the foolish1 the weak1 and the idle2 and to establish such systems of trade and distribution of goods as shall preserve the lower orders from perishing by famine1 or any other consequence of their carelessness or folly1 and to bring them all1 according to each man's capacity1 at last into some harmonious industry4 7,c7 ,the third class1 of scholars and artists1 of course1 have for function the teaching and delighting of the inferior multitude4 ,the office of the upper classes1 then1 as a body1 is to keep order among their inferiors1 and raise them always to the nearest level with themselves of which those inferiors are capable4 ,so far as they are thus occupied1 they are invariably loved and reverenced intensely by all beneath them1 and reach1 themselves1 the highest types of human power and beauty4 #aci4 ,this1 then1 being the natural ordinance and function of aristocracy1 its corruption1 like that of all other beautiful things under the ,devil's touch1 is a very fearful one4 ,its corruption is1 that those who ought to be the rulers and guides of the people1 forsake their task of painful honorableness2 seek their own pleasure and pre-eminence only2 and use their power1 subtlety1 conceded influence1 prestige of ancestry1 and mechanical instrumentality of martial power1 to make the lower orders toil for them1 and feed and clothe them for nothing1 and become in various ways their living property1 goods1 and chattels1 even to the point of utter regardlessness of whatever misery these serfs may suffer through such insolent domination1 or they themselves1 their masters1 commit of crime to enforce it4 #adj4 ,and this is especially likely to be the case when means of various and tempting pleasures are put within the reach of the upper classes by advanced conditions of national commerce and knowledge3 and it is certain to be the case as soon as position among those upper classes becomes any way purchasable with money1 instead of being the assured measure of some kind of worth1 7either strength of hand1 or true wisdom of conduct1 or imaginative gift74 ,it has been becoming more and more the condition of the aristocracy of ,europe1 ever since the fifteenth century2 and is gradually bringing about its ruin1 and in that ruin1 checked only by the power which here and there a good soldier or true statesman achieves over the putrid chaos of its vain policy1 the ruin of all beneath it2 which can be arrested only1 either by the repentance of that old aristocracy1 7hardly to be hoped17 or by the stern substitution of other aristocracy worthier than it4 #ada4 ,corrupt as it may be1 it and its laws together1 ,i would at this moment1 if ,i could1 fasten every one of its institutions down with bands of iron1 and trust for all progress and help against its tyranny simply to the patience and strength of private conduct4 ,and if ,i had to choose1 ,i would tenfold rather see the tyranny of old ,austria triumphant in the old and new worlds1 and trust to the chance 7or rather the distant certainty7 of some day seeing a true ,emperor born to its throne1 than1 with every privilege of thought and act1 run the most distant risk of seeing the thoughts of the people of ,germany and ,england become like the thoughts of the people of ,america4 ,my ,american friends1 of whom one1 ,charles ,eliot ,norton1 of ,cambridge1 is the dearest ,i have in the world1 tell me ,i know nothing about ,america4 ,it may be so1 and they must do me the justice to observe that ,i1 therefore1 usually say nothing about ,america4 ,but this much ,i have said1 because the ,americans1 as a nation1 set their trust in liberty and in equality1 of which ,i detest the one1 and deny the possibility of the other2 and because1 also1 as a nation1 they are wholly undesirous of ,rest1 and incapable of it2 irreverent of themselves1 both in the present and in the future2 discontented with what they are1 yet having no ideal of anything which they desire to become4,a ,a ,some following passages in this letter1 containing personal references which might1 in permanence1 have given pain or offense1 are now omitted--the substance of them being also irrelevant to my main purpose4 ,these few words about the ,american war1 with which they concluded1 are1 ,i think1 worth retaining3--,all methods of right government are to be communicated to foreign nations by perfectness of example and gentleness of patiently expanded power1 not suddenly1 nor at the bayonet's point4 ,and though it is the duty of every nation to interfere1 at bayonet point1 if they have the strength to do so1 to save any oppressed multitude1 or even individual1 from manifest violence1 it is wholly unlawful to interfere in such matter1 except with sacredly pledged limitation of the objects to be accomplished in the oppressed person's favor1 and with absolute refusal of all selfish advantage and increase of territory or of political power which might otherwise accrue from the victory4 #adb4 ,but1 however corrupted1 the aristocracy of any nation may thus be always divided into three great classes4 ,first1 the landed proprietors and soldiers1 essentially one political body 7for the possession of land can only be maintained by military power72 secondly1 the moneyed men and leaders of commerce2 thirdly1 the professional men and masters in science1 art1 and literature4 ,and we were to consider the proper duties of all these1 and the laws probably expedient respecting them4 ,whereupon1 in the outset1 we are at once brought face to face with the great land question4 #adc4 ,great as it may be1 it is wholly subordinate to those we have hitherto been considering4 ,the laws you make regarding methods of labor1 or to secure the genuineness of the things produced by it1 affect the entire moral state of the nation1 and all possibility of human happiness for them4 ,the mode of distribution of the land only affects their numbers4 ,by this or that law respecting land you decide whether the nation shall consist of fifty or of a hundred millions4 ,but by this or that law respecting work1 you decide whether the given number of millions shall be rogues1 or honest men2--shall be wretches1 or happy men4 ,and the question of numbers is wholly immaterial1 compared with that of character2 or rather1 its own materialness depends on the prior determination of character4 ,make your nation consist of knaves1 and1 as ,emerson said long ago1 it is but the case of any other vermin--the more1 the worse4 ,or1 to put the matter in narrower limits1 it is a matter of no final concern to any parent whether he shall have two children1 or four2 but matter of quite final concern whether those he has shall1 or shall not1 deserve to be hanged4 ,the great difficulty in dealing with the land question at all arises from the false1 though very natural1 notion on the part of many reformers1 and of large bodies of the poor1 that the division of the land among the said poor would be an immediate and everlasting relief to them4 ,an immediate relief it would be to the extent of a small annual sum 7you may easily calculate how little1 if you choose7 to each of them2 on the strength of which accession to their finances1 they would multiply into as much extra personality as the extra pence would sustain1 and at that point be checked by starvation1 exactly as they are now4 #add4 ,any other form of pillage would benefit them only in like manner2 and1 in reality1 the difficult part of the question respecting numbers1 is1 not where they shall be arrested1 but what shall be the method of their arrest4 ,an island of a certain size has standing room only for so many people2 feeding ground for a great many fewer than could stand on it4 ,reach the limits of your feeding ground1 and you must cease to multiply1 must emigrate or starve4 ,the modes in which the pressure is gradually brought to bear on the population depend on the justice of your laws2 but the pressure itself must come at last1 whatever the distribution of the land4 ,and arithmeticians seem to me a little slow to remark the importance of the old child's puzzle about the nails in the horseshoe--when it is populations that are doubling themselves1 instead of farthings4 #ade4 ,the essential land question1 then1 is to be treated quite separately from that of the methods of restriction of population4 ,the land question is--,at what point will you resolve to stop8 ,it is separate matter of discussion how you are to stop at it4 ,and this essential land question--,at what point will you stop8--is itself two-fold4 ,you have to consider first1 by what methods of land distribution you can maintain the greatest number of healthy persons2 and secondly1 whether1 if1 by any other mode of distribution and relative ethical laws1 you can raise their character1 while you diminish their numbers1 such sacrifice should be made1 and to what extent8 ,i think it will be better1 for clearness' sake1 to end this letter with the putting of these two queries in their decisive form1 and to reserve suggestions of answer for my next4 ,,letter ,,xxiii4 ,,of ,,the ,,just ,,tenure ,,of ,,lands3 ,,and ,,the ,,proper ,,functions ,,of ,,high ,,public ,,officers4 #bjth ,april1 #ahfg4 #adf4 ,i must repeat to you1 once more1 before ,i proceed1 that ,i only enter on this part of our inquiry to complete the sequence of its system1 and explain fully the bearing of former conclusions1 and not for any immediately practicable good to be got out of the investigation4 ,whatever ,i have hitherto urged upon you1 it is in the power of all men quietly to promote1 and finally to secure1 by the patient resolution of personal conduct2 but no action could be taken in re-distribution of land or in limitation of the incomes of the upper classes1 without grave and prolonged civil disturbance4 ,such disturbance1 however1 is only too likely to take place1 if the existing theories of political economy are allowed credence much longer4 ,in the writings of the vulgar economists1 nothing more excites my indignation than the subterfuges by which they endeavor to accommodate their pseudoscience to the existing abuses of wealth1 by disguising the true nature of rent4 ,i will not waste time in exposing their fallacies1 but will put the truth for you into as clear a shape as ,i can4 #adg4 ,rent1 of whatever kind1 is1 briefly1 the price continuously paid for the loan of the property of another person4 ,it may be too little1 or it may be just or exorbitant or altogether unjustifiable1 according to circumstances4 ,exorbitant rents can only be exacted from ignorant or necessitous rent-payers3 and it is one of the most necessary conditions of state economy that there should be clear laws to prevent such exaction4 #adh4 ,i may interrupt myself for a moment to give you an instance of what ,i mean4 ,the most wretched houses of the poor in ,london often pay ten or fifteen per cent4 to the landlord2 and ,i have known an instance of sanitary legislation being hindered1 to the loss of many hundreds of lives1 in order that the rents of a nobleman1 derived from the necessities of the poor1 might not be diminished4 ,and it is a curious thing to me to see ,mr4 ,j4 ,s4 ,mill foaming at the mouth1 and really afflicted conscientiously1 because he supposes one man to have been unjustly hanged1 while by his own failure1 7,i believe1 wilful failure7,a in stating clearly to the public one of the first elementary truths of the science he professes1 he is aiding and abetting the commission of the cruelest possible form of murder on many thousands of persons yearly1 for the sake simply of putting money into the pockets of the landlords4 ,i felt this evil so strongly that ,i bought1 in the worst part of ,london1 one freehold and one leasehold property1 consisting of houses inhabited by the lowest poor2 in order to try what change in their comfort and habits ,i could effect by taking only a just rent1 but that firmly4 ,the houses of the leasehold pay me five per cent42 the families that used to have one room in them have now two2 and are more orderly and hopeful besides2 and there is a surplus still on the rents they pay after ,i have taken my five per cent41 with which1 if all goes well1 they will eventually be able to buy twelve years of the lease from me4 ,the freehold pays three per cent41 with similar results in the comfort of the tenant4 ,this is merely an example of what might be done by firm ,state action in such matters4 ,a ,see #aef4 #adi4 ,next1 of wholly unjustifiable rents4 ,these are for things which are not1 and which it is criminal to consider as1 personal or exchangeable property4 ,bodies of men1 land1 water1 and air1 are the principal of these things4 ,parenthetically1 may ,i ask you to observe1 that though a fearless defender of some forms of slavery1 ,i am no defender of the slave trade4 ,it is by a blundering confusion of ideas between governing men1 and trading in men1 and by consequent interference with the restraint1 instead of only with the sale1 that most of the great errors in action have been caused among the emancipation men4 ,i am prepared1 if the need be clear to my own mind1 and if the power is in my hands1 to throw men into prison1 or any other captivity--to bind them or to beat them--and force them1 for such periods as ,i may judge necessary1 to any kind of irksome labor3 and on occasion of desperate resistance1 to hang or shoot them4 ,but ,i will not sell them4 #aej4 ,bodies of men1 or women1 then 7and much more1 as ,i said before1 their souls71 must not be bought or sold4 ,neither must land1 nor water1 nor air1 these being the necessary sustenance of men's bodies and souls4 ,yet all these may1 on certain terms1 be bound1 or secured in possession1 to particular persons under certain conditions4 ,for instance1 it may be proper1 at a certain time1 to give a man permission to possess land1 as you give him permission to marry2 and farther1 if he wishes it and works for it1 to secure to him the land needful for his life2 as you secure his wife to him2 and make both utterly his own1 without in the least admitting his right to buy other people's wives1 or fields1 or to sell his own4 #aea4 ,and the right action of a ,state respecting its land is1 indeed1 to secure it in various portions to those of its citizens who deserve to be trusted with it1 according to their respective desires and proved capacities2 and after having so secured it to each1 to exercise only such vigilance over his treatment of it as the ,state must give also to his treatment of his wife and servants2 for the most part leaving him free1 but interfering in cases of gross mismanagement or abuse of power4 ,and in the case of great old families1 which always ought to be1 and in some measure1 however decadent1 still truly are1 the noblest monumental architecture of the kingdom1 living temples of sacred tradition and hero's religion1 so much land ought to be granted to them in perpetuity as may enable them to live thereon with all circumstances of state and outward nobleness2 but their income must in no wise be derived from the rents of it1 nor must they be occupied 7even in the most distant or subordinately administered methods71 in the exaction of rents4 ,that is not noblemen's work4 ,their income must be fixed1 and paid them by the ,state1 as the ,king's is4 #aeb4 ,so far from their land being to them a source of income1 it should be1 on the whole1 costly to them1 great part of it being kept in conditions of natural grace1 which return no rent but their loveliness2 and the rest made1 at whatever cost1 exemplary in perfection of such agriculture as develops the happiest peasant life2,a agriculture which1 as ,i will show you hereafter1 must reject the aid of all mechanism except that of instruments guided solely by the human hand1 or by animal1 or directly natural forces2 and which1 therefore1 cannot compete for profitableness with agriculture carried on by aid of machinery4 ,a ,compare ',fors ,clavigera1' ,letter ,,xxi41 page #bb4 ,and now for the occupation of this body of men1 maintained at fixed perennial cost of the ,state4 #aec4 ,you know ,i said ,i should want no soldiers of special skill or pugnacity1 for all my boys would be soldiers4 ,but ,i assuredly want captains of soldiers1 of special skill and pugnacity4 ,and also1 ,i said ,i should strongly object to the appearance of any lawyers in my territory2 meaning1 however1 by lawyers1 people who live by arguing about law1--not people appointed to administer law2 and people who live by eloquently misrepresenting facts--not people appointed to discover and plainly represent them4 ,therefore1 the youth of this landed aristocracy would be trained1 in my schools1 to these two great callings1 not by which1 but in which1 they are to live4 ,they would be trained1 all of them1 in perfect science of war1 and in perfect science of essential law4 ,and from their body should be chosen the captains and the judges of ,england1 its advocates1 and generally its ,state officers1 all such functions being held for fixed pay 7as already our officers of the ,church and army are paid71 and no function connected with the administration of law ever paid by casual fee4 ,and the head of such family should1 in his own right1 having passed due 7and high7 examination in the science of law1 and not otherwise1 be a judge1 law-ward or ,lord1 having jurisdiction both in civil and criminal cases1 such as our present judges have1 after such case shall have been fully represented before1 and received verdict from1 a jury1 composed exclusively of the middle or lower orders1 and in which no member of the aristocracy should sit4 ,but from the decision of these juries1 or from the ,lord's sentence1 there should be a final appeal to a tribunal1 the highest in the land1 held solely in the ,king's name1 and over which1 in the capital1 the ,king himself should preside1 and therein give judgment on a fixed number of days in each year2--and1 in other places and at other times1 judges appointed by election 7under certain conditions7 out of any order of men in the ,state 7the election being national1 not provincial73 and all causes brought before these judges should be decided1 without appeal1 by their own authority2 not by juries4 ,this1 then1 recasting it for you into brief view1 would be the entire scheme of state authorities3-- #aed4 7#a7 ,the ,king3 exercising1 as part both of his prerogative and his duty1 the office of a supreme judge at stated times in the central court of appeal of his kingdom4 7#b7 ,supreme judges appointed by national election2 exercising sole authority in courts of final appeal4 7#c7 ,ordinary judges1 holding the office hereditarily under conditions2 and with power to add to their number 7and liable to have it increased if necessary by the ,king's appointment72 the office of such judges being to administer the national laws under the decision of juries4 7#d7 ,state officers charged with the direction of public agency in matters of public utility4 7#e7 ,bishops1 charged with offices of supervision and aid1 to family by family1 and person by person4 7#f7 ,the officers of war1 of various ranks4 7#g7 ,the officers of public instruction1 of various ranks4 ,i have sketched out this scheme for you somewhat prematurely1 for ,i would rather have conducted you to it step by step1 and as ,i brought forward the reasons for the several parts of it2 but it is1 on other grounds1 desirable that you should have it to refer to1 as ,i go on4 #aee4 ,without depending anywise upon nomenclature1 yet holding it important as a sign and record of the meanings of things1 ,i may tell you further that ,i should call the elected supreme judges1 ,princes2 the hereditary judges1 ,lords2 and the officers of public guidance1 ,dukes2 and that the social rank of these persons would be very closely correspondent to that implied by such titles under our present constitution2 only much more real and useful4 ,and in conclusion of this letter1 ,i will but add1 that if you1 or other readers1 think it idle of me to write or dream of such things2 as if any of them were in our power1 or within possibility of any near realization1 and above all1 vain to write of them to a workman at ,sunderland3 you are to remember what ,i told you at the beginning1 that ,i go on with this part of my subject in some fulfilment of my long-conceived plan1 too large to receive at present any deliberate execution from my failing strength2 7being the body of the work to which ',munera ,pulveris' was intended merely as an introduction27 and that ,i address it to you because ,i know that the working men of ,england must1 for some time1 be the only body to which we can look for resistance to the deadly influence of moneyed power4 ,i intend1 however1 to write to you at this moment one more letter1 partly explanatory of minor details necessarily omitted in this1 and chiefly of the proper office of the soldier2 and then ,i must delay the completion of even this poor task until after the days have turned1 for ,i have quite other work to do in the brightness of the full-opened spring4 #aef4 ,p4,s4--,as ,i have used somewhat strong language1 both here and elsewhere1 of the equivocations of the economists on the subject of rent1 ,i had better refer you to one characteristic example4 ,you will find in paragraph #eth and #fth of ,book ,,ii41 chap4 #b1 of ,mr4 ,mill's ',principles1' that the right to tenure of land is based1 by his admission1 only on the proprietor's being its improver4 ,without pausing to dwell on the objection that land cannot be improved beyond a certain point1 and that1 at the reaching of that point1 farther claim to tenure would cease1 on ,mr4 ,mill's principle--take even this admission1 with its proper subsequent conclusion1 that in no sound theory of private property was it ever contemplated that the proprietor of land should be merely a sinecurist quartered on it4 ,now1 had that conclusion been farther followed1 it would have compelled the admission that all rent was unjustifiable which normally maintained any person in idleness2 which is indeed the whole truth of the matter4 ,but ,mr4 ,mill instantly retreats from this perilous admission2 and after three or four pages of discussion 7quite accurate for its part7 of the limits of power in management of the land itself 7which apply just as strictly to the peasant proprietor as to the cottier's landlord71 he begs the whole question at issue in one brief sentence1 slipped cunningly into the middle of a long one which appears to be telling all the other way1 and in which the fatal assertion 7of the right to rent7 nestles itself1 as if it had been already proved1--thus--,i italicize the unproved assertion in which the venom of the entire falsehood is concentrated4 ,even in the case of cultivated land1 a man whom1 though only one among millions1 the law permits to hold thousands of acres as his single share1 is not entitled to think that all is given to him to use and abuse1 and deal with it as if it concerned nobody but himself4 ,the rents or profits which he can obtain from it are his1 and his only2 but with regard to the land1 in everything which he abstains from doing1 he is morally bound1 and should1 whenever the case admits1 be legally compelled to make his interest and pleasure consistent with the public good4 #aeg4 ,i say1 this sentence in italics is slipped cunningly into the long sentence1 as if it were of no great consequence2 and above ,i have expressed my belief that ,mr4 ,mill's equivocations on this subject are wilful4 ,it is a grave accusation2 but ,i cannot1 by any stretch of charity1 attribute these misrepresentations to absolute dulness and bluntness of brain1 either in ,mr4 ,mill or his follower1 ,mr4 ,fawcett4 ,mr4 ,mill is capable of immense involuntary error2 but his involuntary errors are usually owing to his seeing only one or two of the many sides of a thing2 not to obscure sight of the side he does see4 ,thus his ',essay on ,liberty' only takes cognizance of facts that make for liberty1 and of none that make for restraint4 ,but in its statement of all that can be said for liberty1 it is so clear and keen1 that ,i have myself quoted it before now as the best authority on that side4 ,and1 if arguing in favor of ,rent1 absolutely1 and with clear explanation of what it was1 he had then defended it with all his might1 ,i should have attributed to him only the honest shortsightedness of partisanship2 but when ,i find his defining sentences full of subtle entanglement and reserve--and that reserve held throughout his treatment of this particular subject1--,i cannot1 whether ,i utter the suspicion or not1 keep the sense of wilfulness in the misrepresentation from remaining in my mind4 ,and if there be indeed ground for this blame1 and ,mr4 ,mill1 for fear of fostering political agitation1,a has disguised what he knows to be the facts about rent1 ,i would ask him as one of the leading members of the ,jamaica ,committee1 which is the greater crime1 boldly to sign warrant for the sudden death of one man1 known to be an agitator1 in the immediate outbreak of such agitation1 or1 by equivocation in a scientific work1 to sign warrants for the deaths of thousands of men in slow misery1 for fear of an agitation which has not begun2 and if begun1 would be carried on by debate1 not by the sword8 ,a ,with at last the natural consequences of cowardice1--nitro-glycerine and fire-balls6 ,let the upper classes speak the truth about themselves boldly1 and they will know how to defend themselves fearlessly4 ,it is equivocation in principle1 and dereliction from duty1 which melt at last into tears in a mob's presence4--7,dec4 #afth1 #ahfg47 ,,letter ,,xxiv4 ,,the ,,office ,,of ,,the ,,soldier4 ,april #bb1 #ahfg4 #aeh4 ,i must once more deprecate your probable supposition that ,i bring forward this ideal plan of ,state government1 either with any idea of its appearing1 to our present public mind1 practicable even at a remote period1 or with any positive and obstinate adherence to the particular form suggested4 ,there are no wiser words among the many wise ones of the most rational and keen-sighted of old ,english men of the world1 than these3-- ,for forms of government let fools contest2 ,that which is best administered is best4 ,for1 indeed1 no form of government is of any use among bad men2 and any form will work in the hands of the good2 but the essence of all government among good men is this1 that it is mainly occupied in the production and recognition of human worth1 and in the detection and extinction of human unworthiness2 and every ,government which produces and recognizes worth1 will also inevitably use the worth it has found to govern with2 and therefore fall into some approximation to such a system as ,i have described4 ,and1 as ,i told you1 ,i do not contend for names1 nor particular powers--though ,i state those which seem to me most advisable2 on the contrary1 ,i know that the precise extent of authorities must be different in every nation at different times1 and ought to be so1 according to their circumstances and character2 and all that ,i assert with confidence is the necessity1 within afterwards definable limits1 of some such authorities as these2 that is to say1 #aei4 ,i4 ,an observant one3--by which all men shall be looked after and taken note of4 ,,ii4 ,a helpful one1 from which those who need help may get it4 ,,iii4 ,a prudential one1 which shall not let people dig in wrong places for coal1 nor make railroads where they are not wanted2 and which shall also1 with true providence1 insist on their digging in right places for coal1 in a safe manner1 and making railroads where they are wanted4 ,,iv4 ,a martial one1 which will punish knaves and make idle persons work4 ,v4 ,an instructive one1 which shall tell everybody what it is their duty to know1 and be ready pleasantly to answer questions if anybody asks them4 ,,vi4 ,a deliberate and decisive one1 which shall judge by law1 and amend or make law2 ,,vii4 ,an exemplary one1 which shall show what is loveliest in the art of life4 ,you may divide or name those several offices as you will1 or they may be divided in practice as expediency may recommend2 the plan ,i have stated merely puts them all into the simplest forms and relations4 #afj4 ,you see ,i have just defined the martial power as that which punishes knaves and makes idle persons work4 ,for that is indeed the ultimate and perennial soldiership2 that is the essential warrior's office to the end of time4 ,there is no discharge in that war4 ,to the compelling of sloth1 and the scourging of sin1 the strong hand will have to address itself as long as this wretched little dusty and volcanic world breeds nettles1 and spits fire4 ,the soldier's office at present is indeed supposed to be the defense of his country against other countries2 but that is an office which--,utopian as you may think the saying--will soon now be extinct4 ,i say so fearlessly1 though ,i say it with wide war threatened1 at this moment1 in the ,east and ,west4 ,for observe what the standing of nations on their defense really means4 ,it means that1 but for such armed attitude1 each of them would go and rob the other2 that is to say1 that the majority of active persons in every nation are at present--thieves4 ,i am very sorry that this should still be so2 but it will not be so long4 ,national exhibitions1 indeed1 will not bring peace2 but national education will1 and that is soon coming4 ,i can judge of this by my own mind1 for ,i am myself naturally as covetous a person as lives in this world1 and am as eagerly-minded to go and steal some things the ,french have got1 as any housebreaker could be1 having clue to attractive spoons4 ,if ,i could by military incursion carry off ,paul ,veronese's ,marriage in ,cana1 and the ,venus ,victrix1 and the ,hours of ,st4 ,louis1 it would give me the profoundest satisfaction to accomplish the foray successfully2 nevertheless1 being a comparatively educated person1 ,i should most assuredly not give myself that satisfaction1 though there were not an ounce of gunpowder1 nor a bayonet1 in all ,france4 ,i have not the least mind to rob anybody1 however much ,i may covet what they have got2 and ,i know that the ,french and ,british public may and will1 with many other publics1 be at last brought to be of this mind also2 and to see farther that a nation's real strength and happiness do not depend on properties and territories1 nor on machinery for their defense2 but on their getting such territory as they have1 well filled with none but respectable persons4 ,which is a way of infinitely enlarging one's territory1 feasible to every potentate2 and dependent no wise on getting ,trent turned1 or ,rhine-edge reached4 #afa4 ,not but that1 in the present state of things1 it may often be soldiers' duty to seize territory1 and hold it strongly2 but only from banditti1 or savage and idle persons4 ,thus1 both ,calabria and ,greece ought to have been irresistibly occupied long ago4 ,instead of quarreling with ,austria about ,venice1 the ,italians ought to have made a truce with her for ten years1 on condition only of her destroying no monuments1 and not taxing ,italians more than ,germans2 and then thrown the whole force of their army on ,calabria1 shot down every bandit in it in a week1 and forced the peasantry of it into honest work on every hill-side1 with stout and immediate help from the soldiers in embanking streams1 building walls1 and the like2 and ,italian finance would have been a much pleasanter matter for the ,king to take account of by this time2 and a fleet might have been floating under ,garganus strong enough to sweep every hostile sail out of the ,adriatic1 instead of a disgraced and useless remnant of one1 about to be put up to auction4 ,and similarly1 we ought to have occupied ,greece instantly1 when they asked us1 whether ,russia liked it or not2 given them an ,english king1 made good roads for them1 and stout laws2 and kept them1 and their hills and seas1 with righteous shepherding of ,arcadian fields1 and righteous ruling of ,salaminian wave1 until they could have given themselves a ,greek king of men again2 and obeyed him1 like men4 ,april #bd4 #afb4 ,it is strange that just before ,i finish work for this time1 there comes the first real and notable sign of the victory of the principles ,i have been fighting for1 these seven years4 ,it is only a newspaper paragraph1 but it means much4 ,look at the second column of the #aath page of yesterday's ',pall ,mall ,gazette1' ,the paper has taken a wonderful fit of misprinting lately 7unless my friend ,john ,simon has been knighted on his way to ,weimar1 which would be much too right and good a thing to be a likely one72 but its straws of talk mark which way the wind blows perhaps more early than those of any other journal--and look at the question it puts in that page1 ,whether political economy be the sordid and materialistic science some account it1 or almost the noblest on which thought can be employed8 ,might not you as well have determined that question a little while ago1 friend ,public8 and known what political economy was1 before you talked so much about it8 ,but1 hark1 again--,ostentation1 parental pride and a host of moral 7immoral87 qualities must be recognized as among the springs of industry2 political economy should not ignore these1 but1 to discuss them1 it must abandon its pretensions to the precision of a pure science4 #afc4 ,well done the ',pall ,mall'6 ,had it written ,prudence and parental affection1 instead of ,ostentation and parental pride1 must be recognized among the springs of industry1 it would have been still better2 and it would then have achieved the expression of a part of the truth1 which ,i put into clear terms in the first sentence of ',unto this ,last1' in the year #ahfb--which it has thus taken five years to get half way into the public's head4 ,among the delusions which at different periods have possessed themselves of the minds of large masses of the human race1 perhaps the most curious--certainly the least creditable--is the modern soi-disant science of political economy1 based on the idea that an advantageous code of social action may be determined1 irrespectively of the influence of social affection4 ,look also at the definition of skill1 p4 #hg4 ,under the term 'skill' ,i mean to include the united force of experience1 intellect1 and passion1 in their operation on manual labor1 and under the term 'passion' to include the entire range of the moral feelings4 #afd4 ,i say half way into the public's head1 because you see1 a few lines further on1 the ',pall ,mall' hopes for a pause half way between the rigidity of ,ricardo and the sentimentality of ,ruskin4 ,with one hand on their pocket1 and the other on their heart6 ,be it so for the present2 we shall see how long this statuesque attitude can be maintained2 meantime1 it chances strangely--as several other things have chanced while ,i was writing these notes to you--that they should have put in that sneer 7two lines before7 at my note on the meaning of the ,homeric and ,platonic ,sirens1 at the very moment when ,i was doubting whether ,i would or would not tell you the significance of the last song of ,ariel in ',the ,tempest4' ,i had half determined not1 but now ,i shall4 ,and this was what brought me to think of it3-- #afe4 ,yesterday afternoon ,i called on ,mr4 ,h4 ,c4 ,sorby1 to see some of the results of an inquiry he has been following all last year1 into the nature of the coloring matter of leaves and flowers4 ,you most probably have heard 7at all events1 may with little trouble hear7 of the marvelous power which chemical analysis has received in recent discoveries respecting the laws of light4 ,my friend showed me the rainbow of the rose1 and the rainbow of the violet1 and the rainbow of the hyacinth1 and the rainbow of forest leaves being born1 and the rainbow of forest leaves dying4 ,and1 last1 he showed me the rainbow of blood4 ,it was but the three-hundredth part of a grain1 dissolved in a drop of water2 and it cast its measured bars1 for ever recognizable now to human sight1 on the chord of the seven colors4 ,and no drop of that red rain can now be shed1 so small as that the stain of it cannot be known1 and the voice of it heard out of the ground4 #aff4 ,but the seeing these flower colors1 and the iris of blood together with them1 just while ,i was trying to gather into brief space the right laws of war1 brought vividly back to me my dreaming fancy of long ago1 that even the trees of the earth were capable of a kind of sorrow1 as they opened their innocent leaves in vain for men2 and along the dells of ,england her beeches cast their dappled shades only where the outlaw drew his bow1 and the king rode his careless chase2 amidst the fair defiles of the ,apennines1 the twisted olive-trunks hid the ambushes of treachery1 and on their meadows1 day by day1 the lilies1 which were white at the dawn1 were washed with crimson at sunset4 ,and so also now this chance word of the daily journal1 about the ,sirens1 brought to my mind the divine passage in the ,cratylus of ,plato1 about the place of the dead4 ,and none of those who dwell there desire to depart thence1--no1 not even the ,sirens2 but even they1 the seducers1 are there themselves beguiled1 and they who lulled all men1 themselves laid to rest--they1 and all others--such sweet songs doth death know how to sing to them4 ,so also the ,hebrew4 ,and desire shall fail1 because man goeth to his long home4 ,for you know ,i told you the ,sirens were not pleasures1 but desires2 being always represented in old ,greek art as having human faces1 with birds' wings and feet2 and sometimes with eyes upon their wings2 and there are not two more important passages in all literature1 respecting the laws of labor and of life1 than those two great descriptions of the ,sirens in ,homer and ,plato1--the ,sirens of death1 and ,sirens of eternal life1 representing severally the earthly and heavenly desires of men2 the heavenly desires singing to the motion of circles of the spheres1 and the earthly on the rocks of fatalest shipwreck4 ,a fact which may indeed be regarded sentimentally1 but it is also a profoundly important politico-economical one4 ,and now for ,shakespeare's song4 #afg4 ,you will find1 if you look back to the analysis of it1 given in ',munera ,pulveris1' #acd1 that the whole play of ',the ,tempest' is an allegorical representation of the powers of true1 and therefore spiritual1 ,liberty1 as opposed to true1 and therefore carnal and brutal ,slavery4 ,there is not a sentence nor a rhyme1 sung or uttered by ,ariel or ,caliban1 throughout the play1 which has not this under-meaning4 #afh4 ,now the fulfilment of all human liberty is in the peaceful inheritance of the earth1 with its herb yielding seed1 and fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind2 the pasture1 or arable1 land1 and the blossoming1 or wooded and fruited1 land uniting the final elements of life and peace1 for body and soul4 ,therefore1 we have the two great ,hebrew forms of benediction1 ,his eyes shall be red with wine1 and his teeth white with milk1 and again1 ,butter and honey shall he eat1 that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good4 ,and as the work of war and sin has always been the devastation of this blossoming earth1 whether by spoil or idleness1 so the work of peace and virtue is also that of the first day of ,paradise1 to ,dress it and to keep it4 ,and that will always be the song of perfectly accomplished ,liberty1 in her industry1 and rest1 and shelter from troubled thoughts in the calm of the fields1 and gaining1 by migration1 the long summer's day from the shortening twilight3-- ,where the bee sucks1 there lurk ,i2 ,in a cowslip's bell ,i lie2 ,there ,i couch when owls do cry4 ,on the bat's back ,i do fly ,after summer merrily3 ,merrily1 merrily1 shall ,i live now ,under the blossom that hangs on the bough4 ,and the security of this treasure to all the poor1 and not the ravage of it down the valleys of the ,shenandoah1 is indeed the true warrior's work4 ,but1 that they may be able to restrain vice rightly1 soldiers must themselves be first in virtue2 and that they may be able to compel labor sternly1 they must themselves be first in toil1 and their spears1 like ,jonathan's at ,bethaven1 enlighteners of the eyes4 ,,letter ,,xxv4 ,,of ,,inevitable ,,distinction ,,of ,,rank1 ,,and ,,necessary ,,submission ,,to ,,authority4 ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,pure-,,heartedness4 ,,conclusion4 #afi4 ,i was interrupted yesterday1 just as ,i was going to set my soldiers to work2 and to-day1 here comes the pamphlet you promised me1 containing the ,debates about ,church-going1 in which ,i find so interesting a text for my concluding letter that ,i must still let my soldiers stand at ease for a little while4 ,look at its twenty-fifth page1 and you will find1 in the speech of ,mr4 ,thomas1 7carpenter17 this beautiful explanation of the admitted change in the general public mind1 of which ,mr4 ,thomas1 for his part1 highly approves1 7the getting out of the unreasonable habit of paying respect to anybody47 ,there were many reasons to ,mr4 ,thomas's mind why the working classes did not attend places of worship3 one was1 that the parson was regarded as an object of reverence4 ,in the little town he came from1 if a poor man did not make a bow to the parson he was a marked man4 ,this was no doubt wearing away to a great extent 7the base habit of making bows71 because1 the poor man was beginning to get education1 and to think for himself4 ,it was only while the priest kept the press from him that he was kept ignorant1 and was compelled to bow1 as it were1 to the parson4444 ,it was the case all over ,england4 ,the clergyman seemed to think himself something superior4 ,now he 7,mr4 ,thomas7 did not admit there was any inferiority 7laughter1 audience throughout course of meeting mainly in the right71 except1 perhaps1 on the score of his having received a classical education1 which the poor man could not get4 ,now1 my dear friend1 here is the element which is the veriest devil of all that have got into modern flesh2 this infidelity of the nineteenth century ,st4 ,thomas in there being anything better than himself alive2,a coupled1 as it always is1 with the farther resolution--if unwillingly convinced of the fact1--to seal the ,better living thing down again out of his way1 under the first stone handy4 ,i had not intended1 till we entered on the second section of our inquiry1 namely1 into the influence of gentleness 7having hitherto1 you see1 been wholly concerned with that of justice71 to give you the clue out of our dilemma about equalities produced by education2 but by the speech of our superior carpenter1 ,i am driven into it at once1 and it is perhaps as well4 ,a ,compare ',crown of ,wild ,olive1' #acf4 #agj4 ,the speech is not1 observe1 without its own root of truth at the bottom of it1 nor at all1 as ,i think1 ill intended by the speaker2 but you have in it a clear instance of what ,i was saying in the sixteenth of these letters1--that education was desired by the lower orders because they thought it would make them upper orders1 and be a leveler and effacer of distinctions4 ,they will be mightily astonished1 when they really get it1 to find that it is1 on the contrary1 the fatalest of all discerners and enforcers of distinctions2 piercing1 even to the division of the joints and marrow1 to find out wherein your body and soul are less1 or greater1 than other bodies and souls1 and to sign deed of separation with unequivocal seal4 #aga4 ,education is1 indeed1 of all differences not divinely appointed1 an instant effacer and reconciler4 ,whatever is undivinely poor1 it will make rich2 whatever is undivinely maimed1 and halt1 and blind1 it will make whole1 and equal1 and seeing4 ,the blind and the lame are to it as to ,david at the siege of the ,tower of the ,kings1 hated of ,david's soul4 ,but there are other divinely-appointed differences1 eternal as the ranks of the everlasting hills1 and as the strength of their ceaseless waters4 ,and these1 education does not do away with2 but measures1 manifests1 and employs4 ,in the handful of shingle which you gather from the sea-beach1 which the indiscriminate sea1 with equality of fraternal foam1 has only educated to be1 every one1 round1 you will see little difference between the noble and mean stones4 ,but the jeweler's trenchant education of them will tell you another story4 ,even the meanest will be better for it1 but the noblest so much better that you can class the two together no more4 ,the fair veins and colors are all clear now1 and so stern is nature's intent regarding this1 that not only will the polish show which is best1 but the best will take most polish4 ,you shall not merely see they have more virtue than the others1 but see that more of virtue more clearly2 and the less virtue there is1 the more dimly you shall see what there is of it4 #agb4 ,and the law about education1 which is sorrowfulest to vulgar pride1 is this--that all its gains are at compound interest2 so that1 as our work proceeds1 every hour throws us farther behind the greater men with whom we began on equal terms4 ,two children go to school hand in hand1 and spell for half an hour over the same page4 ,through all their lives1 never shall they spell from the same page more4 ,one is presently a page ahead1--two pages1 ten pages1--and evermore1 though each toils equally1 the interval enlarges--at birth nothing1 at death1 infinite4 #agc4 ,and by this you may recognize true education from false4 ,false education is a delightful thing1 and warms you1 and makes you every day think more of yourself4 ,and true education is a deadly cold thing with a ,gorgon's head on her shield1 and makes you every day think worse of yourself4 ,worse in two ways1 also1 more's the pity4 ,it is perpetually increasing the personal sense of ignorance and the personal sense of fault4 ,and this last is the truth which is at the bottom of the common evangelical notion about conversion1 and which the ,devil has got hold of1 and hidden1 until1 instead of seeing and confessing personal ignorance and fault1 as compared with the sense and virtue of others1 people see nothing but corruption in human nature1 and shelter their own sins under accusation of their race 7the worst of all assertions of equality and fraternity74 ,and so they avoid the blessed and strengthening pain of finding out wherein they are fools1 as compared with other men1 by calling everybody else a fool too2 and avoid the pain of discerning their own faults1 by vociferously claiming their share in the great capital of original sin4 ,i must also1 therefore1 tell you here what properly ought to have begun the next following section of our subject--the point usually unnoticed in the parable of the ,prodigal ,son4 #agd4 ,first1 have you ever observed that all ,christ's main teachings1 by direct order1 by earnest parable1 and by ,his own permanent emotion1 regard the use and misuse of money8 ,we might have thought1 if we had been asked what a divine teacher was most likely to teach1 that he would have left inferior persons to give directions about money2 and himself spoken only concerning faith and love1 and the discipline of the passions1 and the guilt of the crimes of soul against soul4 ,but not so4 ,he speaks in general terms of these4 ,but ,he does not speak parables about them for all men's memory1 nor permit ,himself fierce indignation against them1 in all men's sight4 ,the ,pharisees bring ,him an adulteress4 ,he writes her forgiveness on the dust of which ,he had formed her4 ,another1 despised of all for known sin1 ,he recognized as a giver of unknown love4 ,but ,he acknowledges no love in buyers and sellers in ,his house4 ,one should have thought there were people in that house twenty times worse than they2--,caiaphas and his like--false priests1 false prayer-makers1 false leaders of the people--who needed putting to silence1 or to flight1 with darkest wrath4 ,but the scourge is only against the traffickers and thieves4 ,the two most intense of all the parables3 the two which lead the rest in love and terror 7this of the ,prodigal1 and of ,dives71 relate1 both of them1 to management of riches4 ,the practical order given to the only seeker of advice1 of whom it is recorded that ,christ loved him1 is briefly about his property4 ,sell that thou hast4 ,and the arbitrament of the day of the ,last ,judgment is made to rest wholly1 neither on belief in ,god1 nor in any spiritual virtue in man1 nor on freedom from stress of stormy crime1 but on this only1 ,i was an hungered and ye gave me drink2 naked1 and ye clothed me2 sick1 and ye came unto me4 #age4 ,well1 then1 the first thing ,i want you to notice in the parable of the ,prodigal ,son 7and the last thing which people usually do notice in it71 is--that it is about a ,prodigal6 ,he begins by asking for his share of his father's goods2 he gets it1 carries it off1 and wastes it4 ,it is true that he wastes it in riotous living1 but you are not asked to notice in what kind of riot2 he spends it with harlots--but it is not the harlotry which his elder brother accuses him of mainly1 but of having devoured his father's living4 ,nay1 it is not the sensual life which he accuses himself of--or which the manner of his punishment accuses him of4 ,but the wasteful life4 ,it is not said that he had become debauched in soul1 or diseased in body1 by his vice2 but that at last he would fain have filled his belly with husks1 and could not4 ,it is not said that he was struck with remorse for the consequences of his evil passions1 but only that he remembered there was bread enough and to spare1 even for the servants1 at home4 ,now1 my friend1 do not think ,i want to extenuate sins of passion 7though1 in very truth1 the sin of ,magdalene is a light one compared to that of ,judas72 but observe1 sins of passion1 if of real passion1 are often the errors and backfalls of noble souls2 but prodigality is mere and pure selfishness1 and essentially the sin of an ignoble or undeveloped creature2 and ,i would rather1 ten times rather1 hear of a youth that 7certain degrees of temptation and conditions of resistance being understood7 he had fallen into any sin you chose to name1 of all the mortal ones1 than that he was in the habit of running bills which he could not pay4 ,farther1 though ,i hold that the two crowning and most accursed sins of the society of this present day are the carelessness with which it regards the betrayal of women1 and the brutality with which it suffers the neglect of children1 both these head and chief crimes1 and all others1 are rooted first in abuse of the laws1 and neglect of the duties concerning wealth4 ,and thus the love of money1 with the parallel 7and1 observe1 mathematically commensurate looseness in management of it71 the mal tener1 followed necessarily by the mal dare1 is1 indeed1 the root of all evil4 #agf4 ,then1 secondly1 ,i want you to note that when the prodigal comes to his senses1 he complains of nobody but himself1 and speaks of no unworthiness but his own4 ,he says nothing against any of the women who tempted him--nothing against the citizen who left him to feed on husks--nothing of the false friends of whom no man gave unto him--above all1 nothing of the corruption of human nature1 or the corruption of things in general4 ,he says that he himself is unworthy1 as distinguished from honorable persons1 and that he himself has sinned1 as distinguished from righteous persons4 ,and that is the hard lesson to learn1 and the beginning of faithful lessons4 ,all right and fruitful humility1 and purging of heart1 and seeing of ,god1 is in that4 ,it is easy to call yourself the chief of sinners1 expecting every sinner round you to decline--or return--the compliment2 but learn to measure the real degrees of your own relative baseness1 and to be ashamed1 not in heaven's sight1 but in man's sight2 and redemption is indeed begun4 ,observe the phrase1 ,i have sinned against heaven1 against the great law of that1 and before thee1 visibly degraded before my human sire and guide1 unworthy any more of being esteemed of his blood1 and desirous only of taking the place ,i deserve among his servants4 #agg4 ,now1 ,i do not doubt but that ,i shall set many a reader's teeth on edge by what he will think my carnal and material rendering of this beautiful parable4 ,but ,i am just as ready to spiritualize it as he is1 provided ,i am sure first that we understand it4 ,if we want to understand the parable of the sower1 we must first think of it as of literal husbandry2 if we want to understand the parable of the prodigal1 we must first understand it as of literal prodigality4 ,and the story has also for us a precious lesson in this literal sense of it1 namely this1 which ,i have been urging upon you throughout these letters1 that all redemption must begin in subjection and in the recovery of the sense of ,fatherhood and authority1 as all ruin and desolation begin in the loss of that sense4 ,the lost son began by claiming his rights4 ,he is found when he resigns them4 ,he is lost by flying from his father1 when his father's authority was only paternal4 ,he is found by returning to his father1 and desiring that his authority may be absolute1 as over a hired stranger4 ,and this is the practical lesson ,i want to leave with you1 and all other working men4 #agh4 ,you are on the eve of a great political crisis2 and every rascal with a tongue in his head will try to make his own stock out of you4 ,now this is the test you must try them with4 ,those that say to you1 ,stand up for your rights--get your division of living--be sure that you are as well off as others1 and have what they have6--don't let any man dictate to you--have not you all a right to your opinion8--are you not all as good as everybody else8--let us have no governors1 or fathers--let us all be free and alike4 ,those1 ,i say1 who speak thus to you1 take ,nelson's rough order for--and hate them as you do the ,devil1 for they are his ambassadors4 ,but those1 the few1 who have the courage to say to you1 ,my friends1 you and ,i1 and all of us1 have somehow got very wrong2 we've been hardly treated1 certainly2 but here we are in a piggery1 mainly by our own fault1 hungry enough1 and for ourselves1 anything but respectable3 we must get out of this2 there are certainly laws we may learn to live by1 and there are wiser people than we are in the world1 and kindly ones1 if we can find our way to them2 and an infinitely wise and kind ,father1 above all of them and us1 if we can but find our way to ,him1 and ask ,him to take us for servants1 and put us to any work ,he will1 so that we may never leave ,him more4 ,the people who will say that to you1 and 7for by no saying1 but by their fruits1 only1 you shall finally know them7 who are themselves orderly and kindly1 and do their own business well1--take those for your guides1 and trust them2 on ice and rock alike1 tie yourselves well together with them1 and with much scrutiny1 and cautious walking 7perhaps nearly as much back as forward1 at first71 you will verily get off the glacier1 and into meadow land1 in ,god's time4 #agi4 ,i meant to have written much to you respecting the meaning of that word hired servants1 and to have gone on to the duties of soldiers1 for you know ,soldier means a person who is paid to fight with regular pay--literally with soldi or sous--the penny a day of the vineyard laborers2 but ,i can't now3 only just this much1 that our whole system of work must be based on the nobleness of soldiership--so that we shall all be soldiers of either plowshare or sword2 and literally all our actual and professed soldiers1 whether professed for a time only1 or for life1 must be kept to hard work of hand1 when not in actual war2 their honor consisting in being set to service of more pain and danger than others2 to life-boat service2 to redeeming of ground from furious rivers or sea--or mountain ruin2 to subduing wild and unhealthy land1 and extending the confines of colonies in the front of miasm and famine1 and savage races4 ,and much of our harder home work must be done in a kind of soldiership1 by bands of trained workers sent from place to place and town to town2 doing1 with strong and sudden hand1 what is needed for help1 and setting all things in more prosperous courses for the future4 ,of all which ,i hope to speak in its proper place after we know what offices the higher arts of gentleness have among the lower ones of force1 and how their prevalence may gradually change spear to pruning-hook1 over the face of all the earth4 #ahj4 ,and now--but one word more--either for you1 or any other readers who may be startled at what ,i have been saying1 as to the peculiar stress laid by the ,founder of our religion on right dealing with wealth4 ,let them be assured that it is with no fortuitous choice among the attributes or powers of evil1 that ,mammon is assigned for the direct adversary of the ,master whom they are bound to serve4 ,you cannot1 by any artifice of reconciliation1 be ,god's soldier1 and his4 ,nor while the desire of gain is within your heart1 can any true knowledge of the ,kingdom of ,god come there4 ,no one shall enter its stronghold1--no one receive its blessing1 except1 he that hath clean hands and a pure heart2 clean hands that have done no cruel deed1--pure heart1 that knows no base desire4 ,and1 therefore1 in the highest spiritual sense that can be given to words1 be assured1 not respecting the literal temple of stone and gold1 but of the living temple of your body and soul1 that no redemption1 nor teaching1 nor hallowing1 will be anywise possible for it1 until these two verses have been1 for it also1 fulfilled3-- ,and ,he went into the temple1 and began to cast out them that sold therein1 and them that bought4 ,and ,he taught daily in the temple4 ,,appendices4 ,,appendix ,i4 ,page #ba4--;,expenditure on ,science and ,art4 ,the following is the passage referred to4 ,the fact it relates is so curious1 and so illustrative of our national interest in science1 that ,i do not apologize for the repetition3-- ,two years ago there was a collection of the fossils of ,solenhofen to be sold in ,bavaria2 the best in existence1 containing many specimens unique for perfectness1 and one1 unique as an example of a species 7a whole kingdom of unknown living creatures being announced by that fossil74 ,this collection1 of which the mere market worth1 among private buyers1 would probably have been some thousand or twelve hundred pounds1 was offered to the ,english nation for seven hundred3 but we would not give seven hundred1 and the whole series would have been in the ,munich museum at this moment1 if ,professor ,owen,a had not1 with loss of his own time1 and patient tormenting of the ,british public in the person of its representatives1 got leave to give four hundred pounds at once1 and himself become answerable for the other three6--which the said public will doubtless pay him eventually1 but sulkily1 and caring nothing about the matter all the while2 only always ready to cackle if any credit comes of it4 ,consider1 ,i beg of you1 arithmetically1 what this fact means4 ,your annual expenditure for public purposes 7a third of it for military apparatus7 is at least fifty millions4 ,now seven hundred pounds is to fifty million pounds1 roughly1 as seven pence to two thousand pounds4 ,suppose1 then1 a gentleman of unknown income1 but whose wealth was to be conjectured from the fact that he spent two thousand a year on his park walls and footmen only1 professes himself fond of science2 and that one of his servants comes eagerly to tell him that an unique collection of fossils1 giving clue to a new era of creation1 is to be had for the sum of sevenpence sterling2 and that the gentleman who is fond of science1 and spends two thousand a year on his park1 answers1 after keeping his servant waiting several months1 ',well1 ,i'll give you fourpence for them1 if you will be answerable for the extra threepence yourself till next year4' ,a ,i originally stated this fact without ,professor ,owen's permission2 which1 of course1 he could not with propriety have granted1 had ,i asked it2 but ,i considered it so important that the public should be aware of the fact1 that ,i did what seemed to me right1 though rude4 ,,appendix ,,ii4 ,page #cc4--,legislation of ,frederick the ,great4 ,the following are the portions of ,mr4 ,dixon's letters referred to3-- ,well1 ,i am now busy with ,frederick the ,great2 ,i am not now astonished that ,carlyle calls him ,great1 neither that this work of his should have had such a sad effect upon him in producing it1 when ,i see the number of volumes he must have had to wade through to produce such a clear terse set of utterances2 and yet ,i do not feel the work as a book likely to do a reader of it the good that some of his other books will do4 ,it is truly awful to read these battles after battles1 lies after lies1 called ,diplomacy2 it's fearful to read all this1 and one wonders how he that set himself to this--,he1 of all men--could have the rare patience to produce such a labored1 heart-rending piece of work4 ,again1 when one reads of the stupidity1 the shameful waste of our moneys by our forefathers1 to see our ,national ,debt 7the curse to our labor now1 the millstone to our commerce1 to our fair chance of competition in our day7 thus created1 and for what8 ,even ,carlyle cannot tell2 then how are we to tell8 ,now1 who will deliver us8 that is the question2 who will help us in these days of idle or no work1 while our foreign neighbors have plenty and are actually selling their produce to our men of capital cheaper than we can make it8 ,house-rent getting dearer1 taxes getting dearer1 rates1 clothing1 food1 etc4 ,sad times1 my master1 do seem to have fallen upon us4 ,and the cause of nearly all this lies embedded in that ,frederick2 and yet1 so far as ,i know of it1 no critic has yet given an exposition of such laying there4 ,for our behoof1 is there no one that will take this1 that there lies so woven in with much other stuff so sad to read1 to any man that does not believe man was made to fight alone1 to be a butcher of his fellow-man8 ,who will do this work1 or piece of work1 so that all who care may know how it is that our debt grew so large1 and a great deal more that we ought to know8--that clearly is one great reason why the book was written and was printed4 ,well1 ,i hope some day all this will be clear to our people1 and some man or men will arise and sweep us clear of these hindrances1 these sad drawbacks to the vitality of our work in this world4 #eg1 ,nile ,street1 ,sunderland1 ,feb4 #g1 #ahfg4 ,,dear ,,sir1-- ,i beg to acknowledge the receipt of two letters as additions to your books1 which ,i have read with deep interest1 and shall take care of them1 and read them over again1 so that ,i may thoroughly comprehend them1 and be able to think of them for future use4 ,i myself am not fully satisfied with our co-operation1 and never have been2 it is too much tinged with the very elements that they complain of in our present systems of trade--selfishness4 ,i have for years been trying to direct the attention of the editor of the ,co-operator to such evils that ,i see in it4 ,now further1 ,i may state that ,i find you and ,carlyle seem to agree quite on the idea of the ,masterhood qualification4 ,there again ,i find you both feel and write as all working men consider just4 ,i can assure you there is not an honest1 noble working man that would not by far serve under such master-hood1 than be the employ or workman of a co-operative store4 ,working men do not as a rule make good masters2 neither do they treat each other with that courtesy as a noble master treats his working man4 ,george ,fox shadows forth some such treatment that ,friends ought to make law and guidance for their working men and slaves1 such as you speak of in your letters4 ,i will look the passage up1 as it is quite to the point1 so far as ,i now remember it4 ,in ,vol4 ,,vi4 of ,frederick the ,great1 ,i find a great deal there that ,i feel quite certain1 if our ,queen or ,government could make law1 thousands of ,english working men would hail it with such a shout of joy and gladness as would astonish the ,continental world4 ,these changes suggested by ,carlyle and placed before the thinkers of ,england1 are the noblest1 the truest utterances on real kinghood1 that ,i have ever read2 the more ,i think over them1 the more ,i feel the truth1 the justness1 and also the fitness of them1 to our nation's present dire necessities2 yet this is the man1 and these are the thoughts of his1 that our critics seem never to see1 or if seen1 don't think worth printing or in any way wisely directing the attention of the public thereto1 alas6 ,all this and much more fills me with such sadness that ,i am driven almost to despair4 ,i see from the newspapers1 ,yorkshire1 ,lancashire1 and other places are sternly endeavoring to carry out the short time movement until such times as trade revives1 and ,i find the masters and men seem to adopt it with a good grace and friendly spirit4 ,i also beg to inform you ,i see a ,mr4 ,morley1 a large manufacturer at ,nottingham1 has been giving pensions to all his old workmen4 ,i hope such a noble example will be followed by other wealthy masters4 ,it would do more to make a master loved1 honored1 and cared for1 than thousands of pounds expended in other ways4 ,the ,government ,savings ,banks is one of the wisest acts of late years done by our ,government4 ,i1 myself1 often wish the ,government held all our banks instead of private men2 that would put an end to false speculations1 such as we too often in the provinces suffer so severely by1 so ,i hail with pleasure and delight the shadowing forth by you of these noble plans for the future3 ,i feel glad and uplifted to think of the good that such teaching will do for us all4 ,yours truly1 ,,thomas ,,dixon4 #eg1 ,nile ,street1 ,sunderland1 ,feb4 #bd1 #ahfg4 ,,dear ,,sir1-- ,i now give you the references to ,frederick the ,great4 ,vol4 ,,vi43 ,land ,question1 #cfe page1 where he increases the number of small farmers to #d1jjj 7#bjb1 #bjd74 ,english soldiers and ,t4 ,c4's remarks on our system of purchase1 etc4 ,his law1 7#fbj1 #fbc1 #fbd74 ,state of ,poland and how he repaired it1 7#dhg1 #dhh1 #dhi1 #dij74 ,i especially value the way he introduced all kinds of industries therein1 and so soon changed the chaos into order4 ,again1 the school-masters also are given 7not yet in ,england1 says ,t4 ,c474 ,again the use he made of #ae1jjjl4 surplus in ,brandenburg2 how it was applied to better his staff of masters4 ,to me1 the ,vol4 ,,vi4 is one of the wisest pieces of modern thought in our language4 ,i only wish ,i had either your power1 ,c4 ,kingsley1 ,maurice1 or some such able pen-generalship1 to illustrate and show forth all the wise teaching on law1 government1 and social life ,i see in it1 and shining like a star through all its pages4,a ,i feel also the truth of all you have written1 and will do all ,i can to make such men or women that care for such thoughts1 see it1 or read it4 ,i am copying the letters as fast and as well as ,i can1 and will use my utmost endeavor to have them done that justice to they merit4 ,yours truly1 ,,thomas ,,dixon4 ,a ,i have endeavored to arrange some of the passages to which ,mr4 ,dixon here refers1 in a form enabling the reader to see their bearing on each other more distinctly1 as a sequel to the essay on ,war in the ',crown of ,wild ,olive4' ,,appendix ,,iii4 ,page #cc4--;,effect of ,modern ,entertainments on the ,mind of ,youth4 ,the letter of the ,times' correspondent referred to contained an account of one of the most singular cases of depravity ever brought before a criminal court2 but it is unnecessary to bring any of its details under the reader's attention1 for nearly every other number of our journals has of late contained some instances of atrocities before unthought of1 and1 it might have seemed1 impossible to humanity4 ,the connection of these with the modern love of excitement in the sensational novel and drama may not be generally understood1 but it is direct and constant2 all furious pursuit of pleasure ending in actual desire of horror and delight in death4 ,i entered into some fuller particulars on this subject in a lecture given in the spring at the ,royal ,institution4 ,any part of the ,lecture referred to likely to be of permanent interest will be printed1 somewhere1 in this series4 ,,appendix ,,iv4 ,page #gf4--;,drunkenness as the ,cause of ,crime4 ,the following portions of ,mr4 ,dixon's letter referred to1 will be found interesting3-- ,,dear ,,sir1-- ,your last letter1 ,i think1 will arouse the attention of thinkers more than any of the series1 it being on topics they in general feel more interested in than the others1 especially as in these you do not assail their pockets so much as in the former ones4 ,since you seem interested with the notes or rough sketches on gin1 ,g 99 99 99 of ,dublin was the man ,i alluded to as making his money by drink1 and then giving the results of such traffic to repair the ,cathedral of ,dublin4 ,it was thousands of pounds4 ,i call such charity robbing ,peter to pay ,paul6 ,immense fortunes are made in the ,liquor ,traffic1 and ,i will tell you why2 it is all paid for in cash1 at least such as the poor people buy2 they get credit for clothes1 butchers' meat1 groceries1 etc41 while they give the gin-palace keeper cash2 they never begrudge the price of a glass of gin or beer1 they never haggle over its price1 never once think of doing that2 but in the purchase of almost every other article they haggle and begrudge its price4 ,to give you an idea of its profits--there are houses here whose average weekly takings in cash at their bars is #ejl41 #fjl41 #gjl41 #hjl41 #ijl41 to #aejl41 per week4 ,nearly all the men of intelligence in it1 say it is the curse of the working classes4 ,men whose earnings are1 say #bjs4 to #cjs4 per week1 spend on the average #cs4 to #fs4 per week 7some even #ajs474 ,it's my mode of living to supply these houses with corks that makes me see so much of the drunkenness2 and that is the cause why ,i never really cared for my trade1 seeing the misery that was entailed on my fellow men and women by the use of this stuff4 ,again1 a house with a license to sell spirits1 wine1 and ale1 to be consumed on the premises1 is worth two to three times more money than any other class of property4 ,one house here worth nominally #adjl4 sold the other day for #ebjl42 another one worth #bjjl4 sold for #hjjl4 ,i know premises with a license that were sold for #a1cjjl41 and then sold again two years after for #a1hjjl42 another place was rented for #ejl41 now rents at #ajjl4--this last is a house used by working men and laborers chiefly6 ,no1 ,i honor men like ,sir ,w4 ,trevelyan1 that are teetotalers1 or total abstainers1 as an example to poor men1 and1 to prevent his work-people being tempted1 will not allow any public-house on his estate4 ,if our land had a few such men it would help the cause4 ,we possess one such a man here1 a banker4 ,i feel sorry to say the progress of temperance is not so great as ,i would like to see it4 ,the only religious body that approaches to your ideas of political economy is ,quakerism as taught by ,george ,fox4 ,carlyle seems deeply tinged with their teachings4 ,silence to them is as valuable to him4 ,again1 why should people howl and shriek over the law that the ,alliance is now trying to carry out in our land called the ,permissive ,bill8 ,if we had just laws we then would not be so miserable or so much annoyed now and then with cries of ,reform and cries of ,distress4 ,i send you two pamphlets2--one gives the working man's reasons why he don't go to church2 in it you will see a few opinions expressed very much akin to those you have written to me4 ,the other gives an account how it is the poor ,indians have died of ,famine1 simply because they have destroyed the very system of ,political ,economy1 or one having some approach to it1 that you are now endeavoring to direct the attention of thinkers to in our country4 ,the ,sesame and ,lilies ,i have read as you requested4 ,i feel now fully the aim and object you have in view in the ,letters1 but ,i cannot help directing your attention to that portion where you mention or rather exclaim against the ,florentines pulling down their ,ancient ,walls to build a ,boulevard4 ,that passage is one that would gladden the hearts of all true ,italians1 especially men that love ,italy and ,dante6 ,,appendix ,v4 ,page #gh4--;,abuse of ,food4 ,paragraphs cut from ',manchester ,examiner' of ,march #af1 #ahfg3-- ,a ,,parisian ,,character4--,a celebrated character has disappeared from the ,palais ,royal4 ,ren ,lartique was a ,swiss1 and a man of about sixty4 ,he actually spent the last fifteen years in the ,palais ,royal--that is to say1 he spent the third of his life at dinner4 ,every morning at ten o'clock he was to be seen going into a restaurant 7usually ,tissat's71 and in a few moments was installed in a corner1 which he only quitted about three o'clock in the afternoon1 after having drunk at least six or seven bottles of different kinds of wine4 ,he then walked up and down the garden till the clock struck five1 when he made his appearance again at the same restaurant1 and always at the same place4 ,his second meal1 at which he drank quite as much as at the first1 invariably lasted till half-past nine4 ,therefore1 he devoted nine hours a day to eating and drinking4 ,his dress was most wretched--his shoes broken1 his trousers torn1 his palett without any lining and patched1 his waistcoat without buttons1 his hat a rusty red from old age1 and the whole surmounted by a dirty white beard4 ,one day he went up to the comptoir1 and asked the presiding divinity there to allow him to run in debt for one day's dinner4 ,he perceived some hesitation in complying with the request1 and immediately called one of the waiters1 and desired him to follow him4 ,he went into the office1 unbuttoned a certain indispensable garment1 and1 taking off a broad leather belt1 somewhat startled the waiter by displaying two hundred gold pieces1 each worth one hundred francs4 ,taking up one of them1 he tossed it to the waiter1 and desired him to pay whatever he owed4 ,he never again appeared at that restaurant1 and died a few days ago of indigestion4 ,,revenge ,,in ,a ,,ball-,,room4--,a distressing event lately took place at ,castellaz1 a little commune of the ,alpes-,maritimes1 near ,mentone4 ,all the young people of the place being assembled in a dancing-room1 one of the young men was seen to fall suddenly to the ground1 whilst a young woman1 his partner1 brandished a poniard1 and was preparing to inflict a second blow on him1 having already desperately wounded him in the stomach4 ,the author of the crime was at once arrested4 ,she declared her name to be ,marie ,p----1 twenty-one years of age1 and added that she had acted from a motive of revenge1 the young man having led her astray formerly with a promise of marriage1 which he had never fulfilled4 ,in the morning of that day she had summoned him to keep his word1 and1 upon his refusal1 had determined on making the dancing-room the scene of her revenge4 ,she was at first locked up in the prison of ,mentone1 and afterwards sent on to ,nice4 ,the young man continues in an alarming state4 ,,appendix ,,vi4 ,page #id4--,regulations of ,trade4 ,i print portions of two letters of ,mr4 ,dixon's in this place2 one referring to our former discussion respecting the sale of votes3-- #eg1 ,nile ,street1 ,sunderland1 ,march #ba1 #ahfg4 ,i only wish ,i could write in some tolerable good style1 so that ,i could idealize1 or rather realize to folks1 the life and love1 and marriage of a working man and his wife4 ,it is in my opinion a working man that really does know what a true wife is1 for his every want1 his every comfort in life depends on her2 and his children's home1 their daily lives and future lives1 are shaped by her4 ,napoleon wisely said1 ',france needs good mothers more than brave men4 ,good mothers are the makers or shapers of good and brave men4' ,i cannot say that these are the words1 but it is the import of his speech on the topic4 ,we have a saying amongst us3 ',the man may spend and money lend1 if his wife be ought1'--i4 e4 good wife2--'but he may work and try to save1 but will have nought1 if his wife be nought1'--i4 e4 bad or thriftless wife4 ,now1 since you are intending to treat of the working man's parliament and its duties1 ,i will just throw out a few suggestions of what ,i consider should be the questions or measures that demand an early inquiry into and debate on4 ,that guilds be established in every town1 where masters and men may meet1 so as to avoid the temptations of the public-house and drink4 ,and then1 let it be made law that every lad should serve an apprenticeship of not less than seven years to a trade or art1 before he is allowed to be a member of such guild2 also1 that all wages be based on a rate of so much per hour1 and not day1 as at present2 and let every man prove his workmanship before such a guild1 and then allow to him such payment per hour as his craft merits4 ,let there be three grades1 and then let there be trials of skill in workmanship every year2 and then1 if the workman of the third grade prove that he has made progress in his craft1 reward him accordingly4 ,then1 before a lad is put to any trade1 why not see what he is naturally fitted for8 ,combe's book1 entitled ,the ,constitution of ,man1 throws a good deal of truth on to these matters4 ,now1 here are two branches of the science of life that1 so far1 have never once been given trial of in this way4 ,we certainly use them after a crime has been committed1 but not till then4 ,next to that1 cash1 payment for all and everything needed in life4 ,credit is a curse to him that gives it1 and that takes it4 ,he that lives by credit lives in general carelessly4 ,if there was no credit1 people then would have to live on what they earned6 ,then1 after that1 the ,statute of ,limitations of ,fortune you propose4 ,by the hour system1 not a single man need be idle2 it would give employment to all1 and even two hours per day would realize more to a man than breaking stones4 ,thus you would make every one self-dependent--also no fear of being out of work altogether4 ,then let there be a ,government fund for all the savings of the working man4 ,i am afraid you will think this a wild1 discursive sort of a letter4 ,yours truly1 ,,thomas ,,dixon4 ,i have read your references to the ,times on ',bribery4' ,well1 that has long been my own opinion2 they simply have a vote to sell1 and sell it the same way as they sell potatoes1 or a coat1 or any other salable article4 ,voters generally say1 ',what does this gentleman want in ,parliament8 ,why1 to help himself and his family or friends2 he does not spend all the money he spends over his election for pure good of his country6 ,no3 it's to benefit his pocket1 to be sure4 ,why should ,i not make a penny with my vote1 as well as he does with his in ,parliament8' ,i think that if the system of canvassing or election agents were done away with1 and all personal canvassing for votes entirely abolished1 it would help to put down bribery4 ,let each gentleman send to the electors his political opinions in a circular1 and then let papers be sent1 or cards1 to each elector1 and then let them go and record their votes in the same way they do for a councillor in the ,corporation4 ,it would save a great deal of expense1 and prevent those scenes of drunkenness so common in our towns during elections4 ,bewick's opinions of these matters are quite to the purpose1 ,i think 7see page #bja of ,memoir74 ,again1 respecting the ,paris matter referred to in your last letter1 ,i have read it4 ,does it not manifest plainly enough that ,europeans are also in a measure possessed with that same demoniacal spirit like the ,japanese8 ,,appendix ,,vii4 ,the following letter did not form part of the series written to ,mr4 ,dixon2 but is perhaps worth reprinting4 ,i have not the date of the number of the ,gazette in which it appeared1 but it was during the tailors' strike in ,london4 ,,to ,,the ,,editor ,,of ,,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette4 ,sir1-- ,in your yesterday's article on strikes you have very neatly and tersely expressed the primal fallacy of modern political economy--to wit1 that 'the value of any piece of labor cannot be defined'--and that 'all that can be ascertained is simply whether any man can be got to do it for a certain sum4' ,now1 sir1 the 'value' of any piece of labor1 that is to say1 the quantity of food and air which will enable a man to perform it without losing actually any of his flesh or his nervous energy1 is as absolutely fixed a quantity as the weight of powder necessary to carry a given ball a given distance4 ,and within limits varying by exceedingly minor and unimportant circumstances1 it is an ascertainable quantity4 ,i told the public this five years ago--and under pardon of your politico-economical contributors--it is not a 'sentimental1' but a chemical fact4 ,let any half-dozen of recognized ,london physicians state in precise terms the quantity and kind of food1 and space of lodging1 they consider approximately necessary for the healthy life of a laborer in any given manufacture1 and the number of hours he may1 without shortening his life1 work at such business daily1 if so sustained4 ,and let all masters be bound to give their men a choice between an order for that quantity of food and lodging1 or such wages as the market may offer for that number of hours' work4 ,proper laws for the maintenance of families would require further concession--but1 in the outset1 let but this law of wages be established1 and if then we have any more strikes you may denounce them without one word of remonstrance either from sense or sensibility4 ,i am1 ,sir1 ,your obedient servant1 ,,john ,,ruskin4