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 Henrs M. Sage 
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Cornell University Library 
 arV13925 
 
 Elements of morality in easy lessons, to 
 
 3 1924 031 301 702 
 olin.anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031301702 
 
ELEMENTS of MORALITY 
 
 IN EAST LESSONS, 
 
 FOR HOME AND SgHOOL TEACHING. 
 
 MRS. CHARLES BRAY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "physiology FOB SCHOOLS," "OUR DUTY TO- 
 ANIMALS," ETC., ETC. 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO 
 
 39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY 
 
 1897 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CBAFTER PAGE. 
 
 1.— WE CANJiOT EXIST ALONE 3 
 
 II. — LIFE AND LOVE • • - 5 
 
 III. — HOME AND LOVE 9 
 
 IV. — HOME AND LOVE, CONTINUED 13 
 
 V. — HOME AND DUTY. 17 
 
 VI. — A child's FIKST DUTY 23 
 
 VII.— A child's first dciy, coktinubd • 28 
 
 Vin.— THE morning OF LIFE ■ 31 
 
 IX. — THE MCBNING OP LIFE, CONTINUED • 35 
 
 X. — THE TEACHINGS OF CONSCIBSCE^TEUTH 38 
 XL — THE TEACHINGS OF CONSCIENCE —HONESTY AND 
 
 JUSTICE - • 43 
 
 XII. — REVERENCE 48 
 
 XIII. — SELF-BESPECT 64 
 
 PAKT II. 
 
 I. — THE FAMILY OF MANKIND ■ 59 
 
 II.— THE FAMILY OF MANKIND, CONTINULD ■ 63 
 
 ^r.— SOCIAL PUTY - ' - 66 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER. PA8E. 
 
 IV.— SOCIAL EEQUIREMENTS 72 
 
 V. — HONEST WORK - - 78 
 
 VI — OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETY • 83 
 
 VU. — O0R DEBTS TO SOCIBTV, CONTINDED • ■- 88 
 
 Vin.^OUB DEBTS TO THE ANIMALS THAT SERVE CS - 92 
 
 IX. — OUR DUTIES TO THE ANIMALS THAT FEED AND CLOTHE 
 
 US, AND LIVE AMONGST US • 97 
 
 X.— GOVERNMENT AND FEBEDOM - 100 
 
 XI. — GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM, CONTINUED 105 
 
 XIL — GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM, CONTINUED. - 110 
 
 XIII. — PATRIOTISM 115 
 
 XIV. — THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL - - - 121 
 
 XV.— THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL, CONTINUED 126 
 
 XVI. — THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIBS -133 
 
 XVII. — OUR UNION WITH NATURE . 139 
 
 XVIII. — ODR UNION WITH THE UNSEEN - Igl 
 
ELEMENTS OF MORALITY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 I.-WB CANNOT EXIST ALONE. 
 
 "Nothing in this world is single ; 
 All things, by a, law divine, 
 In one another's being mingle." 
 
 1. As soon as we are old enough to begin to 
 think, What are we ? and, What is this world into 
 which we are born ? a question like this may 
 perhaps come into our minds, — " How is it that I, 
 who seem to be a distinct living thing, should have 
 no power of living in myself ? I am not fixed to a 
 piece of rock like a sponge, nor planted in the 
 ground like a tree ; I can think my own thoughts 
 and move my body about where I please ; and yet, 
 if I were detached from what is outside of me, I 
 should die, as surely as the sponge would die if 
 torn from the rock, or the tree would die if 
 uprooted from the soil." 
 
 2. The truth is, that this being, which each of 
 us calls " i," " myself," is in part made up from 
 what is outside of us. The air around me must 
 
4 WE CANNOT EXIST ALONE. 
 
 constantly pass in and out of me to keep me alive ; 
 a portion of the animals, vegetables, and minerals, 
 which form part of the world about me, must be 
 taken into ray body every few hours to keep its 
 machinery going ; parts of the animals, vegetables, 
 and minerals must be made into clothes and cover- 
 ing for me. 
 
 3. Also, I could not keep alive if other beings of 
 my own kind did not help me to live. If I had 
 been alone in the world, how could I have obtained 
 the food, the clothing, and the shelter that I 
 required during the years of infancy and childhood, 
 when I was too ignorant and helpless to take care of 
 myself ? I depended on others to provide all these 
 things for me. When I grew older, and had to 
 learn to do things for myself, I depended on others 
 to teach me. I could not even have walked or 
 spoken if others had not taught me to. walk and 
 speak ; and everything I have and use, — the bread 
 I eat, the clothes I wear, the house I live in, the 
 books I read, — all have been supplied to me by 
 the labour and thought of others, who in their 
 turn were protected in infancy, taught and pro- 
 vided for by others, in the same manner that I 
 have been. 
 
 4. Thus, every one who is born into the world 
 is dependent for life and well-being on those who 
 live with him, on those who have lived before him, 
 and on multitudes of people who live in different 
 
LIFE AND LOVE. 5 
 
 parts of the world. And so the great family :o£ 
 mankind is united together. 
 
 5. But why do we thus care for one another, 
 and labour and tliink for others besides ourselves ? 
 Because there are strong, invisible links which 
 bind us all together. Some of these links are 
 called Feelings : some are called Duties. Let us 
 see what they are, beginning with the first and 
 strongest. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What question may occur to us when we are 
 old enough to begin to thiuk ? 2. What things outside of us 
 help to make up the being called " I " ? 3. How did I get 
 the things I required in infancy ? For what did I depend on 
 others when I grew older 2 4. How is the great family of man- 
 kind united together? 5. What are the two kinds of links 
 which bind us together ? 
 
 II.-LIFE AND LOVE; 
 " Look round our world, behold the chain of lo ve 
 Combining all below and all above." — Pope. 
 
 1. We cannot remember the time when we first 
 opened our eyes and looked out on the world in 
 which we live. We cannot remember what we first 
 saw, and what we thought about it. But the world 
 must have seemed a pleasant place to us. For 
 loving faces were surely looking at us; gentle 
 motherly arms were enfolding us ; tender voices 
 were saying pretty, cheery words to us. When we 
 were hungry, some one fed us ; when we were 
 sleepy, some one laid us in a soft bed, and shaded 
 
6 LIFE AND LoVE. 
 
 the light from our eyes that our sleep might be 
 sound. 
 
 2. When food and sleep had refreshed us, some 
 one carried Us out into the air and sunshine, and 
 into the fields or garden. We looked at the trees 
 waving about in the breeze, at the clouds sailing 
 along the blue sky ; the flowers — red, blue, yellow, 
 and all sorts of beautiful colours and forms, glanced 
 at us from out of their leafy beds, or stood stately 
 on their long stalks. We clapped our tiny hands 
 at the birds as they flew, and at the butterflies 
 as they flitted from flower to flower, and we must 
 have felt in our little souls. What a beautiful world 
 we have come into ! 
 
 3. Perhaps we were born in a town, and not in 
 the country ; perhaps we were first carried out 
 into the noisy streets, and not into the pleasant 
 fields. The houses and tall chimneys shut out 
 the sky ; we were afraid of the carts as they 
 rumbled and rattled along, and we gazed in 
 wonder at the people as they hurried past ; and 
 we must have thought, What a curious world we 
 have come into ! 
 
 But whether we were born in the town or in the^ 
 country, we might have thought, if we had been 
 able to think. This world, beautiful and curious as 
 it is, is a place I could not live in alone. What 
 would happen to me, a little helpless child, if I 
 were left all alone in it ? 
 
LIFE AND LOVE. 7 
 
 4. I will show you what would happen. There was 
 once a woman who had a little child of her own ; but 
 she was too poor and wretched to provide for her infant. 
 She was too selfish even to care for it. She had no 
 home for it to live in, no cradle for it to sleep in, 
 no clothes for it, no food. So she took the child 
 into the fields at night, and laid it under a hedge, 
 and covered it with leaves, and left it. She heard 
 it crying as she went away across the fields, but 
 even that did not soften her heart, it only made her 
 hurry along the faster. 
 
 5. A few nights af terwards; a man who was com- 
 ing home from his work in the fields, saw some- 
 thing lying under a hedge. It was partly hidden by 
 the grass and some dry leaves. He went close to it, 
 and found it was the body of a little child. It was 
 quite dead. He lifted the little cold body in his 
 arms and said " Poor little child ! Your mother had 
 no love for you, else she would not have left you 
 here to die, though she were ever so poor." We 
 should all so have died, if there had been no love 
 waiting to cherish us as soon as we came into this 
 wide, wide world ! 
 
 6. The strong men who do the hard work of life, 
 — the wise men, who by their knowledge guide and 
 govern others, — were all alike at the beginning of 
 their lives, weak and helpless creatures, dependent 
 on a mother's care to keep the spark of life within 
 them. 
 
8 LIFE AND LOVE. 
 
 7. We call those parents who neoflect their 
 off-spring unnatural parents, because it is the 
 great and beautiful law of Nature that love and 
 life must keep together. ■ Hence we say of the 
 great, invisible Source of all Life, that God is 
 Love ; and hence Love is the strongest feeling in 
 the human heart. 
 
 " Hast thou sounded the depths of yonder sea, 
 And counted the sands that under it be ? 
 Hast thou measured the height of the heavens above ? 
 Then mayest thou measure a mother's love. 
 
 " There are teachinos in earth, and sky., and air ; 
 The heavens the glory of God declare ! 
 But clearer than voice beneath, above, 
 He is heard to speak through a mother's love." 
 
 — Emily Taylor, 
 
 Qdestions.— 1. What must the world have seemed to us 
 when we first looked out on it ! Why pleasant ? 2. To whom 
 would the world appear beautiful? 3. To whom would it 
 appear curious ? What thought would occur in either case ? 
 4. What did the heartless mother do with her child ? 6. What 
 did the man say when he found it ? What is this story intended 
 to show ? 6. In what were the strong men and the wise men 
 alike ? 7. What do we call those who neglect their oiispring ? 
 Why unnatural ? What do we say of the Source of all life ? 
 
HOME AND LOVE. 9 
 
 1II.-HOME AND LOVE. 
 
 *' Without hearts there is no home." 
 
 1. The world which the child first lives in is its 
 home. Father, mother, brothers, and sisters form 
 the small community among which our minds 
 first begin to grow. There the feelings first plant 
 themselves, and there the habits are first formed, 
 which make us what we are for the rest of our 
 lives. 
 
 2. The very name of home has a pleasant sound. 
 If you go out into the streets, the people pass by 
 yov|, and do not notice you ; they do not care to 
 know who you are, nor where you are going. 
 Therefore to be " turned out into the streets " is a 
 terrible thing for a little child ; it is worse than 
 being left alone. But directly you enter the door 
 of your own home, you are spoken to by your 
 name ; you are asked where you have been ; 
 perhaps food has been preparing for you, and 
 somebody has been thinking of you while you 
 were away. You are safe in the midst of others 
 who care for you. 
 
 3. For, as it is natural for the mother to love 
 her child; so it is natural for the members of a 
 family to love one another. They all dwell together 
 in one house, and sleep under the same roof. If 
 one of them is made happy, all are glad ; if one 
 of them is sick or in trouble, all are sad ; and 
 
10 HOME AND LOVE. 
 
 this union and sympathy in all things make them 
 very dear to one another. Even if you could live 
 alone, you could not be happy alone. Think what 
 makes the pleasure of every day. It is the talking 
 together, the playing or walking together, the 
 seeing things together, the eating together, the 
 learning together. " Come and play with me," 
 " Come and talk to me," " Come and sit by me," 
 is the constant entreaty of a solitary child. Com- 
 panionship is what all desire. 
 
 4, Sometimes, however, evil things enter into a 
 house, which turn all the family union and pleasure 
 into bitterness. Look at that pretty house, which 
 stands in the midst of trees where little birds are 
 chirping and feeding their young ones. That house 
 ought to be a pleasant home for children. £ut it 
 is haunted by an evil spirit called Selfishness, 
 which has a brood of ugly offspring that darken 
 the house by their presence. 
 
 5. One of this brood, called Idleness, has just 
 been making mischief. The children rose late in 
 the morning, because they were idle. They were 
 not too idle to eat their breakfast, but they were 
 too idle to do any work. They refused to help 
 their mother with her household affairs; they 
 refused to do any lessons ; they lounged about 
 and yawned. If some of them tried to shake off 
 the evil spirit, and to set about some useful work, 
 the idle ones disturbed and interrupted them. 
 
HOME AND LOVE. 11 
 
 6. Then swiftly another of the selfish brood flew 
 in among them, called Ill-temper, and the children 
 began to quarrel. Through the open window you 
 may hear the strife growing louder and hotter. 
 " Don't do that ! " "I shall." " You shan't." 
 " You shan't have my picture book," cries a little 
 voice. " I will," says a bigger one. Then comes 
 Tyranny to help the big boy, who cuffs his little 
 sister, snatches her book from her, and tears the 
 leaves in the rough pull he gives it. Then the 
 little girl cries, and in comes the mother to see 
 what is the matter. " He has taken my book and 
 torn it,'' sobs the little girl. " Never mind," says 
 the mother, who is not a wise mother, " his father 
 shall whip him for it when he comes home." " I 
 didn't tear her book," shouts the big boy, " she 
 tore it herself." For the two ugliest imps of all 
 the brood have just now mingled with the others. 
 Falsehood and Cowardice. 
 
 7. Many other odious habits and dispositions are 
 the oflfepring of Selfishness. Greediness which comes 
 in at meal-times; Covetousness which desires to 
 take all but to give nothing; Obstinacy, which 
 will have it own way, whether the way be good or 
 not; Revenge, which returns evil for evil, and 
 so multiplies the evil. And all these selfish spirits 
 are like infectious diseases, and spread from one 
 child to another; so that the bad temper of one 
 will sometimes make everybody in a household 
 
12 HOME AND LOVE. 
 
 bad-tempered. Not only are these diseases of 
 the mind and temper infectious, but they grow 
 apace if left to riot in the disposition unchecked ; 
 and as the child grows up into the man, they 
 will eat the heart out of the character, as the 
 worm eats the heart out of blossom and fruit. 
 
 Now let us chase away the spirit of Selfishness 
 from that pretty house among the trees, and let 
 the sweet spirit of Love take possession, and there 
 will be sunshine within, pleasanter and brighter 
 even than the sunshine outside. 
 
 Questions. — 1. In what world does the child first live? 
 Who form his first community? What are first formed there? 
 2. What name has a pleasant sound ? How do people in the 
 streets treat you ? What is, therefore, a. terrible thing for a. 
 little child ? How do people at home treat you ? Why are 
 you safe there ? What makes the members of a family dear 
 to one another ? What makes the pleasure of every day ? 
 What is that which all desire? 4. What sometimes enter into 
 a home ? What do they cause ? Mention the chief of these ? 
 By what is it accompanied ? 5. Which is the first of the 
 brood ? How does it show itself ? 6. What was the next of the 
 brood? What did it cause? And the next? Whom did it 
 help ? What two imps then mingle with the others ? What bad 
 habit comes in at meal times ? What does Covntousness desire ? 
 What does Obstinacy insist on ? What does Revenge do ? In 
 what aie all these selfish spirits like diseases ? What will they 
 do if left unchecked ? What spirit should take their place ? 
 
HOME AND LOVE. 13 
 
 IV. -HOME AND LOVB.-Oontinued. 
 
 " Those hours were seed to all my after good."— Stor^e Eliot. 
 
 1. The wish to help one another is one of the 
 first of Love's offspring ; and this wish takes the 
 strong and comely form of Industry, as it cheerily 
 rouses the inmates in the early morning, and sets 
 them all to work. The elder children help the 
 younger in all their little occupations and pastimes, 
 besides doing their own share of household work, 
 and of the daily lessons which are to qualify them 
 for further usefulness. They are all as busy as 
 bees, and the hum of the hive inside is as pleasant 
 a sound as the chirping of the little birds without 
 The least of these busy bees delights more in 
 helping to provide honey for the others than in 
 eating its own share ; for there is something in the 
 hive far sweeter to them than honey. 
 
 2. A little girl, four years old, was once asked 
 by a friend if she would go and spend the day 
 with her. " No, thank you," said the child very 
 gravely; I could not leave home, because if I 
 did, there would be nobody to fetch Papa his 
 slippers when he came home." It did not please 
 her to be told that perhaps for once Papa would 
 not mind fetching his slippers himself. She liked 
 better to be useful to one she loved than to have a 
 day's pleasure for herself. 
 
14 HOME AXD LOVE. 
 
 3. Another little girl was one morninor eatinor 
 her bread and milk, and longed to look at her 
 elder brother's new book, which had pictures in it. 
 So she did not wait to finish her breakfast, but 
 fetched the book, and laid it on the table beside 
 her. It was the " Arabian Nights," and she 
 opened it at the best picture of all — ^that of the 
 Fisherman, and the great dreadful Genie coming 
 out of the little jar in a cloud of smoke. While 
 she looked, she took a spoonful of bread and milk 
 to go on with her breakfast, but she was so busy 
 wondering how the big Genie would ever get back 
 again into the little jar, that she missed the way 
 to her mouth, and spilt the bread and milk all over 
 the picture. 
 
 4. " Oh, what have I done ! George, George," 
 cried she, as she ran with the book to show the 
 mischief to lier brother in the next room ; " I have 
 spoilt your beautiful book. Oh, I am so sorry ! '» 
 George was vexed beyond measure when he saw 
 his beloved Genie all drowned in milk, and in the 
 first moment of anger he could almost have struck 
 his little sister. But when he saw the tears and 
 all the sad trouble in the little penitent face, he 
 could not be harsh to her. So he kissed her, and 
 said, " Never mind, little Pussy ; accidents will 
 happen, and you will be more careful another 
 time." 
 
 5. Do you think she was not careful another 
 
HOME AND LOVE. IS 
 
 time ? Indeed she was. That " Never mind " 
 made her more sorry for what she had done, and 
 more careful never to injure her brother's books 
 again, than if he had scolded or beaten her. And 
 so it is, in great matters as well as in small, that 
 gentle words, and acts of kindness and for- 
 bearance, are more powerful for good than storms 
 of passion or deeds of revenge. 
 
 LITTLE THINGS. 
 
 6. " Little drops of water, 
 Ijttle grains of sand, 
 Make the mighty ocean 
 ' And the pleasant land, 
 
 " Little deeds of kindness, 
 Little words of love, 
 Make our Earth an Eden 
 Like the Heaven above." 
 
 7. See how all the miserable, selfish feelings, and 
 ugly passions, take flight when we love one 
 another, and care for others as we care for our- 
 selves ! If your head and hands are engaged in 
 useful, healthy work, there is little fear that the 
 disease of passion or ill-temper will torment you 
 and those about you. If you do nothing to be 
 ashamed of, there will be no place for cowardice 
 and falsehood. If you feel for one another, there 
 will be no tyranny of the stronger over the weaker. 
 If each one is glad that the others should have 
 what they like, there will be no covetousness, 
 
16 HOME AND LOVE. 
 
 greediness, or obstinacy. And if any of you do 
 wrong and make mistakes, there will be the three 
 sweet angels. Charity, Patience, and Forgiveness, 
 to turn evil into good. 
 
 8. There is a great and good saying, — " Love is 
 the fulfilling of the law." For, if we cared for the 
 rights and welfare of others as we care for our 
 own, there would be no cruelties, robberies, frauds, 
 oppression, or crimes of any sort against our 
 fellow-creatures. All the great things in the 
 world have had small beginnings : and we shall 
 see that family aifection at home is the beginning 
 of that good-will among men which makes peace 
 on earth, and nations and countries happy and 
 united. 
 
 LOVE AT HOME. 
 
 9. " There is beauty all arouad. 
 
 When there's love at home ; 
 There is joy in every sound, 
 
 When there's love at home. 
 Peace and plenty here abide. 
 Smiling sweet on every side, 
 Time doth softly, s.noothly glide, 
 
 When there's love at home. 
 " In the cottage there is joy, 
 
 When there's love at home ; 
 Hate and envy ne'er annoy. 
 
 When there's love at home. 
 Boses blossom 'neath our feet. 
 All the earth's a garden sweet, 
 Making life a bliss complete. 
 
 When there's love at home." 
 
HOME AKt) DUTY. 17 
 
 ■ Questions. — 1. What is one of the first of Love's offspring? 
 What is its name ? How is Indiistry shewn in the house ? 2. 
 What was a little girl four years old once asked ? What did 
 she reply ! What did this show that she preferred ? 3. What 
 happened to the '' Arabian Nights " which another little girl 
 looked at ? 4. What was her brother's first impulse ? What 
 made him change his mind ? What did he say to her ? 5. What 
 effect had his words ? What are geneially more powerful than 
 storms of passion ? 6. Bepeat the verses. 7. What makes 
 selfish feelings take flight ? When are we not likely to be 
 tormented by ill-temper ? What will prevent tyranny ? "Which 
 are the three sweet angels that turn evil into good ? 8. Repeat 
 the great and good saying. In what sense is it true ? What 
 is the beginning of that good-will among men which makes 
 peace on earth ? 9. Repeat the verses. 
 
 V.-HOME AND DUTY. 
 
 " In Duty's path go on." 
 
 1. It is not love alone that will keep a home 
 together. There are duties to be done : and a duty 
 is that which must be done because it is right, 
 whether it is pleasant or not. When, day after 
 day, children find everything provided for them — a 
 house to live in, clothes to wear, food to eat, beds 
 to rest in, — they are apt to think that all these 
 good things come of themselves, and to forget how 
 it is that they are supplied. 
 
 2. " I am quite old enough to take care of my- 
 self," once boasted a little boy of six years old. " I 
 do not want anybody to put on my clothes for me, 
 as baby does. I can button my own pinafore ; and 
 
18 SOME AND DUTY. 
 
 see, I can cut my own bread, and butter it all 
 myself ! " So saying, he cut a great slice from the 
 loaf on the table, and spread the butter very 
 thickly over it, to show how clever he was. 
 
 3. " But suppose you had no clothes to put on, 
 and no bread to cut, what should you do then ?" 
 said an elder brother. — " I would go to the shops 
 where they sell clothes and loaves, and buy them." 
 — " And how would you get the money to buy 
 them with ?" — " I would ask father for some." — 
 " Then, you see you cannot take care of yourself ; 
 for you would have nothing to eat, and nothing to 
 wear, if father did not give you either food or 
 clothes or money." — " And who gives the money to 
 father 1" inquired the child. — " He works all day, 
 and gets money in return for his work." 
 
 4. Just then the father came in at the garden 
 gate. He looked very tired, for it had been a very 
 warm day, and he had been hard at work in the 
 factory since early morning. "Father," said the 
 child, as he ran up to him, " do you like to spend 
 all the day in the dusty, smoky factory, among 
 the great whizzing wheels, and the roaring engines, 
 and the crowds of people ? Would not you like 
 better to sit here in the garden among the flowers 
 and under the trees, and take nice walks, and read 
 nice books every day, as you say you like to do on 
 Sundays ? " 
 
 5. The father sat down on the garden-chair, and 
 
HOME AND DUTY. 10 
 
 taking his little boy on his knee, replied, "Yes, 
 my lad, I should find it much more pleasant to sit 
 here under the trees, and to read nice books, than 
 to go to the factory, if it were not for something 
 that would sting and prick me all the time that I 
 was sitting idle among the flowers." — " What 
 would sting and prick you ? " cried the child very 
 eagerly, " Would it be a bee or a buzz-fly ? " — 
 " Something much sharper than a bee or a buzz- 
 fly ; for it would keep saying to me, You are doing 
 wrong. Who is to provide for the mother and the 
 children if you sit idle here ? You must go and 
 work, and earn money, so that they may have the 
 means of living in comfort." 
 
 6. " What is it that would say this ? "— " Our 
 true friend, whom we call Conscience. It tells me 
 to do what is right, and makes me like to do my 
 duty better even than to sit among the flowers. 
 And there is something else besides my conscience 
 which makes me like to do my duty. I work for 
 you because it is right that I should provide for 
 those who belong to me ; and it is a pleasure to me 
 to work for you, because you are all very dear to 
 me, and because it makes me happier to see you all 
 happy and well cared for than to care only for 
 myself. Thus love makes duty pleasant." 
 
 7. " Shall you always go on working for us, and 
 giving us everything that we want ? " asked the 
 child. — " No ; for that would be using you very 
 
20 HOME AND DUTY. 
 
 cruelly. Your mother and I may die, or be ill and 
 unable to work for you and take care of you. In 
 the natural course of things, we are likely to die 
 long before you. What then would become of you 
 when we were gone, if you had always depended 
 upon us to do everything for you ? The best and 
 the kindest thing we can do for you is to teach you 
 how to take care of yourselves and of others, and 
 to be useful to every one about you, so that you 
 may never feel alone in the world and helpless. 
 
 8. "Even the lower animals teach their little 
 ones to provide for themselves, and cease to take 
 care of them when they are old enough to do so. 
 Did you just now hear the old cat growl at her 
 kitten ? She did not growl at it a few weeks ago, 
 when it was quite a little kitty. She fondled it 
 and fed it and taught it to play with her tail. Her 
 grbwl means to say, ' "Sou are old enough now to 
 take care of yourself ; I will have nothing more 
 to do with you.' 
 
 9. " Have you seen the birds teaching their 
 young ones to fly as soon as their little wings 
 are strong enough ? So long as the young birds 
 cannot fly far, the old birds continue to feed them 
 and look after them; but when once the young 
 birds are strong enough to fly right away, and 
 to find food for themselves, the parent birds 
 seem to care for them no more. Thus, all the 
 world over, it is the parents' duty first to provide 
 
HOME AND DUTY 21 
 
 for their young, and then to teach them to provide 
 for themselves." 
 
 10. " Shall you care no more for us when we are 
 able to leave home and provide for ourselves ? " 
 asked the boy with tearful eyes. — " That we shall, 
 my child," said the father. " The love which your 
 mother and I have for you all now will grow into 
 a stronger love as your minds grow, and you are 
 able more and more to think with us and feel with 
 us. We shall then be friends to one another. 
 Many animals love their young in the same way 
 that a mother loves her child. But there is a 
 better love than this, which animals cannot feel, 
 and which lasts through life; and that is, the 
 friendship which unites parents and children, when 
 they can trust, and respect, and sympathise with 
 one another. 
 
 11. " Besides, human parents cannot send their 
 children out into the world so soon as the lower 
 animals can. It needs much longer time, and much 
 more care and pains, to train a child than to train 
 a bird or a kitten. Your mind has to be made 
 healthy and strong, as well as your body. You 
 have to be taught to think, as well as to talk and 
 walk ; to be useful and good, as well as to eat and 
 sleep. You have to learn how to help others, as 
 others have helped you." 
 
 12. "Has all this to be done for me?" asked 
 the boy with surprise. " I thought the only 
 
22 HOME AND DUTY. 
 
 teaching I needed was how to learn ray lessons, 
 and do ray sums and my writing." — " You began to 
 learn lessons," replied his father, " long before you 
 did sums on your slate and wrote in copybooks. 
 Childrien do what they see others do, and learn to 
 think as others think, from their earliest infancy. 
 They learn by imitation more than by instruction ; 
 and so ' take after their parents,' whether their 
 parents teach them or not. It is therefore the 
 duty of a parent to be good, that his children may 
 be good also; and to do right that his children 
 may also do right. We call this kind of teaching. 
 Teaching by Example." 
 
 13. " Then," said the child, " if we do what we 
 see you do, perhaps others will do what they see us 
 do ; and so if you are a good father to us, and teach 
 us how to be useful and good, you are good also to 
 many, many people besides ourselves ?" — " Yes," 
 said the father ; " and I should sadly fail in my 
 duty to the great family of mankind, as well as to 
 my little family at home, if I sent fresh members 
 into it who could be of no use in the world ; who 
 would be idle, selfish, or ignorant ; who would take 
 up room and consume food without doing any good 
 in return. Thus the young have always a claim 
 on the old to help them and teach them ; Lnd all 
 men have a claim on every parent and child." 
 
A child's first duty. 23 
 
 QrESTioNS. — 1. What, besides love, is necessary to keep a 
 home together ? What is a dut^ ? What are children apt to 
 forget ? 2. What did a little boy, six years old, once boast ? 
 What did he at the same time do ? 3. How did an elder 
 brother show him that he coald not take care of himself ? 
 
 4. Who then came in at the garden gate ? What did his little boy 
 suggest might be better than spending his time in the factory ? 
 
 5. What did the father say prevented his doing so ? 6. What 
 does conscience tell us ? What makes duty pleasant ? 7. Why 
 should parents not continue to work for their children always ? 
 8. What do the lower animals teach their little ones to do ! 
 Give an example. 9. Give another example. 10. What differ- 
 ence is there between the love of parents to young children, and 
 their love to children grown up? 11. Why cainnot children be 
 sent forth into the world as soon as the young of the lower 
 animals ? 12. What kind of teaching begins before teaching 
 from books? 13. To whom are good parents useful, besides 
 their own children ? Why is this a duty ? 
 
 VI.— A CHILD'S FIRST DUTY. 
 " He who would rule must first learn to obey." 
 
 1. If it is the duty of fathers and mothers to 
 provide for their children, and to take care of them 
 and teach them, have not children also their 
 duties ? Certainly they have. But a child who 
 has been in the world only a few years knows so 
 little, that he cannot tell for himself what is best 
 for him to do; and it is well for him if he has 
 those to guide him who have lived lono; enough to 
 know what is good and right. 
 
24 A child's first duty. 
 
 ' 2. A child's first duty, therefore, is Obedience ; 
 that is, doing what he is told to do, cheerfully aiid 
 readily. A child obeys at once when he is told to 
 do what he likes to do — to eat his food, play with 
 his toys, and amuse himself ; but he must always 
 obey at once when he is told to do what he does 
 not like, at the bidding^ of those who know better 
 than he can know, what it is good for him and for 
 others that he should do. 
 
 3. " Why must I learn to read ?" a little child 
 will perhaps say. " I do not want to read books ; 
 I should like better to be playing with my hoop 
 and ball." He does not know that after a few years 
 the hoOp and the ball will amuse him no longer, 
 and that the time will soon come when he would 
 give all his playthings for the delight of finding for 
 himself all that books have to tell him. 
 
 4. " Why must I make those tiresome up-strokes 
 and down-strokes, and round O's and pot-hooks ? 
 I do not want to write." He little knows the 
 treasure which lies hidden in those strokes and 
 pot-hooks, and that it has been the work of 
 thousands of years and thousands of clever men to 
 make perfect the art, as we now have it, of telling 
 all that we see, do, and think, by a few little black 
 marks on paper. If he did know this, instead of 
 saying, " How tiresome and difficult it is to read 
 and write !" he would say, " How wonderfully easy 
 it has been made to me to acquire this magic art. 
 
A child's first duty. 25 
 
 by which I can know the thoughts of others in all 
 times and places, and by which I shall be able to 
 let others know what I am doing and thinking — 
 even if they are miles and miles away — by merely 
 putting a little piece of paper in the post ; and by 
 which I can know what others are thinking and 
 doing by merely receiving a little piece of paper by 
 the post ! " 
 
 5. " How wonderful it is that people found out 
 how to fix those fleeting, invisible, intangible things 
 which we call thoughts, into little visible forms, 
 and to pack them side by side in books, so that the 
 thoughts they once stood for can be called up again, 
 and enter the minds of those who look at them, 
 even when they live hundreds of years after those 
 who first put them there ! And thus people of the 
 present day possess the thoughts and knowledge of 
 the people of the past, and thoughts and knowledge 
 are carried about in books all over the world ; and 
 I, by merely learning to know letters and little 
 words, shall be able to know what the wisest and 
 cleverest people have known in all ages of the 
 world ! " 
 
 6. The mind of a person who does not know 
 how to read and write is, as it were, shut up in a 
 small, dark box, cramped and crippled on every 
 side. The knowledge about all things in this great 
 and wonderful world, which it has taken wise men 
 centuries to obtain and collect, is cut up into little 
 
26 A child's first duty. 
 
 pieces for children in their lesson-books, and made 
 easy for them to understand. If they take this 
 mental food while they are young, their minds 
 will grow strong, and will be able to enjoy and 
 receive more and better food as they grow older. 
 It is therefore as foolish of a child to refuse his 
 lessons as to refuse his food. 
 
 7. Except for the pleasure of doing good to the 
 little minds under their care, it is often a weary 
 task to teachers to spend hour after hour in giving 
 out those crumbs of knowledge, even to willing 
 and obedient children ; and if the children are idle 
 or unwilling to learn, the task of teaching is ten 
 times harder. See how patiently the teacher sits 
 through a whole morning and afternoon, talking 
 about things which he does not need to learn him- 
 self, for he knew them long before. The least that 
 the children can do is to give their teachers 
 pleasure in their work by their loving obedience, 
 and by learning and improving as they are wished 
 to do. 
 
 8. Not only throtigh lesson-time, but all day 
 long, a child needs guidance. Have you never 
 heard of children setting their clothes on fire and 
 being burned to death, from carelessly going too 
 near the fire, or by playing with lighted paper or 
 sticks ? Have you never heard of children tipping 
 themselves into the water when playing too 
 near the edge of a pond ; or being run over in 
 
A child's first dutv. 2l 
 
 the street when a cart was passing ; or making 
 .themselves ill by eating poison-berries from the 
 hedges, or other hurtful things ; or doing mischief 
 to themselves and others in a hundred ways, 
 because they did not know what leads to mischief ? 
 9. Children should do at once what they are told. 
 Sometimes they can understand the reason for it 
 afterwards, and sometimes they cannot ; but they 
 must in all things trust to the better knowledge of 
 those who are older and wiser, and give them no 
 trouble by refusing to obey. 
 
 Questions. — 1. Why does a child require to be guided ? 
 2, What is a child's first duty ? Why should he obey when he 
 is t old to do what he does not like ? 3. Why should a child learn 
 to read, though lie does not want to read ? 4. Why should he 
 learn to write ? M ention some of the benefits of writing. 5. 
 What have languages and books enabled us to do ! 6, What 
 does tlie miud of a person who cannot read and write resemble ? 
 Why is it as foolish ot a child to refuse his lessons as to refuse 
 his food ? 7. What makes teaching a weary task ? How may 
 children lighten tlie labour of their teachers? 8. What shows 
 that children need guidance, not only when in school, but all 
 day long ? 9. Why should children obey, even when they do 
 not understand the reason for their obeying ? 
 
28 A child's first duty. 
 
 VII.— A CHILD'S FIBST DUTY.— Continued. 
 
 " Obedience makes the State one Family." 
 
 1. Here is a story which shows how a child's 
 habit of prompt obedience once saved his life. On 
 one of the railroads in Prussia a pointsman was 
 just taking his place in order to turn a coming 
 train, then in sight, on .to a different track, to pre- 
 vent a collision with a train approaching in the 
 contrary direction. At that moment, on turning 
 his head, he saw his little son playing on the track 
 of the advancing engine ! What could he do ? He 
 might spring to his child and rescue him, but he 
 could not do this and turn the points in time, and 
 thus many lives might be lost. 
 
 2. Although in sore trouble, he could not neglect 
 his greater duty ; so exclaiming in a loud voice to 
 his son, " Lie down ! " he went to his post, and saw 
 the train safely turned on to its proper track. His 
 boy, accustomed to obedience, did as his father 
 commanded him ; he lay down, and the long and 
 heavy train thundered over him. Little did the 
 passengers dream, as they quietly glided on to the 
 safe track, what terrible anguish their approach 
 had caused to one noble heart. ■ The father rushed 
 forward to where his boy lay, fearful lest he should 
 find a mangled corpse ; but to his great joy and 
 gratitude he found him alive ami unharmed. We 
 
A child's first DUTY: . 29 
 
 are told that the pointsman's brave conduct was 
 made known to the King of Prussia, who next day 
 sent for him and presented him with a medal of 
 honour for his heroism. 
 
 3. When children are required to do what is 
 unpleasant to them, they should remember how 
 many things their parents and friends have to do 
 for them which would not be at all pleasant to them 
 if they cared only for themselves ; how they have 
 watched over them by night and by day when they 
 were helpless infants, and have kindly borne with 
 all their troublesome little ways; how they have 
 given up their time to teach them, and their rest 
 and comfort to tend them in sickness ; how they 
 constantly deny themselves that their children may 
 have all that they need. 
 
 4. Besides doing all they are told to do, it is 
 necessary that children should obey the rules which 
 their parents make for the comfort and welfare of 
 the family. Can you fancy a home in which each 
 child is allowed to have his own way, and do just 
 as he pleases, without regard to the rest ? Perhaps 
 one chooses to sit up half the night, another to lie 
 in bed half the morning; one is never ready for 
 his meals when his meals are ready for him, 
 another likes to be eating all day long; one sits 
 down at table with dirty hands and face, and un- 
 combed hair, another neglects to wipe his shoes on 
 th& mat when he comes into the house, and leaves 
 
30 - A child's first duty. 
 
 black foot-marks on carpet and floor ; one likes 
 nothing but play, another litters every room with 
 his handiwork ; one persists in noisy games, while 
 another wishes to read in quiet. 
 
 5. Such would be the confusion and the strife in 
 that house, that nothing could be done in peace , 
 and nothing could be really enjoyed. Each of those 
 children would be much happier if he were obliged 
 to obey rules made for the good of all ; i£ there 
 were a kind and sensible ruler of the household, 
 who fixed the time for sleeping, eating, work, and 
 play ; who insisted that each child should be clean 
 and orderly and considerate to the rest, instead of 
 leaving each to follow his own whim. And to live 
 in obedience to rules does not mean to live under 
 restraint, for those who have been brought up to 
 orderly and pleasant habits will behave well 
 naturally, without any effort at all ; for " habit is 
 second nature." 
 
 6. It is not only children who have to obey. 
 What confusion and destruction would follow if 
 our soldiers and sailors refused to obey the orders 
 of their commanding officers, until they knew the 
 reason for the orders! Much worse confusion 
 would there be if each person refused to obey the 
 laws of his country, because he did not make the 
 laws himself. The obedience of a child to its parent 
 or teacher is the beginning of that obedience to 
 the laws of right and justice without which not 
 
THE MORNING OF LIFE 31 
 
 the greatest state, any more than the humblest 
 home, would be fit to live in. It is the beginning of 
 that Order which is " Heaven's first law." 
 
 QcTESTlONS. — 1. What does the story of the Prussian points- 
 man show ? In what difficulty was the pointsman placed ? 2. 
 What did he do ? What did the boy do ! What was the 
 result? 3. What should children remember when asked to 
 do what is unpleasant to them? 4. What would happen in 
 n house in which no rules were observed ? 5. What would the 
 effect of this be ? VVhy are children happier if obliged to obey 
 rules ? 6. Who have to obey besides children ? Of what is the 
 obedience of a child the beginning ? 
 
 VIII. -THE MORNING OP LIFE. 
 "In the morning sow thy seed." — Scclesiastes. 
 
 1. Children may, perhaps, say — " Since we do 
 not know enough to be very useful, it cannot 
 signify much how we spend our time." But, in 
 one sense, time is of more value to the child than 
 to the grown-up person. What would you think 
 of the carpenter or the builder who set to work 
 without having any of his tools ready ? Childhood 
 is the time for getting ready all our tools for future 
 work. 
 
 2. These tools are — ^good habits, and a good store 
 of ways and means. We sometimes hear people 
 say of some one who is no use in the world : " Poor 
 fellow ! he has not been used to work ; he was not 
 brought up to it. How can we expect him to take 
 
32 THE MORNING OF LIFE. 
 
 to it now ! " That means, that he got into such 
 habits o£ idleness when he was youngf, that he is 
 good for nothing now. 
 
 3. The worst of it is, that idleness does not often 
 mean sitting still in a corner and doing nothing. 
 Do nothing, and you will soon be in the way to do 
 worse than nothing. If you do not keep your 
 garden planted well with good plants, weeds will 
 soon fill up the space. If you do not fill your time 
 with good work, Idleness, the mother of mischief, 
 will soon kill time with her poison-drops of 
 selfishness. It is the idle child who is fretful and 
 exacting; it is the idle boy who torments little 
 animals ; who is a plague and a tyrant to those who 
 are less and weaker than himself ; who lets others 
 work for him, and greedily takes the good things 
 which he has done nothing to deserve. 
 
 4. The chief of the ways and means for future 
 work which most children have to acquire are, 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic ; and all these can 
 be best gained in early life. A child's mind is not 
 capable of understanding what an older mind can 
 understand, but it is as easily impressed as soft 
 wax, and can store up a number of useful facts and 
 figures even without understanding them. Thus 
 children can learn the multiplication-table much 
 more readily than most grown-up people, although 
 it may be years before they comprehend the mar- 
 vellous relations and properties of figures. Their 
 
THE MORNING OF LTFK. 33 
 
 memories can retain dates and facts in history and 
 geooraphy, which would slip away at once from an 
 older brain. Their little flexible fingers can learn 
 to guide a pen much more easily than the stiffer 
 joints of older scholars. 
 
 5. Indeed, it is such a difficult task for old people 
 to learn to read and write, that those who have not 
 been supplied with these tools of knowledge in 
 early life, are often among the most anxious that 
 their children should have them at any cost. But, 
 children, you must never forget, that though it is a 
 good thing to have a store of facts and figures in 
 your minds, it is a much better thing to know how 
 to use them. A parrot can learn a great many 
 words and tunes, but his little brain can make no 
 use of them ; he can do nothing cleverer than 
 repeat them over and over again, and screech, and 
 nibble his sugar, and twirl round on his perch to 
 the end of his days. In the same way, a child may 
 be able to read and write, and repeat whole pages 
 of his catechism or lesson books, without being any 
 the wiser. 
 
 6. There was a boy named Harry, who had a 
 beautiful paint-box given to him, which he was 
 very proud of, and fond of looking at. He used to 
 take all his paints out every day, lay them in a 
 row to count them, and then shut them all up safe 
 in his box again. He never thought of learning 
 how to paint pictures with them. After a time, 
 
34 THE MORNING OF LIFE. 
 
 Harry grew tired of counting his paints ; so his 
 box was left in the school-room cupboard till it 
 was covered with dust, and when Harry was grown 
 up, it was cleared off with a lot of play-things as 
 being of no farther use. 
 
 7. There was another little boy, named Philip, 
 who had no paint-box given to him ; but he longed 
 so much to be able to paint pictures, that he saved 
 up his half-pence to buy little pieces of gamboge, 
 and Indian ink, and blue and red and brown 
 paints, and as many paint-brushes as he could 
 afford ; and he kept them in a card-box of his own 
 making. He was never tired of trying to paint 
 trees and animals, and clouds and ships ; and 
 by-and-by it was found that he had taught himself 
 so much, and that he painted such clever pictures, 
 that he was fit to be brought up to be an artist. 
 
 8. Now, which of these two boys was the brighter 
 of the two — the one who had paints and never used 
 them, or the other who wished to use them even 
 before he had them ? So it is with all that children 
 learn in their early days : it is either thrown aside 
 as useless, like Harry's paint-box, or it is a help 
 and a benefit all through their lives. 
 
 Quj TIONS— 1. In what respect is time of more value to the 
 child than to the grown-up person ? 2. What are these tools ? 
 What is meant by saying that a person has not been used to 
 work? 3. To what does idleness ofien lead: to what odious 
 ways and habits? 4. What are the chief ways and means of 
 
THE MORNING OF LIFE, 35 
 
 future work! Why is childliooii the best time to acquire 
 them? 5. What is better than having a store of facts and 
 figures in the head ? To what is a child compared who can 
 merely repeat pages of his lesson-book ? What use did Harry 
 make of his fine paint-box ? Whiit did Philip accomplish with- 
 out a paint-box ? 8. How does the contrast apply to all that 
 children learn ? 
 
 IX.-THB MORNING- OF LIPB.-Oontlnued. 
 
 *' So noble work succeeds to noble thought, 
 So the child's play to earnest close is brought." — W. M, W. Call. 
 
 1. Childhood is the • best time to learn the 
 beginning of those arts and acquirements which 
 add to the pleasantness and beauty of life ; such 
 as music, drawing and painting. The written 
 language of music is as wonderful as the written 
 language of speech. By means of little dots, and 
 lines, and marks, the melodies and harmonies 
 which have been created in one mind are born 
 again in other minds. They can be read out of a 
 book, and either sung or played upon instruments 
 In the same way that a child learns to read, long 
 before he can know all the delight that books have 
 in store for him, so a child should learn to read 
 music, long before he can know what real music is, 
 and all its power and beauty. 
 
 2. It seems tedious work to learn the notes in a 
 book, and then make them speak on an instrument, 
 when we can only strum our scales or play our 
 little tunes ; but the child's practice must come 
 before the better performance, and is the stepping- 
 
36 THE MORNING OF LIFE. 
 
 stone to the sublime music of a Handel or the 
 beautiful music of a Mozart. 
 
 3. So also of painting : the child makes his first x 
 drawing-copies, and paints the pictures in his 
 scrap-book, years before he can understand the 
 merit of those glorious pictures by a Raphael or a 
 Claude which are the delight of men from age to 
 age. Perhaps not one in a thousand grows up to 
 be a great genius in any of the arts ; still, to be 
 able to create sweet sounds, to paint pleasing 
 pictures, to do good or beautiful workmanship of 
 any kind, even though we are not very clever, is 
 to be able to give much enjoyment to others, and to 
 make all our leisure hours happy hours. 
 
 4. Children, it is not by idle amusement all the 
 day long that you are made happy : it is by being 
 busily employed during the best hours of it in 
 what is useful to others, or in learning those things 
 which will make you still more useful when you 
 grow up. 
 
 5. Think of your days as caskets to hold 
 treasures. Many sweet and pleasant things are 
 put into them by those who love you : see that you 
 also put into them sweet and pleasant things. 
 Especially put in plenty of the seeds of knowledge 
 and usefulness, which shall some day grow into 
 strong and thriving plants. If so filled, your 
 caskets will range themselves in beautiful order in 
 the storehouse of your memory. If left empty. 
 
THE MORNING OF LIFE. 37 
 
 they are worth nothing but to be cast away upon 
 the refuse-heaps of the past. 
 
 TO-DAT. 
 
 ■" Lo ! here hath been dawning 
 Another blue day ; 
 Think, wilt thou let it 
 Slip useless away ? 
 
 " Out of Eternity 
 
 This new day is born, 
 Into Eternity 
 
 At night will return. 
 
 " Behold it aforetime 
 No eye ever did, ' 
 So soon it for ever 
 From all eyes is hid, 
 
 " Here hath been dawning 
 Another blue day ; 
 Think, wilt thou let it 
 Slip useless away ? " — Oailyle. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What arts should we begin to acquire in 
 childhood ? 2. What may the child's practice lead to ? 3. Why 
 sliould we learn these arts even though we are not clever ? 4. 
 How aie children really made liaHpy? 5. How should you 
 think of your days ? What should you specially put into them ! 
 What if they are left empty ! Repeat the verses. 
 
38 THE TEACHINGS OF CONSCIENCE — ^TRUTH. 
 
 X.-THB TEACHINGS OF OONSOIENCE- 
 TRUTH. 
 
 " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are just. . . . think on these things."— St. PauL 
 
 1. When children are loving, obedient, and 
 industrious, and have kind, sensible parents and 
 teachers to guide them aright, they are happy 
 indeed, whether at home or at school. As they 
 grow older, they will begin to know for themselves 
 vfhai is right ; and the Conscience, or the wish to 
 do right will also grow up within them. 
 
 2. Parents gladly see the time coming when 
 their children will be able to guide themselves. 
 When their reason and conscience are strong 
 enough to do this, the blind obedience which asks 
 no questions will no longer be required. Father 
 and mother, sons and daughters, will consult and 
 act together as friends and companions ; and so 
 long as they remain in the same home,, they will all 
 help and work together on almost equal terms. 
 
 3. What is the first thing which Conscience tells 
 us, as it begins to dawn within us ? It tells us 
 that we must be truthful in all our words, and 
 honest and just in all our ways. 
 
 4. Without truth, there could be no trust in one 
 another. If we did not speak the truth to one 
 another, we might as well be alone in the world : 
 we could not work together, we could not help one 
 another. For what is the use of speech — of the 
 
THE TEACHINGS OP CONSCIENCE — TRUTH. 39 
 
 wonderful power of shaping our thoughts into 
 words ? Its use is this : that what we think, and 
 what we know, may not be shut up within 
 ourselves, but may be given out to others. 
 
 5. Language is the means by which one mind 
 flows into other minds. If we all had t8 find out 
 everything for themselves, what toilsome, up-hiU 
 work life would be ! What waste of time, labour, 
 and thought, if each had to begin at the beginning 
 for himself, and could learn Nothing from others ! 
 But now, through the gift of speech, the knowledge 
 which one has is given to others, and £ill have the 
 benefit of what each knows. 
 
 6. Suppose you had a clock in the house which 
 always told the wrong time. You would soon leave 
 off looking at it, and would trust to the church 
 clock, or a neighbour's clock, which told the time 
 truly. But suppose that all the clocks told the 
 wrong time, and that all told a different time, — for 
 "truth is one, but error is legion," — -would there 
 not be utter confusion among us all ? If it were 
 not for the great sun himself to correct all those 
 faithless clocks, there would soon be no order, no 
 punctuality, no engagements made, no appoint- 
 ments kept. 
 
 7. Much worse than false clocks is it when men 
 deceive one another ; for they have thousands of 
 things to tell of more importance than, What time 
 it is. Ages ago, the Psalmist said, " There shall no 
 
40 THE TEACHINGS OF CoNSClENCB — TRUTH. 
 
 deceitful person dwell in my house : he that telleth 
 lies shall not tary in my sight ; " and it is just as 
 true now as it was then, that no house can be a 
 home worth living in if truth does not dwell there ; 
 since truth is the source of all that is noble and 
 ^ood, and falsehood of all that is base and mean. 
 Why do we ever wish to deceive ? Sometimes 
 because we think we can gain something by false- 
 hood. But what we gain by falsehood is never of 
 so much value as what we lose by it. 
 
 8. A lady one day took her son, a boy twelve 
 years old, to one of the London railway stations, 
 because she was going to send him to school in the 
 country. She was a widow, and very poor, and 
 she had had great difficulty to procure money 
 enough to pay his fare. 
 
 9. " What a pity it is, Percy dear," said she, as 
 they walked along, "that your twelfth birthday 
 had not been to-morrow instead of yesterday; for 
 then you could have gone for half-price, and I 
 could have given you six shillings to take to school 
 with you. But now, since you are over twelve 
 instead of under, you will have to pay as a whole 
 passenger, and not as a half, and I cannot spare 
 you a single sixpence. 
 
 10. "Not a single sixpence to put in my new 
 purse ! O mother, what will the boys think of me 
 at school ! " The mother sighed a little, and would 
 willingly have stinted herself of comforts to put a 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CONSCIENCE — TRUTH. 41 
 
 few shillings into her boy's new purse, but she had 
 other children at home to provide for. When they 
 came to the ticket-office at the station, the clerk 
 said, as he looked at Percy, who was rather a little 
 boy for his age, " Half -fare, I suppose ? — six 
 shillings." 
 
 11. The lady hesitated a moment, and Percy 
 knew what was passing in her mind. One little 
 " yes," or no word at all, and she would have six 
 shillings to give her boy. But it was only for a 
 moment that she hesitated. " No," said she, " he is 
 over twelve," and as she gave the ticket to Percy, she 
 said with a smile, " There, my dear, there is a ticket 
 that tells the truth to put in your purse ; and that 
 is better than six shillings gained by telling a lie.'' 
 
 12. Percy kissed his mother fondly at parting, 
 and knew she was right ; but he did not find out 
 how very right she was till the guard came' to the 
 door of the carriage and asked to see the tickets. 
 How could Percy have looked that man in the face 
 if he had had a lying ticket to show ! But now he 
 was an honest passenger, and he could look the whole 
 world in the face. " All right," said the man, as he 
 looked at the ticket and banged the door. And 
 "All right" echoed Percy's heart; and when he 
 gave up his ticket at the end of the journey, he 
 felt quite proud of his empty purse. 
 
 13. Whenever afterwards he was tempted to be 
 untruthful, that honest " No " and sweet smile of 
 
42 THE TEACHINGS OF CONSCIENCE — TRUTH. 
 
 his mother came into his mind, and made it im- 
 possible for him to tell a lie. Many a lesson Percy 
 learned at school, but not one was of so much value 
 to him as the lesson he brought to school in his 
 empty purse. 
 
 14. Sometimes we are tempted to deceive because 
 there is somethinor we have done that we are 
 ashamed of, or that we are afraid of being 
 punished for. But a lie is much worse than most 
 things than we wish to hide. To be charged with 
 telling a lie is resented, even by school-boys, as the 
 grossest insult ; for it is felt to be the same as 
 saying, " You are a coward of the meanest kind." 
 The brave man scorns a lie ; the upright man needs 
 no lie ; the loving and the good would never by a 
 lie be faithless to the trust which others have in 
 them. 
 
 " Who are the happy and who are the free ? 
 You tell me and I will tell thee. 
 Those who have tongues that never lie. 
 Truth on the lip and truth in the eye ; 
 
 " Truth in the soul to friend or foe, 
 To all above and to all below. 
 These are the happy and these are the free : 
 So may it be with thee and me." 
 
 QCKSTIONS.— 1. ^Vhen are children happy indeed ? What 
 begins to grow up within them as they grow older ? 2. Why 
 will blind unquestioning obedience not to be required then 2 3. 
 What is the first thing that Conscience tells us ? 4. What could 
 there not be without truth ? What is the use of speech ? 5. 
 
THE TEACHINGS OP CONSCIEKCE — HONESTY ANt) JUSTICE. 43 
 
 Why would life be insufferably toilsome without language ? 6. 
 What would you do if you had a clock that always told the 
 wrong time ? What would happen if all the clocks kept the 
 wiong time ? 7. What is much worse than false clocks ? What 
 can no house be without truth ? 8. In what circumstances was 
 the widow who was sending her son to school ? 9. What did 
 she say was a pity ? Why ? 10. What did the clerk say at the 
 ticket-office? 11. What was she tempted to do ? What did she 
 say ? What did she say to htr son as she gave him his ticket ? 
 12. When did he find out how very right his mother was? 
 What was his feeling as he gave up his ticket ? 13. What did 
 he take to school in his empty purse ? 14. What are common 
 motives to deception ? Why is it deemed an insult to be charged 
 with telling a lie ? Who are the happy and free ? 
 
 XI.-THE TEACHINGS OP OONSCIENOB- 
 HONESTY AND JUSTICE. 
 
 " Let Honesty be as the breath of thy soul." 
 
 1. What else does Conscience tell us ? That we 
 must be honest and just in all our ways. Honesty 
 is the twin-sister of Truth. To be truthful, is to 
 be faithful in words ; to be honest, is to be faithful 
 in deeds. 
 
 2. " That is not fair," you sometimes hear one 
 child say to another. What does " not fair " 
 mean ? It means that one of them has taken some- 
 thing which belongs to another. It may be only a 
 small thing, — perhaps a place at table, or a turn in 
 a game, a book, or toy, or piece of cake, — but still 
 it was not honest to take it, and the children knew 
 it was wrong. The child who took it feels ashamed 
 or sullen ; the child from whom it was taken feels 
 
44 THE TEACHINGS OP CONSCIENCE — HONESTY AND JUSTICE. 
 
 angry ; and they are not so happy together as if 
 that unfair or dishonest little action had not been 
 done. 
 
 3. Wrong of any kind always brings wounded 
 feeling and disunion after it, and even little 
 children have need to be lionest. They each have 
 their own property in their books and playthings :. 
 it is a great pleasure to lend or give away what is 
 their own, but they cannot have this pleasure if 
 one takes from another without leave. Unless 
 children can trust in one another's honesty, there 
 will be concealment, suspicion, falsehood, and ill- 
 will. Can home be happy if these evil things are 
 present there ? 
 
 4. Even though a child has no home, he may 
 make friends by his honesty, and need not be alone 
 in the world. There was once a, little boy who 
 was employed to sell fruit at a stall. He seemed 
 to have no father or mother ; at any rate, he did 
 not know who or where they were. He slept under 
 the arches of a bridge, or in any other covered 
 place he could find, and came early every morning 
 to mind the stall. One day a man bought three 
 pennyworth of apples at his stall, and by mistake 
 gave a fourpenny instead of a threepenny piece to 
 pay for them. '\ You have given me a penny too 
 much," said the little boy, as he returned him a 
 penny. "That's an honest little fellow," thought 
 the man ; " I will buy my apples of him again." 
 
THE TEACHtPGS OF CONSCIENCE — HONESTY AND JUSTICE. 45 
 
 5. Another day, a woman came to buy plums. 
 " You give me better measure," said she, " than 
 they do at the stall opposite." — " I give you just a 
 pound," said the boy, as he weighed the plums over 
 again, and showed her that the balances were even. 
 — "Then they must cheat me at the stall over 
 there ; and I will always come to you for my 
 fruit," said the woman, and she nodded and smiled 
 to him. 
 
 6. So, by his honesty the boy attracted customers 
 to his stall, and his master was pleased, and his 
 customers were all friendly to him ; and one of 
 them got him a better situation, in a shop, where 
 he had comfortable meals and a bed to lie on. He 
 was always trusted to go on errands, and to receive 
 money for his master at the shop, because he was 
 known to be honest. When he grew up to be a 
 man, he was able to earn an honest livelihood for 
 himself; and at last he had a home of his own, 
 with wife and children who loved him, and friends 
 who respected him. 
 
 7. But to be honest means a great deal more 
 than never to take anything which belongs to 
 another. Look in the dictionary, and you will find 
 that honesty and honour have at their root the 
 same meaning : they both mean to be just and true. 
 So that the real " Right Honourables " in the world 
 are those who are just and true. When a man 
 says, "On my honour as a gentleman," he means' 
 
•16 THE TEACHINGS OP CONSCIEKCE — HONESTY AND JUSTICE. 
 
 " You may trust me that I will do nothing that 
 is dishonest." When a man says, " On my word as 
 an Englishman," he means, "My word is to be 
 trusted, for an Englishman scorns to tell a lie." 
 
 8. The poor man who scorns to take a penny 
 that does not belong to him, or to do anything that 
 is false or mean, is at heart a true gentleman, how- 
 ever rough his siieech or shabby his clothes may be. 
 
 " Whatever j-ou are, be brave boys ! 
 The liar's a coward and slavt boys ; 
 
 Though clever at ruses 
 
 And sharp at excuses, 
 He's a sneaking and pitiful knave, boys ! 
 
 " Whatever you are, be frank, boys 1 
 'Tis better than money and rank, boys ; 
 Still cleave to the right. 
 Be lovers of light. 
 Be open, above-board, and frank, boys ! 
 
 " Whatever you are, be kind, boys ! 
 Be gentle in manners and mind, boys ; 
 
 The man gentle in mien, 
 
 Words, and temper, I ween. 
 Is the gentleman, truly refined, boys ! 
 
 » ! 
 
 >! 
 
 " But, whatever you are, be true, boys ! 
 Be visible through and through, boys ; 
 Leave to others the shamming. 
 The "greening" and "cramming," 
 In fun and in earnest, be true, boys ! " 
 
 — Henry Downton. 
 An honest nature so lifts us above all that is 
 mean and miserable in the world, that we all come 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CONSCIENCE — HONESTY AND JUSTICE. 4 7 
 
 to feel, sooner or later, the truth of that great 
 saying of the poet Pope, — 
 
 "An honest man's the noblest work of God." 
 
 9. What, then, are those feelings and duties 
 which unite us in our homes, making us happy 
 together, — helps, companions, and friends to one 
 another, — and which prepare us for being useful 
 and happy in the great world of mankind ? They 
 are love, obedience, industry, truth, and honesty. 
 
 10. Still, in some homes where all these good 
 angels preside, there is a something wanting; and 
 the want of that something deprives life of much 
 of its sweetness. In the next lesson we shall see 
 what that something is. 
 
 QoESTioNS. — 1. What else does conscience tell us? How are 
 honesty and truth related? 2. What does "not fair" mean? 
 What is the consequence of unfairness ? 3. What does wrong of 
 any kind always bring ? 4. How did the poor boy of the fruit 
 stall show his honesty ? What did the man resolve to do ? 5. 
 What did the woman who bought the plums say ? 6. VVhat did 
 the boy gain by his honesty ? 7. Who are the real " Right 
 Uonourables " in the world ? 8. When is a poor man a true 
 gentleman ? Bepeat the verses. What does the poet Pope say 
 of an honest man ? 9. What are the feelings and duties that 
 make life happy and useful ? Is that all that is necessary ? 
 
48 REVERENCE. 
 
 XII.-REVBRBNOE. 
 
 " Let knowledge grow from more to more, 
 But more of reverence in us dwell." — Tennyson. 
 
 1. Have you ever heard the wheels of a machine 
 creak and grate harshly as they turned on their 
 axles ? The machine may be in good order, and 
 may do its work well, hut the wheels need a little 
 oil to make them turn smoothly. So you may see 
 people living together who are good and honest, 
 and mindful of their work and duties, but whose 
 manners and speech are so rough and rude that 
 they are constantly jarring and chafing one another. 
 They need the oil of courtesy and respect to make 
 their life together smooth and sweet and pleasant. 
 It may seem a small offence to be rude, especially 
 in a child ; but a gnat is a small thing, and yet it 
 may cause much irritation. 
 
 2. Sometimes we see a child who does not 
 answer when he is spoken to, or who turns his 
 back upon us instead of listening ; who yawns in 
 our face, or whistles while we are engaged in some 
 quiet study ; who pushes past us in the street, or 
 does not step aside to let others pass ; who slams 
 doors ; who eats his meals without helping to serve 
 others ; who stands staring at a friend or guest 
 instead of meeting him pleasantly and replying to 
 his greeting; who contradicts and denies flatly 
 what others say, from habit, and not because he 
 knows better than they do. All these ugly ways 
 
REVERENCE. 49 
 
 cause irritation and annoyance to others ; and if 
 they become habits, they will sour the disposition 
 and the inner feelings will become as rough and 
 rude as the outward manners. 
 
 3. Rude behaviour is called repulsive ; that 
 means, it drives away : kind and courteous 
 behaviour is called attractive ; that means, it 
 draws towards. Thus, like all other things which 
 are ugly and wrong in our conduct, rudeness 
 separates us from our fellow-creatures, and tends 
 to make us alone in the world ; while, like all 
 other things lovely and right, courtesy unites us 
 with others. Therefore, one of the great teachers, 
 who taught men to love one another, and to be 
 true and honest, said also, " Be courteous." 
 
 4. Rudeness and disrespect are wrong towards 
 anybody, but rudeness from a child to a parent is 
 odious. " Honour thy father and thy mother " is 
 called " The first commandment with promise ; " 
 and this looking up to, and honouring those who 
 are wiser and better than ourselves, has the promise 
 in it of all that is most worthy and lovely in after- 
 life. However clever a child may be, he cannot 
 make himself as old as his parents : his little mind 
 cannot be filled with that knowledge which comes 
 only from years and experience ; but the more that 
 little mind grows, the more it respects the larger 
 minds of others. 
 
 5. Do not we all feel that we have a right to be 
 
50 REVERENCE. 
 
 respected by others, if we have done nothing that 
 degrades us ? Does not even a little child feel 
 angry when he is treated with rudeness ? Even the 
 little dog or the cat, which sits at our feet, and loves 
 to be with us, is sorely wounded if we push it aside 
 rudely, or speak to it with harshness. For every- 
 thing that lives and feels is entitled to our kindness, 
 and in some way to our respect, either as our 
 fellow-creature, or as a beautiful and wonderful 
 existence^ whose being is a mystery beyond our 
 understanding ; and the true gentleman is he who 
 treats with gentleness all living things, — the more 
 weak they are, the more careful he is not to wound 
 them by roughness. 
 
 "For the strongest always are gentlest. 
 And the gentlest always the best. " 
 
 6. Who are the lowest and rudest both among 
 men and among children ? They who are too dull 
 and ignorant to see what is beautiful; they who 
 are too degraded to know what is great and good. 
 See the boy who clutches and crushes the butterfly 
 as it spreads its wings ; who stamps with his heavy 
 foot the life out of the merry, busy little insect, 
 which speeds along his path , who hurls a stone at 
 the tender bird as it warbles sweetly in the bush • 
 who plucks and scatters the delicate flowers as they 
 bend towards him on their graceful stems. He has 
 not soul enough to admire their beauty, he has not 
 sense to feel the marvel of their existence: he is 
 
RF.VEnENCE. 51 
 
 like the lowest savage, wlio cannot admire or 
 wonder at anj'thing. 
 
 7. See two men enter a magnifieent Imildjng. 
 Statues of great and good men of the past stand 
 around. The organ is pealing forth the grand 
 music of those who have left their spirits to exalt 
 and soothe our spirits in the harmony they created. 
 One of these two men enters with reverence. He 
 takes off his hat in sign of respect ; he sits down 
 quietly lest he should disturb others in their enjoy- 
 ment. The persons who are near him at once 
 welcome him as a kindred spirit whp helps them 
 to admire and enjoy by his syippathy, althoqgh 
 they may not know who he is. 
 
 8. The other man comes in hat pn head, hands in 
 his pockets. He stands loijnging about, or pushes 
 against others ; he talks or whispers so as to 
 disturb everyone who is listening to the music : he 
 is too dull and stupid to feel the beauty either of 
 the building or of the music, so he noisily walks 
 out before the performance is finished ; and every 
 one is glad to be rid of him, — his ignorance and 
 bad manners have made him a nuisance. The 
 knowledge and reverence of the first man make 
 him attractive : the ignorance and rudeness of the 
 other make him repulsive. 
 
 9. See, again, two children who are old enough 
 to think and feel about what they hear and read. 
 One of them does not think or feel at all. He 
 
52 REVERENCE. 
 
 gabbles over, like a parrot, words that tell of the 
 Christ who lived and died for love to mankind, but 
 he is glad when the Sunday lesson is over. He 
 learns how Columbus* sailed through unknown 
 seas to find a new world; but he is glad when the 
 school task is over. He reads how Sir Humphry 
 Davyt invented a safety lamp for the poor miners 
 but he quickly turns over to a more amusing page 
 of the book. He hears people talking of the death 
 of a noble physician, who lost his life in trying to 
 save poor hospital children from the effects of bad 
 drainage ; but he pays no attention, for what does 
 he Care about others, or for what happens to them! 
 
 10. The other child both thinks and feels. He 
 reads to himself of the Christ who tenderly felt for 
 the sins and sufferings of others, and his young 
 heart glows within him with love to that great 
 teacher and friend of all. He reads about 
 Columbus, and seems to sail with him over the 
 Atlantic billows in his brave launch into an 
 unknown hemisphere, and longs to stand bj' the 
 
 *Colu'mbus. — OhristopherCoIum-jEnglinh chemists and physicists, 
 bus, the discoverer of the NewiHe is best known as the inventor 
 World, was born at Genoa in 1455. of the "safety lamp" (1815). 
 
 The flame is enclosed in a wire 
 gauze case, cylindrical in shape. 
 The flame cannot pass through 
 the gauze ; and though the explo- 
 sive gas of the coal mine does 
 pnss through, it is consumed 
 harmlessly within the case. 
 
 He discovered San Salvador in 
 1492, and the mainland of South 
 America in 1498. He died at 
 Valladolid in Spain, poor and 
 neglected, in 1506. 
 
 f Davy. — Sir Humphry Davy 
 was one of the most famous of 
 
REVERENCli:. 53 
 
 side of the hero, to help him to cheer his men and 
 overcome his thousand perils and difficulties. He 
 cannot leave Sir Humphry and his lamp until lie 
 quite understands the clever contrivance by which 
 liglit is taken a safe prisoner down amonjif the 
 explosive gases of the dark pit. He can hardly 
 restrain his tears as he thinks of the noble young 
 physician losing his own valuable life frotip 
 inspecting the poisonous sewers of the hospital, 
 that he may save the lives of those little children 
 who lie ill in the hospital beds. 
 
 Wliich of these two children is likely to do what 
 is ofood and kind and noble when he himself 
 becomes a man ? 
 
 11. A gentle sympathy with the least of earth's 
 creatures ; an admiration for all the beautiful 
 works of man and of nature ; a reverence for 
 all who are good, wise, and noble, — are so 
 many steps upwards to that adoration of the 
 Giver of all goodness and the Source of all beauty 
 which we call Religion. Thus we see the truth of 
 the saying : " The first condition of human good- 
 ness is something to love ; the second, something to 
 reverence." 
 
 Questions. — 1. What is the oil that makes the wheels of life 
 run smoothly ? 2. Mention examples of childish rudeness. 
 What do they cause to others ? What do they cause in those 
 that practise them ? 3. How is rude behaviour described ? 
 And courteous behaviour ? Wherein does rudeness- resemble 
 other things that are ugly and wrong ? 4. Towards whom are 
 
54 SELF-RESPECT. 
 
 rudeness and disrespect especially odious? What is "The first 
 commandment with promise " ? 5. What entitles every one to 
 respect ? What entitles even the lower animals to kindness and 
 respect ? 6. Who are the lowest and rudest among men and 
 children ? Give examples of rude conduct among boys. 7, 8. 
 Contrast the conduct of the reverent and of the ignorant man 
 when visiting a fine building. What different effects do they 
 produce on their neighbours ? 9, 10. Why is it better to think 
 and feel about what we read than to gabble it o\ er like a parrot ? 
 Give instances of both kinds of reading. 11. To what are 
 sympathy, admiration, reverence, so many steps upward ? 
 What is the first condition of human goodness ? What is the 
 second ? 
 
 XIII.— SELF-RESPBOT. 
 
 *' To thine own self be true, 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be fetlse to anyone." — Shakespeare. 
 
 1. There is one person in the world, who per- 
 haps is not one of the wisest or the best, whom yet 
 we ought especially to be able to respect. That 
 person is our own self. Have you ever heard it 
 said to one who had done something wrong or 
 mean "yow ought to be ashamed of yourself!" and 
 has not this seemed to you like dividing a person 
 into two, and telling one half to be ashamed of the 
 other half ? 
 
 2. We are so divided into two. We have an 
 animal half, which is the lower part of our nature, 
 and which desires only to gratify our animal 
 appetites of eating, drinking, sleeping, and getting 
 for ourselves all the pleasure out of life that we 
 
SELF-RESPECT. 55 
 
 possibly can ; and we have a spiritual half, or 
 higher nature, which loves and cares for others, 
 which wishes above all things to be good, and to 
 do good. 
 
 3. Now, the lower nature is not bad in itself. 
 All animals must eat and drink, and satisfy their 
 bodily wants, and like to enjoy themselves ; and 
 so must we. But if we let this merely animal part 
 of us get the better of our higher part ; if we 
 love eating so much that we make ourselves into 
 gluttons ; if we love sleeping so much that we 
 make ourselves sluggards ; if we are so eager to 
 get everything that we like for ourselves, that we 
 are unkind, unjust, dishonest towards others ; — 
 then our higher nature is overcome by our lower 
 nature, and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. 
 
 4. Therefore it is an excellent thing so to be 
 guided along the right and upward path of life by 
 our conscience and our better feelings, that we 
 shall be in no danger of being dragged downwards 
 by our lower nature and our selfish desires. And 
 to do in all things as our conscience bids us, is to 
 have self-respect. 
 
 5. One day two boys were passing a shop in 
 which there were some tempting ripe pears exposed 
 for sale, and there was no one minding the shop at 
 the moment. " Why did not you take one of those 
 pears ? " said one boy to the other ; " there was- no 
 one there to see you do it." — "Yes," replied the 
 
56 SELF-RESPECT. 
 
 other boy, " there was some one there. I was 
 there myself, and I could not bear to see luyself do 
 such a thing.' The boy who said this was very 
 young and very poor ; but he had within him what 
 was better than all the wealth in the world. You 
 know who said, " What shall it profit a man if he 
 gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " 
 
 6. When a child who has done something wrong 
 says, " I don't care ; " it is the same as saying, " I 
 am foolish as well as wrong, and I don't wish to 
 be anything better.'' When we are sorry for 
 having done wrong, it is the same as saying, " We 
 are wiser now than we were then ; " and who need 
 be ashamed of growing wiser ? The " Don't Cares," 
 or those who have no self-respect, are a very large 
 and a very miserable family. Gaols are filled with 
 them ; public-houses are filled with them ; they 
 abound in work-houses, in homes where there is no 
 comfort and no decency, in by-places and haunts 
 of vice. 
 
 7. Do you think a man respects himself who, in 
 a cowardly, sneaking way, robs his neighbour of 
 his money or his goods ? Does that man respect 
 himself who stupefies his brain with strong drink, 
 and makes himself into a reeling drunkard and an 
 idiot ? Do those respect themselves who gain their 
 selfish ends by fraud, and all kinds of dishonesty ? 
 Do those respect themselves who do not keep their 
 bodies clean, or their dothes decent, who are dirty 
 
SELF-RESPECT. 57 
 
 and slatternly in their habits and in their homes ? 
 Tiie least among you will answer, " No indeed ; 
 such persons cannot respect themselves." 
 
 8. Dear children, you are too young at present 
 to know all the happiness which comes from being 
 at peace with ourselves, and from always thinking 
 and doing what conscience and the higher nature 
 approve. Many troubles and trials may await you 
 in the path of life which lies before you ; but be 
 good, and do good, and you need not fear. 
 
 9. "I have been young, and now am old," says 
 the Psalmist, " yet have I never seen the righteous 
 man forsaken, nor his seed begging brea'd." The 
 greatest poet* ever born in England writes of, — 
 
 " A peace above all earthly digaities, — 
 A still and quiet conscience. " 
 
 And all of us find, whatever may be our lot in 
 life, that to those who are upright, honest, and 
 good, there is a peace beyond what the world can 
 give or take away. 
 
 " He who walks in virtue's way 
 
 Firm and fearless, walketh surely ; 
 Diligent, while yet 'tis day, 
 
 On he speeds, and speeds securely. 
 Flowers of peace beneath hiin grow ; 
 
 Suns of pleasure brighten o'er him ; 
 Memory's joys behind him go ; 
 
 Hope's sweet angels fly before him. 
 
 * William Shakegpeare. Born 156t; died 1616 A.u. 
 
•58 SELF-RESPECT. 
 
 " Thus he moves from stage to stage, 
 
 Smiles of earth and Heaven attending ; 
 Softly sinkijif^ clown in age, 
 
 And at Ir.st to death descending. 
 Ci-adled in its quiet deep, 
 
 Caliii as summer's loveliest even. 
 He shall sleep the hallowed sleep — 
 Sleep that is o'erwatohed by Heaven." 
 
 — Bowring. 
 
 Questions. —1. What peison especially ought we to be able 
 to respect ? What does the expression, " You ought to be 
 ashamed of yourself," suggest ? 2. What are the two halves of 
 our nature ? What does each desire ? 3. Why is the lower 
 nature noi, necessarily bad ? When ought we to be ashamed of 
 ourselves? 4. What guides us along the upward path of life? 
 What lend to drag us downwards? What is it to have self- 
 respect? 5. What (lid the boy who was told to steal ppara reply 
 to his companion? 6. What does it mean when anyone says, 
 "I don't care"? What places are filled with the "Don't 
 Cares " ? 7. What persons cannot respect themselves ? 8. 
 VVhat enables us to overcome the tiials of life? 9. How does 
 the Fsalmict refer to the righteous ? What does Shakespeare 
 s ly about conscience ? 
 
59 
 
 PART II. 
 
 I.-THB FAMILY OF MANKIND. 
 
 *' But as He framed the whole the whole to bless, 
 on mutual wants built mutual happiness."— Pojpe. 
 
 1. If home were our dwelling-place from the 
 beginning to the end of life, and if all our duties 
 were made pleasant by the companionship of those 
 we love, our world would be an easy place to live 
 in. And yet it would not satisfy any of us. If 
 the walls of our house enclosed all for whom we 
 cared, and all the objects of interest we had in life, 
 even a happy home would be something like a 
 prison. For we belong not only to the small family 
 of father, mother, brothers, and sisters ; we belong 
 also to the much larger family of mankind. Let 
 us see how we are connected with the members of 
 this great family. 
 
 2. Most of us have neighbours, friends, relations, 
 or acquaintances, not very far distant, whose homes 
 are open to us, and for whose joys and sorrows we 
 care almost as much as for our own. The post 
 brings us letters from those who are miles and 
 miles away, and who may yet be as near to our 
 
60 THE FAMILY OF MANKIND. 
 
 hearts as those with whom we live. Thus, though 
 we may live at home, and seldom go beyond our 
 own village or town or county, our minds may be 
 closely linked with those who dwell in places we 
 have never seen. 
 
 3. No distance can hinder our thoughts from 
 travelling to those we love. 
 
 " When I think of my own native land, 
 In a moment I seem to be there,'' 
 
 said poor Selkirk in his desolate island. No 
 distance can hinder us from taking an interest in 
 the affairs of our fellow-creatures, even when 
 thousands of miles separate us ; and the very 
 necessities of life require that people should be 
 working for and thinking of one another from one 
 side of the world to the other. 
 
 4. How, for instance, do we procure our daily 
 food ? Only by thousands of people, all the world 
 over, busying themselves about it. The baker 
 supplies us with bread ; but countless people have 
 been at work before the bread could be ready for 
 us. First, the farmer sows the corn ; but he must 
 obtain his ploughshare and threshing machine, and 
 all other implements, from the iron-works, whera 
 thousands of men are employed in making iron- 
 ware ; and thousands more are employed in supply- 
 ing coal and other materials for the manufacture 
 The miller grinds the corn ; but his mill and all 
 his machinery have been made by builders, mill- 
 
THE FAMILY OB" MANKIND. 61 
 
 Wrights, and a variety of other workers. The 
 baker makes the bread ; but he depends for his 
 oven, and the means of heating it, and of making 
 up the flour into loaves, upon iron-workers and 
 ironmongers, on carpenters and builders, on coal 
 merchants, brewers, salt dealers, workmen employed 
 at waterworks, and multitudes of men who can 
 work well with their heads as well as with 
 their hands. 
 
 5. Perhaps j'ou will say. Why should there be all 
 this trouble to find us bread ? Could not we sow 
 the grain, and grind it, and make it up ourselves ? 
 Some of us might, if there were only a few people 
 in the country to be fed ; but since there are millions 
 of people who want bread, it must be supplied in 
 the cheapest and easiest way possible. And, strange 
 though it may seem, all that division of labour 
 among multitudes of people of different trades, and 
 all that vast machinery, make a loaf of bread much 
 cheaper for each of us than if each family made it 
 for themselves from the beginning. 
 
 6. If a loaf of bread costs all this labour, what 
 must be the cost of the sugar for your tea and 
 pudding, which has to be grown on the other side 
 of the world ? Before the sugar can be found in 
 the grocers' shops, the sugar-canes have to be 
 cultivated by the West Indian planters and their 
 troops of negros, manufactured into sugar in their 
 sugar-mills, shipped over the Atlantic, stored up by 
 
62 THE FAMILY OF MANKIND. 
 
 British merchants, and sold by them to the retail 
 grocers. Fancy all the men and machinery em- 
 ployed in warehouses, on wharves and ships, and 
 on plantations and in factories abroad, before your 
 sugar-basin can be filled for breakfast ! And so of 
 almost every article that we need for diet or for 
 clothing. If we were cut off from all help from 
 our fellow-creatures at home and abroad, we should 
 sink at once to the condition of naked savages. 
 
 7. The many things we need from a distance 
 in order to live in comfort, and the feelings of 
 sympathy and interest which unite us to those far 
 away, have led to those inventions by which 
 thoughts as well as people can be carried over land 
 and water. Roads, ships, railways, telegraphs, have 
 been made, so that we, our goods and merchandise, 
 our letters and messages, our books and newspapers, 
 may be carried in all directions — over land, over 
 seas, through mountains and forests, up in the air 
 and under ground — so that no distance and no 
 obstacle hinders men from finding one another, 
 and carrying on the affairs of life together. 
 
 Questions. — 1. To what large family do we all belong? 2. 
 How are we connected with this family ? 3. What can distance 
 not hinder ? What compel people to think of one another ? 4. 
 Show how this works in connection with bread. 5. What 
 advantage is there in this way of producing bread ? 6. Show 
 how division of labour works in the production of sugar. 
 Without this help from our fellow-creatures what should we be ? 
 7. To what has this dependence on people at a distance led ? 
 
THE FAMILY OF MANKIND. 63 
 
 II. -THE FAMILY OF MANKIND, -Continued. 
 
 " The thoughts of men are mdened with the process of the suns." — Tennyson, 
 
 1. If it were possible for you to see the whole o£ 
 our island from some very high place — say from a 
 balloon on a clear day — and if your eyes were keen 
 enough to take in at a glance what was going on, 
 you would see millions of people traversing the 
 country in all directions ; multitudes steaming along 
 on the railways, which spread all over the land like 
 a mighty net-work ; multitudes driving, riding, 
 and walking along the roads ; and multitudes 
 hurrying about and swarming like ants about the 
 large towns 
 
 2. If you were to watch where all those people 
 were going, you would find that some were going to 
 seek friends, or relations, or their own homes ; some 
 to seek those with whom they had business to do ; 
 some to join others at work in fields, or factories, 
 or workshops, or offices ; and that nearly all were 
 going to seek those with whom they were con- 
 nected by ties of affection, or duty, or interest, 
 or necessity. 
 
 3. And what else do those railways carry besides 
 people ? They carry millions of letters daily. There 
 is not a small house in the smallest village which 
 the postman does not find out, in order to leave a 
 letter now and then from some person far ofF^ 
 who cares very much about the people in that 
 small house. 
 
64 THE FAMILY OF MANKIND. 
 
 If you could look into all those letters, you 
 would find in thousands of them messages of love, 
 of kind remembrance, of best regards, of good 
 wishes ; in thousands of them business orders ; 
 heaps of them giving or asking for information, 
 giving or asking for help of some kind. Thus 
 from your balloon height you migjit see how we 
 are kept moving, and how at the same time we 
 are all bound together by invisible chains of affec- 
 tion and necessity. 
 
 5. Now, as the railways and roads, and' rivers 
 and canals of our island; form a great net-work of 
 lines connecting every part and corner of the land, 
 so all the railways, roads, and sea-tracks of the 
 civilised world form a net-work of connecting lines 
 on an immensely larger scale, by which people and 
 thoughts are perpetually going and circulating ; 
 and the stream never stops day or night, any more 
 than the vital fluid in our bodies stops circulating. 
 
 6. Is it not, then, easy to see how the good or 
 evil done in one place produces good or evil in 
 other places : how a useful invention or discovery 
 benefits the whole world ; how an industrious, 
 upright, peace-loving people in one country helps 
 all things to go well in other countries ; how even 
 the influence of one good man may be felt in the 
 remotest part of the earth ? 
 
 7. And do you not see, also, that to make all the 
 intercourse in the world go on well, it is necessary 
 
The family of mankind. 65 
 
 that people should be helpful and kindly to one 
 another ; that they should keep their promises and 
 keep their time ? If all those letters which con- 
 veyed loving thoughts to a distance brought no 
 loving words in return, there would be many an 
 aching heart. If all those letters asking for help 
 and information brought no replies, there would be 
 sad disappointment and trouble. If neither rail- 
 way, no ship, nor port could be depended on, 
 because no people could be found to work them 
 who were punctual or trustworthy, there would 
 soon be utter confusion, a stop to all regular 
 business and traffic, and loss of time, property, and 
 comfort to us all. 
 
 8. Snow-storms might stop our trains, sea-storms 
 might sink our ships, but if men could not feel for 
 one another, or trust one another, or work for one 
 another punctually and honestly, the means of life 
 and well-being would be stopped all the world 
 over, much more surely than wind and weather 
 could stop them. 
 
 9. Thus you see how true it is that we do not 
 belong to ourselves alone, or even to our family 
 and our friends ; we belong also to a much larger 
 family — the family of mankind. And we shall see 
 in the following chapters how the well being of 
 this great family depends on each of its members 
 obeying the Moral Laws, or those laws which make 
 us do and feel what is right. 
 
66 SOCIAL DUTY. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What might be seen in a balloon -view of ths 
 island ? 2. What are the different ties that lead poople thus to 
 move about ? What besides people do railways carry ? 4. How 
 do these letters bind people together ? 5. Of what is oar island 
 an example on a small scale ? 6. What follows, as a consequence 
 of this constant and wide intercourse? 7. What is necessary, 
 that this interfcourse may go on well ? What would cause utter 
 confusion and universal discomfort ? 8. What would happen if 
 men could not trust one another ? 9. To what does every one 
 thus belong? On what does the well-being of this family depend ? 
 
 III.-SOCIAL DUTY. 
 
 " Trust the soul that dwells in every soul ; 
 Into one brave friendship let menenter : 
 All the stars and planets, as they ro 1, 
 Find in one great sun their common centre.' 
 
 W. M. W. Call." 
 
 1. That home is the happiest where all do their 
 duty, and all love one another. The same is true 
 of the great home of the world. 
 
 But can we love all mankind ? No ; not in the 
 same way that we love those who are very near 
 and very dear to us. But we can feel sympathy 
 and good-will to them all. If there is a famine in 
 India or in Asia, we hasten to send relief to the 
 poor starved natives. If there are great floods in 
 France or a destructive lire in America, we send 
 money to help the sufferers. If there is a war in 
 Europe, we send nurses and assistance to the 
 wounded ; and the poor and wretched in our own 
 country we try to aid in a thousand ways^ 
 * "Golden Histories." — Smith, SlderanM f!n. 
 
SOCIAL DUTY. 67 
 
 2. Better than all that, we try to promote 
 industry, commerce, education, and all that tends 
 to the well-being of others all the world over. 
 And thus we show our fellow-feeling or sympathy 
 with our fellow-creatures, without even knowing 
 them. Those feelings and duties which unite us 
 all together as a society, are called social feelings 
 and duties. Society (from socius, a companion), 
 means a number of persons bound together from 
 having the same wants and the same interests ; 
 and in its widest sense it means the whole civilised 
 body of mankind. It includes all our relations and 
 friends and companiops, our countrymen, and all 
 those in all parts of the world who have similar 
 faculties, feelings, and wants. To be social is to 
 have friendly feelings towards everybody ; to like 
 better to live with others than to live alone; to 
 desire to help others, to work with others, and to 
 make all as happy as we can. 
 
 3. Let us now see how the same habits and 
 feelings which make us happy and useful as 
 children at home, will make us happy and useful 
 in the great world of society. 
 
 We found that one of the very best habits to begin 
 the day with is Industry, or the habit of doing 
 something useful. Now, every one in the world 
 has some work to do in it; and therefore one of 
 the best dispositions we can carry with us through 
 the whole of our lives is to like work for its own 
 
 E 
 
68 SOCIAL DUTY. 
 
 sake, and to like that work the most which is 
 useful to others as well as to ourselves. 
 
 4. " Idleness," says Dr. Johnson,* " is the Dead 
 Sea which swallows up all virtue, and is the self- 
 made sepulchre of a living man." But can every- 
 body in the world escape this living death, and find 
 enough to do ? Yes ; because our wants are so 
 many, and of so many diiferent kinds, that in order 
 to satisfy them all, there is constant work for all 
 who can and will work. 
 
 5. Animals, which have few faculties and few 
 wants, do the same kind of work over and over 
 again ; and although they always do it admirably, 
 they can hardly be said to invent anything new, 
 or to make any change or progress. The beavers 
 built the same kind of mud houses for themselves 
 thousands of years ago as they do now, the birds 
 built the same kinds of nests, the spiders wove the 
 same kinds of wonderful webs ; and they never 
 learn to do anything more. They only want food 
 and homes for themselves and their little ones ; 
 and what more need they learn ? 
 
 6. There are some races of men who live in a 
 wild state, who seem little more capable of learning 
 anyihing fresh, or of improving their condition, 
 than the animals. Such people are called savages ; 
 
 * Dr. Johnson, born at Lichfield 1709 ; died 178*. He is well 
 known for his Dictionary of the English Language, and his Ziivea of 
 the Host Eminent English Poets, 
 
SOCIAL DUTY. 69 
 
 which originally meant wild, or, " belonging to the 
 woods." Some o£ the lowest of these races are 
 found in Australia and South Africa, in the Malay 
 Peninsula, and among the hill tribes of India. 
 They all seem to live much the same kind of life ; 
 with no fixed habitations, and little or no clothing ; 
 eating wild fruits and roots, and any kind of 
 animal food, even reptiles and insects ; hunting 
 wild animals, and constantly plundering neigh- 
 bouring tribes. 
 
 7. It seems certain that no material improvement 
 or progress has been made by these races since the 
 earliest times, and that they live now just as their 
 ancestors lived thousands of years ago. One reason 
 of this is, that savages are naturally idle. They 
 are too idle to cultivate the ground ; hence they 
 have no regular supply of food for themselves, and 
 no means of keeping domestic animals, which might 
 serve them for food, or help them in their labour.* 
 They eat their food whenever they can find it or 
 catch it ; sometimes going without any for days 
 together, and then gorging themselves to excess 
 when they happen to have a good supply. 
 
 8. This want of regular feeding impairs their 
 bodily strength. A savage is seldom a match in 
 strength for a European ; and nothing can induce 
 
 * Sir Samuel Baker notes it as a curious fact that » negro has 
 never been known to tame a wild animal. A person, he saya, might 
 travel all over Africa and never see a wild animal trained or petted., 
 
70 SOCIAL DtJTY. 
 
 him to work as a civilised man works ; he will half 
 starve first. Most savages makes their women do 
 all the hard work. If a savage does work, it is at 
 something which needs little exertion, and which 
 he can take his time about. Thus, he spends a 
 whole month in making a single arrow ; he takes a 
 year to hollow out a bowl, and many years to drill 
 a hole through a stone. 
 
 9. Besides their idleness, there is another reason 
 why savages make no progress. They have very 
 little social feeling : they care only for themselves. 
 It is said of the natives of the Malay Peninsula, 
 that " every individual lives as if there were no 
 other person in the world but himself ; " and of the 
 wild men of Borneo, that they " do not associate 
 with each other," while their children separate as 
 soon as they are old enough to shift for themselves, 
 and, like the animals, never seem to care for one 
 another afterwards. Since they will not work 
 together, each man has to build his own hut, find 
 his own food, and defend himself against wild 
 beasts : and with his punj' strength he can only 
 just keep himself alive ; he has no means of 
 improving his rude habitation or clothing or 
 implements. 
 
 10. You know the old proverb, "Jack of all 
 trades and master of none." We can never excel 
 in anything unless we give our special attention to 
 that one thing. If every one were obliged to be 
 
SOCIAL DUTY. 71 
 
 his own carpenter, tailor, baker, and builder, we 
 should not have time to grow clever at any one 
 of these occupations ; and a great advantage of 
 civilised life over savage life is this, that in civilised 
 nations there is division of labour, — that is, man- 
 kind divide themselves into distinct trades and 
 callings, such as bakers, weavers, builders, &c., &c. 
 
 11. Now, it is the interest of every man to do 
 the best in his trade or art that he possibly can, 
 since the more he improves it, the more profit he 
 makes by it. The whole country profits also by 
 goods being made better and cheaper, and by work 
 being done well ; and we shall see in the next 
 chapter that besides division of labour there are 
 two other things which, have helped us to make 
 progress, and to become civilised, namely, Property 
 and Exchange. 
 
 Questions. — 1. Where is there most happiness in the world ? 
 In what way can we love all mankind ? How may we show it ? 
 2. In what other ways may we show sympathy with our fellow- 
 creatures ? What are social feelings and duties ? What is 
 society in its widest sense ? What is it to be social ? 3. What 
 habits and feelings make us useful in the world of society ? 
 What is one of the best of these! 4. What does Dr. Johnson 
 say of idleness ? How can every one in the world find enough 
 to do ? 5. What is the case with animals and their work ? 
 d. What people are little better than the lower animals ! 7. In 
 what condition are these people compared with their ancestors ? 
 How do you account for that ? 8. What effect has irregular 
 feeding on savages ? Whom do savages make to work for them t 9. 
 
72 SOCIAT^ nEQUIREMENTS. 
 
 Mention another reason why savagea make no progress. What 
 is said of the Malays ? What of the people of Borneo 1 What 
 is the consequence ? 10. How only can we excel in anything ? 
 What proverb expresses this ? What is a great advantage of 
 civilised over savage life ? What is division of labour ? 11. 
 Why is the interest of every man to do the best he can in his 
 trade ? How does the whole country profit ? What two things 
 accompany the division of labour ? 
 
 IV. -SOCIAL REQUIREMENTS. 
 
 " Heaven forming each on other to depend, 
 A master, or a servant, or a friend, 
 Bids each on other for assistance call, 
 Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all."— Pope. 
 
 1. No social state can be possible unless life and 
 property are secure. Even amongst the lowest 
 races of men there exist rights of property, and 
 some kind of laws to protect those rights. Thus, 
 the savages in Australia, who live upon reptiles, 
 insects, roots, gum, fish, just as they can find them, 
 agree together to allot to each man a small portion 
 of land, in which he may search for food ; and if 
 any one poaches upon another man's land, he is 
 severely punished. For these savages soon found 
 out that if every one were allowed to ramble over 
 the whole territory for his food, there would be a 
 constant fight and scramble amongst them all, and 
 no one could possibly live in comfort. It was 
 therefore better for the whole tribe that each man 
 
SOCIAL REQUIREMENTS. 73 
 
 should have his own piece of land secured to hitn. 
 
 2. But when it requires many people to work 
 together to procure food and other necessaries, 
 then the land must be held in common, and the 
 produce divided. Thus, the Esquimaux live upon 
 large animals, such as seals, whales, bears, walruses, 
 which no man alone is strong enough to capture. 
 They, therefore, regard all these as common pro- 
 perty ; they portion out a certain district, which 
 shall be shared in common, and every creature 
 taken within that limit is divided among the 
 members of the tribe.* The same is the case with 
 the Indians, who live by hunting the wild animals 
 of the forest or prairie. The hunting-ground is 
 common property, and the prey is divided. In an 
 old Hindoo village the people all joined in culti- 
 vating the land, and at the end of the year divided 
 the fruits and harvest produce. 
 
 3. It is easy to see that the peace and comfort 
 of these people could only be secured by the fair 
 division of the joint-produce, and by each man 
 respecting the laws which had been made for the 
 good of all. 
 
 4. There could be no civilisation or progress 
 unless life and property were secure. To be civilised 
 means to live together as cultivated human beings ; 
 not mere eating, drinking, and sleeping, like the 
 lower animals and most of the savages, but living 
 
 * Letourneau'a "Sociology." 
 
74 SOCIAL REQUIREMENTS. 
 
 decently, doing useful work, improving our faculties, 
 and by knowledge, inventions, arts, science, afad 
 discoveries, making the world ever better and 
 happier. 
 
 6. But this could not be unless there were law 
 and order in our social state by which we may live 
 peaceful lives, and the produce of our labour, and 
 whatever rightly belongs to us, may be safe from 
 plunder. Do you think we should store up in our 
 houses supplies of food, or clothing, or money, and 
 other things, if anybody could walk in at any 
 minute and carry off what he chose, there being no 
 laws and no police to prevent him ? We might 
 fight for our own ; but the strong and the cunning 
 would get the better of the weak and the careless, 
 and no one would be secure of keeping his own. 
 A man would not spend his time in making loaves, 
 or watches, or articles of any kind, if his produc- 
 tions were not safe in his possession ; but as soon 
 as people can be sure of keeping what belongs to 
 them — that is, of possessing jn-operty — then all 
 kinds of productions and inventions and trades 
 begin to multiply and improve. 
 
 6. Property and Division of Labour lead to 
 another thing which is necessary to a civilised 
 state : that is, Exchange. No one would produce 
 more goods than he wanted for himself, if he were 
 not able to exchange them for snch things as he did 
 want. Thus, the baker would not load his shelves 
 
SOCIAL REQUIREMENTS. 75 
 
 with loaves if he could not exchange them for 
 meat, or grocery, or clothing, which other people 
 had to part with, and wished to exchange also. 
 In civilised countries this exchange is made by 
 means of money, but in countries where there is no 
 money the commodities themselves are exchanged. 
 Thus when we trade with the African negroes, we 
 give them beads and cotton handkerchiefs, and the 
 things they like best of our manufactures, in 
 exchange for elephant-tusks and gold-dust, and 
 what we value most of their native produce. , 
 
 7. Races of men who are intelligent and 
 industrious make rapid progress in civilisation. 
 They find out a thousand ways of making the 
 world a better place to live in. They learn the 
 secrets of nature, and discover the materials in all 
 her many kingdoms which they can use for their 
 own benefit. They dig in her mines for coal and 
 metals ; they turn her earths into houses, her 
 forests into ships; they tame her strong beasts, 
 and make them into useful servants ; they subdue 
 and control her powerful elements, fire, water, air, 
 and make them obedient slaves to work their will. 
 And so, helped by their mighty mother Nature, 
 men are always busy providing what men are 
 always wishing to have. 
 
 8. Let us see how, in this country, some of the 
 work is divided among us all. At the Census* last 
 
 * Census, a numbering of the people ; from Latin Oenseo, I count. 
 
76 
 
 SOCIAL REQUIREMENTS. 
 
 published, 1891, when all the inhabitants of the 
 British Isles were numbered by order of Govern- 
 ment, there were found to be more than 29,000,000 
 people living in England and Wales. Of these, 
 nearly 600,000 belonged to the professional class, 
 such as preachers, teachers, medical men, lawyers ; 
 more than 400,000 were commercial, such as 
 merchants and tradesmen ; about 6,000,000 were 
 manufacturers; and more than 1,300,000 were 
 agricultural, such as farmers and labourers. 
 
 9. Here is a list of some of the principal trades 
 and occupations among us in 189 1 : — 
 
 Publicans and Inn- 
 keepers 78,013 
 
 Bakers 84,158 
 
 Butchers and Meat 
 
 Sellers 98,921 
 
 Bricklayers 130,446 
 
 House-painters, Plumbers. 
 
 and Glaziers 170,702 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners 221,009 
 
 Blacksmiths 140,024 
 
 Tailors 208,720 
 
 s^hoemakers 248,789 
 
 Drapers 107,018 
 
 Shiit-makers and Needle 
 
 Women 55,096 
 
 Washerwomen 192,158 
 
 Milliners and Dress- 
 makers 420,431 
 
 GrooersandTea-dealers 181,856 
 Masons, Paviors and 
 
 Road Labourers ... 106,161 
 
 Domestic Servants ...1,444,694 
 Farm Labourers and 
 
 Servants 733,433 
 
 General Labourers 596,075 
 
 Farmers and Graziers 223,610 
 
 Gardeners 179,336 
 
 Messengers and Porters 179,089 
 
 Charwomen 104,808 
 
 English Soldiers and 
 
 Sailors 208,343 
 
 Coal Miners 517,110 
 
 Iron Workers 202,406 
 
 Cotton Workers 581,103 
 
 Woollen-cloth Makers 122,893 
 Silk Manufrcturers ... 49,632 
 
 Worsted Workers 110,111 
 
 Engine and Machine 
 
 Makers 145,921 
 
 M erchant Seamen 107,834 
 
 Commercial Clerks ... 247,229 
 Carmen and Draymen 170,2^6 
 
SOCIAL REQUIREMENTS. 77 
 
 10. Now, each one of all these millions of people 
 ha.« to be trained up to his special work. The 
 professional men have to go through a long course 
 of study, after gaining either at school or at home 
 what are called the tools of learning, — that is, 
 reading and writing, and some knowledge of 
 numbers, science, history, geography, &c. The 
 commercial men, the manufacturers, the artisans, 
 the farmers and labourers, and all the rest, have 
 each to go through an apprenticeship or training to 
 the trade or pursuit he is to follow. And he is a 
 happy man whose work is suited to his abilities or 
 tastes; who, while he is doing his duty in his 
 trade or occupation, is delighting his mind with 
 the pursuit of those things which most interest 
 him. 
 
 11. It is always best, therefore, to bring up 
 children to those occupations which suit their 
 natural tastes. It would be a great mistake to 
 bring up as a musician one who had no ear for 
 music ; as a mechanic, one who had no talent for 
 constructing ; as an artist, one who had no eye for 
 form or colour ; as a teacher, one who had a small 
 capacity and no love of knowledge; as a coal- 
 heaver or porter, one who had a weakly body. 
 But it is not always possible for us to be brought 
 up to the work we like best ; and it is far happier 
 and better for us to do work that we do not like, 
 than to do no work at all. 
 
78 HONEST WOKK. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What are the first social requirements? \Vhat 
 sort of property have savages in Australia ? 2. What sort the 
 Esquimaux ; the Red Indians ; the old Hindoos, and why ? 3. 
 How can peace be secured among these people? 4. What is 
 it to be civilised ? 5. What is it that causes productions and 
 inventions to multiply and improve ? 6. How does Exchange 
 foster production ? How is Exchange made in civilised 
 countries ? How in countries where theie is no money ? 7. 
 What are civilised races always finding out ? What keeps them 
 always busy ? 8. What was the population of England and 
 Wales in 1891 ? How many belonged to the professional class ? 
 How many were commercial ? How iminy agricultural ? Which 
 two occupations were followed by the largest number? 9. What 
 has every one to do before engaging in his work or profession ? 
 10. What is it best to bring children up to ? What makes 
 woik pleasant? Wliut is worse than having to work at what 
 we do not like ? 
 
 V.-HONEST WORK. 
 
 " He that feeds men serveth few ; 
 He sei-ves all, who dares he ttae."— Emerson. 
 
 1. Amongst the multitudes who do the work of 
 a country, some are trained to be masters ; that is, 
 besides working themselves, they have to learn how 
 to set others to work, and they have to provide the 
 means and the money to work with. A orreat many 
 more are trained to be workers under these 
 masters, to whom they give their labour and time 
 in return for wages. And a large class, such as the 
 professional classes, are trained to be workers on 
 their own account. But, however well each of 
 
HONEST WORK. 79 
 
 these masters or work-people or professional people 
 has been trained to do his work, however well he 
 may understand his business, there is one thing 
 which it is quite necessary for each to possess in 
 order to make it possible for all to work together 
 so as to do and to produce what we all require. 
 That one thing is Honesty. 
 
 2. Before a master hires a labourer, or a servant, 
 or a worker of any kind, the first question he asks 
 is, " Is he honest ? Is my property safe in his 
 hands ? Is he likely to rob me of my money or my 
 goods, which I have spent money and thought to 
 procure ? " The man who is hired says also to 
 himself, " Is this master an honest man ? Will he 
 give me fair wages for my work, and so not rob 
 me of my time and labour ? " 
 
 3. The buyer asks, " Is this tradesman an honest 
 dealer ? Will he give me right weight and measure, 
 and will his goods prove equal to the sample he 
 shows me ? " The seller asks, " Is this customer 
 honest ? Will he pay me punctually for my 
 goods ? " 
 
 4. The sick or the wounded anxiously inquires, 
 " Will my doctor prove honest with me ? will he 
 carefully examine my case, and be quite sure that 
 he understands it before he prescribes for me ? " 
 The physician or surgeon, on his side, has a right 
 to be sure that his patient will pay him honestly 
 for relieving his sufferings, before be gives his time 
 
80 HOSTEST WORK. 
 
 and skill to discover the best way of doing so. 
 
 5. Those who have to employ a lawyer, seek 
 especially an honest one, who will not waste their 
 money by prolonging their law-suits, or by 
 needlessly running up long bills for his own profit ; 
 and the lawyer, before he consents to act for his 
 client, makes sure that the clienlj can pay him 
 honestly for conducting his law affairs. 
 
 6. And so with respect to all the ways in which 
 people work together, or work for one another, it is 
 only so far as thej' are honest, and can be depended 
 on for keeping their promises, that the work can 
 be done. 
 
 7. Sir Samuel Baker, who went to Africa to put 
 an end to the slave-trade there, and to improve the 
 condition of the negroes by teaching them how to 
 trade with us, and exchange their elephant-tusks 
 for our manufactures, found that the lowest kind of 
 negroes were so given to lying and cheating, that it 
 was impossible to trade with them. They never 
 kept their word. They liked better to steal what 
 they wanted, than to pay for it ; to murder and 
 plunder the strangers who came among them, than 
 to enter into friendly relations with them. 
 
 8. Nothing, therefore, could be done to help them 
 out of their oppressed, degraded condition ; savages 
 they were, and savages they would remain. Some 
 of the natives, however, were kindly and honest, 
 and with these it was easy to establish a trading 
 
HONEST WORK. 81 
 
 connection. Our comforts and luxuries can be 
 bought by them in exchange for their ivory, and 
 fruits, and skins ; mutual help will create a mutual 
 kindly feeling, and their condition is likely to 
 improve more and more. 
 
 2. " True Self-love and Social are the same," says 
 the poet.* Every man who does his work well and 
 honestly, in a useful trade or profession, fulfils two 
 great social duties : he provides for himself and his 
 family, and he helps to provide for the comfort and 
 well-being of society. And is it not a beautiful 
 fact in the order of things under which we live, 
 that the man who does the very best for himself, 
 does the very best for the whole of society ? For 
 the very best a man can do for himself, is to keep 
 his body and mind healthy by temperance, cleanli- 
 ness, and the constant exercise of his best faculties ; 
 to live on friendly ternls with all about him ; and 
 to do his daily work well and honestly. 
 
 10. Now there is nothing in the whole world 
 better for a town or a country than that all the peo- ' 
 pie in it should so live and work- Perhaps not one 
 man in a thousand thinks about helping his country 
 or the world when he goes punctually to his work, 
 in field or factory, mine, shop, office, or school ; 
 but he does help his own country, and all other 
 countries, nevertheless, by doing so. Thus we see 
 how we can do our duty towards the large family 
 * "Essay on Man." 
 
82 HONEST WORK. 
 
 of mankind, by doing the duty that lies nearest 
 to us. 
 
 11. There are a great many people who have not 
 any very hard work to do, whose work is chiefly in 
 their own homes and in their own families ; but 
 everything we have to do is worth doing well, and 
 everything that is well done helps society in some 
 way or another. The mother who brings jip her 
 children well, and makes a happy home for them 
 all, is doing a great good to society ; for what can 
 be better for a country than to be filled with 
 happy homes, in which children are growing up to 
 be useful and good ? Every little child who tries 
 to be good and useful, who is a kind friend to the 
 dog or cat that lives with him, and to all the birds 
 and butterflies, and other innocent little animals 
 that roam about the gardens, fields, and trees, is 
 helping to make the world pleasanter and happier, 
 
 " The golden sun goes gently down 
 Behind the western mountain brown : 
 One last bright ray is quivering still, 
 A crimson line along the hill, 
 And colours with a rosy light 
 The clouds far up in heaven's blue height. 
 
 Go gently down, thou golden gleam ; 
 And as I watch thy fading beam, 
 So let me learn, like thee, to give 
 Pleasure and blessing while I live — 
 With kindly deed and smiling face, 
 A sunbeam in my lowly place." 
 
OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 83 
 
 Questions. — What is the one thing necessary for all workers 
 to possess ? 2. Show how this affects itiaster and servant. 3. 
 Tradesman and cnstomer. 4. Doctor and patient. 5. Lawyer 
 and client. 6. What is thus the condition of all work ? 7. 
 What did Sir Samuel Baker find in the case of the lowest 
 negroes ? Why is it impossible to trade with them ? 8. What 
 is the case with other negroes ? What is likely to follow ! 9. 
 What are the two great social duties of every man ? How are 
 these two duties connected ? 10. How do many people help 
 their country without knowing it? 11. What is said about 
 everything we have to do ? And about everything well done ? 
 How may even children help to make the world pleasanter and 
 happier t Repeat the verses. 
 
 VI.-OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 
 
 " Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.' 
 
 1. You will perhaps say, "Are there not many 
 who have no need to work at all, and do not we 
 call them gentlemen, and think them better and 
 more fortunate than those who have to work hard 
 all day long ? " 
 
 2. There is no better answer to this than 
 what a New Zealander said of Bishop Patteson : 
 " Gentleman-gentleman thought nothing that ought 
 to be done too mean for him. Pig-gentleman never 
 worked." This sensible savage knew by instinct 
 that the good bishop, who came to live among them 
 that he might teach them how to be happier and 
 better men, was a gentleman of the highest order, 
 although he had to clean his own hut, make his 
 
84 OUR DEBTS TO, Si9plETV. 
 
 ovvn bed, cook his own fopd, an,d mend his own 
 kettles. And he knew also quite well, that the 
 man who only ate and drank and made others 
 work for him, without doing them any gopd in 
 return, was only a pig-gentleman, however rich or 
 high in stat^p^, he mighti be. 
 
 3, In civilised countries the division of labour 
 makes it unnecessary for every man to " cook his, 
 own fo,9d and mend his own kettles," and one who, 
 has, money to pay others for doing those things 
 which they have been brought, up to do, does more 
 service to them and to society than if he did them 
 for himself. But we must not forget that if our 
 social state enables us to be fed and clothed and 
 to live in comfort and luxury by the labours of 
 oth^r^, we are bou^d tp make some goodi return 
 to society, for, oiir largpi^iSh^re of its benefits. 
 
 4. A, man may be ever sq.rich, and yet he may 
 be in, want even.p^ thfs necessaries of life, i£ there 
 are none to do the work of his household or of his 
 es^t^S. I|t{ is, a benefit tp his servants and: his 
 labour,ers. th^t th^t;e is this wprk for. them, to do, 
 by whiclj.they may m^ntain themselves; but the 
 rich map; al^p bene^ts by there being classes of 
 men sp si,tuftted thf^t they are obliged and willing 
 tojdp work, Wl^^i6l^:bfl C£|,Rnptidq, or does not wish to 
 do, He pays theni wages for their work, and thus, 
 as well as by buying wha,ti they produce, he helps 
 them to maintain jbh^m^^lyes and their families. 
 
Otft DEBTS TO SOCIETY". §5 
 
 5. But this is not all that the rich man owes 
 to the working-classes for feaving him at liTlrertj/ to' 
 enjoy life Without its drudgery. It is because' tie 
 poorer classes do the hard, manual work, that the 
 richer classes have the leisure and' means for better 
 education, for enlarging their minds with know- 
 ledge, and for cultivating their tastes and talents' 
 for science and art, — which many a poor nian 
 would be glad to d6, if he had the means and the 
 money. 
 
 6. Thus the rich have naturally more influence 
 and power than the poor, in consequence both of 
 their wealth and 6f their means of better educatiori 
 and knowledge. It is, therefore, the special duty 
 of the rich man to use his power and inflilfenb^ for 
 the good of those who have helped him to possess 
 this double advantage over them. 
 
 7. A true gentleman will treat all his servants 
 with the same kindness, cdurteisy, and consideration 
 with which he would treat those who are his equdls 
 in rank. He will see that their labour and confine- 
 ment are not more than are good for health of^ 
 body and mind. He will allow time for relaxation! 
 and harnlless pleasures ; ahd above all, he will give 
 them in himself an exantiple of upright conduct, 
 temperance, and refinement. 
 
 8. With regard to his out^door labourer^, arid all 
 those' by whose labour he profits, he will insurfe, as 
 far as he is able, that their condition is' a happy 
 
86 OUK DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 
 
 one ; that the poorest are not oppressed by those 
 placed just above them ; that the good and indus- 
 trious are encouraged, and better helped in misfor- 
 tune or sickness than the idle, intemperate, and 
 improvident, who have brought misfortune and 
 sickness upon themselves ; and that the children of 
 all have the means of good education. 
 
 9. The rich man owes more to society than the 
 poor man does. The larger his property, the more 
 indebted he is to the laws of the land for protecting 
 him in the possession of it; and the more is he 
 bound in return to advocate the framing of such 
 laws as are just and beneficial to all classes. 
 
 10. He owes more to society because of the 
 greater means he has of enjoying all the pleasures 
 which society can furnish ; — by reason of the ease 
 with which he can travel about, and the time and 
 money he has to spend on amusements. The more 
 is he bound to help in placing healthy amusements 
 and refining pursuits, by means of public lectures, 
 concerts, museums, libraries, out-door recreations, 
 and the like, within reach of even the poorest 
 members of society. 
 
 11. He owes more to the industries and trades 
 of his country, because he can purchase more of all 
 that is produced. The more is he bound to use 
 his scientific knowledge and attainments in aid 
 of all inventions and discoveries which make 
 goods cheaper and better for all classes. 
 
OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 87 
 
 12. But if the rich man does not spend his 
 leisure and his means in improving his own 
 mind and in doing good to others ; if low 
 pursuits, and gross, sensual pleasures, fill up his 
 existence, he is worse than dishonest : he does 
 not give to society the good that society has a 
 right to demand of him, and he injures his 
 fellow-creatures by setting them a bad example, 
 which is mischievous in proportion to the import- 
 ance of his social position. It is clear, then, that 
 the richer a man is, the more important is the work 
 he has to do. 
 
 Questions. — 1. Are there any who have no work to do ? 
 2. How did the New Zealander describe a trae gentleman ? 
 What did he call the rich idler ? 3. How in civilized countries ? 
 4. How may a rich man be in want ? How are the rich and 
 the poor mutually helpful t 5. How do the poor help the rich 
 besides working for thexn! 6. What is, therefore, the special 
 duty of the rich ? 7. How will n, true gentleman treat his 
 servants ? 8. Of what will he take care in regard to his out-door 
 labourers ? 9. Why does the rich man owe more to society than 
 the poor man? What is the former, therefore, bound to do? 
 10. In what way can the rich man repay society for the pleasure 
 and the ease it affords him ? 11. Why does he owe more to 
 industry and trade » How should he repay this ? 12. How may 
 a rich man neglect these duties? How does he at the same 
 time injure his fellow-creatures ? In what proportion is a man' 
 work more important ? 
 
88 OCR DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 
 
 VII.-OUR DBBTa TO SOCIETY.— Continued. 
 
 " The advantage to mankind of being able to trust one another, penetrates 
 into every crevice and cranny of human lite.— J. Stuart MiU. 
 
 1. The first social duty of every man is to 
 provide for himself and his family ; but if a 
 man is born to wealth, so that he and his family 
 are already provided for, so much the more is 
 he bound to exert himself for the large family 
 of mankind. And in all the work he does, he has 
 as much need to be honest and true as the man 
 who works only for his daily bread. 
 
 2. Whether a man sits on a throne or sits in 
 Parliament ; whether he commands armies or 
 governs colonies; whether his duty is on the 
 bench or at the bar, or in the professor's chair ; 
 whether he writes books or preaches sermons, 
 delivers lectures or makes speeches, — unless he can 
 be depended on for honesty of purpose and 
 faithfulness to his work, he is worse than nothing. 
 
 3. At the coronation of a king in England, 
 before the crown is placed on his head, he is 
 required by the Archbishop to take an oath 
 that he will be faithful and true to his subjects : 
 " Will you to your Power cause Law and Justice, 
 in Mercy, to be executed in all your Judgments ? " 
 The King answers, "I will." People are bound 
 to be loyal to their sovereign in proportion as he 
 keeps this vow. And the oath of allegiance on 
 their side, when required, is this : " I do sincerely 
 
OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 89 
 
 promise and swear that I will be faithful and 
 bear true allegiance to His Majesty." Wheti a 
 boy is apprenticed to any trade, he is botind by his 
 indentures to " learn his art, his master faithfully 
 to serve, his secrets keej), his lawful cohiUlands 
 everywhere gladly do, and in all things as a 
 faithful apprentice behave himself towal-ds his 
 master to the end of his term." And the master, 
 on his side, piromises, " by the best meaUs that he 
 can, to teach aiid ihstruct, or cause to be taught 
 and instructed, the said apprentice, during the 
 said term." ThiB same with regard to every office 
 that is filled, every profession that is followed, 
 from the king to the humblest apprentice-boy: 
 the first thing required is capacity tb do the work ; 
 the next thing is, honesty to do it well and 
 faithfully. 
 
 4. All of us, poor as well as rich, have our debt 
 of good feeling and useful work to pay to society. 
 We are all, for instance, the better fbr it when 
 the people who live near us are honest and kind, 
 clean and temperate ; and we ought all therefore to 
 return the benefit by being so ourselves. 
 
 5. The poorest man is protected from injury by 
 the laws of the land, and is sure of finding help 
 and sympathy if he deserves them. Does the 
 driimkard, who goes brawling and reeling about 
 the streets, and who makes his hom^ wretcitSff, 
 repay society, which p^o^'ideS him yritti safe aijd 
 
90 OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETT. 
 
 decent streets, and which secures to every man his 
 home and the comforts which he has earned ? 
 Does the man who brings up his children to be 
 thieves or beggars repay society for protecting him 
 and his children from robbery ? 
 
 6. There are a vast ^umber of people who are 
 neither rich nor poor, but who have, or can procure, 
 the comforts and luxuries of life with little or no 
 very hard labour. These people mostly belong 
 to what is called the middle class. Master- 
 manufacturers, and merchants, traders, and persons 
 of small property, belong to this class ; and they 
 are mostly an intelligent, educeited, peace-loving 
 class. 
 
 7. In England this class bears a larger proportion 
 to the rest of the population than in any other 
 country, because England, on the whole, is a 
 peace-loving nation, and has, therefore, the means 
 of improving and extending its manufactures, 
 commerce, education, and all the peaceful arts, 
 more than those nations which are fond of going to 
 war with their neighbours, and who glory in 
 extending their power arid territory rather than in 
 making their own people virtuous and happy. A 
 large middle class in a country is a sure sign of 
 high civilization, because this class can only exist 
 where there are security for property and ju3t 
 laws, and where people can pursue their peaceful 
 callings without fear of disturbance. 
 
OUR DEBTS TO SOCIETY. 91 
 
 8. In some nations there is a large military 
 class which drains the resources of a nation by 
 consuming food ind by being maintained at an 
 enormous cost, without producing anything useful 
 in return ; and the workers and producers are 
 liable to be called upon to join this class when war 
 breaks out. War, therefore, is the greatest possible 
 hindrance to the progress and well-being of a 
 country ; and a quarrelsome nation can upset the 
 peace of a whole continent, just as a quarrelsome 
 person can upset the peace of a whole family. 
 
 9. The middle class thus owes its very existence 
 to the fact that their country is so honest and 
 upright in its dealings with other nations that they 
 have no plea for going to war. It is, therefore, 
 the especial duty of all who belong to this class to 
 be upright and honest themselves. 
 
 And thus the great rule holds good for one 
 and all of us, that, as we have all received from 
 society, so must we all give. 
 
 " Now pray we for our country, 
 
 That England Ion? may be 
 The holy and the happy, 
 
 And the gloriously free ! 
 
 " Who blesaeth her is blessed ! 
 
 So peace be in her walls ; 
 And joy in all her palaces. 
 
 Her cottages and halls, — Ghristian Ballads, 
 
92 OUR DEBTS TO THE ANIMALS THAT SERVE US. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What is a man's first social duty ? What 
 increases men's obligation to work for the good of mankind? 
 2. What quilities are essential to every, man ? 3. Whit is a 
 king required to promise in his coronation oath ? What promise 
 does the oath of allegiance contiin ? What is the first thing 
 required in every one who fills a responsible office? What is the 
 second ? 4.i What debt do all, rich and poor alike, owe to 
 soeiety ? 5. Mention instances of men who do fiot repay society 
 for its protection ? 6. Who form the middle class ? What is 
 their general character ? 7. Why is this clsss a large one in 
 England ? Of whit is a large middle class in a country a sign ? 
 Why so? 8. What cliiss is Urge iii warlike niltions ? How do 
 they keep a naltoa poor ? What does war hinder ? 9. To what 
 does the middle class owe its existence ? What is, therefore, an 
 eepeuial duty of this class ? tlepeat the verses. 
 
 VIII.-OUR DEBTS TO THE ANIMALS THAT 
 SERVE US. 
 
 *' Spread the 6weet ties that bind the family, 
 O'er dear dumb souls that thrilled at man's cares", 
 And shared hi3 pains with patient he'pfulneas."— ffeorje Eliot. 
 
 1. There is a vast class of our fellow-creatures 
 that cannot be said to belong to society. Yet they 
 live among us ; and they supply us with so many 
 of the comforts and necessaries of life, that we 
 should hardly be able to exist without them. 
 Our debt of gratitude to them is therefore immense. 
 Who are those to whom we owe so much ? 
 
 2. There is the sitrong and willing friend who 
 drags our heavy loads aloflg the hard roads • 
 who patiently submits to have a bit put between 
 
OUR DEBTS TO THE ANIMALS THAT SERVE VS. 93 
 
 his "teeth, and harness oh his back, and to be 
 strapped to our carts and carriages and waggons, 
 that he may pull them for us wherever we wish ; 
 who carries us on his back to distances which our 
 weaker limbs could never enable us to reach. 
 
 3. He has learned to be docile, and obedient, and 
 industrious, although by nature he dislikes control; 
 and loves to roam at will over the plain or prairie ; 
 and he has been so useful to us in all ages, that 
 it is hard to say how men could have become 
 civilised and social beings at all without the help 
 of the noble Horse. 
 
 4. If men and women had had to do all the 
 work which the horse does for them, — to carry 
 their own burdens, to drag their own ploughs, — and 
 if they could only have gone to such places as 
 were within a walking distance, — they could hardly 
 have advanced from a savage state. They would 
 have been cut off from intercourse with those who 
 lived far away. Food, clothing, and building 
 materials could not have been transported overland 
 in any large quantities ; very few of their wants 
 would have been supplied, and very few of their 
 faculties exercised. 
 
 5. In these days we have railways and loco- 
 motives to do most of the carrying and pulling 
 work which horses used to do. But railways could 
 not have boen made without the help of horses ; 
 £Kjd railways would sot have been indented unless 
 
94 OUE DEBTS TO THE ANIMALS THAT SERVE US. 
 
 men had become clever in science ; and they could 
 not have made much progress in science if all their 
 strength and faculties had been used up in the 
 drudgery and heavy labour which the horse has 
 been made to do for them. 
 
 6. Stand still in a street of some busy town for 
 ten minutes, and count how many horses drawing 
 vehicles of all kinds, or with men on their backs, 
 pass by in that time, and you may form some idea 
 of the use of which horses are to us, and of the 
 dead stop that would come to business, traffic, and 
 pleasure of many kinds, if they were to refuse 
 to serve us. 
 
 7. It is the same with all the other beasts of 
 burden. The Ass, which is naturally as spirited 
 an animal as the horse, gives his strength to help 
 us, patiently and willingly, and is especially the 
 friend and helper of the poor man, because he 
 costs less, both to buy and to keep, than the horse. 
 Too often he receives blows instead of thanks, 
 and miserable fare and shelter instead of the 
 comforts he has earned so well ! His half-brother, 
 the sure-footed Mule, is equally necessary to rich 
 and poor in mountainous countries. 
 
 8. The Ox, which used to do all the heavy 
 fieldwork in olden times, still draws the plough 
 and the heavy waggon in Africa, Germany, and 
 Spain, and sometimes in our own country. The 
 Camel and the Elephant are in the East the great 
 
OUR DEBTS TO THE ANIMALS THAT SERVE US. 9S 
 
 helpers of men in carrying enormous loads over 
 trackless regions, where there are no roads and no 
 railways. 
 
 9. To all these animals we owe far more than 
 we can ever pay ; for we cannot pay them, as we 
 pay one another, in money, which can be laid by to 
 secure some years of leisure and enjoyment when 
 their working days are over ; we cannot repay 
 them by giving them treats and pleasures such as 
 we should like for ourselves, because what is 
 pleasure to us would not often be pleasure to them. 
 We can only repay them by giving them what we 
 know they need for health and comfort, and what 
 we know they enjoy. They need good food and 
 plenty of it, as we ourselves do ; they need shelter 
 at night, and rest enough to recruit their strength 
 after the day's toil. 
 
 10. The loads given them to draw or carry 
 should not be more than they can manage with 
 ease ; their harness should not gall or chafe them ; 
 the whip should never be used to flog or torture 
 them, but, by a light touch now and then, to arouse 
 their energy and keep them awake. We should 
 train them, as we train our children, with patience 
 and gentleness. We should make them understand 
 their work, and then they would seldom need the 
 whip to make them do it. 
 
 11. Horses and donkeys are mostly sociable and 
 aflectionate animals. They like to be patted and 
 
96 OUR DEBTS To THE AUIMALS THAT SE&VE tfS. 
 
 stroked and talked tOj and they are much more 
 valuable and useful when they have been brought 
 up with kindness, than when they have been 
 cruelly abusedj as they too often are. Is not the 
 man who flogs and ill-treats the friend who helps 
 him and toils for him one of the basest of animals ? 
 12. It is a miserable sight to see a man lashing 
 his poor half-starved donkey, who is doing his best 
 to drag a loaded cart which is too heavy for him. 
 It is just as miserable a sight to see ladies and 
 gentlemen sitting complacently in their comfortable 
 carriages, while the splendid horses which are 
 drawing them are tossing their heads, and foaming 
 at the mouth, from the pain and choking caused 
 by some horrible gag-bit or bearing-rein. Both the 
 donkey-driver, and those ladies and gentlemen, are 
 guilty of two of the most odious of vices, — cruelty 
 and ingratitude. 
 
 Questions. — Who are olir fellow-creatures that do not belong 
 to society? Why is our debt of gratitude to them immense? 
 2. What service does the horse render us ? 3. What has 
 he learned to be ? How is this contrary to his nature ? 
 4. What would have been the state of man if he had had to do 
 all that the horse does for him ? 5. What have we now, to do 
 much of the work of horses ? How are we indebted to horses 
 for them ? 6. How may we form some idea of the use of which 
 horses are to us ? What would happen were they to refuse to 
 serve us ? 7. Name other beasts of burden to which we are 
 indebted ? How is the ass often ill-requited ? 8. Where is the ox 
 still used as a beast of burden ? What animals are great helpers 
 of men in -the- East ? 9. In what ways can we not repay these 
 
OUR DUTV TO THE ANIMALS 97 
 
 animals? How can we repaijr them? 10. How oijglit we to 
 lighten their labours? How ought they to be trained? 
 11. What kind of animals are horses and donkeys ? Whpn are 
 they of most value to man ? 12. Of what two vices are ladies 
 and gentlemen, equally with donkey-drivers, often guilty? 
 How? 
 
 IX-OUR DUTIES TO THE ANIMALS THAT FEED 
 AND CLOTHE US, AND LIVE AMONGST US. 
 
 " I would not enter on my list of friends 
 
 . . . the man 
 Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm." — Cowper 
 
 1. By care and kindness we can in part repay 
 the animals that serve us, although we can never 
 give to them a tenth part of the help and 
 enjoyment which they give to us : but how can we 
 repay those animals which have to die that we may 
 feed on their flesh, and clothe oijrselves with their 
 skins or their wool ? 
 
 2. It is very sad that the cows and sheep which 
 live amongst us in our fields and sheds, which give 
 us their milk and their wool, which are always 
 gentle and friendly with us, which come up to 
 us to be fed, and like to see us and to hear our 
 voices, must one day be taken away from the green 
 pastures where they have so innocently enjoyed 
 their lives, and be led away to horrid places to be 
 slaughtered for our benefit, 
 
 3. How much we wish that this need not be, 
 as we watch the poor, patipijt, harmless creatures 
 driven along the streets to an early and a violent 
 
98 OUR DUTY fO tHE ANIMALS 
 
 death ! How much we would do to save them 
 from it, if it were right and possible to save them ! 
 4 Something we can do : we can try to make 
 their lives as happy, and their deaths as painless as 
 possible. We will not take the warm wool away 
 from the poor sheep in cold weather, when he needs 
 it for himself ; we will not kill animals for sport, 
 nor suffer any animal to be put to death by slow or 
 torturing means. " It is lawful to take the life of 
 animals for the food of man, but it is not lawful to 
 take their life by needless pain." 
 
 5. The animals which live with us — such as dogs 
 and cats — have just as much right to be treated 
 with kindness and made happy in their homes as 
 we ourselves have. Who could bear to injure 
 them ! They are our friends and companions. 
 The dog understands what we say to him, and is 
 only too glad to guard our house, carry our stick or 
 basket, and to be useful. He wags his tail with joy 
 when we fondle him, he follows us wherever we go, 
 and barks at everybody and everything that he 
 thinks would hurt us. 
 
 6. The cat understands a great deal of what goes 
 on in the house ; she purrs with pleasure when we 
 stroke her, and she rubs her soft head against us 
 to coax us for what she wants. The pretty little 
 kitten can plaj' at ball and hide-and-seek quite as 
 well as the little children, and she amuses us all 
 with her graceful gambols. 
 
THAT FEED AND CLOTHE US, AND LIVE AMONGST US. 99 
 
 7. These, and many other animals, wild as well 
 as tame, would all be friendly to us if we were 
 friendly to them. There is hot a little bird or 
 rabbit, or squirrel, or mouse, that would not bid us 
 welcome if we had not scared them by our brutal 
 instinct which has led us to injure and destroy, 
 rather than to find happiness in seeing the happi- 
 ness of all living things. 
 
 8. This brutal instinct too often shows itself in 
 boys of a low and rough nature, who cannot see 
 little creatures running or flying about without 
 hurling stones at them, and trying to kill them. 
 This they often do from thoughtlessness rather than 
 from cruelty. 
 
 ' 9. An Englishman staying at Rome, one day sat 
 at his window watching some little Italian boys 
 on a terrace below, who, whenever a bright little 
 green lizard darted across their path, or stayed for 
 a moment to bask in the sun, Smashed it with a 
 stone. When the Englishman saw several of these 
 beautiful, bright-eyed little creatures lying dead on 
 the pavement, he could bear it no longer. He went 
 down to the boys, and, covering one of the lizards 
 with his hand just as a great stone was being aimed 
 at it, he said, " Why should this lizard be killed ? 
 He has done no harm. Let him live." The boy with 
 the stone in his hand looked eagerly up into his face, 
 and seemed struck with a new idea. " Si, signor," 
 repeated he in his pretty native tongue, " he has 
 
100 GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 done no harm; let hitti Kve:" Immediafeiy the 
 other little boys chinaed in with great vivacity, 
 " The lizards have done no harm — let them live !" 
 and the lizards were all quite safe for that day at 
 ' least. 
 
 10. Whenever we see innocent creatures enjoying 
 themselves in their own way, let us say to our- 
 selves, " They are doing no harm ; let them live." 
 
 QnESTlOx>[S, — 1. To what other animals are we indebted besides 
 those that work fof us ! 2. Name some of the animals. What 
 is sad in their case ? 3. What would we do for them if we 
 could ; 4. What can we do for them ? How may we avoid 
 making their lives unhappy ? 5, 6. What animals are our friends 
 and companions in our homes ? Why should they be kindly 
 treated ? 7. How have we soared these and many others animals 
 and made them our enemies ? 8. In whom is this brutal instinct 
 frequently shown ? What is often their motive ? What did an 
 Englishman in Borne one day observe ? 9. What did he do ; 
 And say ? What did the boys reply ? 10. What should we say 
 to ourselves when we see innocent creatures enjoying them- 
 selves ? 
 
 X.-GOVEBNMBNT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 " Thou must be brave and good and wise, 
 Before thoU can'st be free."- W. M. CallA 
 
 1. " Why may not I do as I like ? " asks a child 
 who has a strong will of his own. You may do as 
 you like, if what you like to do does not prevent 
 others from doing as they like. But if you like to 
 
 t Reverberations. Tiubner and Co. 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 101 
 
 take more than your share of what all are wishing 
 to have, or i£ you take what does flot belong to you, 
 you deprive others of what iihey have a just right 
 to ; if you like to make a noise when all the others 
 wish to be quiet, you are preventing others from 
 doing what they wish to do undisturbed ; if you 
 like to be violent and passionate, so that the little 
 ones are not safe in your company, you are 
 interfering with the right of all of them to be 
 happy and unmolested. 
 
 2. If all the children in a family were good, and 
 wise, and unselfish, they might be trusted to have 
 their own way ; for then each would always do 
 what was right and kind for the others, as well as 
 for himself. But children are not always wise and 
 unselfish, and when each is suflfered to have his 
 own way, the strong ones generally get the better 
 of the weak ones, and liberty for one means 
 injustice to others. 
 
 3. Therefore there needs to be a ruler in the 
 family, to see that all have their fair share of 
 liberty to do as they please : and to make good 
 rules for all to obey, so that one child shall not 
 interfere with the rights and liberty of another. 
 By obedience to these rules, every child gains more 
 liberty than if each had his own way, and if his 
 own will met with constant opposition from the 
 wills of the others. 
 
 4. True liberty consists, then, not in each having 
 
102 GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 his or her own way, but in all having equal rights, 
 through obedience to laws which are just for all. 
 As a Parent rules the little family of his household, 
 so the Government rules the large family of the 
 nation; and that is a good government which 
 provides for the safety and liberty of all classes in 
 the state, just as he is a good parent who treats all 
 his children with equal kindness and justice. 
 
 5. If a parent favours one of his children more 
 than the rest, and spoils him by over-indulgence, 
 the other children resent the injustice, and jealousy 
 and strife ensue. If a government favours one 
 class more than another, making laws which benefit 
 some but which fall hardly on others, the injured 
 class resents the injustice, and discontent or even 
 revolution and civil war may be the consequence. 
 
 6. The use of government in all its forms, is to 
 enable mankind to live happily together ; and the 
 state of childhood, during which brothers and 
 sisters form a little community in one home, under 
 the government of their parents, prepares us for 
 becoming members of the large family of society. 
 
 7. In early times government was of this simple 
 family kind. The father of a family, or the 
 patriarch, naturally ruled over his own children ; 
 and when his children grew up and had families of 
 their own, both children and grandchildren still 
 continued to look up with respect to the aged head 
 of the family : they listened to his counsels, and 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 103 
 
 made him judge in their disputes. 
 
 As grandchildren multiplied, the patriarch, if he 
 lived long enough, would in time become the head 
 of a little society, instead of being merely the 
 father of a family ; and these small family com- 
 munities, each with its own patriarch, with their 
 tents and tame animals, would settle down upon 
 such spots of land as suited them best. Thus one 
 of the first forms of government was the patri- 
 archial ; and these small societies could only keep 
 themselves safe from the attacks of enemies and 
 beasts of prey, and the ravages of wind and 
 weather, by the closest union among themselves, in 
 obedience to their paternal guide. 
 
 When the patriarch died, the people would at 
 once feel the want of some one to direct them, to 
 decide their disputes, and to apportion the food 
 and work among them, and they would choose a 
 successor ; or perhaps the patriach would appoint a 
 successor before he died. Sometimes, on losing 
 their patriarch, one community would join others 
 to whom they were related by marriage, and thus 
 Would be formed a clan, or tribe, under one chief ; 
 and very soon neighbouring tribes would find out a 
 strong reason why it would be better for them to 
 unite their forces. 
 
 8. In the days when people did not understand 
 how to cultivate the ground, the piece of land upon 
 which they had settled would soon be exhausted of 
 
104 GOVKENMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 its pasture for the flocks, and of its plants, roots, 
 and wild animals for the food of the settlers. We 
 may judge how soon this would be the case, from 
 the fact that a nation of two or three hundred 
 North American savages would be half starved on 
 a piece of land which in Europe, with good culture, 
 would support as many thousands. 
 
 Our own country, if we were in a savage state, 
 would yield us little to live upon besides acorns, 
 nuts, blackberries, rabbits, game and iSsh, and a 
 few red deer in the north. Very soon would the 
 blackberry hedges be cleared, and the rabbits and 
 wild birds be snared and eaten, and then we should 
 have to wander to other places, in search of fresh 
 hedges, and fresh forests and hunting-grounds. 
 
 9. Thus you read that the tribes in old times 
 were constantly wandering about ; an(d, as might 
 have been expected, there was constant fighting 
 among these wanderii^g tribes for possession of the 
 best tracts of land. You remember how the 
 Israelites longed for the " land flowing with milk 
 and honey," — that is, where their cattle could find 
 pasture in the plains, and where the wild bees had 
 stored their sweet food abundantly in the hollows 
 of the rocks and forest trees — and how they had 
 to fight their way to the possession of it. 
 
 10. In these conflicts between tribe and tribe, 
 the strong would overcome the weak ; therefore 
 
 everal tribes >rouId fir^d it better to join together 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FEEEDOM. 105 
 
 under one brave leader, and the strongest man p^ 
 war was chosen to be the head of the people. 
 Thus military government succeeded to patriarchicU 
 government. 
 
 Questions. — 1. On wliat condition may we do bs «elike? 
 Give examples of how one's liking may mean annoyance to 
 others. 2. In what civsc might children be trusted to have their 
 own way ! What generally happens, however ? 3. What is 
 therefore, needed in a family ? What does every child gain 
 by obedience to rule ? 4. In what does true liberty 
 consist ? In what does the Government resemble a, parent ? 
 5. What gives rise to jealousy and strife in a family ! What 
 is the counterpart of this in a nation ? 6. What is the use of 
 government ? For what does the state of childhood prepare us ? 
 7. What was one of the earliest forms of government ? In what 
 did it originate ? How were such societies protected ? By whtt 
 was the death of a patriarch often followed ? 8. Give an 
 example of how rapidly the land on which such tribes settle 
 becomes exhausted ! What would be the case in England ? 9. 
 What were the tribes in olden times therefore compelled to do ? 
 To what did wandering lead ? 10. What would lead several 
 tribes to unite ? What form of government thence arose ? 
 
 XL^QOVERNMENT and FREEDOM.— Continued. 
 
 " The moral condition of the world depends upon three things :— Truth, 
 Justice, and Peace."— iiaSM HtUd. 
 
 1. The victorious tribes would rapidly increase 
 in numbers and in strength ; for the conquered 
 people would become their slaves or servants, ana 
 weaker tribes would constantly seek their alliance 
 for the sake of their protection and leadership. lu 
 course of time a people would be gathered together 
 
106 GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 numerous enough to occupy a large territory, and 
 strong enough to dwell in safety upon it. Thus 
 would be formed a nation.* Now the chief of a 
 nation was called a king, which means the father 
 of the people ;t but in early times the king was less 
 a father than a military chief, who could defend 
 his people from their enemies, and lead them forth 
 to battle. 
 
 2. Thus began monarchial government ; so called 
 from the word Monarch, which means one ivho rules 
 alone over a nation. These kings or monarchs 
 were either chosen by the people, in which case 
 the monarchy was elective, or the office descended 
 from father to son, in which case it was hereditary. 
 
 3. The history of the Hebrews in the Old 
 Testament shows the growth of a family into a 
 nation. First, there was the family of Israel, 
 descended from the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and 
 Jacob. After emigrating to Egypt in search of 
 food, the twelve sons of Israel and their children 
 multiplied into the twelve tribes, who seem to 
 have been ruled by "the elders of the people." 
 Then all the tribes, under Moses, their great 
 prophet and leader, passed over the desert of Sinai 
 in search of the Promised Land. They had to do 
 battle with Og, king of Bashan, and with Sihon, 
 king of Heshbon, before they could reach the 
 borders of Canaan. Then they crossed tlie Jordan, 
 * From ruUvs, bom upon the land. tFrom A. S. cyn, family, race. 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. lOT 
 
 under the leadership of their military chief 
 Joshua, and when they had spread themselves 
 over the land, and had become a numerous people, 
 they formed the Hebrew nation, and desired to be 
 governed by a king. 
 
 4 Now, all the tribes of Israel were at first 
 pastoral or shepherd tribes. When Pharaoh, the 
 king of Egypt, asked Joseph's brethren, " What 
 is your occupation ? " they said, " Thy servants are 
 shepherds, both we and also our fathers ; " and the 
 shepherd tribes of those days were usually of roving 
 habits, always seeking fresh, pasture-grounds, 
 and often plundering and even murdering their 
 neighbours and seizing their cattle and goods. 
 
 5. None of the children of Israel were likely to 
 take to these roving, predatory ways in Egypt, 
 because they were held in grievous bondage ; but 
 to check any tendency to lawless habits when they 
 were led forth to become a settled people in a land 
 of their own, those great and wise Commandments 
 were delivered to them by Moses, which were in all 
 countries the foundation of social order and well- 
 being. 
 
 6. First, life must be safe from violence, therefore 
 the commandment," Thou shalt do no murder." 
 Next, property must be secure, therefore the com- 
 mandment, " Thou shalt not steal." And lest any- 
 one should be tempted to steal, " Thou shalt not 
 covet," or even desire to have, what belongs to 
 
108 GOVERNMENT AND FEEEDOM. 
 
 another. Then, everyone must be sure of justice, 
 that the right-doer be not charged with doing 
 wrong, and that the wrong-doer should not go 
 unpunished ; hence the commandment, " Thou shalt 
 not bear false witness against thy neighbour. ' 
 
 7. Well might the Israelites preserve these 
 statutes, graven on stone, in the ark that was 
 covered with gold within and without, and 
 crowned by the mercy-seat ;* for nothing more 
 precious could be given to a people than these laws. 
 If all nations bad obeyed them, the history of 
 every country would not be the miserable history 
 that it often is of bloodshed and wrong. 
 
 8. Our own nation, as well as others,, appears, 
 like the Hebrew nation, to have gradually risen 
 from the patriarchial, pastoral and wandering 
 condition, to the more settled and civilised ; but 
 wherever men have lived in a social state they have 
 found out the great truth that there is no union or 
 happiness for each and for all, except as all keep 
 the great moral laws of Humanity, Truth, Justice, 
 and Honesty. 
 
 9. But even those nations that were wise enough 
 to make these great laws the basis of their own 
 government, have not always obeyed these laws in 
 their dealings with other nations. An ambitious 
 king would lead out his people to rob and murder 
 the people of other lands, and he would be extolled 
 
 * Exodus, vl'i'l'. XXV., V. 21. 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 109 
 
 as a great warrior and glorious hero. The injured 
 people would seek revenge, and the leader who 
 should retaliate, and fill the conqueror's land with 
 misery and bloodshed, was held to be a still more 
 glorious hero. Thus war led to war ; and whenever 
 the savage passion for warfare ruled a people, there 
 was no chance for improvements in those peaceful 
 arts which alone make a people prosperous and 
 happy. 
 
 10. Kead in the books of the prophets how 
 earnestly the really great and good men looked for 
 the blessings of peace : — " And they shall beat their 
 swords into plowshares, and their spears into prun- 
 ing-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against 
 nation, neither shall they learn war any more." — 
 " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
 mountain, saith the Lord." 
 
 11. Long after the Hebrew nation had been 
 " * made the prey of more powerful nations, a voice 
 
 of mercy issued from it which proclaimed, " On 
 earth peace, good-will toward men." 
 
 12. More and more we are paying heed to this 
 voice. Instead of regarding the people of other 
 lands as our natural enemies, we learn their 
 language, we travel among them, we find homes 
 and friends among them almost the same as in our 
 own country. And when all the governments of 
 the world shall really be fatherly governments, 
 seeking the good of all the members of their 
 
110 GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 families, and guided by the great principles of 
 humanity, justice and honesty, in all their dealings 
 with other nations, then the blessings of peace and 
 good-will will indeed descend upon the earth. 
 
 Questions.—!. How would the victorious tribes increase 
 What would be formed in course of time ? What is the chief of 
 a nation called ? What does the name mean ? What was the 
 king in early times rather than a father ? 2. What form of 
 government thus began ? What does " monarch " mean ? What 
 are the two kinds of monarchy ? 3. What history illustrates 
 the growth of a family into a nation ? Mention the several steps 
 in the history. 4. What were all the tiibes of Israel at first ? 
 What was the character of the early shepherd tribes ? 5. Why 
 wtre the Israelites not likely to take to predatory ways in 
 Egypt ? What rules of conduct were afterwards given them ? 
 6. Which commandment tends to preserve life ? Which tends 
 to secure property ? Which to secure justice ? 7. How did the 
 Israelites preserve these statutes ? What would have been the 
 result if all nations had obeyed them ? 8. What seems to have 
 been the origin of our own nation ? What is the only ground 
 of union and happiness ? 9. How have these laws been violated 
 by the nations that adopted them ? 10. What does Isaiah say of 
 the blessings of peace ? 11. What did the voice proclaim ? 
 12. How are the nations beinp more and more drawn together ? 
 When may peace and good-will really be looked for on earth ! 
 
 XII.-GOVERNMENT and FREBDOM.-Oontinued. 
 
 "Freedom is but the love of law." W.'M. W. Call.* 
 "Our freedom is subordinated to law, and th^n the law secures our freedom." 
 
 1. Peace is possible only where there is order, — 
 that is, obedience to rules ; and as a child is bound 
 to obey his parents — unless he is so unhappy as to 
 
 * " Golden C(.ui'sel, — jReverberatioim. Triibner and Co. 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. Ill 
 
 have had parents, who bid him do what his 
 conscience clearly tells him is wrong, — so every 
 one is bound to obey the laws of his country, unless 
 those laws are clearly so unjust that the good of all 
 requires that they should be resisted. 
 
 2. The rules which a sensible father makes for 
 his children are better than any which his children 
 could make for themselves ; because he has had 
 years of experience, and knows also what has been 
 found best by other fathers before him. In like 
 manner the laws of a civilised nation have been 
 gradually made through a long course of ages, 
 according to the experience of what has been found 
 best in each age for securing life, property, and 
 equal rights to alL 
 
 3. The whole body of laws by which we in this 
 country are governed, is called the British Consti- 
 tution, and the form of Government in our islands 
 is called a Constitutional Monarchy, because the 
 sovereign, as well as all the people, is bound to 
 respect the laws, and he must govern in accordance 
 to the rules of the Constitution. To secure that 
 the laws shall be just to all classes, the people them- 
 selves have a voice in framing them, through their 
 representatives or Members, who are chosen by the 
 people in all parts of the country to take part in 
 the great council, or Parliament, of the nation. 
 
112 GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 4. If the people clamour for a needless and 
 unjust war, the Government may be dragged into 
 endless trouble with foreign states, and the peace 
 of whole continents may be disturbed. If one class 
 of people wish taxes to be removed from those 
 articles of which they themselves use most, and put 
 upon articles which are necessary to another class, 
 they are asking a selfish and unjust tiling ; and if 
 the Government is weak enough to grant it, they 
 are allowed to injure the community through their 
 selfishness. If manufacturers wish to keep up a 
 high price for their , goods, by laws which shall 
 hinder foreigh goods of a better kind from being 
 sent into the country, they are selfishly trying to 
 make themselves rich by obliging their fellow- 
 countrymen to buy expensive, and, it may be, 
 inferior articles. 
 
 5. Thus we see again how a man helps his 
 country by being himself honest and unselfish. If, 
 when a man says, " I am a free-born Briton," he 
 means, " I will obey those good laws which make 
 my country a free country by giving equal rights 
 to all," he has reason to be proud of his boast. But 
 if he means " I will submit to no control, and will 
 only obey those which are good for myself," he is a 
 foolish braggart, who is likely enough to become a 
 slave to his own selfish will. 
 
 6. Less and less will mankind need govern- 
 ment as they become more humane, just, and honest 
 
GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 113 
 
 to their fellow creatures. As the wise father 
 relaxes his control over his growing son, and exacts 
 no more obedience when the son can guide well his 
 own conduct ; so a wise government will allow more 
 and more liberty to the people when they obey of 
 themselves the laws of right and justice. And 
 when the spirit of the great precept, " Do as you 
 would be done by," enters into all dealings with 
 others, the enormous expense of controlling and 
 punishing crime will be saved, and the revenues of 
 the State may then be applied to making people 
 happier. 
 
 7. So long as people need to be governed, it is 
 essential that the power which rules over them can 
 be relied on for its justice. To be jiist, is to give 
 to all their due, — that is, what rightly belotgs to 
 them; therefore when Justice is personated-^or 
 represented by' a human figure — she appears with 
 a bandage over her eyes, and a pair of scales in 
 her hand, in which she weighs out the right 
 measure to each without fear or favour. 
 
 8. Now, every man has a natural right to his 
 life and limbs, his property, and his liberty, so long 
 as he does not use his liberty to interfere with the 
 natural rights of others. A just government will 
 secure to every one these natural rights ; it will 
 protect those who cannot protect themselves ; 
 including in its care even the animals that do their 
 
114 GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM. 
 
 part in serving the community by working for us, 
 by supplying us with food and clothing, or by 
 living among us innocently and harmlessly. 
 
 9. A fatherly government will do more than 
 this : it will provide for the education of its large 
 family, so that all may obej' those moral and social 
 laws which secure the greatest amount of peace 
 and happiness to the whole community ; as the 
 great Hebrew lawgiver, more than three thousand 
 years ago, educated his people in kindness and 
 humanity, as well as in obedience to the laws : 
 " Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie 
 one to another ; " " Ye shall do no unrighteousness 
 in judgment ; " " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." 
 
 10. When those among you who are now boys 
 grow up to be men, you will perhaps have a voice 
 in the Legislature ; that is, you will "have a vote to 
 give to the man whom you would wish to represent 
 your town or your county 'in Parliament. Do not 
 let your choice fall on a man who promises only to 
 help you and the class to which you belong. Choose 
 him who will help to make laws which are good 
 for every class ; who, while he listens to those who 
 clamour for their " rights," never forgets that what 
 are called the " rights '' of one class of people may 
 increase the " wrongs " of others. 
 
PATRIOTISM. 115 
 
 " Such is the world's great harmony that springs 
 From order, "union, full consent of things, 
 
 . Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made 
 To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade ; 
 More powerful each as needful to the rest. 
 And in proportion as it blesses, blest. 
 Draw to one point, and to one centre bring 
 Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or kinE;." — Pope. 
 
 Questions. — 1. Where only is peace possible ? What is order? 
 When only may one refuse to obey the laws of his country ? 
 2. How have the laws of civilised nations been formed ? 3. What 
 is the form of government in this countiy ? Why is it so called ? 
 How have the people a voice in framing the laws ? 4. How may 
 the people exercise a bad influence ? How may selfishness be 
 shown by different classes ! 5. In what two senses may a man 
 boast of being " a free-born Briton ?" Which alone is worthy ? 
 
 6. When will mankind need government less ? What great 
 precept should be acted on ? What would the consequences be ? 
 
 7. Wliat is it essential that government should be? How is 
 justice personated ? 8. What will a just government secure to 
 every man ? 9. What besides this will a fatherly government 
 do ? How did the Hebrew law-giver educate his people ? 
 Mention some of his injunctions. 10. What rule should not 
 guide electors in choosing a Member of Parliament? What rule 
 should guide them ? 
 
 XIII.— PATRIOTISM. 
 
 " Breathes there the man with soul bo dead, 
 
 Who never to himself hath «aid,— 
 ' This is my own, my native land'?"— ScoM. 
 
 1. Love of country is almost as natural as love 
 of home ; indeed it is the same thing only stretched 
 wider. It means feeling most interest in those 
 places which we have of tenest seen or heard about ; 
 
116 l;A.Tftlpl;lsjil. 
 
 having most sympathy with those people who live 
 in the saipe land as ourselves, speak the same 
 language, and have the same history, laws, and 
 customs. 
 
 2. Many children think their own home the best 
 place in the world, just as many persons think 
 their own country the finest in the world, without 
 being able to give for jtheir preference a reason 
 which would satisfy any but themselves. 
 
 3. Sometimes you may hear a group of children 
 vaunting to one another the special merits of their 
 own homes. " Mine is the best," says one, " because 
 it stands in a street where we can see the people 
 a,nd ca,rriages go by, and hear the grinding organs 
 all day long." " Oh, mine is better than that," cries 
 another ; " for it is close to a wood, where nobody 
 goes but ourselves, and where we can watch the 
 squirrels run up the trees, and hear the wood- 
 pigeons coo-coo." "That's not so good as our 
 house," says a little bpy ip ^ sailor's jacket ; " for 
 it is so near the sea that we can see the ships sevil- 
 ing." " We have much better than the sea," sa^s 
 another in a very dirty pinafpre ; " we have a tub 
 in the back-yard where we can sail our own little 
 boats, and splash ourselves as much as we please." 
 
 4. " My father's house is the best of all," says a 
 little girl, " .because he has a balcony on it." " No, 
 it isn't," retorted a still smaller child, drawing her- 
 self uj) \vith great importance ; " my father's house 
 
PATRIOTISM. 117 
 
 is better than all of yours, because he h^^s a 
 mortgage on it!" She did not know what a 
 mortgage was, but having heard that her father 
 had one, she was quite sure it was a fine thing. 
 And she had as much reason for boasting as the 
 American had, who gloried in the superiority of 
 the United States, on account of the immense 
 increase of the National Debt. If an Englishman, 
 a Frenchman, a German, and a Greenlander each 
 tried to prove that his own country was superior 
 to all others, they would not succeed better than 
 those children who were so sure of the superiority 
 of their own homes. 
 
 5. There was once a poor Esquimaux whom 
 some American sailors found living in a little hut 
 made of ice on the Arctic coast. He kept himself 
 alive in that bitterly cold region by wrapping him- 
 self from head to foot in reindeer hide and seal- 
 skin. He had nothing to eat but whale-blubber 
 and seal-flesh. For weeks together the sky and 
 the earth were dark ; for the sun set when winter 
 approached, and did not rise again the next day, 
 nor the next ; and through the long night of many 
 weeks the Esquimaux had only his dim ,lamp of 
 whale oil to see by inside his ice-l)ut, a,nd the 
 aurora borealis, which lighted up the dark sky out- 
 side. When the sun rose again, and spring-time 
 came, there were no budding trees, nor grass, nor 
 flowers.-^-all was still icy cold, bare, and desolate. 
 
118 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 6. But the Esquimaux dearly loved his country, 
 and thought no place in the world could be so 
 pleasant. The sailors persuaded him to go with 
 them to their country in the far south, where the 
 sun rose every day, where there were green fields, 
 trees, flowers, and fruits, warmth, and sunshine, 
 and sweet showers, and pretty animals of all kinds. 
 But the Esquimaux- did not like the country at all ; 
 he saw no beauty in anything, and was very 
 unhappy there. So he begged to be taken back in 
 the next whaler that went to his own Arctic shore 
 again. As the ship sailed farther and farther 
 north the Esquimaux looked more and more cheer- 
 ful, and every morning he asked the sailors 
 earnestly, " Do you see the ice yet ? " and when at 
 last there was nothing but ice to be seen, and he 
 set his foot on his own dreary land, he was once 
 more a happy Esquimaux. 
 
 7. So you see that we may love our country just 
 for those things which make it a miserable place to 
 others, and that our patriotism does not in the 
 least prove that our country is really better than 
 others. It is easy to understand^ therefore, that 
 there may be two kinds of patriotism, — a true and 
 rational one, which does full justice to the merits of 
 other nations, and a one-sided patriotism, which is 
 merely a predilection in favour of what belongs 
 to ourselves. 
 
 S. A true patriot earnestly desires the w&lfare of 
 
Patriotism. 119 
 
 his own country. Many and many a true patriot 
 has died for his country's sake ; and in all times 
 this has been thought one of the noblest of deaths. 
 Because a true patriot loves his country, he is 
 quick to see her faults, and will do all that one 
 man can do to help her to mend them ; just as a 
 parent who cares much for his children grieves 
 more when they do wrong, and is more alive to 
 their defects, than the parent who cares little about 
 his children. 
 
 9. The true patriot sees just as clearly the 
 superior merits of other nations, and is anxious to 
 introduce into his country those foreign arts, 
 inventions, and customs which he thinks better 
 than his own. Therefore he would throw down all 
 barriers which hinder free communication and 
 trade between his own country and others. He 
 glories in his country, not for her size, nor for her 
 military power, but for the noble work she does, 
 and the means she has of making other nations 
 intelligent, good, and happy. 
 
 " Each nation hath its fatherland. 
 Yet are all nations one."— IT. U. W. Call. 
 
 10. True love for our own country, therefore, 
 does not prevent our feeling kindly towards other 
 countries, any more than love for the members of 
 our own family prevents our feeling kindly 
 towards our neighbours and countrymen. The 
 social love which begins at home, and which 
 
120 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 expands, as we grow up, into sympathy and 
 kindliness towards all whom we know, need not 
 stop short at the borders of our own native land. 
 It will seek and find brothers and sisters of the 
 human race in every part of the Earth. 
 
 "And peaceful ocean, with a glad caress, 
 Links to a thousand shores a thousand lands, 
 In thousand lands a thousand toils to bless." 
 
 - W. M. W. Call. 
 
 11. " The better citizen a man is of his native 
 town," said Prince Leopold, " the better will he be 
 of England, and the truest sons of England will be 
 the best citizens of the world." * 
 
 QnESTiONS. — 1. What is almost as natural as love of h'ome ? 
 What does love of country mean ? 2. What do many children 
 think of their own home? What do many persons think of their 
 own country ? What are they often unable to give for their 
 prefeience! 3,4. Give examples of the kind of reasons which 
 children give for preferring their own homes ! 5. What kind of 
 life did the Esquimaux referred to lead in his own country 1 
 6. What did the sailors persuade him to do ? What did he think 
 of the change ? What made him happy again? 7. What are 
 the two kinds of patriotism ? 8. What does the true patriot 
 desire ? What is he quick to see ? 9. What does urue love of 
 country not prevent? How far will true social love extend? 
 10. Wh»t did Prince Leopold say ? 
 
 ' Speech at Nottingham, July, 1881. 
 
THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. i21 
 
 XIV. -THE GOOD THA.T CONQUERS EVIL. 
 " Do justly, love mercy." 
 
 1. In a family of children one seldom finds that 
 all are equally able to do what is right at all times. 
 Some are more self-willed and selfish than others ; 
 some are weak in health, and that makes their 
 tempers fretful ; some are too young to know what 
 is right. All these are liable to do wrong, and to 
 cause mischief and trouble in the house ; but they 
 are not equally to blame for the wrong they do. 
 
 2. A little child about two years old was playing 
 with a ball in the nursery, when thump went the 
 ball against the window, and broke it. No one 
 thought of scolding that little child, much less of 
 punishing him. The nurse took all the blame upon 
 herself for not having been watchful enough to 
 prevent the mischief ; and she also took care that the 
 child should not have a hard ball to play with in 
 the nursery again. 
 
 3. A boy ten years old went into the street to 
 try his sling when people were passing. His father 
 reproved him for doing this, for the boy was old 
 enough to have kiiown how much danger there was 
 of the stone striking some of the passers-by. But 
 the boy was self-willed, and did not care about 
 other people. So he went again into the street 
 and jiractised with his sling ; and this time a stone 
 struck a young man in the eye who just at that 
 
122 THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 
 
 moment was turning the corner, and blinded the 
 eye for life. 
 
 4. Now, if the boy had been of a good disposition, 
 he would have been so wretched at the terrible 
 injury he had caused, that this would have been 
 sufficient punishment, and he might safely have 
 been forgiven. All his life long he would have 
 remembered that unfortunate young man, blinded 
 through his fault, and he might have been trusted 
 never again to run the risk of doing such a cruel 
 wrong. 
 
 5. Punishment in, that case would have been 
 needless ; it would have been adding evil to evil. 
 But this boy was selfish and careless, and his father 
 knew that he would soon he slinging stones just 
 the same as ever ; so he punished him severely — so 
 severely, that the boy was in no danger of for- 
 getting it, and for his own sake never dared to sling 
 stones in the street again. 
 
 6. Here you see that to inflict the pain of punish- 
 ment on the boy was to be just and kind to others, 
 because it saved them from a possible greater 
 injury ; and that to have forgiven that boy would 
 have been unjust and unkind to everybody, because it 
 would have led the boy to become still more careless 
 and mischievous, besides exposing others to harm. 
 
 7. There is another reason why the punishment 
 was right. If other mischievous boys had seen that 
 one might go " scot free " after such an offence as 
 
THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 123 
 
 that, thoy too might have been careless as to where 
 they played at slinging stones, and thus the whole 
 neighbourhood might have been plagued with the 
 nuisance. This little story shows us the true 
 nature and end of punishment. Punishment is not 
 revenge for a wrong that is done, and which cannot 
 be undone ; it is a penalty inflicted in order to pre- 
 vent the offender, and all others, from committing 
 such a wrong again. If the punishment is more 
 than is needed to prevent the repetition of the 
 offence, then it becomes cruelty ; if it is less than 
 is needed for that purpose, then it does injustice to 
 others. 
 
 8. The duty, then, of every ruler in a household, 
 and of every ruler in a state, is so to administer 
 punishment, that all crime and wrong shall be pre- 
 vented with as much certainty and with as little 
 suffering as possible. 
 
 9. Now we know that among our own friends 
 and in our own families, most of the little wrongs 
 we do to one another, from hasty tempers or 
 misunderstandings, need no punishment at all. We 
 are sorry for them as soon as they are done, and 
 forgive one another readily, and sometimes love 
 one another the better for that mutual sorrow and 
 forgiveness. Tennyson says : — 
 
 " Oh, blessings on the falling out. 
 That all the more endears ; 
 When we fall out with those we love. 
 And kiss again with tears." 
 
124 THE GOOD THAT CONQDEES EVIL. 
 
 10. It is true we need not " fall oUt " that we may 
 have the pleasure of making it up again : but it is 
 a comfort to feel that the bitter can thus turn to 
 sweetness, and that the passing cloud can dissolve 
 in rain-drops which nourish and revive the 
 loveliest blossoms on the tree of life. 
 
 11. None of us is so perfect as never to offend; 
 but if we have conscience and good feeling, it is 
 always better to forgive than to retaliate, because 
 our aim should always be to repair wrong and stop 
 evil as soon as possible. If any one has injured 
 us, and we injure him in return, we double the 
 evil; but if we forgive him, very probably our 
 forbearance will make him sorry for having done 
 us wrong, and he will try to make amends. He 
 will seek occasion to do us good ; then we shall do 
 him good in return ; and so good will be multiplied, 
 and even a friendly feeling will have grown out of 
 that first unfriendly act. 
 
 12. Many a valuable and lasting friendship has 
 arisen from forgiveness on one side, and gratitudie 
 for the forgiveness on the other. Thus there is 
 profound wisdom as well as beauty in the greait 
 Christian precept, " See that none render evil lor 
 evil unto any man." 
 
 13. Perhaps the most perfect state of things we 
 can imagine would be that in which no punishment 
 was needed ; where mercy, charity, and forgiveness 
 alone would be sufficient to control evil, and turn 
 
THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 125 
 
 evil into good ; and where all the differences among 
 children, men, and nations might be made to vanish 
 at the outset by right feeling and common sense on 
 both sides. 
 
 14. But we seem far from this state of things at 
 present : and it is certain that if all classes of 
 offenders were forgiven alike, the bad would take 
 advantage of the good, and none could live in 
 safety or comfort. A just government, therefore, 
 shows mercy in all cases where mercy is the surest 
 way of preventing evil ; and it inflicts punishment 
 in all cases where punishment is necessary, either 
 as a caution to the offender or as a warning to 
 others. 
 
 QuESTlOifS. — 1. Why are all children not equally able to do 
 right? Why should all not be equally punished ? 2. Who is to 
 blame when a little child, two years old, breaks the nursery 
 window ? 3. Why did the boy of ten use his sling in the street 
 after he had been reproved? What har<n did he do? 4. What 
 might have been sufficient punishment for tlie offence if the boy 
 had been of a good disposition ? 5. But what kind of a boy was 
 this? What was, therefore, done to him? 6. Why was it 
 right to punish him? Who would have been injured had he 
 been forgiven? 7. Mention a further reason why the punish- 
 ment was light? What is the true nature of punishment? 8 
 What is, therefore, the duty of every ruler? 9, 10. What is 
 the nature of most of the little quarrels in families ? What good 
 often results from them ? 11. Hopr is the evil muUiplied in such 
 cases? How is good multiplied! 12. What great Christian 
 precept directs us on this subject? 13. What would be the 
 most perfect state of things? 14. What would happ6n if all 
 classes of offenders were forgiven alike ? What rules guide a 
 just government ? 
 
126 THK GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 
 
 XV. -THE GOOD THAT. CONQUERS EVIL.- 
 Coutinued. 
 
 "Charity suffereth long, and, is kind." 
 
 1. There are a great many persons who, although 
 they may be grown up, no more deserve punishment 
 when they have done wrong than the little child 
 who broke the nursery window. Such are the poor 
 idiots and lunatics, who are incapable of knowing 
 right from wrong. These we place under merciful 
 restraint, either in asylums or in their own homes, 
 as a safeguard against any mischief they might do 
 themselves or others. Mercy to them is mercy to 
 everybody ; because the more kindly they are 
 treated, the less likely they will be to do harm. 
 
 2. There are other persons who habitually make 
 themselves into idiots or madmen by their intem- 
 perance, and who have no control over their actions 
 when in a state of drunkenness. These should be 
 punished severely for any crimes they may have 
 committed when in that state, to deter them from 
 drinking away their senses in future, and also to 
 warn others against degrading themselves into a 
 condition in which they become dangerous to those 
 who live with them. 
 
 3. Mercy to drunken criminals would be cruelty 
 and injustice to the sober and harmless. If 
 drunkenness be habitual and constant, then the 
 victim of it should be shut up in asylums like 
 
THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 127 
 
 other idiots. But whenever drunkards can be 
 reclaimed by kindness or by good example, that is 
 doing a much greater good to them and to society 
 than could be done by punishing them for crimes 
 committed. 
 
 4. There are many children who do a great deal 
 of harm, and yet who deserve no punishment. 
 These are the poor, wretched ones, who have been 
 taught by wicked parents to steal, and beg, and 
 cheat, and pick up a living in all sorts of bad 
 and miserable ways. They often have no homes. 
 Their parents are as wretched as themselves. They 
 infest the streets of large towns, and sleep in holes 
 and corners not fit for human beings to sleep in. 
 
 5. To punish these children before they know 
 right from wrong would be useless. They need to 
 have conscience awakened within them, and to be 
 led to see how much better it is to be good and 
 honest than to be bad and dishonest. We there- 
 fore deal tenderly with them, and provide for them 
 schools and reformatories where they are taught, 
 and whence they may start afresh in life on the 
 right path. Mercy to these children is therefore 
 mercy to everybody else, because it is the best 
 means of preventing young offenders from growing 
 up into old and hardened ones. 
 
 6. A judge or magistrate generally is willing to 
 show mercy to those who break the laws for the 
 first time, or to those who are too young to know 
 
128 THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 
 
 better ; and in all the prisons where we are obliged 
 to confine those who have made themselves dangejr- 
 ous to society, there should be the means of good 
 instruction, and a chance given to even the most 
 hardened to mend his ways and " turn to tbe 
 right." But " prevention is better than cure," and 
 good schools are better than even the best prisons. 
 
 7. There is another large class of persons who 
 are not exactly criminal, but who do a great deal of 
 harm to society. These are the idle, the improvi- 
 dent, the intemperate— the begging class — w,hp a,re 
 always poor because they do not wqrk or provide 
 for themselves, and who therefore try to live upon 
 the charity of others. Charity to these, in the 
 form of almsgiving, is injustice to the industrious 
 and the provident, because it encourages people to 
 be idle. It makes a large pauper class, who are a 
 burden and a nuisance to society, because they 
 consume agreatdeal without producinganything use- 
 ful in return ; and, as we have seen in former, chapteirs, 
 idle people are generally bad and mischievous. 
 
 8. True charity gives sympathy and Tsindness to 
 all who suffer, and help to all who deserve help ; 
 but it does not give help to those who will do 
 nothing to he^p themselves. This useless and 
 burdensome class will grow less and less as people 
 are better educated, so as to know that it is better 
 for every man to work and to provide for himsqlf 
 than to be idle and to beg. 
 
THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 129 
 
 Here is a case which clea.r]y shows how justice 
 and kindness to all require that some should be 
 punished and others forgiven. 
 
 There was a manufacturer, Mr. 0., who was both 
 just and kind. Every Saturday night his foreman 
 gaid his men their week's wages. One Saturday 
 xiight his foreman reported that one of the best of 
 his men, Austin, had been absent three days during 
 the week, and that therefore three days' pay must 
 be deducted from his wages. " What was the 
 cause of his absence ? " said Mr. C. " He was laid 
 up with rheumatism from getting heated near the 
 engine, and then going into the cold air." " Poor 
 fellow," said Mr. C. " Pay him his week's wages 
 in full, and something over, for anything he may 
 want. He is an honest man ; he will be at his 
 work again as soon fus he is able, I am quite sure." 
 
 The next Saturday the foreman reported that 
 Smith had been absent during the week. " From 
 what, cause ? " said the master. " He sent word," 
 replied the foreman, " that he had been laid up 
 yvith rheumatism." " Is that true ? " " No," said 
 the foreman. " I koow for certain he hfts been, out 
 on a spree, and lounging about at the public-house 
 every day. He toj^ one of the men that if Austin 
 got a week's wages for np work he would try and 
 get it too." 
 
 " Dismiss him at once," said Mr. C. ; "I shall be 
 
130 THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS BVIL. 
 
 having all my men ' laid up with rheumatism ' if I 
 keep him on after such conduct as that." 
 
 Now you see that if Smith had lost nothing by 
 being idle and untrustworthy, it would have been 
 an injustice to all the honest men in the factory. 
 
 9. It is clear, then, that justice and mercy 
 should go hand in hand; and that when mercy 
 cannot conquer evil by charity and forgiveness, 
 justice should use the sterner means of punishment. 
 Thus " to do justly and to love mercy " is one of 
 the oldest and best commandments that ever was 
 given to mankind. 
 
 10. All those evils which people cause by their 
 own wrong or foolish conduct are called Moral 
 Evils. But there are other evils, called Natural 
 Evils, which belong to the nature of the world in 
 which we live. Such are pain and disease, and 
 disasters which arise from the forces of nature 
 being too strong for us or injurious to us. Thus 
 the fire that warms us may also burn us j the 
 water that refreshes and cleanses us may also 
 drown us; the air which sustains our life also 
 conveys the germs of disease, or blows into 
 destructive hurricanes. 
 
 11. Many of these natural evils we can subdue 
 and ward oif by our skill or prudence. Pain itself 
 is a natural guardian which warns us of danger. 
 Thus the fire warms us and gives us a pleasant 
 feeling so long as it it= doing our bodies good ; but 
 
THE GOOD THAT CONQUERS EVIL. 131 
 
 thing as soon as it begins to burn and destroy the 
 tissues of the skin, pain comes to bid us . beware. 
 Food gives us comfortable feelings when it agrees 
 with us ; but when we take what causes injury oi: 
 disease, pain comes to warn us of the mischief. 
 
 12. It can hardly be doubted that "men have been 
 helped to become intelligent beings by the constant 
 conflict with danger and difficulty which has 
 stirred up their faculties. All those virtues which 
 we value most have been bom of difficulty and 
 suffering. How could we be brave and courageous 
 if there were no dangers to face ? How could we 
 be patient if we had no troubles to bear ? How 
 could our minds have grown if there had been no 
 need for inventions and discoveries and knowledge, 
 in order to shield us from danger, to cure disease, 
 to save us from evil in every form ? 
 
 13. Wallace, in his " Malay Archipelago," tells us 
 that the Tree Kangaroos of New Guinea have 
 much less power of leaping and climbing than the 
 kangaroos of other countries, and he attributes this 
 to the fact that there are no beasts of prey in New 
 Guinea, and no enemies of any kind from which 
 the kangaroos have to escape by rapid climbing. 
 
 How soon might not our own powers become 
 puny and stunted, if there were no " lions in our 
 path," no difficulties, no dSngers ! 
 
132 THE GOOD THAT CONQCJERS EVIL. 
 
 We see, then, that these natural evils are in some 
 degree blessings in disguise ; and while we know 
 that it is the duty of every one of us to try to 
 lessen evil and suffering as much as we can, it is 
 cheering also to know that the mere attempt to 
 conquer evil produces good. 
 
 " Wise and noble action is for man, 
 
 Healthy work foi all, that none may sorrow ; 
 He alone reveres the world's large plan, 
 Who with cheerful brow salutes the morrow." 
 
 " Our Age." -W. M. W. CaU.* 
 
 QOBSTIONS. — 1. What grown-up persons do not deserve 
 punishment for wrong doing ? Why ? How are they treated ? 
 2. Why should drunken persons be punished for the crimes 
 they commit ? 3. How should habitual drunkards be treated ? 
 What is better than punishing them ? What young offenders 
 do not deserve punishment ? 5. What is the right way to deal 
 with them ? To what institutions are they sent ? 6. For what 
 should provision be made in prisons ! What are better than the 
 best prisons ! On what principle ? 7. Why is the begging class 
 poor ? To whom is almsgiving unjust ? 8. Whom does true 
 charity help ? What is likely to reduce the begging class ? What 
 does the story of Mr. C. and his workmen teach us ? 9. What 
 must go hand in hand with justice ? Which old commandment 
 is also one of the best ? 10. What are moral evils ? What are 
 natural evils ? Give examples of the latter. H. How does pain 
 act as a natural guardian ? 12. How has the conflict with danger 
 and diflBculty benefited men ? Mention virtues that are born of 
 difficulty and suffering. 13. Why are the New Guinea 
 kangaroos less nimble than other kangaroos t What does this 
 teach us ? What are natural evils in some degree ! What does 
 the attempt to conquer evil produce ? 
 
 '[Golden Histories."— iS'mM, Elder, and' Co. 
 
THK GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 133 
 
 XVI.-THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 
 
 " So action spreads, so noble deeds, 
 With noble deeds conspire, 
 So life from life to life proceeds. 
 In circles ever higher. "—TT. ilf. W. Call.* 
 
 1. If you throw a stone into a pond, have you 
 noticed how ring after ring forms itself upon the 
 surface of the water, circling wider and wider, 
 until it reaches the margin of the pond and so 
 carries the stroke of that stone to the farthest 
 limits to which the water extends ? 
 
 2. So is the influence of our actions carried 
 heyond our own narrow circle of life, to the 
 farthest bounds of the great ocean of Time. Thus 
 we are helped and made better by the good example 
 and noble deeds of those who lived many, many 
 
 , years ago ; and people who will be living in the 
 world years after we are gone will likewise be 
 helped and made better by the good deeds and 
 thoughts of those who are living here now. 
 
 3. Let us often think of the world's benefactors ; 
 of those who are still living amongst us in the good 
 they have bequeathed to us. Think of those whose 
 lives of goodness and compassion, purity and 
 devotion, have left a moral influence which has 
 never been lost through all the world's changes ; 
 of those who have made life of more value by their 
 wisdom, knowledge, and researches ; of those who 
 • " Reverberations." — Trilbner arid Co. 
 
134 THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 
 
 have made it more beautiful by their music, poetry, 
 and all those " things of beauty which are a joy 
 for ever ; " of those who have made it more free 
 from suffering by their science and the " knowledge 
 which heals ; " of those who have filled it with 
 instruction, interest, and' enjoyment by the books 
 they have written ; of those who have made it 
 more glorious by noble acts of heroism. 
 
 Perhaps you only know at present a few of the 
 names of those to whom we owe so much ; but 
 more and more names will be added to your list as 
 your knowledge increases, and you will marvel at 
 the vast amount of good that has come to the world 
 simply from the men and women in it doing well 
 what they were best fitted to do. 
 
 4. Often a great impression for good is made by 
 those who think very little about themselves or of 
 their work, and a splendid act of heroism on the 
 part of some modest unknown person will rouse 
 the souls of many to a higher sense of duty. Did 
 Grace Darling think about herself when she 
 launched her little boat to save the ship- wrecked 
 sailors, and steered it safely and boldly over the 
 raging billows ? Did Brand, the fireman, think 
 about himself when he rushed into the flames to 
 save the people in the burning house, and was 
 himself burned and buried beneath the smoking 
 ruins ? 
 
THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 135 
 
 Actions like these, and all conduct which exhibits 
 great courage, or endurance, or self-denial, we call 
 heroic, that means, the highest that belongs to man, 
 and we treasure up the names of those who have 
 been heroes in a good cause as those of friends who 
 make us ashamed of cowardice and selfishness, and 
 who make us feel that there is something better to 
 be done with our life than even to enjoy and 
 preserve it. 
 
 Heroes are found in all classes of life ; some- 
 times where we should least expect to find them. 
 Have you heard of the conduct of those workhouse 
 boys who were present at the burning of the 
 training-ship Goliath ? Those boys had been 
 children without homes or parents, who had been 
 left in the streets to steal or starve. The police 
 authorities took them to the workhouses, where 
 they were fed and clothed, and taken care of. But 
 it was thought that these boys might be trained to 
 be sailors, and that would be better than keeping 
 them in the workhouse ; so a number of them were 
 sent on board the Goliath, where they were taught 
 to read and write, to be clean and orderly, to obey 
 the word of command, and to be drilled into a 
 sailor's work. How well they had been taught 
 and drilled was proved on the morning of 
 December 22, 1875, when a paraffin lamp on 
 board was upset, and set fire to the ship. The 
 boy who had dropped the lamp did all he could to 
 
186 THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 
 
 stop the flames. He flung his clothes on the fire, 
 and sat upon them till the flames burnt him ; but 
 all in vain ; the flames spread, and soon the ship 
 was in a blaze. You would expect, then, that those 
 poor boys would have hurried about, each trying 
 to save himself. But no. As soon as the fire 
 alarm was sounded, they each ran to their stations, 
 and kept to their posts, waiting for orders, as 
 steadily as seamen. Some of them, who were in a 
 barge by. the side of the ship, were frightened at 
 the fiames, and tried to push the barge off" from the 
 ship ; but a lad of thirteen, named Bolton, held 
 them to their duty, and insisted on keeping the 
 ba,rge fast there till every boy in the ship was 
 safely on board. Their brave captain. Commander 
 Bourchier, would not leave the ship till every boy 
 was safe in the barge. The boys who last left the 
 ship eagerly begged their captain to go first ; but 
 the noble Captain replied, " That is not the way at 
 sea ; " and one little fellow exclaimed with tears, 
 " You'll be burnt, Captain ! " 
 
 Not one of them was burned, and not one was 
 drowned. They all got safe away in the barge; 
 and those workhouse boys, with their brave 
 Captain Bourchier, will long live in our memories 
 as heroes of a very noble kind.* 
 
 " The .world loves its heroes." Those in the past 
 who have died rather than deny what they believed 
 *Spectator, November 25, 1876. 
 
THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 137 
 
 to be the truth ; thpse who have died to save their 
 country ; those who have spent their lives in 
 serving mankind ; — these are our heroes whom we 
 deUght to honour. To some of these we build 
 statues : the work of others is preserved to us in 
 books. We cannot let their memory die. 
 
 6. Not only noble deeds but noble words live in 
 the world long after those who uttered them 
 have passed away ; and friendly voices reach to us 
 through all the dark centuries that have rolled 
 away, and give comfort and counsel to us who are 
 living here to-day. Think of some of the books 
 that have thus been friends to us. 
 
 6. How can we repay what we owe to the world's 
 benefactors ? By each doing the work that falls to 
 our share in the best way we can ; remembering 
 that small actions extend their influence as well as 
 great ones. " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, 
 do it with thy might." If you succeed, — well, if 
 you fail, — try again. If you cannot succeed even 
 when you have done your best, the effort to do 
 good, and the experience you have gained, have 
 been of service to yourself and others. 
 
 Most of us will leave no names behind us which 
 will be remembered long after we are gone; but 
 the name signifies little if we have done our work 
 well. Hear what one of our greatest writers has 
 said : — " The growing good of the world is partly 
 dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things ar6 
 
138 THE GOOD THAT NEVER DIES. 
 
 not SO ill with you and me as- they might have 
 been, is half owing to the number who lived 
 faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited 
 
 tombs."* 
 
 " Alike are life and death, 
 
 When life in death survives, 
 And the uninterrupted breath 
 Inspires a thousand lives. 
 
 Were a star quenched on high, 
 
 For ages would its light, 
 Still travelling downward from the sky. 
 
 Shine on our mortal sight. 
 
 So when a great man dies. 
 
 For years beyond our ken, 
 The light he leaves behind him lies 
 
 Upon the paths of men." — LongfeUow. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What happens when you throw a stone into 
 a pond 1 2. What may be said to extend like those circles of 
 water? 3. Name some of the world's benefactors? 4. Give 
 some instances of heroic actions. What did Grace Darling do ? 
 What did Brand, the fireman, do ? What was the name of the 
 ship wliere the brave workhouse boys were trained ? What the 
 name of their captain? How will they live in our memory? 
 5. Name some of the books that are like friends to us. 6. How 
 can we repay what we owe to the world's benefactors? What 
 does a great writer say ? Bepeat the verses. 
 
 * George Kliot. 
 
OUK UNION WITH NATURE. 139 
 
 XVII. -OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 
 
 " I live not in myself, but I become 
 Portion of that around me : — 
 
 " Are not the ihountains^ waves, and skies, a part 
 Of me and of my soul, as I of them ?" — ChUdt Harold, 
 
 1. We have seen how we are all children of one 
 gre£it family, dependent on our Mother Earth for 
 the supply of our wants, and working together to 
 make the best of all that she places within our 
 reach. We have seen how it is that we cannot 
 exist alone, and that neither time nor space prevent 
 mankind from being linked together by their wants, 
 their interests, their duties, and their affections. 
 
 Now let us think of another kind of sympathy 
 which unites us, not only with our fellow-creatures, 
 but with all that is in the world around us. 
 
 As our bodies are sustained by air and food, so 
 our minds are made to grow by the impressions of 
 facts and objects which we take in through the 
 senses. These impressions become thoughts in our 
 minds. When stored up in the mind they become 
 memory ; and by ways which we cannot jinderstand 
 they help to form the reasoning faculties, and all 
 those powers which make us thinking, intelligent 
 beings. 
 
 When once the reasoning powers are formed 
 within us, then our minds can grow apace; and, 
 curious to say, our minds are fed upon what we do 
 not know as well as upon what we do know. Every- 
 
140 OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 
 
 thing in Nature helps to make them grow by excit- 
 ing our curiosity and never quite satisfying it ; and 
 the effort we make to know and understand stretches 
 and strengthens our minds just as exercise 
 strengthens our limbs, and there is always more 
 that we want to know than we can know, 
 
 2. Thus, we search the old rocks for some records 
 of the past which can tell us how and when this 
 world of ours began to be. We find there impres- 
 sions of shells, very like the shells which we pick 
 up now on the sea-shore. Those little shells seem 
 to speak to us, and tell us that the world has been 
 an habitation for living creatures for countless ages 
 before man could dwell upon it ; and the old rocks 
 themselves prove to us that they must have been 
 formed millions of years ago. But they cannot tell 
 us when and what was " In the beginning." 
 
 Our minds traverse the dark centuries backwards 
 in the hope of finding what probably we can never 
 find, and are repaid by rich mines of knowledge on 
 the way. 
 
 3. We see a glowing ball rise up into the sky day 
 by day, and disappear again every night. Night 
 and day are caused by its rising and setting, and ' 
 nothing could have life on the earth if it were not 
 for the warmth and light which it sends to. us 
 through a distance of ninety-five millions of milest , 
 And not only does life depend on this great globe 
 which we call the Sun,, but the eartli, itself would 
 
ODB UNION WITH NATURE. 141 
 
 be lost in space if it were not constantly poised 
 steadily throuoh the weight and consequent attrac- 
 tion of that prodigious ball, which is more than a 
 million times larger than our globe of earth. Thus 
 the great sun is a guardian and life-sustainer to 
 the lesser earth, although the distance between 
 them is so immense, that if we could go towards 
 the sun at railway speed through space at thirty 
 miles an hour, it would be more than three hundred 
 years before we reached its surface. But although 
 we see the sun day by day, and are dependent upon 
 it for our existence, we know but little of what it 
 is, and we watch with eagerness for any tidings the 
 astronomers can give us concerning the nature of 
 that mighty and mysterious sphere. 
 
 4. Nightly, as the sun leaves us, other bright 
 orbs cheer our earth by their companionship in the 
 heavens. The moou at regular intervals continues 
 to us the light of the sun by shining upon us with 
 his reflected beams. The planets, as they sparkle 
 in the sky, tell us that they too receive light from 
 our parent sun, and are held safely in their orbits 
 by his mighty attraction. 
 
 "Seems not cold that distant heaven? 
 Science-guided orbs, how far ! 
 No, our Earth is in that heaven, 
 Sister to yon Evening Star." 
 
 Far bej'ond moon or planets, we catch glimpses 
 of other tremendous orbs, which make the dark 
 
142 OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 
 
 night-sky beautiful by their countless numbers and 
 brilliancy, and which seem placed just within reach 
 of our vision to excite our intense curiosity about 
 them. These are called the Fixed Stars, because they 
 do not move in orbits, like the earth, moon, and 
 planets, or change their relative position to each 
 other. The nearest of them is 200,000 times more 
 distant from us than our sun, and we could not 
 reach it, at railway speed, in less than 60 millions 
 of years ! 
 
 Are we united to these ? Do these help us also ? 
 Yes, the North Pole Star, which is almost stationary 
 in the heavens, has been from early times the 
 mariner's guide across the ocean ; and, as fixed 
 measuring points, stars have made known to us 
 the cause of the seasons and the length of the 
 journey which the earth makes yearly round the 
 sun ; and have been the means by which a science 
 concerning all the heavenly bodies has been made 
 possible. And thus our commerce, and the supply 
 of our bodily wants, as well as the culture of our 
 minds through the noble science of Astronomy, 
 have been aided by those friendly orbs in far-off 
 space, of whose nature we know almost nothing; 
 but of which it is safe to conjecture that each of 
 them may be a sun, having a system of worlds 
 revolving round it, and dependent upon it. 
 
 Meanwhile, seeing how our own earth is linked 
 together with other globes in space, we gain a 
 
OUR UNITY WITH NATURE. 143 
 
 conception of world being dependent on world 
 throughout the universe ; and a sense comes to us 
 of that Invisible Power which preserves order and 
 harmony in all those distant worlds as well as in 
 our own home of earth ; — and which gathers us 
 into families, and makes us love one another. 
 
 5. As our minds grow, we not only desire to 
 understand and make use of what we find in 
 nature, but a love of nature itself enters our hearts. 
 We not only admire the beauty of starry heavens, 
 of trees, flowers, rivers, and mountains, the song 
 of birds, the ripple of the brook, — but the sweet 
 sights and sounds speak to our souls, and with the 
 beauty comes the sense of a spirit that is akin 
 to our spirit — of a presence in nature which 
 sympathises with us. 
 
 A very little child has no sense of this kind. 
 The baby claps its hands at the bright colours of 
 a flower ; but it is only the bright colour that 
 attracts its eye : it seizes the flower, and tears with 
 glee the tender leaves. A man of low tastes and 
 small mind has no sense of this kind : — 
 
 " A primrose by the river's brim, 
 
 A yellow primrose is to him, 
 
 And it is nothing more." 
 
 But even young children, without being very 
 conscious of it, may have a feeling of companion- 
 
144 OUR UNION \yiTH NATURE. 
 
 ship with nature which is a source o£ happiness to 
 them, and more and more, as our minds expand^ 
 this sense of companionship deepens. 
 
 6. See a group of children playing on the sea- 
 shoire, the great ocean lying before them, while 
 they are intent only with their little sports among 
 the sand-heaps. The heaving waves bring down 
 the sun's rays to their feet, and break them into a 
 thousand sparkles. The children run in among the 
 dancing diamonds, and the sea is to them like a 
 playfellow, rushing after their naked feet in laugh- 
 ing, curling, foaming ripples, and throwing amongst 
 them pearly shells, as a present from the blue deep. 
 The mighty ocean helps them to be glad, and seems 
 to be glad with them. 
 
 7. Years later, and the ocean is more than a play- 
 fellow to them. It is a companion who sympathises 
 with the graver thoughts which come in more 
 mature life. Its waves no longer laugh, but speak 
 to us sadly and softly of those waves of destiny 
 which sweep over our earthly hopes and wishes : — 
 
 " HOtrSES ON THE SAND. 
 
 " Last night I watched the sunset, 
 Seated upon the band ; 
 With a soft and loving "nurmur 
 The waves crept on the land. 
 
 A gentle breeze uprising, 
 
 While sunk the red sun low. 
 Just shook the slender grasses, 
 
 That by the sea-side grow. 
 
OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 146 
 
 And down beside the water 
 
 I saw a merry band 
 Of children who were building 
 
 A castle on the sand. 
 
 Twas time they should go homewards, 
 
 But hurd they begged lo stay, 
 And see the rising waters 
 
 Wash all their work away. 
 
 Loud merry peals of laughter 
 
 I keard, and shouts of glee, 
 And then they all departed 
 
 And left the beach to me. 
 
 I passed a little later 
 
 The spot where they had been ; 
 No trace above the water 
 
 Of castle^could be seen. 
 
 Sadly the thought came o'er me, 
 
 As night fell on the land. 
 Do we, too, all like children 
 
 Build castles on the sand ? 
 
 We raised up stately fabrics 
 
 When we were young and gay, 
 But Time's waves, onward rolling, 
 
 Have swept them all away. 
 
 With sorrow, not with laughter, 
 
 With pain instead of glee, 
 We saw the currents take them, 
 
 And bear them off to sea. 
 
 But may we find, my children, 
 
 When night is close at hand, 
 That of our many castles 
 
 One was not built on sand." — Alice Noel 
 
146 OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 
 
 The ocean is thus not only a companion in our 
 childhoocl, but still more is it a friend to him who 
 has had a longer experience of life, and who loves 
 to commune with it alone. He sits besides its ever- 
 restless waters ; he listens to the secrets which its 
 murmurs reveal : it reflects the mood of his mind 
 as it reflects the face of the moon on its surface : 
 its stormy billows echo his turbulent emotions, or 
 its placid ebb and flow are in unison with the 
 heavenly rest of his soul. The solemn presence of 
 sea and sky in the solitary night-watch by the 
 shore adds depth to his feelings for all those who 
 are dear to him by the sense of duration which 
 Nature's own unions suggest : — 
 
 " FBIENDSHIP. 
 
 " The light blue sky rests sweetly on the deep, 
 The dark blue sea embraces close the sky. 
 And each beholdeth with a loving eye 
 The stars that in the sister-bosom sleep. 
 But howling blasts will o'er the ocean sweep, 
 And tempest rack athwart the welkin fly. 
 Then one can nought bat chilling clouds descry. 
 The other nought but breakers' foatnv leap ; 
 Yet still they cling together. Sea and Heaven, 
 Relying on the changeless depths and blue. 
 And from between them soon the storm is driven. 
 So they whose love is based upon the true, 
 No passing cloud their union aye will sever, 
 But deep will look on deep, star-gemmed for ever.' 
 
 Edward H. Nod. 
 
OUR UNION WITH NATURB. 14'7 
 
 8. See next the little merry children at play in 
 the field. How they roll and tumble on the green 
 carpet which seems made on purpose for them. 
 They pluck the gay buttercups and the modest 
 daisies, and twine them into garlands. A playful 
 breeze comes to join in their sport, snatches their 
 caps from their heads and whirls them about with 
 gl^e ; a more steady wind lifts their kites from the 
 ground and carries them aloft, higher and higher, 
 till they look like dancing specks against the blue 
 sky. " See what I have found ! " cries one of the 
 children from the side of the field. It is a perfect 
 nosegay of anemones and primroses and veronicas, 
 nestled among the mossy roots of the old oak. 
 You could not have found them, Little one, if it 
 had not been for the unseen, magic force in nature 
 which caused the dull, dark soil to bring forth 
 those tender green buds, those graceful blossoms of 
 white and yellow and blue. 
 
 The children all feel very happy, and they feel, 
 too, as if there were a kind presence in sunshine, 
 grass, breeze, and flowers, which rejoices in their 
 gladness. When they are older they will still more 
 be conscious of the presence there; it will sympathise 
 witE a still greater joy, and it will make even sad- 
 ness sweet by its soothing power. Poetry, which 
 expresses our best feeling in choicest words, often 
 tells of this union of the sad and sweet in nature : — 
 " Our sweetest songs ate those that tell of saddest thought," 
 
148 OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 
 
 9. In early times men tried to give living form 
 to our sense of relationship with the powers of 
 nature. The spirit of the ocean was Neptune, 
 with hair and beard of sea-foam ; the spirits of 
 the laughing waves were mermaids, with pearls in 
 their sea-weed tresses ; dryads and fauns and fairies 
 animated the woods; the Sun was the beneficent 
 Apollo ; the Moon was the cold ^nd beautiful Diana. 
 Some of these divinities of tlje fancy were wor- 
 shipped because they were feared ; others because 
 they were loved. 
 
 Long ago these forms have passed away from the 
 beliefs of men, but in all ages poets have expressed 
 this sense of a sympathy in nature by giving a 
 personal aspect to its objects and occurrences. 
 
 See how four of our finest poets describe the 
 
 diflferent parts of the day. Thus Shakespeare 
 
 personifies the early morning : — 
 
 " But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill." — Haanlet. 
 
 Wordsworth represents a herdsman gazing at the 
 rising sun, and feeling that earth, ocean, and clouds 
 rejoiced with him in the glory of its first beams: — 
 
 " He beheld the sun 
 Bise up, and bathe the world in light ! He looked — 
 Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth 
 And ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay 
 In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched. 
 And in their silent faces did he read 
 Unutterable love," — The ExcurAou. 
 
OUR TTNION WITH NATURE. 149 
 
 Milton gives a soft feminine form to the evening 
 twilight : — 
 
 "Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray- 
 Had in her sober livery all th'ings clad." — Paradise Lost. 
 
 And the poet of the Psalms makes the heavens 
 speak to us : — 
 
 " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
 sheweth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night 
 unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no language nor speech 
 where their voice is not heard." 
 
 The "love of Nature," then, is not merely the 
 pleasure we find in looking at beautiful scenery. 
 It is sympathy with what we do not see, but which 
 we feel to be in all that we see — in the Source of 
 good in all that is around us, and the Source of 
 good in ourselves : — 
 
 " For I have learned 
 To look on nature, not as in the hour ' 
 
 Of thoughtless youth : but hearing oftentimes 
 The still sad music of humanity. 
 Not harsh nor grating, though of ample power 
 To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 
 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 
 Of something far more deeply interfused. 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. 
 And the round ocean, and the living air. 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 
 A motion and a spirit, that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought. 
 And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still 
 A lover of the meadows and the woods. 
 
150 OUR UNION WITH NATURE. 
 
 And mountains ; and of all that we behold 
 From this green earth ; of all the mighty world 
 Of eye and ear, both what they half create, 
 And what perceive ; well pleased to recognise 
 In nature and the language of the sense, 
 The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, 
 The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul 
 Of all my moral being." — Wordsworth. 
 
 Questions. — 1. What makes our minds grow? 2. What do we 
 search the rocks for ? What do the shells tell us 1 3. On what 
 is our earth dependent for light, warmth, and equilibrium ? How 
 distant is the sun ? 4. What other globes are dependent on our 
 sun ? How distant is the nearest Fixed Star ? How do the 
 stars help us ? 5. What sort of feeling enters our minds when 
 we see the beauties of nature ? Who are destitute of this 
 feeling? 6. How does the ocean seem to sympathise with 
 little children ? 7. How with those who are older ? Repeat the 
 lines, 8. How do fields, flowers, wind, and sunshine seem to 
 sympathise with children? What forms did some people in 
 early times give to the powers of nature ? How does Shake- 
 speare peraonify the early morning ? How does Wordsworth 
 personify the sun-rise ? How does Milton personify the evening ? 
 How does the Psalmist personify the Heavens ? 
 
OUR UNION WITH THE UNSEEN. 151 
 
 XVIII.-OUR UNION WITH THE UNSEEN. 
 " 111 the deep workings of the mind 
 The law and love of God we find."— IT. J. Fox. 
 
 There is a union of our souls with the unseen 
 which is far more precious to our hearts, and which 
 has a far deeper influence over us than our feeling 
 of sympathy with all that is sublime and beautiful 
 in Nature. We call it religion. It is that which 
 binds our souls to the Eternal Source of all. It 
 not only leads us to admire the works by which 
 He is made manifest, but still more makes us desire 
 to do well our part, however lowly that part may be, 
 in the world in which we are placed, and so to live 
 in harmony with all those laws of our being which 
 work for good. Religion is the longing of the soul 
 for something higher and better than the mere 
 gratification of our animal wants and selfish wishes ; 
 it is the joy of the heart in all that is good and 
 beautiful ; it is the faith that sustains us amid all 
 that is evil ; it is the trust which says, " Thy will be 
 done," through all the sorrow and suffering which 
 belong to our mortal lot. 
 
 This feeling of Religion is too sacred to find 
 expression in common words. It has lain deep in 
 the hearts of men in every age, and has inspired 
 some of their noblest thoughts and actions. 
 
 From all time mankiud have done honour to 
 religion by dedicating to it the beat they had to 
 
152 OUK UNION WITH THE UNSEEN. 
 
 give. The grandest music, the finest painting, 
 sculpture, and worjcs of art, have been inspired by 
 religion ; the beautiful churches and cathedrals of 
 the past and the present, the temples in various 
 parts of the world, which even in ruins bear traces 
 of their ancient splendour, show that men in every 
 age and clime have devoted more labour and pains 
 to making shrines for their highest and holiest, 
 although the Unseen, than in making dwellings for 
 themselves. 
 
 Religion has been expressed by many outward 
 forms ; some barbarous, some beautiful, according 
 to the knowledge and moral state of the people 
 among whom it has been found. Many an evil 
 deed has been done in her name ; many a strange 
 creed has folded itself about her. But still her 
 divine spirit dwells amongst us — never whispering 
 to our souls, Grasp all the good things of this life 
 you possibly can for yourself — but saying to us. 
 Love one another. Rejoice with those who rejoice, 
 Weep with those who weep ; See that no man 
 render evil for evil ; Overcome evil with good ; 
 Reverence your own being and its Source ; Let us 
 go on unto perfection. 
 
 Conscience tells us to do what is right, and has 
 been called the voice of God within us. Religion 
 ministers to the conscience like a sister-angel, and' 
 makes us feel still more bound to do what is right 
 because it is right, and not from any hope of reward. 
 
OUR UNION WITH THE UNSEEN, 153 
 
 There are many ways in which we may be repaid 
 for doing our duty. We may be paid in the means 
 of living and of enjoying hfe ; we may be paid in 
 the pleasure of success ; or in the good opinion of 
 our fellowmen ; and all these kinds of repayment 
 are very desirable to have. But religion brings us 
 so much inward peace from the consciousness of 
 having done right, or of having been a blessing to 
 others, that we are made happy even if we fail to 
 win either profit or approbation. 
 
 It is possible to gain the means of living and 
 enjoyment by dishonest ways ; it is possible to 
 succeed in wrong-doing ; it is possible to win regard 
 and approbation when we have done nothing to 
 deserve them. But it is not possible to have that 
 peace of mind without which we cannot be happy, 
 if we are false, or mean, or cruel, or dishonest, or 
 if we indulge in wrong desires or evil thoughts. 
 " There is no peace to the wicked," is a saying 
 thousands of years old : it is as true to-day as it 
 ever was. Give entrance to evil, by deed or thought, 
 and at once there drops a dark veil between us and 
 the heavenly light. Be good, and do good, and we 
 become, as it were, children of the light, safe in a 
 Father's care. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God," said the Great Teacher. " The kingdom of 
 heaven is within you." ,, 
 
154 OUK UNION WITH THE UNSEEN. 
 
 " He who lives pure in thought, free from malice, 
 leading a holy life, feeling tenderly for all creatures, 
 speaking wisely and kindly, humbly and sincerely, 
 has the Deity ever in his breast," said the Buddhist 
 teacher.* 
 
 " An honest man needs to fear no evil, either in 
 this or the future life," said Socrates.f when he 
 was condemned to death by his Athenian judges. 
 
 " He that doeth good to another man," said 
 Seneca, J " doeth good also to himself ; not only in 
 the consequence, but also in the very act of doing 
 it; for the consciousness of well-doing is ample 
 reward." 
 
 " Love those who come near you," said Cicero, § 
 "Be good to your fellow-creatures. Think when 
 dealing with each of them what his feelings may 
 be. Be patient with age, Be tender with children." 
 
 " Humanity is the heart of man ; justice is the 
 path of man," said the Chinese sage, Mencius ; || 
 " to know heaven is to develop the principle of our 
 higher nature." 
 
 " Mahomet 1[ commanded us," said his disciple 
 Jaffir, "to eschew wickedness, to be truthful in 
 speech, faithful to our engagements, kind and 
 helpful to our relations and neighbours." 
 
 * Asoha Inscriptions. 250 B.C. § Boman orator, died 43 B.C. 
 
 t Greek philosopher, died 399 B,c. || About 400. B.C. 
 t Roman philosopher, about the Christian era, 
 ir Died 632 a.d. 
 
OUR UNION WITH THE UNSEEN. 155 
 
 Our great English philosopher, Bacon, * said : 
 " Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's 
 mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn 
 upon the poles of Truth." 
 
 And the hymn of the Hindu says : — t 
 
 " My God is everywhere, 
 Within, beyond man's highest word, 
 My God existeth atill : 
 In sacred books, in darkest night, 
 In deepest, bluest sky. 
 In those who know the truth. "J 
 
 Thus in various ages and various parts of the 
 world, men have borne witness to that " union with 
 the Unseen," which Jielps us to do our duty and to 
 keep our hearts pure, and which blesses us with 
 that " Peace of God which passeth all under- 
 standing." 
 
 t 
 
 The loss by death of those we love, whose spirits 
 seem to dwell with us after their forms are gone, 
 makes a kind of union between us and the Unseen 
 which is almost a religious one. Our burial placels 
 are very close to our churches. " Sacred to the 
 memory," we find graven on the stones which bear 
 the names of the departed ; for a feeling of awe 
 mingles with our feeling of tenderness, and hallows 
 our remembrance of them. 
 
 * Died 1626 A.D. t Tenth Century. 
 
 J " All positive religions contain a, code of morals, very fine, 
 and nearly the same in all." — Humboldt's "Cosmos." 
 
156 _ OUR UNION WITH THE UNSEEN, 
 
 We cannot at first believe that our beloved dead 
 are really gone. They are so much a part of our- 
 selves that it seems impossible to live on and be 
 ourselves without them. How we would do all that 
 they wished if they were only here again ! How 
 we would try to make amends for those little acts 
 of neglect and unkindness which now lie like heavy 
 sins on our conscience ! We strew flowers on their 
 graves, with a dreamy hope that they are still near 
 to see this sign of our affection ; we say to them in 
 our hearts, " Oh, if you could come to us again, and 
 guide us and help us ! " 
 
 They can still guide us and help us if when they 
 lived they were good and true. Their example will 
 still keep us in the right path, their treasured 
 words of counsel and comfort will still help us 
 aJong the thorny ways of life. And shall not we, 
 too, try to help those who will live after us by our 
 example — by our cheerful courage under difficulty 
 and misfortune ; by our patience under suffering ; 
 by our honest work ; by our faithfulness and 
 kindness to all ? When " the place that has known 
 us shall know us no more," may we all leave many 
 behind us who, although they grieve that we are 
 gone, have good reason to be glad that we have 
 livedi 
 
 THE EXD,