things in detail. The only
safe way of securing the comfort of any people is to leave them at
liberty to make the best use of their time, and to allow them to
appropriate their earnings in such way as they think fit.'[65]

Robert Owen thought otherwise. In a couple of answers he exposed the
fallacy of enlightened self-interest. They seem obvious enough to-day,
but in 1816 they were the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He was
asked whether he believed that 'there is that want of affection and
feeling on the part of parents, that would induce them to exact from
their children more labour than they could perform without injury to
their health;' and he replied:

'I do not imagine that there is the smallest difference between the
general affection of the lower order of the people, except with regard
to that which may be produced by the different circumstances in which
they are placed.'[66]

Another question was: 'Do you conceive that it is not injurious to the
manufacturer to hazard, by overwork, the health of the people so
employed?' He replied:

'If those persons were purchased by the manufacturers I should say
decisively, yes; but as they are not purchased by the manufacturer and
the country must bear all the loss of their strength and their energy{;}
it does not appear, at first sight, to be the interest of the
manufacturer to do so.'[67]

Owen had grasped the meaning of social responsibility, and he devoted
his life to social service. But he was too wayward to observe the
conventions of society, and passed beyond the social pale. The factory
reformer became the Socialist. Whether his disciples comprehended his
philosophy we may doubt, but he understood better than any one else
their instinct for association, and he gratified it.

It is not contended that Owen was responsible for all the associative
effort of his generation; for with political and religious associations
he had no sympathy. But the spirit which infected him infected others
after him, rousing them to associate now for this, and now for that
social or religious or political purpose.

3. We may divide associations for social purposes into two classes.

To the first class belong associations formed to secure the abolition of
some abuse. These naturally disappear when their object is attained.

For example, there was the Anti-slavery Campaign in which Joseph Sturge
and other Quakers played so prominent a part. By an organized crusade of
poli