*

The spoken Word, the written Poem, is said to be an epitome of the
man; how much more the done Work. Whatsoever of morality and of
intelligence; what of patience, perseverance, faithfulness, of method,
insight, ingenuity, energy; in a word, whatsoever of Strength the man
had in him will lie written in the Work he does. To work: why, it is
to try himself against Nature, and her everlasting unerring Laws;
these will tell a true verdict as to the man. So much of virtue and of
faculty did _we_ find in him; so much and no more! He had such
capacity of harmonising himself with _me_ and my unalterable
ever-veracious Laws; of cooeperating and working as _I_ bade him;--and
has prospered, and has not prospered, as you see!--Working as great
Nature bade him: does not that mean virtue of a kind; nay of all
kinds? Cotton can be spun and sold, Lancashire operatives can be got
to spin it, and at length one has the woven webs and sells them, by
following Nature's regulations in that matter: by not following
Nature's regulations, you have them not. You have them not;--there is
no Cotton-web to sell: Nature finds a bill against you; your
'Strength' is not Strength, but Futility! Let faculty be honoured, so
far as it is faculty. A man that can succeed in working is to me
always a man.

How one loves to see the burly figure of him, this thick-skinned,
seemingly opaque, perhaps sulky, almost stupid Man of Practice, pitted
against some light adroit Man of Theory, all equipt with clear logic,
and able anywhere to give you Why for Wherefore! The adroit Man of
Theory, so light of movement, clear of utterance, with his bow
full-bent and quiver full of arrow-arguments,--surely he will strike
down the game, transfix everywhere the heart of the matter; triumph
everywhere, as he proves that he shall and must do? To your
astonishment, it turns out oftenest No. The cloudy-browed,
thick-soled, opaque Practicality, with no logic utterance, in silence
mainly, with here and there a low grunt or growl, has in him what
transcends all logic-utterance: a Congruity with the Unuttered. The
Speakable, which lies atop, as a superficial film, or outer skin, is
his or is not his: but the Doable, which reaches down to the World's
centre, you find him there!

The rugged Brindley has little to say for himself; the rugged
Brindley, when difficulties accumulate on him, retires silent,
'generally to his bed;' retires 'sometimes for three days together to
hi