better--of the poor who ought to be ashamed
of themselves. It is nothing to give pension and cottage to the widow
who has lost her son; it is nothing to give food and medicine to the
workman who has broken his arm, or the decrepit woman wasting in
sickness. But it is something to use your time and strength to war with
the waywardness and thoughtlessness of mankind; to keep the erring
workman in your service till you have made him an unerring one; and to
direct your fellow-merchant to the opportunity which his dulness would
have lost. This is much; but it is yet more, when you have fully
achieved the superiority which is due to you, and acquired the wealth
which is the fitting reward of your sagacity, if you solemnly accept the
responsibility of it, as it is the helm and guide of labour far and
near.

119. For you who have it in your hands are in reality the pilots of the
power and effort of the State. It is entrusted to you as an authority to
be used for good or evil, just as completely as kingly authority was
ever given to a prince, or military command to a captain. And, according
to the quantity of it that you have in your hands, you are the arbiters
of the will and work of England; and the whole issue, whether the work
of the State shall suffice for the State or not, depends upon you. You
may stretch out your sceptre over the heads of the English labourers,
and say to them, as they stoop to its waving, "Subdue this obstacle that
has baffled our fathers, put away this plague that consumes our
children; water these dry places, plough these desert ones, carry this
food to those who are in hunger; carry this light to those who are in
darkness; carry this life to those who are in death;" or on the other
side you may say to her labourers: "Here am I; this power is in my hand;
come, build a mound here for me to be throned upon, high and wide; come,
make crowns for my head, that men may see them shine from far away;
come, weave tapestries for my feet, that I may tread softly on the silk
and purple; come, dance before me, that I may be gay; and sing sweetly
to me, that I may slumber; so shall I live in joy, and die in honour."
And better than such an honourable death it were that the day had
perished wherein we were born, and the night in which it was said there
is a child conceived.

120. I trust that in a little while there will be few of our rich men
who, through carelessness or covetousness, thus forfeit the gloriou