y unselfish labour, and admires it when it finds it.

"A paragraph went the round of the newspaper world, a little time
back, describing how an American millionaire had decided to spend
the rest of his days on a Leper Island in the Pacific Ocean, in
order to labour for the amelioration of the miseries of its
unfortunate inhabitants. Wonder and admiration everywhere greeted
the announcement.

"Shall we go back on all this spirit of self-sacrifice? Shall this
kind of thing die out, or only have an existence in poetry books,
platform quotations, or anecdote collections? Shall we change over
to the 'pound-of-flesh' principle, and hire out the work of our
hands, the thoughts of our minds, and the burning passions of our
souls, for the largest amount of filthy lucre, and the greatest
measure of earthly comfort, that we can obtain for them; so
justifying the lying libel on humanity, long since spoken, and
still often sneeringly quoted, that every man has his price? Or
shall we say that love--the love of God and man--is the highest and
divinest motive of labour--a motive possible not only to the sons
and daughters of genius, but accessible to the plainest, humblest
man or woman who suffers and toils on the lowest round of the
ladder of life.

"I argue in favour of this doctrine on the ground of its
profitableness to the worker. My readers will probably have asked
long before this, How far do these propositions harmonise with the
interests of the servant? Ought he not to take his own well-being
into account? Certainly. He must have just as true a regard for his
own welfare and the welfare of those dependent upon him, as he has
for that of others. The command, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself,' can only be rightly interpreted by another, like unto
it, which reads: 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do
ye even so to them.' Therefore, he must ask, that others should do
unto him as he would do unto them, supposing they occupied changed
positions. This must mean that, while righteously concerned for the
interests of others, he must be reasonably concerned for his own.

"But here a little difficulty comes into our argument, arising out
of the play of the higher motives of affection. What does love care
for gain in its calculations of