ings? Why do I bring forward
what many of us, forgetting the iron weight with which the sentiments of
his age press down even upon the mightiest genius, might look upon as a
humiliating circumstance far greater than it is, in the life of a man we
ought all to love so much? Is history a thing done away with, or is not
the past for ever in the present? And is it not but too probable that we
ourselves are occasionally guilty of things which, for our lights, are as
sad aberrations as those which, in reading of the past, we have dwelt
upon with the profoundest pity, and turned away from in overwhelming
amazement? Are we quite sure that none of the vices of tyranny rest with
us; and that we individually, or nationally, have not to answer for any
carelessness of human life or for any indifference to human suffering?

* * * * *

What is it that has put a stop to many of the obvious atrocities I allude
to as disgracing the page of history? The introduction of some great
idea, the recognition, probably, in some distinct form of the command "to
do unto others as you would they should do unto you." And this is what
is wanted with regard to the relation of the employer and employed. Once
let the minds even of a few men be imbued with an ampler view of this
relation, and it is scarcely possible to estimate the good that may
follow. Around that just idea what civilization may not grow up! You
gaze at the lofty cathedral in the midst of narrow streets and squalid
buildings, but all welcome to your sight as the places where miserable
men first found sanctuary; you pass on and look with pleasure at the rich
shops and comfortable dwellings; and then you find yourself amongst ample
streets, stately squares, and the palaces of the great, with their
columns and their statues: and if then you turn your thoughts to the
complex varieties of modern life, and the progress of civilization and
humanity, may you not see the same thing there; how all that is good, and
merciful, and holy, is to be traced up to some cathedral truths, at first
little understood, just restraining rude men from bloody deeds, and then
gradually extending into daily life, being woven into our familiar
thoughts, and shedding light, and security, and sanctity, around us?
And, as the traveller's first impulse, when he rises in the morning after
his journey, is to catch a glimpse of that famous building which must
ever be the thing most