f of
man's estate." Consider the awful possibility that we may at some future
time fully appreciate the results of our doings upon earth. Imagine an
employer of labour having before him, in one picture as it were, groups
of wretched beings, followed by a still more deteriorated race, with
their vices and their sufferings expressed in some material, palpable
form--all his own handiwork in it brought out--and at the end, to console
him, some heaps of money. If he had but a vision of these things by
night, while yet on earth, such an all-embracing vision as comes upon a
drowning man! Then imagine him to awake to life. You would not then
find that he knew methods of ensuring to his workmen fresh air, but
lacked energy, or care, to adventure any thing for them. Talk not to me
of money, he would say--Money-making may be one of the conditions of
continuance in this matter that I have taken in hand, but on no account
the one great object. Indeed, if a man cannot make some good fabric by
good means, he would perform a nobler part, as Mr. Carlyle would tell us,
in retiring from the contest, and saying at once that the nature of
things is too hard for him. He is far, far, better conquered in that
way, than obstructing the road by work badly done, or adding to the
world's difficulties by inhumanity.

What I have given is but an outline of the Health of Towns Report; and I
would fain persuade my readers to turn to the original itself. Some
delight in harrowing tales of fiction: here are scenes indicated, if not
absolutely depicted, which may exercise the tenderest sympathies. Others
are ever bending over the pages of history: here, in these descriptions
of the life of the poor, are sources of information respecting the
well-being of nations, which history, much given to tell only of the
doings of the great, has been strangely silent upon. For the man of
science, for the moral philosopher, or even for the curious observer of
the ways of the world, this Report is full of interesting materials. But
it is not as a source of pleasurable emotion that our attention should be
called to it. It is because without the study of such works, we cannot
be sure of doing good in the matter. If there is anything that requires
thought and experience, it is the exercise of Charity in such a
complicated system as modern life. Indeed, there is scarcely anything to
be done wisely in it without knowledge. And I believe it would be
better, f