on any such subject as the one which I have chosen, without having to
appeal to the best motives of human endeavour; and the shortest way even
to the good which is of a purely physical character lies often, I
believe, through the highest moral considerations.

Believe me,
My dear Taylor,
Most truly yours,
THE AUTHOR.

London, July 1, 1844.

THE CLAIMS OF LABOUR.

CHAPTER I.
MASTERS AND MEN.

It is a thing so common, as almost to be ridiculous, for a man to express
self-distrust at the commencement of any attempt in speech or writing.
And yet, trite as this mode of beginning is, its appropriateness makes
each one use it as heartily as if it were new and true for him, though it
might have been a common-place for others. When he glances hurriedly
across the wide extent of his subject, when he feels how inadequate his
expression will be even to his conception, and, at the same time, has a
yearning desire to bring his audience into the same mind with himself, it
is no wonder if he begins with a few, hesitating, oft repeated, words
about his own insufficiency compared with the greatness of his subject.

Happily, I have not occasion to dwell much upon the importance of the
subject to which I am anxious to engage attention. For a long time it
has been gradually emerging from the darkness in which it had been left.
The claims of labour and the rights of the humble and the poor have
necessarily gained more of the attention of mankind, as Christianity has
developed itself. That power was sure, in its gradual encroachments upon
the evil nature of man, to make its voice heard in this matter. It is a
voice which may come out of strange bodies, such as systems of ethics, or
of politics; but men may call it what they please, it goes on doing its
appointed work, "conquering and to conquer."

* * * * *

Persons of a thoughtful mind seeing closely the falsehood, the folly, and
the arrogance, of the age in which they live, are apt, occasionally, to
have a great contempt for it: and I doubt not that many a man looks upon
the present time as one of feebleness and degeneracy. There are,
however, signs of an increased solicitude for the claims of labo