germs of
the moral instincts by which it must be worked. But I also hold that no
mere rearrangement does any permanent good unless it calls forth a
corresponding moral change, and, moreover, that the moral change,
however slow and imperceptible, does incomparably more than any
external change.

If we assume our present institutions to be permanent, a slight
improvement in moral qualities, a growth of sobriety, of chastity, of
prudence and intellectual culture, would make an almost indefinite
improvement in the condition of the masses. If, for example, Englishmen
ceased to drink, every English home might be made reasonably
comfortable. The two kinds of change imply each other; but it is the
most characteristic error of the designers of Utopias to suppose a mere
change of regulations without sufficiently attending to the moral
implication. To attain equality, as I have tried to define the word,
would imply vast moral changes, and therefore a long and difficult
elaboration. We have not simply to make men happy, as they now count
happiness, but to alter their views of happiness. The good old
copy-books tell us that happiness is as common in poor men's huts as in
rich men's palaces. We are apt to reply that the statement is a mockery
and a lie. But it points to the consummation which in some simple
social states has been partly realised, and which in some distant
future may come to be an expression of facts. It is conceivable surely
that rich men may some day find that there are modes of occupation
which are more interesting as well as more useful than accumulation of
luxuries or the keeping of horses for the turf; that, in place of
propitiating fate by supporting the institution of beggary, there is an
indefinite field for public-spirited energy in the way not of throwing
crumbs to Lazarus, but of promoting national culture of mind, of
spirit, and of body; that benevolence does not mean simple
self-sacrifice, except to the selfish, but the pursuit of a noble and
most interesting career; that men's duty to their children is not to
enable them to lead idle lives, but to fit them for playing a manly
part in the great game of life; and that their relation to those whom
they employ is not that of persons exploiting the energies of inferior
animals, but of leaders of industry with a common interest in the
prosperity of their occupation. People, no doubt, will hardly pursue
business from motives of pure benevolence to others, an