but the main object of their life is
not money; it is something better than money. A good soldier, for
instance, mainly wishes to do his fighting well. He is glad of his
pay--very properly so, and justly grumbles when you keep him ten years
without it--still, his main notion of life is to win battles, not to be
paid for winning them. So of clergymen. They like pew-rents, and
baptismal fees, of course; but yet, if they are brave and well-educated,
the pew-rent is not the sole object of their lives, and the baptismal
fee is not the sole purpose of the baptism; the clergyman's object is
essentially to baptize and preach, not to be paid for preaching. So of
doctors. They like fees no doubt,--ought to like them; yet if they are
brave and well-educated, the entire object of their lives is not fees.
They, on the whole, desire to cure the sick; and,--if they are good
doctors, and the choice were fairly put to them--would rather cure their
patient, and lose their fee, than kill him, and get it. And so with all
other brave and rightly-trained men; their work is first, their fee
second--very important always, but still _second_. But in every nation,
as I said, there are a vast class who are ill-educated, cowardly, and
more or less stupid. And with these people, just as certainly the fee is
first, and the work second, as with brave people the work is first, and
the fee second. And this is no small distinction. It is the whole
distinction in a man; distinction between life and death _in_ him,
between heaven and hell _for_ him. You cannot serve two masters:--you
_must_ serve one or other. If your work is first with you, and your fee
second, work is your master, and the lord of work, who is God. But, if
your fee is first with you, and your work second, fee is your master,
and the lord of fee, who is the Devil; and not only the Devil but the
lowest of devils--the 'least erected fiend that fell.' So there you have
it in brief terms; Work first--you are God's servants; Fee first--you
are the Fiend's. And it makes a difference, now and ever, believe me,
whether you serve Him who has on His vesture and thigh written, 'King of
Kings,' and whose service is perfect freedom; or him on whose vesture
and thigh the name is written, 'Slave of Slaves,' and whose service is
perfect slavery.

Ruskin

UNTRODDEN WAYS

Where close the curving mountains drew
To clasp the stream in their embrace,
With every outline, curve, and h