Part 5 (1/2)
The first two of these means of obtaining riches are, in some forms and within certain limits, lawful, and advantageous to the State. The third is entirely detrimental to it; for in all cases of profit derived from speculation, at best, what one man gains another loses; and the net results to the State is zero, (pecuniarily,) with the loss of the time and ingenuity spent in the transaction; besides the disadvantage involved in the discouragement of the losing party, and the corrupted moral natures of both. This is the result of speculation at its best. At its worst, not only B loses what A gains (having taken his fair risk of such loss for his fair chance of gain), but C and D, who never had any chance at all, are drawn in by B's fall, and the final result is that A sets up his carriage on the collected sum which was once the means of living to a dozen families.
83. Nor is this all. For while real commerce is founded on real necessities or uses, and limited by these, speculation, of which the object is merely gain, seeks to excite imaginary necessities and popular desires, in order to gather its temporary profit from the supply of them. So that not only the persons who lend their money to it will be finally robbed, but the work done with their money will be, for the most part, useless, and thus the entire body of the public injured as well as the persons concerned in the transaction. Take, for instance, the architectural decorations of railways throughout the kingdom,--representing many millions of money for which no farthing of dividend can ever be forthcoming. The public will not be induced to pay the smallest fraction of higher fare to Rochester or Dover because the ironwork of the bridge which carries them over the Thames is covered with floral c.o.c.kades, and the piers of it edged with ornamental cornices. All that work is simply put there by the builders that they may put the percentage upon it into their own pockets; and, the rest of the money being thrown into that floral form, there is an end of it, as far as the shareholders are concerned. Millions upon millions have thus been spent, within the last twenty years, on ornamental arrangements of zigzag bricks, black and blue tiles, cast-iron foliage, and the like; of which millions, as I said, not a penny can ever return into the shareholders' pockets, nor contribute to public speed or safety on the line. It is all sunk forever in ornamental architecture, and (trust me for this!) _all that architecture is bad_. As such, it had incomparably better not have been built. Its only result will be to corrupt what capacity of taste or right pleasure in such work we have yet left to us! And consider a little, what other kind of result than that might have been attained if all those millions had been spent usefully: say, in buying land for the people, or building good houses for them, or (if it had been imperatively required to be spent decoratively) in laying out gardens and parks for them,--or buying n.o.ble works of art for their permanent possession,--or, best of all, establis.h.i.+ng frequent public schools and libraries. Count what those lost millions would have so accomplished for you! But you left the affair to ”supply and demand,” and the British public had not brains enough to ”demand” land, or lodging, or books. It ”demanded” cast-iron c.o.c.kades and zigzag cornices, and is ”supplied” with them, to its beat.i.tude for evermore.
84. Now, the theft we first spoke of, by falsity of workmans.h.i.+p or material, is, indeed, so far worse than these thefts by dishonest acquisition, that there is no possible excuse for it on the ground of self-deception; while many speculative thefts are committed by persons who really mean to do no harm, but think the system on the whole a fair one, and do the best they can in it for themselves. But in the real fact of the crime, when consciously committed, in the numbers reached by its injury, in the degree of suffering it causes to those whom it ruins, in the baseness of its calculated betrayal of implicit trust, in the yet more perfect vileness of the obtaining such trust by misrepresentation, only that it may be betrayed, and in the impossibility that the crime should be at all committed, except by persons of good position and large knowledge of the world--what manner of theft is so wholly unpardonable, so inhuman, so contrary to every law and instinct which binds or animates society?
And then consider farther, how many of the carriages that glitter in our streets are driven, and how many of the stately houses that gleam among our English fields are inhabited, by this kind of thief!
85. I happened to be reading this morning (29th March) some portions of the Lent services, and I came to a pause over the familiar words, ”And with Him they crucified two thieves.” Have you ever considered (I speak to you now as a professing Christian), why, in the accomplishment of the ”numbering among transgressors,” the transgressors chosen should have been especially thieves--not murderers, nor, as far as we know, sinners by any gross violence? Do you observe how the sin of theft is again and again indicated as the chiefly antagonistic one to the law of Christ? ”This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag”
(of Judas). And again, though Barabbas was a leader of sedition, and a murderer besides,--(that the popular election might be in all respects perfect)--yet St. John, in curt and conclusive account of him, fastens again on the theft. ”Then cried they all again saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.” I believe myself the reason to be that theft is indeed, in its subtle forms, the most complete and excuseless of human crimes. Sins of violence usually are committed under sudden or oppressive temptation: they may be the madness of moments; or they may be apparently the only means of extrication from calamity. In other cases, they are the diseased acts or habits of lower and brutified natures.[A] But theft involving deliberative intellect, and absence of pa.s.sion, is the purest type of wilful iniquity, in persons capable of doing right. Which being so, it seems to be fast becoming the practice of modern society to crucify its Christ indeed, as willingly as ever, in the persons of His poor; but by no means now to crucify its thieves beside Him! It elevates its thieves after another fas.h.i.+on; sets them upon a hill, that their light may s.h.i.+ne before men and that all may see their good works, and glorify their Father, in--the Opposite of Heaven.
[A] See the a.n.a.lysis of the moral system of Dante, respecting punishment, given in 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter XXIII.
86. I think your trade parliament will have to put an end to this kind of business somehow! But it cannot be done by laws merely, where the interests and circ.u.mstances are so extended and complex. Nay, even as regards lower and more defined crimes, the a.s.signed punishment is not to be thought of as a preventive means; but only as the seal of opinion set by society on the fact. Crime cannot be hindered by punishment; it will always find some shape and outlet, unpunishable or unclosed. Crime can only be truly hindered by letting no man grow up a criminal--by taking away the _will_ to commit sin; not by mere punishment of its commission. Crime, small and great, can only be truly stayed by education--not the education of the intellect only, which is, on some men, wasted, and for others mischievous; but education of the heart, which is alike good and necessary for all. So, on this matter, I will try in my next letter to say one or two things of which the silence has kept my own heart heavy this many a day.
LETTER XVI.
OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IRRESPECTIVE OF CLa.s.s-DISTINCTION. IT CONSISTS ESSENTIALLY IN GIVING HABITS OF MERCY, AND HABITS OF TRUTH.
(GENTLENESS[A] AND JUSTICE.)
_March 30th, 1867._
87. Thank you for sending me the pamphlet containing the account of the meeting of clergy and workmen, and of the reasonings which there took place. I cannot promise you that I shall read much of them, for the question to my mind most requiring discussion and explanation is not, why workmen don't go to church, but--why other people do.
However, this I know, that if among our many spiritual teachers, there are indeed any who heartily and literally believe that the wisdom they have to teach ”is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her,” and if, so believing, they will further dare to affront their congregations by the a.s.sertion; and plainly tell them they are not to hunt for rubies or gold any more, at their peril, till they have gained that which cannot be gotten for gold, nor silver weighed for the price thereof,--such believers, so preaching, and refusing to preach otherwise till they are in that attended to, will never want congregations, both of working men, and every other kind of men.
[A] ”Mercy,” in its full sense, means delight in perceiving n.o.bleness, or in doing kindness. Compare -- 50.
88. Did you ever hear of anything else so ill-named as the phantom called the ”Philosopher's Stone”? A talisman that shall turn base metal into precious metal, nature acknowledges not; nor would any but fools seek after it. But a talisman to turn base souls into n.o.ble souls, nature has given us! and that is a ”Philosopher's Stone”
indeed, but it is a stone which the builders refuse.
89. If there were two valleys in California or Australia, with two different kinds of gravel in the bottom of them; and in the one stream bed you could dig up, occasionally and by good fortune, nuggets of gold; and in the other stream bed, certainly and without hazard, you could dig up little caskets, containing talismans which gave length of days and peace; and alabaster vases of precious balms, which were better than the Arabian Dervish's ointment, and made not only the eyes to see, but the mind to know, whatever it would--I wonder in which of the stream beds there would be most diggers?
90. ”Time is money”--so say your practised merchants and economists.
None of them, however, I fancy, as they draw towards death, find that the reverse is true, and that ”money is time”? Perhaps it might be better for them, in the end, if they did not turn so much of their time into money, lest, perchance, they also turn Eternity into it!
There are other things, however, which in the same sense are money, or can be changed into it, as well as time. Health is money, wit is money, knowledge is money; and all your health, and wit, and knowledge may be changed for gold; and the happy goal so reached, of a sick, insane, and blind, auriferous old age; but the gold cannot be changed in its turn back into health and wit.
91. ”Time is money;” the words tingle in my ears so that I can't go on writing. Is it nothing better, then? If we could thoroughly understand that time was--_itself_,--would it not be more to the purpose? A thing of which loss or gain was absolute loss, and perfect gain. And that it was expedient also to buy health and knowledge with money, if so purchasable; but not to buy money with _them_?
And purchasable they are at the beginning of life, though not at its close. Purchasable, always, for others, if not for ourselves. You can buy, and cheaply, life, endless life, according to your Christian's creed--(there's a bargain for you!) but--long years of knowledge, and peace, and power, and happiness of love--these a.s.suredly and irrespectively of any creed or question,--for all those desolate and haggard children about your streets.
92. ”That is not political economy, however.” Pardon me; the all-comfortable saying, ”What he layeth out, it shall be paid him again,” is quite literally true in matters of education; no money seed can be sown with so sure and large return at harvest-time as that; only of this money-seed, more than of flesh-seed, it is utterly true, ”That which thou sowest is not quickened except it _die_.” You must forget your money, and every other material interest, and educate for education's sake only! or the very good you try to bestow will become venomous, and that and your money will be lost together.
93. And this has been the real cause of failure in our efforts for education hitherto--whether from above or below. There is no honest desire for the thing itself. The cry for it among the lower orders is because they think that, when once they have got it, they must become upper orders. There is a strange notion in the mob's mind now-a-days (including all our popular economists and educators, as we most justly may, under that brief term ”mob”), that _everybody_ can be uppermost; or at least, that a state of general scramble, in which everybody in his turn should come to the top, is a proper Utopian const.i.tution; and that, once give every lad a good education, and he cannot but come to ride in his carriage (the methods of supply of coachmen and footmen not being contemplated). And very sternly I say to you--and say from sure knowledge--that a man had better not know how to read and write, than receive education on such terms.
94. The first condition under which it can be given usefully is, that it should be clearly understood to be no means of getting on in the world, but a means of staying pleasantly in your place there. And the first elements of State education should be calculated equally for the advantage of every order of person composing the State. From the lowest to the highest cla.s.s, every child born in this island should be required by law to receive these general elements of human discipline, and to be baptized--not with a drop of water on its forehead--but in the cloud and sea of heavenly wisdom and of earthly power.