Part 22 (1/2)

_Does_ it vanish then? Are you sure of that?--sure, that the nothingness of the grave will be a rest fro shadohich disquiets itself in vain, cannot change into the smoke of the torment that ascends for ever?[250] Will any answer that they _are_ sure of it, and that there is no fear, nor hope, nor desire, nor labour, whither they go?[251] Be it so: will you not, then, make as sure of the Life that now is, as you are of the Death that is to coive them to it wisely, as well as perfectly? And see, first of all, that you _have_ hearts, and sound hearts, too, to give Because you have no heaven to look for, is that any reason that you should renorant of this wonderful and infinite earth, which is firh your days are nu darkness sure, is it necessary that you should share the degradation of the brute, because you are condemned to its mortality; or live the life of the moth, and of the worm, because you are to companion them in the dust? Not so; we may have but a few thousands of days to spend, perhaps hundreds only--perhaps tens; nay, the longest of our time and best, looked back on, will be but as aof an eye; still we areclouds ”He ers; the momentary fire, His minister”;[252]

and shall we do less than _these_? Let us do the work of men while we bear the form of them; and, as we snatch our narrow portion of time out of Eternity, snatch also our narrow inheritance of passion out of Ih our lives _be_ as a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away

But there are some of you who believe not this--who think this cloud of life has no such close--that it is to float, revealed and illumined, upon the floor of heaven, in the day when He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him[253] Some day, you believe, within these five, or ten, or twenty years, for every one of us the judgment will be set, and the books opened[254] If that be true, far ment--every day is a Dies Irae,[255] and writes its irrevocable verdict in the flarave are opened? It waits at the doors of your houses--it waits at the corners of your streets; we are in the es--the es--the elee, as they e as they indulge

Let us, for our lives, do the work of Men while we bear the form of them, if indeed those lives are _Not_ as a vapour, and do _Not_ vanish away

”The work of men”--and what is that? Well, wewholly ready to do it But , not of e are to do, but of e are to get; and the best of us are sunk into the sin of Ananias,[256] and it is a mortal one--ant to keep back part of the price; and we continually talk of taking up our cross, as if the only har to be carried, instead of to be--crucified upon ”They that are His have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts”[257] Does that ious trial, of crisis for every interest and hope of hu, none put the of lace off their footmen's coats, to save the world? Or does it rather mean, that they are ready to leave houses, lands, and kindreds--yes, and life, if need be?

Life!--soh to throw that away, joyless as we have made it But ”_station_ in Life”--how reat objection, where there is question of finding so useful to do--”We cannot leave our stations in Life”?

Those of us who really cannot--that is to say, who can onlyin so to do; and all that they have to see to is, that they do it honestly and with all theirin the station of life to which Providence has called thees, and all the foote houses they can possibly pay for; and, once for all, I say that if ever Providence _did_ put them into stations of that sort--which is not at all a matter of certainty--Providence is just now very distinctly calling theain Levi's station in life was the receipt of custom; and Peter's, the shore of Galilee; and Paul's, the antechah Priest,--which ”station in life”

each had to leave, with brief notice

And, whatever our station in life may be, at this crisis, those of us who ht first to live on as little as we can; and, secondly, to do all the wholeso all the sure good we can

And sure good is, first in feeding people, then in dressing people, then in lodging people, and lastly in rightly pleasing people, with arts, or sciences, or any other subject of thought

I say first in feeding; and, once for all, do not let yourselves be deceived by any of the common talk of ”indiscri hungry, nor the industrious hungry, nor the ary, but siry[258] It is quite true, infallibly true, that if any man will not work, neither should he eat[259]--think of that, and every tientle, ”How much work have I done to-day for my dinner?” But the proper way to enforce that order on those below you, as well as on yourselves, is not to leave vagabonds and honest people to starve together, but very distinctly to discern and seize your vagabond; and shut your vagabond up out of honest people's way, and very sternly then see that, until he has worked, he does _not_ eat

But the first thing is to be sure you have the food to give; and, therefore, to enforce the organization of vast activities in agriculture and in commerce, for the production of the wholeso and distribution of it, so that no fas There is plenty of work in this business alone, and at once, for any nue in it

Secondly, dressing people--that is to say, urging every one within reach of your influence to be always neat and clean, and giving the so In so far as they absolutely refuse, youcare that no children within your sphere of influence shall any ht up with such habits; and that every person who is willing to dress with propriety shall have encouragement to do so And the first absolutely necessary step towards this is the gradual adoption of a consistent dress for different ranks of persons, so that their rank shall be known by their dress; and the restriction of the changes of fashi+on within certain limits All which appears for the present quite impossible; but it is only so far even difficult as it is difficult to conquer our vanity, frivolity, and desire to appear e are not And it is not, nor ever shall be, creed of mine, that these mean and shallow vices are unconquerable by Christian wo people, which you may think should have been put first, but I put it third, because we e thereat deal of vigorous legislation, and cutting down of vested interests that stand in the way, and after that, or before that, so far as we can get it, thorough sanitary and remedial action in the houses that we have; and then the building of roups of limited extent, kept in proportion to their strea and wretched suburb anywhere, but clean and busy street within, and the open country without, with a belt of beautiful garden and orchard round the walls, so that frorass, and the sight of far horizon, ht be reachable in a few minutes' walk This is the final aiood to be instantly done, when, and as, we can; roofs aps in them--walls buttressed that totter--and floors propped that shake; cleanliness and order enforced with our own hands and eyes, till we are breathless, every day And all the fine arts will healthily follow I ht of stone stairs all doith bucket and broom, in a Savoy inn, where they hadn't washed their stairs since they first went up them; and I never made a better sketch than that afternoon

These, then, are the three first needs of civilized life; and the law for every Christian man and woman is, that they shall be in direct service towards one of these three needs, as far as is consistent with their own special occupation, and if they have no special business, then wholly in one of these services And out of such exertion in plain duty all other good will come; for in this direct contention with material evil, you will find out the real nature of all evil; you will discern by the various kinds of resistance, what is really the fault and ood; also you will find the iven, and truths will come thus down to us which the speculation of all our lives would never have raised us up to You will find nearly every educational proble; everybody will become of use in their own fittest way, and will learn what is best for them to know in that use Competitive examination will then, and not till then, be wholesome, because it will be daily, and calm, and in practice; and on these faes, will be surely edified and sustained the greater arts and splendid theoretical sciences

But much more than this On such holy and simple practice will be founded, indeed, at last, an infallible religion The greatest of all the mysteries of life, and the ion, which is not daily founded on rational, effective, humble, and helpful action Helpful action, observe! for there is just one lahich obeyed, keeps all religions pure--forgotten, ious faith, dark or bright, we allow our minds to dwell upon the points in which we differ fro, and in the devil's power That is the essence of the Pharisee's thanksgiving--”Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are”[260] At everyto find out, not in e differ with other people, but in e agree with the that should be done, kind or good, (and who but fools couldn't?) then do it; push at it together: you can't quarrel in a side-by-side push; but the in talking, they nacity for piety, and if's all over I will not speak of the crimes which in past times have been committed in the name of Christ, nor of the follies which are at this hour held to be consistent with obedience to Him; but I _will_ speak of the ious sentiuiding soul of every nation, the splendour of its youthful ht of its irls who have never been taught to do a single useful thing thoroughly; who cannot seho cannot cook, who cannot cast an account, nor prepare a medicine, whose whole life has been passed either in play or in pride; you will find girls like these, when they are earnest-hearted, cast all their innate passion of religious spirit, which was h the irksorievous and vain reat Book, of which no syllable was ever yet to be understood but through a deed; all the instinctive wisdolory of their pure consciences warped into fruitless agony concerning questions which the laws of common serviceable life would have either solved for theirl any true work that will ht, with the consciousness that her fellow-creatures have indeed been the better for her day, and the powerless sorrow of her enthusiasm will transform itself into a majesty of radiant and beneficent peace

So with our youths We once taught them to make Latin verses, and called them educated; noe teach them to leap and to row, to hit a ball with a bat, and call theh, can they sow, can they plant at the right time, or build with a steady hand? Is it the effort of their lives to be chaste, knightly, faithful, holy in thought, lovely in word and deed? Indeed it is, with soland is in thee from the toil of war to the toil of mercy; and their intellect frohthood from the errantry of adventure to the state and fidelity of a kingly power And then, indeed, shall abide, for them, and for us, an incorruptible felicity, and an infallible religion; shall abide for us Faith, no more to be assailed by temptation, no more to be defended by wrath and by fear;--shall abide with us Hope, no more to be quenched by the years that overwhelm, or made ashamed by the shadows that betray:--shall abide for us, and with us, the greatest of these; the abiding will, the abiding nareatest of these is Charity[261]

[230] _Isaiah_ xl, 12

[231] I have sometimes been asked what this means I intended it to set forth the wisdodoms, and what follows to set forth their wisdo for wealth [Ruskin]

[232] See Wordsworth's poem, _My heart leaps up when I behold_

[233] See _Genesis_ ii, 15, and the opening lines of the first selection in this volume

[234] _Joshua_ ix, 21

[235] In his _Discourses on Art_ Cf pp 24 ff above

[236] See _The Two Paths_, ---- 28 _et seq_ [Ruskin]

[237] References reed with Mill and Gladstone in advocating the establishment of a peasant-proprietorshi+p in Ireland