LECT. XV. away also his father's old-fashioned pride in honesty, is content to pay two-and-sixpence in the pound, and laughs at conscience and integrity. The deluded girl. tented So the poor warehouse girl dreams of appearance; covets, that is, to be dressed as showily as those with far more money (how much has showy example to answer for!) and it proves the first The discon- step in the downward road to ruin. So a clerk, discontented with honest gain, covetously uses money entrusted to his care, for gambling or speculation. You know the frequent story. Thus discontent is rather the disturbing element of work than its real cause; it hinders instead of helps true progress. clerk. The three natural stimulants the problem of toil? to toil; What, then, is the real fact which underlies There are three natural stimulants to toil lodged in our being, viz. the needs of hunger, clothing, and shelter. These, through the developments of tastes and the power of habit, become complex, and extend to a or, better, thousand requirements. But though from one point of view they are stimulants to toil, yet it is equally true to say that they are rather the channels which nature furnishes as vents for equally natural energies. They direct the capacity of toil which is in us all. For, independently of these, the exercise of energy is grateful to men in health and strength, and not the channels of toil. mental only grateful, but beneficial. The hardest thing LECT. XV. of all for a strong and healthy person is to do nothing, to have no vent for energy, to have all that hunger and nakedness require, and nothing more to labour for. "There is no true misery," Toil and says Carlyle, "but in that of not being able to life go work." It is true too, that the more developed together. is mental power in a man or a people the more of energy is evoked also. The listless peoples are at the lowest ebb of existence; the people of most mental life are energetic in their very games and pleasures. It is urged that climate has a great deal to do with it; doubtless, but not so much as is supposed. Quicken the life of the mind, and physical energy surmounts the lassitude of climate. In countries where now Climate existence is low and lassitude reigns supreme, there were once toiling millions, laborious commerce, conquering armies, the splendours and resources of mighty cities: The life of mind was fuller. Quicken mental life, I say, and occupa- Full life tion becomes a necessity, not because of dis- explains it. content, but to satisfy the life within, as a caged bird ceaselessly hops from perch to perch in the desire of satisfying its instincts of freedom and activity. It hops not for its seed-that is safebut for action's sake. So in Eden (profound hint Man in of man's true nature) "the man dressed" the not the ex planation of toil. Eden. Latent energy. LECT. XV. garden not so much for food as for the delight of exercising energy. The true explanatory fact of toil, therefore, is latent energy developed by mental life, and directed into certain channels by natural wants. We see it exemplified in those ardent labourers in the field of science whose passion is to advance knowledge and subdue Pursuit of nature. Can the motive-power which urges them knowledge. on through days and nights be called in any true sense discontent? Rather, it is the gratification Of an idea. of a high curiosity, the exercise of an overpowerPalissy. ing instinct, as when Palissy toiled to perfect his idea in pottery, and to express the genius which possessed him like a passion. It is the desire to triumph over the secret and the difficult, as when The Alpine the mountaineer sets out to scale some lofty, climber. The implanted instinct of dominion. Idleness and overtoil. glittering peak, which human foot as yet has never trod. Yes, there is an impelling instinct in man to toil in order to subdue and triumph. "He gave him to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” "Be fruitful," said the Creator, "and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." It is true, there are two things which seem to clash with this view, viz. idleness and slavish toil, both of which fall a prey to discontent, though for opposite reasons. It is true also, to a certain Law is of the ideal, not the fallen. extent, that the human mind perversely desires LECT. XV not so much the useful as the wilful. But these things, from the true point of view, are only the accidents of a fallen nature. The great object of the law of God is to call men back to a nature renewed according to its true ideal. What we have ever to bear in mind is, that the law of life is the law which is according to the true ideal of human nature. Therefore it is (yes, even a moral axiom) that discontent such as the world pleads for can never be the mainspring of toil, but is rather always the disturbing element of true life. Apply the thought to two particulars to Good work good work and to happiness. What is good work? My answer is, of course, not technical, but moral; good work is that work into which a sense of duty is wrought. It is that kind of work which a man does when he is not thinking of wages, but of what is due to God and his own manhood. Find me a definition which requires more skill, more care, more energy, in every stroke of the workman, but yet which leaves the mind so free from anxiety, and worry, and grudging—those fatal enemies of true toil. This defined. is the political economy of labour which our Lord Its political teaches when He says, take no thought for life, but think of duty and God's will. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and economy. LECT. XV. food and clothing shall come from your Father in heaven." But this is Divine content, to which the world's discontent is the very opposite. No good That is hasty, peevish, slovenly, careless, grudgwork in discontent. ing, anxious. It sets itself to do the minimum equivalent for its wages, and it has no real heart in doing that. As I said, its great object is not to do, but to get, not to increase the world's wealth, but to possess it selfishly—to make others toil whilst it enjoys. Happiness and discontent. Apply the truth to individual happiness. Does discontent increase joy? It is the very bane of life confessedly. Most pitiably it plays the fool with life. For want of something superfluous (and it always hankers after the superfluous) it cannot enjoy what it has. Discontent Fixing its eyes fretfully on things distant, it self. grows blind to the beauty which is close at hand. "It never is, but always to be, blest." It is not until things are lost, that it begins perversely to value them, not until knowledge is grief, and the truth self-torture. As Browning in his 'Paracelsus' says: cheats it Browning. "Sweet human love is gone! 'Tis only when they spring to heaven that angels Who care not for their presence, muse or sleep, |