268 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of giving to worthy objects. The capi- 

 talist could not render a much worse 

 service to the community than to take 

 entirely off other people's shoulders 

 burdens that it is best every one should 

 bear in some degree. No, but the capi- 

 talist should certainly employ his great 

 advantages and resources in bringing 

 the conditions of a really human life 

 within the reach of ever - increasing 

 numbers of human beings. It does not 

 do to regard our fellow-men as mere ci- 

 phers, as pawns on the chess-board of 

 life, to be used or sacrificed according 

 to the exigencies of the game. Mr. 

 Gladstone was greatly laughed at some 

 years ago by the cynical school so large- 

 ly represented in English journalism, 

 particularly in weekly journalism, be- 

 cause he had used the argument that, 

 after all, the voters whom he proposed 

 to enfranchise were " our own flesh and 

 blood." For all that, the truth he hint- 

 ed at is a good one to remember. Cer- 

 tainly it is a bad one to forget; and 

 terrible trouble may come of carrying 

 forgetfulness of it too far. Our object 

 in this brief article has been mainly to 

 express the opinion that much good 

 would come of greater frankness on 

 both sides in the now pending labor 

 contests. If both sides would really 

 talk business, which they can only do 

 by expressing their real thoughts and 

 purposes, there would be more hope 

 of a permanent reconciliation. We be- 

 lieve that, when it came to the rub, 

 thousands of the working class would 

 shrink from pronouncing against the 

 regime of free competition ; while the 

 holders of wealth would certainly be 

 slow to formulate the doctrine of social 

 irresponsibility. 



"DOITT!" 



A little manual of social proprieties, 

 published under the name of "Dont! " 

 has obtained a wide circulation ; and, as 

 its negative precepts are inspired by 

 much good sense and good taste, we 



have no doubt the tiny book will prove 

 of real value. But, while good social 

 habits are well worth forming, good 

 intellectual ones are at least of equal 

 importance; and it occurs to us that 

 there is ample room for a manual that, 

 in a series of brief and pithy sentences, 

 would place people on their guard 

 against the most obvious intellectual 

 errors and vices. Possibly the objec- 

 tion might be raised that, while every- 

 body wants to be cured of his or her 

 social solecisms (if the expression may 

 be permitted), none so little desire to 

 be cured of intellectual faults as those 

 who are most subject to them. Who, 

 it might be asked, applies the moral 

 denunciations of the pulpit to himself? 

 Who would apply to himself the cau- 

 tions of your proposed manual ? Grant- 

 ed, we reply, that it is easier to bring 

 home to the individual conscience the 

 sin of eating with a knife than the sin 

 of reasoning falsely or acting unjust- 

 ly, we should still be glad to see a tell- 

 ing compilation of the most needed 

 "Dont's" for the use of all and singu- 

 lar who make any profession of an in- 

 dependent use of their intellects. Some 

 of the maxims would be commonplace ; 

 but then the object would not be to lay 

 down novel truths so much as to en- 

 force old ones. Let us throw out a 

 few at random, by way of a start : 

 Don't think that what you don't know 



is not worth knowing. 

 Don't conclude that, because you can't 

 understand a thing, nobody can un- 

 derstand it. 

 Don't despise systems of thought that 

 other men have elaborated because 

 you can not place yourself at once at 

 their point of view. 

 Don't interpret things too much accord- 

 ing to your own likes and dislikes. 

 The world was not made to please 

 anybody in particular, or to confirm 

 anybody's theories. 

 Don't imagine that, because a thing is 

 plain to you, it ought to be equally so 

 to everybody else. 



