INTRODUCTION xxxix 



but I never insisted upon my thoughts being followed. I 

 design them well, but I leave every man to judge for himself 

 in his own affairs without censuring of them for not thinking 

 in their own concerns as I do. If my advices are not liked 

 the trouble that is lost is mine, and I shall always be glad 

 they do better, without taking ill their not being of my 

 opinion.' As an employer he was painfully alive to the weak 

 points in the undeveloped industrialism of his country. To 

 Bell he writes (p. 48) : ' You know I have frequently com- 

 plained of triflers and all being Idle, and that you take 

 excuses not at all sufficient for their making little advance.' 

 To similar purpose another letter says (p. 77) : ' Attend you 

 the Men close and make them work or discharge them. It is 

 picking my pocket to make me pay Men that can't or won't 

 work.' Evidently a century of the Catechism as the mainstay 

 of education had not taught the peasant labourer to do 

 justly. The real reason for such idling, however, was not 

 lack of intelligence, for the people were shrewd enough. 

 ' Our people,' he justly observes, ' proceed as half asleep 

 without any lively spirit in contriving or executing, and I 

 really believe much of this proceeds from our low diet both 

 in eating and drinking. Our common food gives little 

 strength to either body or mind, and our malt drink is the 

 most stupifying stuff ever was contrived.' As a well-drilled 

 official he would hustle the jog-trot peasant, who seems to 

 have acted upon the Spanish maxim, ' Never do to-day what 

 you can put off till to-morrow.' ' Delays,' he says, ' are the 

 delight of people in Scotland . . . being punctual is a great 

 sin in our country . . . doing things by halfs.' He shrewdly 

 sees that all these defects are great hindrances to business. 

 The country was sadly in need of a substantial increase in the 

 circulation of money, then both scarce and debased. One 

 home industry — gardening — was practicable, but had to be 

 created. The business views of his age, however, stood in the 

 way. * If you propose to follow your father's narrow, vastly 



