280 LAND AND LABOR. 



will not compensate for feeble health and decreased 

 ability to enjoy life. Once more, there is the injury 

 to fellow citizens, taking the shape of undue disre- 

 gard of competitors. I hear that a great trader 

 among you deliberately endeavored to crush out 

 everyone whose business competed with his own ; 

 and manifestly the man who, making himself a slave 

 to accumulation, absorbs an inordinate share of the 

 trade or profession he is engaged in, makes life harder 

 for all others engaged in it, and excludes from it many 

 who might otherwise gain competencies. Thus, be- 

 sides the egoistic motive, there are two altruistic mo- 

 tives which should deter from this excess in work. 



"The truth is, there needs a revised ideal of life. 

 Look back through the past, or look abroad through 

 the present, and we find that the ideal of life is vari- 

 able, and depends on social conditions. Everyone 

 knows that to be a successful warrior was the highest 

 aim among all ancient peoples of note, as it is still 

 among many barbarous peoples. When we remember 

 that in the Norseman's heaven the time was to be 

 passed in daily battles, with magical healing of 

 wounds, we see how deeply rooted may become the 

 conception that fighting is man's proper business, and 

 that industry is fit only for slaves and people of low 

 degree. That is to say, when the chronic struggles 

 of races necessitate perpetual wars, there is evolved 

 an ideal of life adapted to the requirements. We 

 have changed all that in modern civilized societies, 

 especially in England, and still more in America. 

 With the decline of militant activity, and the growth 

 of industrial activity, the occupations once disgraceful 



