10 INTRODUCTION. [No. 



the harm is not very great to us or to them. Nor does it 

 hence follow that the descendants of labourers are 

 always to be labourers. The path upwards is steep 

 and long, to be sure. Industry, care, skill, excellence, 

 in the present parent, lay the foundation of a rise, 

 under more favourable circumstances, for his children. 

 The children of these take another rise; and, by-and- 

 by, the descendants of the present labourer become 

 gentlemen. 



14. This is the natural progress. It is by attempt- 

 ting to reach the top at a single leap that so much 

 misery is produced in the world ; and the propensity 

 to make such attempts has been cherished and encou- 

 raged by the strange projects that we have witnessed 

 of late years for making the labourers virtuous and 

 happy by giving them what is called education. 

 The education which I speak of consists in bringing 

 children up to labour with steadiness, with care, and 

 with skill ; to show them how to do as many useful 

 things as possible ; to teach them to do them all in 

 the best manner ; to set them an example in industry, 

 sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness ; to make all these 

 habitual to them, so that they never shall be liable to 

 fall into the contrary; to let them always see a good 

 living proceeding from labour, and thus to remove 

 from them the temptation to get at the goods of others by 

 violent or fraudulent means, and to keep far from their 

 minds all the inducements to hypocrisy and deceit. 



15. A nd, bear in mind, that if the state of the labourer 

 has its disadvantages when compared with other call- 

 ings and conditions of life, it has also its advantages. It 

 is free from the torments of ambition, and from a great 

 part of the causes of ill-health, for which not all the 

 riches in the world and all the circumstances of high 

 rank are a compensation. The able and prudent labourer 

 is always safe, at the least ; and that is what few men 

 are who are lifted above him. They have losses and 

 crosses to fear, the very thought of which never enters 

 his mind, if he act well his part towards himself, his 

 family and his neighbour. 



16. But, the basis of good to him, is steady and 



