666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



papa, stumbles over a footstool so carefully colored like the carpet that 

 it did not catch his eyes but his feet ; and, falling, is hurt severely by 

 a sharp projection on chair, sofa, table-leg, fender, scuttle, or what 

 not, where no sharp projections are wanted, and none ever should be. 

 In numberless ways miseries, individually small, but effectively dimin- 

 ishing happiness, result from general want of intelligence. " Unpunc- 

 tuality and want of system," again, as Mr. Herbert Spencer points out, 

 " are perpetual sources of annoyance. The unskillf ulness of the cook 

 causes frequent vexation and occasional indigestion. Lack of fore- 

 thought in a house-maid leads to a fall over a bucket in a dark passage ; 

 and inattention to a message, or forgetfulness in delivering it, entails 

 failure in an important engagement." 



It is thus the interest of each one of us, and being also for the good 

 of all becomes the duty of each, to be altruistic in regard to the mental 

 progress of the community — "we benefit egoistically by such altruism 

 as aids in raising the average intelligence." 



But we are equally interested in the improvement of the moral 

 feeling pervading the social body. The happiness of the whole com- 

 munity is diminished by the prevalence of unconscientious ways. In 

 small matters as in large the principle prevails. We are all interested 

 in helping to teach men the duty of considering the rights and claims 

 of others. From the man who hustles others off the pavement or oc- 

 cupies an unfair share of what should be general conversation, to the 

 man who swindles by gross aggressions or serious breach of contract, 

 the products of a state of low average morality diminish the happiness 

 of the community. The aggregate of discomfort wrought by paltry 

 offenses is serious though each separate offense may produce but slight 

 mischief. Moreover, offenses paltry in themselves may produce very 

 serious results. The disobedience of a nurse in some small matter 

 (such as taking her charge to this or that place) may lead to accident 

 affecting life or limb, or to disease ending in permanent injury or in 

 death. In other ways, mischievous results of greater or less impor- 

 tance are brought about by defective moral sense in small matters, 

 while, when we consider the effects of want of conscientiousness in 

 business, we recognize still more clearly how much we are all con- 

 cerned in the moral improvement of the community. " Yesterday," 

 says Mr. Herbert Spencer, " the illness of a child due to foul gases led 

 to the discovery of a drain that had become choked because it was ill- 

 made by a dishonest builder under supervision of a careless or bribed 

 surveyor. To-day workmen employed to rectify it occasion cost and 

 inconvenience by dawdling, and their low standard of work, deter- 



idiotic absurdity. Nine tenths of our sofa and arm-chair patterns, however, are " too 

 absurd for any use," as they say in America. Among my own pet abominations I may 

 mention nearly all the methods (save the mark !) for curtaining windows, the ridiculous 

 ways in which looking-glasses are swung, the preposterously unscientific forms of ink- 

 stands, and some others quw nunc pcrsanbcre longum. — R. P. 



