118 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



will that moody silence and reserve that disconnects 

 rank from rank, and class from class, and man from 

 his brother man, cease to shut us up from each 

 other's view, like sealed pacquets of humanity, des- 

 tined and directed " private and confidential " each 

 to its own special clique and circle, locking up the 

 cheap yet gladdening benevolence of words from all 

 "below "it. 



If man, vain aspiring man, did but truly measure 

 the resilient influences for good or ill, by which his 

 own existence is surrounded ; if he did but know 

 the rich freight of happiness and of positive blessing 

 to his poorer and humbler brethren, which he bears 

 within him in the mere gift of language ; if instead 

 of reserving all his soft words for the rich, and the 

 caressing of the tongue for those who least require 

 or value it, he would stoop to remark its instant ef- 

 fect, and permanent influence for good, on those 

 who seldomest receive it, how changed would be the 

 working out of that strange problem of Society 

 which is ever leaving the largest numbers most un- 

 cared for, their power and influence only felt when 

 it is dangerous. 



Of all the sweeteners of human toil, of all the 

 motive powers that give alacrity to the hand or foot, 

 readiness to the will, intelligence to mind and 



