Human Physiology. 37 



benevolence gave a five-pound note to a wretched family in a 

 London "court." Returning a few hours after, he found the 

 whole population drunk and fighting. For such people more 

 must be done than to give them more time and more money. 

 It is the right of society, for its own protection, to compel 

 cleanliness, order, intelligence, honesty, sobriety, good manners, 

 and good morals. It is the duty of society to rescue human 

 beings from the deep pit of ignorance, vice, and misery into 

 which they have fallen. Until we do so our boasted civilisa- 

 tion is a hollow sham, our benevolence a mockery, our religion 

 the most selfish hypocrisy. It may well be said to us, " Inas- 

 much as ye did it not to the least of these my brethren, ye did 

 it not to me.' 1 



CHAPTER VL 



IGNORANCE. 



The British Labourer Statistics of Education Dangers of Ignorance 

 Ignorance and Crime Compulsory Education Much more is needed 

 Matters of Life and Death Responsibilities of the Educated Classes, 

 and especially of the Clergy Sins of Ignorance. 



MR. ROEBUCK once gave an account of the British labourer 

 a man, he said, who " swears at his wife, beats his children, 

 caresses his dog, eats, sleeps, gets drunk, and gets sober." 

 When he told his gardener, a shrewd man of fifty, that the 

 Duke of Wellington was dead, he replied, "I am very sorry for 

 -he but who was he?" 



In 1843, 33 men an d 49 women in every 100 married, made 

 their marks in the parish registers. In some counties the per 

 -centage was 50 men and 56 women. There were then eight 

 millions who could not read and write, and four millions were 



