COMPETITION. 131 



community, nay of the whole earth itself, are strictly 

 limited, and a due proportion only of these resources 

 must be utilised as necessity dictates. It is quite pos- 

 sible that the present standard of comfort of the 

 labouring classes may be in the future greatly raised, 

 and their horizon widened ; still, relatively to others, 

 they will always be poor. If everyone is able to dress 

 in silk and to eat lamb and green peas, then this privi- 

 lege will cease to be valued, for we set store not on what 

 we possess, but on what we do not possess. The field 

 and town labourers to-day eat better food, dress better, 

 and have far greater advantages than had their fathers, 

 yet relatively to other classes they remain what their 

 fathers were. They are " poor men/' they pity them- 

 selves, and the more ambitious strive for what they 

 see others in possession of. At the present time the 

 poor man may, with some show of reason and hope 

 of succeeding in greater things, be discontented with 

 his lot, and wish for other pursuits and other advan- 

 tages, for which he may feel himself to be, and in 

 many cases is, most aptly fitted \ but if the present 

 tendencies continue, whereby the best amongst them 

 rise to higher things as the necessary consequence of 

 their ambition, there will not be found amongst the 

 labourers of the future any considerable number left 

 who will have sufficient innate capacity to under- 

 take pursuits requiring much mental effort and bodily 

 skill. Class will then be separate from class by real 



