280 THE GOSPEL, AND THE SOCIAL CEEED OF SCIENCE. 



certainly held, if not expressly asserted, by many besides 

 certain socialists and trade unionists : by hereditary and 

 privileged imbecility, by the rich who have not laboured, 

 by the dull and incapable of alljranks and callings. The 

 principle is even partially assented to by such a just and 

 capable thinker as the late Mr. Mill, who, in criticising 

 certain forms of communism, thinks that the highest 

 justice would not reward superior ability in proportion 

 to its superiority, as that would be " giving to him that 

 hath," thereby increasing Nature's injustice in making 

 men unequal. But to this and to the above views it 

 may be fairly replied that the first injustice being of 

 Nature's own making, what follows naturally afterwards 

 is not unjust. What cannot in the nature of things be 

 prevented, save by interposing artificial obstacles more 

 evidently unjust, is not to be regarded as an inequitable 

 system ; at least it is one which, if allowed full play, 

 would greatly profit men in general for a considerable 

 time to come. 



Even if it were unjust that superior faculty, being to 

 some extent its own reward, should be further rewarded 

 by a correspondingly large share of money or material 

 things, still it must be remembered that in the fields of 

 industry at least, talent and energy will not work for 

 less ; if they are not adequately rewarded, if they do not 

 ensure a return in proportion to their excellence, they 

 will not be exercised, and in such a state of things all 

 would suffer. The wealth of the nation, which is finally 

 distributed far and wide to all, has for its mainspring 

 the somewhat selfish but most beneficial energy of men 

 aiming at their own benefit, striving to become rich, and 

 this source would be in a great measure dried up if 

 energy, industry, and talent could not upon an average 

 calculate upon something like a corresponding return. 



