A WORD AT PARTING. 93 



between employer and employed, in civilized Eng- 

 land. 



When will this stain depart from our land ? When 

 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, destined 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 effect, 

 and permanent influence for good, on those who sel- 

 domest receive it, how changed would be the working 

 out of that strange problem of society which is ever 

 leaving the largest numbers most uncared for, their 

 power and influence only felt when it is dangerous. 



Of all the sweeteners of human toil, of all the 



