'LANDLORD AND TENANT/ 117 



To those complicate relations of life in which there 

 is at once antagonism of interest yet mutuality of ob- 

 ject; to that relation (for present instance) implied by 

 the words 'Landlord and Tenant/ how close, how 

 admirably apposite seems the quaint rule laid down 

 by the good old churchman ! ' Place yourself in your 

 neighbour's position/ he seems to say (though indeed 

 his language needs no paraphrase), 'and look back 

 upon yourself from that point : the thing is difficult, 

 and there is little danger of your getting too perfect 

 in the art of looking on your own interest with your 

 neighbour's eyes. Let the Antagonism between your 

 interest and his be for the time imaginary, the Mu- 

 tuality real. So will you see your own best interest 

 and happiness in truer light and leisure, by taking 

 your neighbour's judgment, even for his own ends, 

 into council with your own.' 



The too frequent practice is to do the exact reverse : 

 to realize the antagonism, and make the mutuality a 

 fiction and a humbug. "What the effect is first upon 

 the soil, secondly upon the labourer, and thirdly on 

 the public wealth, wherever this mistaken system has 

 been long in operation, let him say who has seen a 

 country, a district, or even a single acre which has 

 been the arena of pure unmitigated selfishness, on the 



