124 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



like the rising water-mark of a flood, the plough- 

 line steals up the mountain-side higher and 

 higher yet, it grates upon the bare rock and 

 stops. But what has happened meanwhile in the 

 rich valley ? Industry, skill, perseverance, prudence, 

 self-denial, far-sightedness, all, some, or one of 

 these qualities have made individuals or their 

 lucky heirs owners of more than they can culti- 

 vate themselves. The last bit of moor or mountain- 

 side was the measure of the extreme point at which 

 cultivation would pay ; that bit, hanging between 

 earth and heaven, in more than one sense, was the 

 balancing-point, the test of cultiv ability. It just pays 

 for tillage ; and nothing more. A man perchance 

 may ask your leave to dig or plough it : but for that 

 leave he offers you no return no Reddendum 

 in modern English, no RENT. 



Here then is the origin of that curious thing 

 whose definition has sorely puzzled the Political 

 Economists. And well may it have puzzled : for 

 it is the basis of one of the most complicate and 

 peculiar relations that has come to exist between 

 man and man. Mutuality of object, antagonism of 

 interest, upon the same ground, raise a demand upon 

 each of the parties for one of the most difficult 



