250 BALANCE OF ENJOYMENT. 



" Mason " architect on weaving and cementing into the last mesh 

 the last stone of his tediously constructed pyramid-; or that he 

 may not, beneath its solid protection, betake himself, with pecu- 

 liar relish, to his first toil-earned meal of lichen ? And so with 

 the "Tent-maker," may we not, in like manner, suppose that, 

 after the pains of shaping and cutting and joining a portion of 

 one leaf to construct his light pavilion, he must proceed to regale 

 upon another with a greater degree of zest than the " Miner " 

 whose repasts are attended with no trouble but the eating ? 



Amongst ourselves it is at all events indisputable that the 

 good things of existence are enjoyed in a measure very much 

 proportioned to the labour employed in their attainment ; the 

 exceptions to the rule resulting, usually, from disordered 

 economy, political and moral. If in our own world of reason 

 and humanity, things were but as rationally and humanely 

 ordered as in the insect world of instinct, the balance of ex- 

 ertion and enjoyment would almost invariably be maintained, 

 and the sentence of labour, our inherited portion, become our 

 best estate. That sentence, which our Supreme Ruler has 

 mercifully rendered capable of being transmuted into a blessing, 

 is only perpetuated as a curse through the permitted and 

 abused agency of man on man. Only, in other words, do 

 they owe misery to labour on whom labour, considered as a 

 tax, has been too severely levied, and with whom the labouring 

 powers, mental or corporeal, viewed as a possession, have been 

 defrauded of their due. But alas ! as society is at present 



