66 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



is only managing these details in the best interests of the 

 community at large. But those in the poorer classes look at 

 all these subjects from the standpoint that poverty entails 

 upon them, because the possession of a long line of ancestors 

 who have been reared in poverty, and whose minds have been 

 directed along the narrow road of mental poverty, because their 

 poverty has precluded leisure for mental occupation. 



Neither they nor their ancestors have been able to 

 afford the heavy cost entailed by the purchase of books ; every 

 moment of their lives having been spent in care and want, 

 which were to teach them economy and evolve their energy ; 

 and they have therefore had no time for study nor the means 

 of acquiring the characteristics of judgment or thrift or self- 

 control. Hence they have no past memories of ancestors who 

 have not experienced the difficulties of poverty, nor lacked the 

 mental energy required, let alone the time to think or study. 

 Hence they cannot conceive that it is a duty to devote time 

 and wealth to the public good, and to be charitable in the 

 donation of time, nor that time should receive the payment 

 of honour and esteem instead of cash. But it is the duty of 

 the wealthy to contribute large amounts of labour free of 

 charge, a duty which the poor are unable to perform through 

 the circumstances of their poverty. All their ancestors have 

 had the experience that the main object of life is to sell their 

 time for the highest possible value that labour can obtain, so 

 they do not realize that time and money are the same. How 

 are persons so bred, to realise, that it is the duty of some to 

 devote their time to the benefit of others, with no other re- 

 ward than honour and respect, just as it is their duty to give 

 fair value in time and work for the pay they receive. 



Such people have been reared, under hard physical exertion, 

 so cannot conceive that work is the solace of exist- 

 ence, and that it is the love of occupation that produces happi- 

 ness, and that it is as much a duty for them to devote their 

 labour for the good of others, as it is the duty of their superiors 

 to devote their time to the same object. They cannot, there- 

 fore, conceive that work is a necessity of existence. They 

 yearn for physical rest, so cannot realize the fact that mental 

 work is less conducive to rest and happiness than bodily work, 

 nor that mental energy can be the harder strain of the two. 

 They never look beyond the day's work, so how can they 



