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第10章

lay morals-第10章

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ociety and your own convenient situation in  its upper and more ornamental stories。  Neither is it enough  to buy the loaf with a sixpence; for then you are only  changing the point of the inquiry; and you must first have  BOUGHT THE SIXPENCE。  Service for service: how have you  bought your sixpences?  A man of spirit desires certainty in  a thing of such a nature; he must see to it that there is  some reciprocity between him and mankind; that he pays his  expenditure in service; that he has not a lion's share in  profit and a drone's in labour; and is not a sleeping partner  and mere costly incubus on the great mercantile concern of  mankind。

Services differ so widely with different gifts; and some are  so inappreciable to external tests; that this is not only a  matter for the private conscience; but one which even there  must be leniently and trustfully considered。  For remember  how many serve mankind who do no more than meditate; and how  many are precious to their friends for no more than a sweet  and joyous temper。  To perform the function of a man of  letters it is not necessary to write; nay; it is perhaps  better to be a living book。  So long as we love we serve; so  long as we are loved by others; I would almost say that we  are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a  friend。  The true services of life are inestimable in money;  and are never paid。  Kind words and caresses; high and wise  thoughts; humane designs; tender behaviour to the weak and  suffering; and all the charities of man's existence; are  neither bought nor sold。

Yet the dearest and readiest; if not the most just; criterion  of a man's services; is the wage that mankind pays him or;  briefly; what he earns。  There at least there can be no  ambiguity。  St。 Paul is fully and freely entitled to his  earnings as a tentmaker; and Socrates fully and freely  entitled to his earnings as a sculptor; although the true  business of each was not only something different; but  something which remained unpaid。  A man cannot forget that he  is not superintended; and serves mankind on parole。  He would  like; when challenged by his own conscience; to reply: 'I  have done so much work; and no less; with my own hands and  brain; and taken so much profit; and no more; for my own  personal delight。'  And though St。 Paul; if he had possessed  a private fortune; would probably have scorned to waste his  time in making tents; yet of all sacrifices to public opinion  none can be more easily pardoned than that by which a man;  already spiritually useful to the world; should restrict the  field of his chief usefulness to perform services more  apparent; and possess a livelihood that neither stupidity nor  malice could call in question。  Like all sacrifices to public  opinion and mere external decency; this would certainly be  wrong; for the soul should rest contented with its own  approval and indissuadably pursue its own calling。  Yet; so  grave and delicate is the question; that a man may well  hesitate before he decides it for himself; he may well fear  that he sets too high a valuation on his own endeavours after  good; he may well condescend upon a humbler duty; where  others than himself shall judge the service and proportion  the wage。

And yet it is to this very responsibility that the rich are  born。  They can shuffle off the duty on no other; they are  their own paymasters on parole; and must pay themselves fair  wages and no more。  For I suppose that in the course of ages;  and through reform and civil war and invasion; mankind was  pursuing some other and more general design than to set one  or two Englishmen of the nineteenth century beyond the reach  of needs and duties。  Society was scarce put together; and  defended with so much eloquence and blood; for the  convenience of two or three millionaires and a few hundred  other persons of wealth and position。  It is plain that if  mankind thus acted and suffered during all these generations;  they hoped some benefit; some ease; some wellbeing; for  themselves and their descendants; that if they supported law  and order; it was to secure fair…play for all; that if they  denied themselves in the present; they must have had some  designs upon the future。  Now; a great hereditary fortune is  a miracle of man's wisdom and mankind's forbearance; it has  not only been amassed and handed down; it has been suffered  to be amassed and handed down; and surely in such a  consideration as this; its possessor should find only a new  spur to activity and honour; that with all this power of  service he should not prove unserviceable; and that this mass  of treasure should return in benefits upon the race。  If he  had twenty; or thirty; or a hundred thousand at his banker's;  or if all Yorkshire or all California were his to manage or  to sell; he would still be morally penniless; and have the  world to begin like Whittington; until he had found some way  of serving mankind。  His wage is physically in his own hand;  but; in honour; that wage must still be earned。  He is only  steward on parole of what is called his fortune。  He must  honourably perform his stewardship。  He must estimate his own  services and allow himself a salary in proportion; for that  will be one among his functions。  And while he will then be  free to spend that salary; great or little; on his own  private pleasures; the rest of his fortune he but holds and  disposes under trust for mankind; it is not his; because he  has not earned it; it cannot be his; because his services  have already been paid; but year by year it is his to  distribute; whether to help individuals whose birthright and  outfit have been swallowed up in his; or to further public  works and institutions。

At this rate; short of inspiration; it seems hardly possible  to be both rich and honest; and the millionaire is under a  far more continuous temptation to thieve than the labourer  who gets his shilling daily for despicable toils。  Are you  surprised?  It is even so。  And you repeat it every Sunday in  your churches。  'It is easier for a camel to pass through the  eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of  God。'  I have heard this and similar texts ingeniously  explained away and brushed from the path of the aspiring  Christian by the tender Great…heart of the parish。  One  excellent clergyman told us that the 'eye of a needle' meant  a low; Oriental postern through which camels could not pass  till they were unloaded … which is very likely just; and then  went on; bravely confounding the 'kingdom of God' with  heaven; the future paradise; to show that of course no rich  person could expect to carry his riches beyond the grave …  which; of course; he could not and never did。  Various greedy  sinners of the congregation drank in the comfortable doctrine  with relief。  It was worth the while having come to church  that Sunday morning!  All was plain。  The Bible; as usual;  meant nothing in particular; it was merely an obscure and  figurative school…copybook; and if a man were only  respectable; he was a man after God's own heart。

Alas! I fear not。  And though this matter of a man's services  is one for his own conscience; there are some cases in which  it is difficult to restrain the mind from judging。  Thus I  shall be very easily persuaded that a man has earned his  daily bread; and if he has but a friend or two to whom his  company is delightful at heart; I am more than persuaded at  once。  But it will be very hard to persuade me that any one  has earned an income of a hundred thousand。  What he is to  his friends; he still would be if he were made penniless to… morrow; for as to the courtiers of luxury and power; I will  neither consider them friends; nor indeed consider them at  all。  What he does for mankind there are most likely hundreds  who would do the same; as effectually for the race and as  pleasurably to themselves; for the merest fraction of this  monstrous wage。  Why it is paid; I am; therefore; unable to  conceive; and as the man pays it himself; out of funds in his  detention; I have a certain backwardness to think him honest。

At least; we have gained a very obvious point: that WHAT A  MAN SPENDS UPON HIMSELF; HE SHALL HAVE EARNED BY S

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