much alike. The one
may be a philosopher and the other a scoundrel; but these traits will
have small opportunity of betraying themselves as they chip away at the
bricks in their hands, and ply their busy tasks. The intellectual
proclivities of the one, and the vicious propensities of the other,
will be held in the severest restraint as they labour side by side.
The inexorable laws of industrial competition will keep their work up
to a certain standard of excellence. But the moment that the tools are
thrown aside the character of each man stands revealed. He is his own
master. He is like a hound unleashed, and will now follow his bent
without let or hindrance. And the more the State restricts the hours
of toil, and multiplies the hours of leisure, the more does it increase
the possibilities of good in the one case and the perils of evil-doing
in the other. It is during that lengthened leisure that the one will
apply himself to self-improvement, and, by developing himself, will
increase the value of his citizenship to the State; and it is during
that prolonged immunity from restraint that the other will compass his
own deterioration and exert his influence for the general
impoverishment.

Precisely the same law holds good in relation to the expenditure of
money. The way in which a people spends its money represents the most
crucial test of national character. If a man spends his money wisely,
he is a wise man; if he spends his money foolishly, he is a foolish
man. But it is not along the main line of expenditure that the
revelation is made. The principal items of expenditure are inevitable,
and beyond the control of the individual, whoever or whatever he may
be. A man must eat and wear clothes, whether he be a burglar or a
bishop. The butcher, the baker, the grocer, and the milkman will call
at every door; and you cannot argue as to the morals of a man from the
fact that he eats bread, that he is fond of beef, or that he takes
sugar with his porridge. There are certain main lines of expenditure
along which each man, whatever his characteristics and idiosyncrasies,
is resistlessly driven. But after he has submitted to this stern
compulsion, and has paid his butcher, his baker, his grocer, and his
milkman, then comes the test. What about the margin? Is there a
margin? For upon the margin everything depends. We will suppose that,
after paying for the things that he eats and the things that he wears,
he st