ins, sits starving for
want of bread: and Dilettantism with its partridge-nets, in this
extremely earnest Universe of ours, is playing somewhat too high
a game. 'A man by the very look of him promises so much:' yes;
and by the rent-roll of him does he promise nothing?--

Alas, what a business will this be, which our Continental
friends, groping this long while somewhat absurdly about it and
about it, call 'Organisation of Labour;'--which must be taken out
of the hands of absurd windy persons, and put into the hands of
wise, laborious, modest and valiant men, to begin with it
straightway: to proceed with it, and succeed in it more and
more, if Europe, at any rate if England, is to continue habitable
much longer. Looking at the kind of most noble Corn-Law Dukes or
Practical _Duces_ we have, and also of right reverend Soul-
Overseers, Christian Spiritual _Duces_ 'on a minimum of four
thousand five hundred,' one's hopes are a little chilled.
Courage, nevertheless; there are many brave men in England! My
indomitable Plugson,--nay is there not even in thee some hope?
Thou art hitherto a Bucanier, as it was written and prescribed
for thee by an evil world: but in that grim brow, in that
indomitable heart which _can_ conquer Cotton, do there not
perhaps lie other ten times nobler conquests?

Chapter XI

Labour

For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work.
Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there
is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in
Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so
Mammonish, mean, is in communication with Nature; the real
desire to get Work done will itself lead one more and more to
truth, to Nature's appointments and regulations, which are truth.
The latest Gospel in this world is, Know thy work and do it.
'Know thyself:' long enough has that poor 'self' of thine
tormented thee; thou wilt never get to 'know' it, I believe!
Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an
unknowable individual: know what thou canst work at; and work
at it, like a Hercules! That will be thy better plan.

It has been written, 'an endless significance lies in Work;' a
man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away,
fair seedfields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the
man himself first ceases to be a jungle and foul unwholesome
desert thereby. Consider how, even in the mean