nging. I now venture to discuss a branch of
the subject which can hardly be referred to any particular spot, unless,
indeed, I were to name the manufacturer's own house as the fit ground for
it: I mean the social intercourse between the employers and the employed.
Some persons will, perhaps, be startled at the phrase; hardly, however,
those who have come thus far with me. By social intercourse I do not
merely mean that which will naturally take place in the ordinary
charities, such as visiting the sick, managing clothing societies, and
the like: but that intercourse which includes an interchange of thought,
an occasional community of pursuit, and an opportunity of indirect
instruction; which may be frequent and extensive enough to avoid the evil
effects of a sense of perpetual condescension on one side, and timidity
on the other; and which may give the employer some chance at least of
learning the general wants and wishes of his people, and also of
appreciating their individual characters.

This matter is not an easy one. It requires tact, patience, discretion,
and the application of several of the maxims mentioned in the preceding
chapter. I am not sure however, that it is any sacrifice whatever in the
way of pleasure. The manufacturer's family who occasionally give an
evening to social intercourse with their people, will not, perhaps, find
that evening less amusing than many that they may pass with their equals.

The advantage, to the rising generation of working people, of some
intercourse with their betters, would be very great. I must here quote
the authority of one who has fully expressed in action the benevolent
views which he has indicated in the following words. "No humble cottage
youth or maiden will ever acquire the charm of pleasing manners by rules,
or lectures, or sermons, or legislation, or any other of those abortive
means by which we from time to time endeavour to change poor human
nature, if they are not permitted to _see_ what they are taught they
should practise, and to hold intercourse with those whose manners are
superior to their own." This intercourse will probably lead to something
like accomplishments among the young people. Some of them will profit
more than others from the manners and accomplishments which they will
observe. And such differences will create a higher order of love among
the working people. The manners of one sex will become different from
the manners of the other; a