e education and other advantages of the suffering party.
To say nothing of Christianity, there is the greatest want of chivalry in
such proceedings, in whatever rank they take place, whether from masters
to servants, employers to employed, or in those more delicately
constituted relationships just alluded to. In all our intercourse with
those who have not a full power of replying to us, instead of being the
less restrained on this account, which is the case with most of us, the
weakness on the other side ought to be an irresistible claim to
gentleness on ours. The same applies when what is naturally the weaker,
being guarded by social conventionalities on its side, is in reality the
stronger, and is tempted into insolence, thus abusing the humanity of the
world. But, let us turn from the abuse of power, and see what it is when
wielded by discerning hands. It is like a healthful atmosphere to all
within its boundaries. Other benefits come and go, but this is inhaled
at every breath, and forms the life of the man who lives under it. It is
a perpetual harmony to him, "songs without words," while he is at his
work. One of the most striking instances we have had in modern times of
this just temperament of a master was to be noted in Sir Walter Scott.
The people dependent upon him were happier, I imagine, than you could
have made them, if you had made them independent. If you could have
distributed, as it were, Scott's worldly prosperity, you cannot easily
conceive that it would have produced more good than when it fell full on
him, and was forthwith radiated to all around him. You may say that this
was partly the result of genius. Be it so. Genius is, by the definition
of it, one of the highest gifts. If, with humble means, we can produce
some of its effects, it is great gain. Without, however, wishing to
depreciate the attaching influence of genius, we must, I think, attribute
much of this admirable bearing in Scott to an essential kindliness of
nature and a deep sense of humanity. If he had possessed no peculiar
gifts of expression or imagination, and quietly followed the vocation of
his father, a writer to the Signet, he would have been loved in his
office as he was on his estate; and old clerks would have been Laidlaws
and Tom Purdies to him. Scott would under any circumstances have
insisted on being loved: he would have been "a good lord and brother" to
any man or set of men over whom he had the least contro