n order to avoid the excess of
unemployment in any one direction.

In his opinion, one of the injurious results of our competitive system,
having its roots, however, in the valuable "guilds" of a past epoch, was
the almost universal restriction of our workers to only one kind of
labour. The result was a dreadful monotony in almost all spheres of
work, the extreme unhealthiness of many, and a much larger amount of
unemployment than if each man or woman were regularly trained in two or
more occupations. In addition to two of what are commonly called trades,
every youth should be trained for one day a week or one week in a
month, according to the demand for labour, in some of the various
operations of farming or gardening. Not only would this improve the
general health of the workers, but it would also add much to the
interest and enjoyment of their lives.

"There is one point," he wrote, "in connection with this problem which I
do not think has ever been much considered or discussed. It is the
undoubted benefit to all the members of a society of _the greatest
possible diversity of character_, as a means both towards the greatest
enjoyment and interest of association, and to the highest ultimate
development of the race. If we are to suppose that man might have been
created or developed with none of those extremes of character which now
often result in what we call wickedness, vice, or crime, there would
certainly have been a greater monotony in human nature, which would,
perhaps, have led to less beneficial results than the variety which
actually exists may lead to. We are more and more getting to see that
very much, perhaps all, the vice, crime, and misery that exists in the
world is the result, not of the wickedness of individuals, but of the
entire absence of sympathetic training from infancy onwards. So far as I
have heard, the only example of the effects of such a training on a
large scale was that initiated by Robert Owen at New Lanark, which, with
most unpromising materials, produced such marvellous results on the
character and conduct of the children as to seem almost incredible to
the numerous persons who came to see and often critically to examine
them. There must have been all kinds of characters in his schools, yet
_none_ were found to be incorrigible, _none_ beyond control, _none_ who
did not respond to the love and sympathetic instruction of their
teachers. It is therefore quite possible that _all_ the evil